"The Finger of Fate" is a romance novel by author Mayne Reid. Nigel and Henry Harding are half-brothers, the sons of Captain Harding, a retired army officer who had previously worked in India. Captain Harding had bought an estate where the family lived a comfortable life. But at length came a cause that tried the temper of the half-brothers towards one another—one before which the strongest fraternal affection has oft changed into bitter hostility. It was love. Both fell in love, and with the same woman, Belle Mainwaring…