Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 467

The Detective's Ordeal by Jackson Knox (Old Hawk) is a mystery serial opening with a poisoning case. Detective Mainwaring, called "the Gliding Detective," is assigned to investigate wealthy Peregrine Calthorpe, a Harlem invalid suspected of being systematically poisoned. Mainwaring, who is secretly betrothed to Calthorpe's niece Lois, plans to pose as a nurse while colleague Ichabod Taylor provides actual care. The household contains two young women both named Lois—Calthorpe's adopted daughter (called Issie) and his niece. Before reaching the case, assassination attempts target Mainwaring: supports beneath building scaffolding are deliberately removed, and vitriol is dropped from a window, killing a workman's dog. Mainwaring suspects the office janitor Old Newthe. Later, Mainwaring interviews the suspicious Calthorpe about his will (everything to Issie except an annuity for his niece), investigating possible motives for the poisoning.