Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 771

# Foxy Fred's Odd Pard: The Keener's Huge Hustle

This serialized detective romance by Jo Pierce opens with the nighttime abduction of a governess, Clarice Walbridge, from the mansion of wealthy ex-merchant Harding Otis. Though burglars enter the house, they steal nothing of value—only the governess, who disappears wrapped in a blanket. Investigation reveals that Mrs. Stannard, the household's companion to the invalid daughter Madeline, is actually the intended target. She confesses to young detective Foxy Fred that the abduction was orchestrated by Percy Berthrong, a criminal seeking revenge, but his men mistakenly took the wrong woman. The story expands when a gray-bearded stranger encounters Fred on Broadway, seeking information about Berthrong's wife, believed dead but potentially alive. Fred is working on an experimental flying machine while investigating this mysterious "Otis Case," navigating overlapping plots of criminal vengeance and hidden identities.