Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 483

Catalog Note "Wizard Will's Last Case: A Romance of Boy Detective Life" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham features the teenage detective Wizard Will Raymond commanding the yacht *Sea Ferret* with a crew of boy detectives aged twelve to eighteen, patrolled by badges denoting rank. Will, sixteen, leads the search for the criminal "Elegant Ed" and his gang of Land Sharks after rescuing his friend Foxey, a resourceful waif, from wreckage. The story cuts between Will's crew anchored off Virginia and a nearby hidden vessel crewed by thirteen ruthless men led by Captain Crusoe—self-styled "Plantation Pirates" who rob coastal homes. Observing the becalmed *Sea Ferret*, they plot to board it at night, murder the crew, steal the vessel and its valuables, and scuttle their own rotting ship. Foxey voices suspicions about the treacherous locality as danger approaches unseen.