Beadle's Dime Library No. 772: Captain Corden, the Twister Detective

About this issue

This August 1893 issue features "Captain Corden, the Twister Detective" by George C. Jenks, the first installment of a detective serial subtitled "Snaring Slippery New York Crooks." The story opens at a masquerade ball at the Academy of Music in New York, where criminals including the Serpent (Jim Daly) and a Jewish accomplice named Morris Cohen conspire to intoxicate young Walter Vantine and coerce him into helping them rob his own father's bank. A young detective called "Cool Bob the Twister"—dressed as a Charles II cavalier—intercepts them and expels the Serpent from the building. Despite this interference, Kate Fairleigh, a female criminal called "the Queen of Night," delivers the drunk Vantine to Daly's hansom cab. Unknown to them, the cab driver has overheard their plans. As the cab travels Fourth Avenue, a mysterious figure in dark business attire leaps onto its rear step and seizes the driver's wrist, commanding silence while maintaining control of the horse.