Beadle's Dime Library, Vol. III, No. 39

*The Russian Spy; or, The Brothers of the Starry Cross* By Capt. Frederick Whittaker, serialized in Beadle's Dime Library (No. 988). This espionage adventure begins at Fort Peroffsky on the Russian frontier near the Syr Daria river, where the mysterious Captain Blank leads twelve Cossacks across the frozen steppe despite warnings of an approaching blizzard. During the storm, Blank rescues a beautiful, dark-eyed woman from a wolf attack. She reveals herself as a political prisoner fleeing Russia, possibly of noble birth, traveling with a man named Demetri. Though duty-bound to detain her, Blank allows her sledge to escape southward across the steppe toward the Tartar territories. The narrative shifts to St. Petersburg's Winter Palace, where the Minister of Police reports to the Czar on his network of spies throughout Russian garrisons, establishing the larger political intrigue underlying Blank's cryptic mission.