Beadle's Dime Novels No. 215: The White Hermit

The White Hermit; or, The Unknown Foe By W. J. Hamilton, serialized in this Beadle and Company dime novel (No. 215, 1870). The story opens near a wooded lake in central New York, where Captain Laurence Austen of the Colonial Rifles interrogates his reluctant companion, Hungry Bill Epps, about a mysterious recluse inhabiting a nearby island. When Bill refuses to betray his oath of silence, the captain pursues the matter—only to be interrupted by a young woman in a boat who identifies herself as Perdita. Dressed in frontier garb suited to forest life, she reveals knowledge of their conversation and praises Bill's honor. After Austen promises not to investigate the island except in genuine danger, Perdita agrees to send Bill for aid if needed. She then departs toward the rocky island, leaving the captain intrigued and bewildered by her identity and origins.