Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 568

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly (Vol. XXII, No. 98, 1888) features "The Gang of Three" by T. C. Harbaugh, author of the Dodger Dick detective series. The story opens with Dodger Dick and his companion Larry Long encountering a suspicious Irish policeman guarding a house on G-street where a man named Manfred Moffat reportedly lies dying. Dick's instincts tell him the cop is fraudulent. Later, Dick visits the police station and learns no officer named Burns works the beat—confirming his suspicion. The next morning, Dick investigates Number 332 and discovers Moffat bound to a chair with ropes and a gag, alive but unconscious. Moffat revives under Dick's care. Upon questioning, Moffat's young ward Fanny is missing from the house, her room ransacked. The narrative establishes a criminal conspiracy involving the fake policeman and Fanny's abduction.