Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 268

This issue of *Beadle and Adams' dime novel series (September 12, 1882) features "Deadwood Dick's Death Trail: From Ocean to Ocean" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the *Deadwood Dick* series. The serial begins with a shipwreck on the rugged Pacific coast near a lawless town called Seaport, populated by wreckers and rough miners. A vessel carrying three women—the aristocratic Lady Beatrice Chandos of London, her daughter Lady Leona Clare, and their maid Marie Maros—plus a small boy, runs aground during a violent storm. The survivors are rescued and taken to a local tavern. There, a scoundrel named Jerry Carker (formerly Sir Ferrol Falconer, a transported convict) recognizes Lady Beatrice, his former betrothed. He plots with the tavern-keeper to kidnap her young son, intending to extort money and force her hand in marriage by manipulating her jealous husband. He also recruits Marie, the maid, as an accomplice by exploiting her romantic attachment to him.