Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 516

Chatard, the Dead-Shot Duelist This serialized story by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, appearing in an 1888 issue, comprises three chapters introducing a complex web of family duels and romantic entanglement. Chapter I presents Harold Argyle, a wealthy Southern university student harboring a secret romance with Eleanor Graydon. When her brother Gardner Graydon confronts Harold about an illicit affair, demanding a duel, a struggle ensues at a concealed portrait, ending in Gardner's death by pistol shot. Chapter II shifts to Orangelands plantation on the Mississippi River, introducing Duncan Chatard, a renowned thirty-five-year-old duelist and friend of planter Pierre Bernard. Chatard wagers in a mock marriage ceremony that he can fire eighteen shots into a circle on a playing card—wagering Eleanor's hand—which he accomplishes with deadly precision. Chapter III follows Eleanor's steamboat journey homeward, where she encounters an unknown young gentleman. When the steamer's boiler explodes and catches fire, the stranger rescues her from the burning vessel.