Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 883

# Beadle and Adams Dime Novel, Vol. TOV, No. 883

This serial, "Downing, or The King of Diamonds" by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, concerns New York Nat, a young detective chief of the secretive Boy Police League—youths working as messengers, newsboys, and bootblacks who gather at "Miser Max's Haunted House." When a heavily veiled woman calling herself Sister Dolores approaches Nat by the Hudson River, she reveals she knows his entire operation, including his sister Olive's role as the masked Queen and treasurer. She recruits Nat and Olive to hunt down a criminal organization called the Destroyers of Desdman's Den, led by a mysterious figure known only as "the Master of Life," who commands assassins and preys on victims throughout the city. Sister Dolores refuses to unveil her identity despite her extensive knowledge of Nat's network, compelling him to work in darkness toward unmasking the criminals.