A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1883 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1883

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284

1883 · Free to read

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 2 of 16 — 2 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 3 of 16 — 3 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 4 of 16 — 4 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 5 of 16 — 5 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 6 of 16 — 6 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 7 of 16 — 7 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 8 of 16 — 8 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 9 of 16 — 9 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 10 of 16 — 10 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 11 of 16 — 11 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 12 of 16 — 12 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 13 of 16 — 13 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 14 of 16 — 14 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 15 of 16 — 15 / 16

Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 16 of 16 — 16 / 16

About this issue

The Sea Marauder; or, Merle Monte's Pledge by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham is a maritime adventure serial set in the Gulf of Mexico region, approximately fifty years prior to its 1883 publication. The narrative opens with a uniformed man bound and gagged to a bayou tree, facing an advancing alligator. An Indian-featured spy paddling a canoe witnesses the capture of "Captain Pierre Dupont, the Sea Marauder" by armed men; intervening to kill the alligator and rescue the captive, the spy ferries the man—whose hair has turned white from shock—to safety. Days later, the rescued man and his rescuer, disguised as Indians, camp near New Orleans awaiting arrival of captured vessels. The protagonist reveals himself as a pirate captain seeking revenge against Midshipman Merle Monte, who captured both him and his schooner, and plots to seize Monte's treasure-laden Gold Ship. The excerpt concludes as Monte's vessels appear on the river.

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