Nick Carter Weekly: The Little Glass Vial

About this issue

"The Little Glass Vial; or, A Beautiful Blackmailer Brought to Bay" is a detective story featuring Nick Carter, the protagonist investigator. When young Samuel Rogers Jr. receives an anonymous warning that his father was murdered, not dead of heart disease as doctors claim, he summons Carter. Examining the corpse, Carter discovers a lady's hat-pin with a haliotis shell head and a broken hypodermic needle embedded in the elder Rogers' wrist—evidence of poisoning by injection. Questioning the son, Carter learns of a suspicious fiancé, Dr. Lord, who is engaged to marry Rogers' sister Aimee, the inheritor of substantial property should she wed within six months of their father's death. Carter visits Dr. Lord's surgery, finds a matching broken syringe, and obtains it under false pretenses. The narrative promises further complications involving blackmail, as the title suggests.