Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 848

This issue of Beadle and Adams' publication (No. 848, October 24, 1893) features "Jack Jeffers' Foul Play" by T.C. Harbaugh, author of the Buckskin Detective and Dodger Dick series. The serial follows Clever Clip, a street-smart boy called the Battery Ferret, who frequents Battery Park in New York. When German doll-maker Augusta Muller returns from Germany with her orphaned brother Paul and a trunk containing twenty thousand marks hidden in its lining, the trunk disappears at Castle Garden, apparently stolen by a hackman. Clip investigates, noting the suspect's description. Paul observes the thief wore a distinctive serpent ring with a diamond. Clip recognizes the ring as belonging to lawyer Nicholas Nabb, leading him to suspect Nabb's involvement in the theft. The narrative establishes a criminal conspiracy originating in Germany, with Jeffers potentially complicit.