Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 560

"The Idol of Last Chance" This Beadle & Adams dime novel by Col. Prentiss Ingraham presents a serial tale of crime, deception, and frontier adventure. The opening chapters establish Gabriel Godfrey as a seemingly respectable suitor to wealthy Myra Weston, daughter of a Southern merchant. After murdering Myra's father during a robbery attempt, Godfrey flees east aboard a riverboat steamer. The Western Belle explodes, killing Godfrey; Myra learns of his death through newspaper reports and reflects that swift retribution spares her from executing her threatened vengeance. The narrative then shifts to mining camps, where a mysterious stranger named Merl, claiming Mexican origins, arrives among prospectors. The opening installment introduces themes of hidden criminal identity, moral justice, and frontier adventure, with OCR degradation obscuring the final portions describing the mining setting.