Mayne Reid

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Gwendoline Wynn's disappearance and apparent drowning triggered a local inquiry that initially miscast Captain Ryecroft but ultimately revealed a calculated conspiracy—led by Lewin Murdock with the complicity of Father Rogier, Coracle Dick and Olympe Renault—to substitute the body of Mary Morgan and dispose covertly of the heiress to secure the Llangorren estate. Through forensic observation (rock abrasions, crushed juniper), witness statements and clandestine investigation by Ryecroft, Jack Wingate and Major Mahon, the plot was exposed: Mary was found alive in a Boulogne convent and Gwen was rescued; Rogier and Olympe fled and were later punished, while Murdock died. The narrative closed with Ryecroft and Gwen reconciled and installed at Llangorren, the household reorganized, and the principal perpetrators brought to justice or removed.

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Three youths hunting on a butte are surprised by a grizzly family, escape by climbing pines, Basil mortally wounds the male, and they later fashion a rawhide rope from hides to descend.
Following the buffalo trail they endure thirst and near-starvation, observe large assemblages of vultures (including king-vultures), and discover that an apparent herd of white buffaloes is at first merely coated with gypsum; they subsist on marrow and bone-broth.
After being captured by Shawano Indians for wounding one of their number, the boys are recognized and spared when Basil produces a red calumet once belonging to the Prophet; they hunt with the tribe, obtain a genuine white buffalo skin, and return home.

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Shipwrecked in the Celebes Sea, Captain Robert Redwood, his two children and a handful of crew endure starvation, thirst and marine hazards before improvising a sail and landing on Borneo.
Under the guidance of Saloo, the Malay pilot, they secure fresh water and diverse provisions (oysters, durians, megapode eggs, game) while confronting local dangers—hammerhead sharks, predatory birds, gavials, pythons and the poisonous upas tree.
When a red gorilla abducts Helen, Saloo locates the nest and delivers fatal upas-poisoned blows to the adults, the child is rescued, and the party subsequently traverses the island overland to safety at Labuan.

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The account follows the narrator and his comrades through a succession of perils—combat with bloodhounds, evasion of guerillas, capture by the bandit-priest Jarauta and a near-hanging—until a timely rescue by U.S. troops. They then take part in the battle of Cerro Gordo, ambush and capture fleeing Mexican forces, and the narrative closes with post-battle reunions, domestic courtships in Jalapa, and an invitation to return to Mexico.

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Colonists under Colonel Armstrong occupy the old San Saba mission but are betrayed: Fernand the mestizo signals a raiding party that massacres the slaves, steals Dupré’s silver and carries off Helen and Jessie Armstrong. Charles Clancy—long thought dead—returns, helps rescue the sisters, pursues and kills his enemy Richard Darke while Sime Woodley and the settlers rout Jim Borlasse’s gang. In the aftermath Dupré marries Jessie, Clancy weds Helen, the outlaws are crushed and the mission blossoms into a prosperous settlement.

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Holingsworth, aided by two trappers, swims his horse up a sinking prairie stream and, disguised as the missing chief Wakono, infiltrates a Comanche council where the captive Isolina is awarded to the renegade Hissoo-royo.
Isolina seizes a knife, frees herself, mounts the white horse and flees; Holingsworth cuts down pursuers, the trappers swap horses to cover his flight, and they escape across the Rio Grande.
Later Holingsworth and allies track and slay the guerrilla leaders in retribution.

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A lost assignation note and the maid Vicenza’s treachery precipitate Roblado’s ambush: Carlos barely escapes while Catalina is compromised, publicly flogged and her mother dies.
Hunters sent after Carlos are killed; he is later betrayed and captured, yet escapes the Calabozo with Josefa’s help, recovers his mother’s body and flees with Catalina and Rosita.
He returns as the “White Chief” leading five hundred Waco warriors, razes San Ildefonso in vengeance—killing Vizcarra and Roblado among others—and afterwards settles with his family on the Red River.

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A band of hunters and trappers cross a thirsty, illusory desert in search of water, gold and white captives, and discover a walled Navajo plain where they provoke conflict. After mutiny, ambuscade and capture, Seguin finds his long-lost daughter Adèle among the prisoners (who initially does not recognise him) while the narrator’s betrothed Zoe is seized and later reclaimed in a bold night operation. The rescuers rout the Navajo, recover many captives, return to El Paso, and Adèle’s memory is restored by her mother’s song, allowing family reunions and the narrator’s planned marriage.

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A compendium of natural‑history notes and field narratives describing North American fauna—especially the grizzly bear, three Cygnus swans, moose, prairie‑wolf, tapir and the bison—summarizes morphology, distribution, diet and behavior. Interleaved are first‑person hunting and travel accounts that document techniques (stalking, decoys, drives), human–animal conflicts, survival incidents and the heavy anthropogenic pressure on species like the buffalo.

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A fire destroys the slaver Pandora; the crew quickly fashions a raft, while the narrator and Brace make a smaller bow-raft and the narrator frees the captive Africans below. The blacks leap into shark-infested water and most are devoured; later, starving sailors decree the narrator must be sacrificed, but Brace defends him. Brace secures a reprieve, cuts their raft free, they row away and are eventually rescued; the slavers perish at sea.

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The siege of Huajapam, debated in council, is saved by Valerio Trujano’s strict discipline and Morelos’ timely relief, whose combined sortie routs the Royalist besiegers and forces them to raise the blockade.
Parallel to the fighting, Don Rafael’s hope kindled by a returned token and Gertrudis’ secret talisman culminate in mercy: he spares the captured brigand when messengers deliver her pledge, and that act opens the way to their reconciliation.
Arroyo and Bocardo pillage neighboring haciendas—San Carlos is taken, Don Fernando and Marianita perish—Arroyo is captured (then spared), and the narrative closes with Gertrudis restored to Don Rafael amid the funeral and aftermath.

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Don Gregorio Montijo conceals his gold and moves his family aboard the Chilian barque Condor, thereby averting a nocturnal burglary.
A mutinous gang led by Gil Gomez and Padilla seizes the ship to plunder the treasure and abduct Carmen Montijo and Iñez Alvarez, but Harry Blew infiltrates the plot and, with intervention by officers Crozier and Cadwallader and a volunteer crew, the pirates are defeated, captured or killed.
The women are rescued, Blew is redeemed and reinstated, the Condor is recovered, and the two officers subsequently marry Carmen and Iñez in Cadiz.

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A deformed beggar, Zorillo, deserts a corpse with a stolen stiletto, tricks two ladies into surrendering their jewellery as “for the starving,” then betrays the fugitives’ sanctuary to Colonel Santander.
José, the coachman, recovers the plunder, warns Ruperto’s Free Lances in time, and they surprise the Hussars—Santander is killed and Zorillo executed.
The refugees flee by schooner to Panama; the pronunciamiento later succeeds and the principal pairs marry.

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Maurice Gerald is tried for the murder of Henry Poindexter amid courtroom tumult, Louise’s testimony and a near-lynch quelled by soldiers.
Gerald recounts finding Poindexter beheaded; hunter Zeb Stump produces a marked bullet and burnt paper linking the shot to Captain Cassius Calhoun.
Calhoun is pursued, captured and—after confessing he killed Henry by mistake while aiming at Gerald—kills himself in a failed attempt on Gerald; Maurice is vindicated and later marries Louise.

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A party trapped by wildfire endures hunger and chaos—after a comic alligator incident they are ambushed at night, many are killed and the narrator and his slave Jake taken captive.
At a mixed Yamassee–maroon camp the mulatto "yellow king" readies a torturous execution, but Osceola (aided by Haj‑Ewa and Maümee) intervenes, exposes the traitor and personally kills Arens Ringgold.
Osceola is later captured by U.S. troops and dies in confinement; the narrator returns to rebuild his estate and arranges new homes for Maümee, Virginia, Jake and Viola.

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A caravan of miners, guided by the gambusino Pedro Vicente, is driven to the isolated Cerro Perdido for water and then besieged on the mesa by a large band of Coyotero (Apache) horsemen. Henry Tresillian is lowered down the cliff, secures his horse Crusader and, after desperate evasion, reaches Arispe to summon Colonel Requeñes. The Zacatecas lancers and local vaqueros relieve the mountain, rout the raiders, restore the captives and spoil, and Henry marries Gertrudes.

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Golah kills a sentinel but, after Sailor Bill fires a sand-loaded pistol, Golah and his son are found drowned.
The captives endure the Sahara—locusts, rival wreckers, reunion with Bill’s brother Jim, repeated sales and a concerted refusal to work to force ransom.
At last Rais Mourad brings them to Mogador, where the consul and merchants (and a subscription for the Krooman) secure their freedom; the three middies resume naval careers.

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Concise ethnographic survey of numerous “odd peoples” (Turcomans, Ottomacs, Comanches, Pehuenches, Yamparicos, Guaraons, Laplanders, Andamaners, Patagonians, Fuegians) relating each group to its environment and material culture.
Systematic description of subsistence and technology (pastoralism, nomadism, hunting, fishing, root‑gathering; tents, canoes, bolas, sledges, wicker pots, morichi‑palm uses) and of distinctive practices (dirt‑eating, horse‑training, manatee/turtle fisheries, body‑painting).
Emphasis on variation in mobility, social organization and intergroup violence, with recurrent moralizing contrasts between “civilized” and “savage” behavior alongside detailed naturalistic observation.