Owned by Frank Munsey, it was given further periodical publication by being syndicated out to newspapers around America, which in those days included short stories and serialized fiction.
Alfonso Payton, the Sky Pirate, kidnaps Helen Grayman, New York's richest girl, and carries her away in his airship, the Chameleon.
By wireless telephone Payton demands $10,000,000 ransom from Grayman, who agrees to meet him at Tribes Hill with the money.
One after another Payton captures four police aeroplanes sent to trap him and kills several policemen before Grayman reaches the scene.
This Allan does by receiving wireless messages from Payton at New York and Buffalo with the aid of geometry and his new invention.
It remains a comforting thought to Mr. and Mrs. Allan that perhaps the Sky Pirate's luck held and he got away retiring thereafter from crime.
Some years back, France and Great Britain fought each other in a war in which aeros had significant battles.
Aeros are semi-rigid dirigibles with pendant ship-like hulls and aeroplanes, fan-like wings, on each side for both maneuvering and some lift.
They carry two-person parachutes with small baskets beneath them to escape in emergencies when the aero cannot reach ground.
The illustrations by Parker show propellers fore and aft on the boat hull, with rudders at both ends, as well.
This is crucial to the plot, for Allen uses a radio direction finder to triangulate on the Sky Pirate when they know him to be at his "home port."
It either indicates a change in North American political boundaries or a complete disregard of international borders (perhaps an oversight by Serviss, whose political science is weak in his fiction) that Allan and Grantman do not check with anyone when they hunt down Payton in Labrador, which is part of Canada for us.