Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 793

This issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel (No. 793, Vol. XXXI, 1892) contains "The Ferret of the Golden Fetters: A Romance of a Mysterious Man-Hunt" by Prentiss Ingraham. The serialized adventure begins with a prisoner named Gibson, serving a death sentence and heavily manacled, contemplating suicide aboard a steamer bound for the Gulf of Mexico. Detective Dick Doom, transporting two prisoners including a charismatic criminal formerly posing as a French count, witnesses Gibson's leap into the Atlantic. Among fellow passengers is Clarice Carroll, a young Chicago woman fascinated by the mysterious prisoner's appearance. Later, in Chicago, Clarice's hotel catches fire. An unknown rescuer—calm and extraordinarily strong—saves her by lowering her seventy feet by rope while the building burns around them. The narrative emphasizes heroic action and romantic intrigue across multiple plot strands.