Page 767 Advertisements Column 1

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XX, Issue XXV, 18 June 1898, Page 767

■jq'EW gTORY. An Exciting Romance TO BE COMMENCED IN EEK’S QRAPHIC. ‘TheDuke of Areanam,’ OR THE AMERICAN MONTE CRISTO.’ By the well-known writer, FRANK CARLETON LONG. The above story is a most exciting romance much on the lines of Dumas’ famous tale. The hero, Stanley Edgcumb, falls a victim to the designs of an unprincipled scoundrel, and is accused of a murder which the latter had committed. When he is on his trial a terrible storm bursts over the court-house, and just as the jury' has declared the prisoner guilty, a blinding flash of lightning dazzles the eyes of those present, and the State Attorney is struck lifeless. In the confusion that ensues Edgcumb makes his escape. From this point on the tale deepens in interest as we follow the wanderings of the hero in his efforts to escape detection and prove his innocence. His extraordinary acquisition of wealth in England, whither he had fled, and his return to America as the Duke of Arcanum, fill many absorbing pages, and the final chapters of the story find him re-united to his wife, with his reputation cleansed from the terrible stain that blackened it, and the man who had wrought him all the evil falls under the long-deferred stroke, of retributive justice. This is the main plot; but interwoven with it are no end of lesser plots and startling incidents. The first, chapters of the novel will appear in NEXT WEEK’S ‘GRAPHIC,’ and will be continued weekly.