Beadle's Pocket Library No. 178

Catalog Note:

The Mysteries of Night Island by Burton Saxe is serialized in this 1887 issue of Beadle and Adams's weekly publication. Chapter I, "The Farce and the Tragedy," depicts a mock court held in the Northern New York settlement of Dorrville in 1806, where playful fines are levied against settlers for comic offenses. The proceedings turn dark when Matthew Hinds, angry at being humiliated before his love interest Molly Brayton, fatally stabs the popular Frank Hyde during a wrestling match. Though Hyde survives, a mob lynches Hinds by hanging him over a maple tree above the Black Cave, where his body disappears into the chasm below. Chapter II introduces Night Island, a rocky, forbidding island in the Kahuahgo River overlooking the settlement. Frank Hyde investigates and discovers Hinds's skeleton in the cave, confirming the lynching's success before the narrative pivots toward its titular mysteries.