The Trapped Tiger King

The Trapped Tiger King This serial by Charles Morris, part of *Beadle's Half-Dime Library* (August 10, 1887, No. 98), presents a melodramatic adventure centered on Ernest Delaine. Having just arrived in the city from the West, Delaine rescues a beautiful woman from a moving carriage being held by "Dark Paul, the Tiger King," a remorseless villain. He subdues her captor and boards the carriage with her. After revealing she cannot disclose her identity or his peril would increase, they arrive at a mansion. Inside a luxuriously furnished room containing a Bengal tiger rug, the woman secretes an ivory-backed book she finds there. The room's doors lock; a coachman's voice confirms they are trapped and threatens a tiger on the premises. A bullet fired earlier ricochets through a doctor's window, striking a fallen man—whose exposed arm reveals marks of profound significance to Mrs. Hudson, a woman whose sorrow suggests previous tragedy.