The Bandit Queen: A Tale of Italy

About this issue

This issue features four serialized stories by Leon Lewis, Hero Strong, Howard W. Macy, and Hon. Evelyn Ashby, with titles including The Urn-Healer, Woman's [or The Scarred Left Arm, Lyons [or The War, and Doom [or The Lost Heiress of Latymer, a historical tale set in Elizabethan England. The primary content is "The Bandit Queen: A Tale of Italy" by Emerson Bennett (author of Sol Slocum and Prairie Flower). A twenty-two-year-old American banker's son traveling in Naples hears gunfire and discovers Italian brigands attacking a carriage. He fires his revolver to frighten them off, rescuing an English businessman, Chester Blakely, who is shot in the breast and head, and Blakely's young niece, Georgine Delamere. The American accompanies the wounded pair home, where a doctor is summoned. The narrative establishes romantic adventure and intrigue centered on the characters and their household dynamics.