Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 839: Broadway Billy's Big Boom

Broadway Billy's Big Boom; Cornering Counterfeit Crooks

J.C. Cowdrick's serial concerns detective "Broadway Billy" and his associates Happy Harry and Silent Seth. Lured by a forged message to the business house of Bigwell & Granson, Billy is ambushed in an alley, bound, and left in a rat-infested basement by three masked men who believe him responsible for unknown misdeeds. Billy survives through resourcefulness. Meanwhile, Harry and Seth discover their boss missing and visit the store, learning that no one there sent the summons. They find a business card for Vivia Laurence, a woman who visited Billy's office the day before, and suspect her involvement in his disappearance. The narrative develops as crime/mystery with elements of detective adventure, chronicling both the captive detective's peril and his companions' efforts to trace him.