Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 541

# Catalog Note

This issue of Beadle and Adams (December 1887, Vol. XI, No. 98) contains "The Lively Rake in Jericho" by Jo Pierce, a detective story serialized in chapters. When the Jericho post-office is robbed, constable Elihu Fitch investigates while suspicion falls on the wealthy but miserly farmer Peter Nichols, who was expecting a registered letter from attorneys Markin & Toohey in Curacao—a package reportedly containing something valuable. Jeff Flicker, a fourteen-year-old stable boy and local outsider, emerges as an unlikely detective, reporting that two disguised men with a horse from Tulip Center arrived late the previous night, mentioning Nichols and "post-office" before fleeing at one o'clock. The story builds mystery around Nichols's missing registered letter, with Fitch gathering evidence of professional criminals and tracing connections between the robbery, the suspicious visitors, and Nichols's mysterious correspondence.