The Dusky Detective; or, Pursued to the End

This issue of a weekly story paper from November 25, 1885, contains "The Dusky Detective" by Albert W. Aiken. The serialized narrative opens with a police patrol boat on New York's Hudson River discovering the body of a beautiful young blonde woman caught on floating timber. She bears no identifying marks or jewelry, and the sergeant concludes she committed suicide. The body is taken to the morgue, where a portrait painter named Marcus Wintergreen sketches her face, believing she embodies the perfect Madonna he's long sought to paint. Nobody claims the body, and it's eventually moved to Potter's Field. The narrative then shifts to a hidden stone vault beneath the city, where two men meet—one a smoker at a crude table, the other a well-dressed gentleman entering through a concealed stone door operated by hidden machinery. The two discuss "the bird" and money; the smoker expresses desire to abandon their scheme, while the gentleman attempts to dissuade him, hinting at criminal conspiracy.