Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 485

This issue contains the opening chapters of "Rowlock, the Harbor Detective; or, The Terrible Twins," a serial adventure by Jackson Knox (Old Hawk), published February 8, 1888. The story begins at Battery Point on a stormy night in 1887, where harbor detective Rowlock Ensco rescues the beautiful Inez Delorme from the sea-wall. She is the granddaughter of a sea captain and is fleeing her dangerous cousins, the Martez twins—Juan and Vasco—who seek to capture both her and a treasure. Ensco ferries her by boat to her grandfather's vessel, the Seamew. During the journey, they exchange identification signals and Inez reveals her face, which startlingly resembles both a woman's serpent-head tattooed on Ensco's arm and the features of the mysterious Señora Zarapatta Martez. The narrative builds tension as the pursuing craft of Vasco Martez rapidly closes in on them across the harbor.