Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 158

This serial installment, "The Doomed Dozen; or, Dolores, the Danite's Daughter" by Dr. Frank Powell, presents a domestic melodrama centered on romantic entanglements and class conflict. Captain Howland Moncrief confesses his love to Dolores Moultrie, a young woman he rescued from drowning ten years earlier and whom his mother raised as a ward. Dolores refuses him, having been coerced by Moncrief's ambitious mother, Mrs. Moncrief, who deems the orphaned Dolores beneath their social station and wishes her son to marry the wealthy Ada Ortelle instead. Dolores leaves the household overnight. Moncrief, discovering his mother's interference, abandons the family to join his regiment in Wyoming, refusing to return until Dolores is restored to the mansion. Meanwhile, a mysterious gentleman named Mercer Aldrich, a supposed Western cattle magnate, offers to locate Dolores in exchange for permission to marry her. The excerpt concludes with Aldrich departing to pursue the missing girl while Mrs. Moncrief awaits news.