Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 434

# Museum Catalog Note

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly story paper (November 17, 1906, 5 cents) features "Private Detectives; Playing Three Hands," by E. L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick and Rosebud Rob novels. Philadelphia private detective James Beak, plagued by lack of business and worn clothes, receives a newsboy named Spider, who brings him a mysterious threatening letter addressed to "Terrol Taylor" demanding a duel at Atlantic City. Soon afterward, wealthy Harrington Hurst arrives, hiring Beak to investigate a house robbery in Germantown. The narrative also introduces Myra Morton, an eighteen-year-old textile worker at Pequa Mills in Philadelphia, whose regular escort Carrol Carter mysteriously fails to meet her, leading her home disappointed. She discovers her mother entertaining a sinister stranger named Mr. Gilbert on a matter allegedly of great importance to her.