Clif's Hour of Peril; or, On Board the Admiral's Flagship

Catalog Note *True Blue* (No. 25255, October 29, 1898) publishes the opening installment of "Clif Faraday's Hour of Peril: On Board the Admiral's Flagship," credited to Ensign Clarke Fitch, U.S.N. This naval adventure serial concerns young American naval officer Clif Faraday, who has stolen and destroyed a Spanish torpedo boat near Santiago during wartime operations. Fleeing Spanish forces, Faraday encounters a formerly enslaved woman who informs him that his romantic interest, María Celayo—a Spanish girl he previously helped escape her tyrannical father—has been recaptured and brutally beaten by her cousin, Lieutenant Celayo, who demands she marry him and threatens treason charges to coerce her compliance. Faraday devises a trap: he sends the woman to lure Celayo to a beach location where he intends to confront the officer. The installment ends as armed Spanish sailors approach Faraday's hidden position.