Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 554

Deadwood Dick, Jr., in Gotham This March 1888 issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel series features "Unraveling a Twisted Skein," by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The Western detective Richard M. Bristol (Deadwood Dick, Jr.), a U.S. Government Detective, meets Roger Vance, a wealthy petroleum broker, on a train to New York. Vance hires Dick to locate his eighteen-year-old daughter Violet, who disappeared after leaving Vassar College on December 6th. The professor confirms she boarded the 7:50 a.m. train with her trunk. Dick begins investigating, examining a photograph and learning from Violet's closest friend, Miss Leroy, that she was seen conversing with a suspicious gentleman—a foppish man with a waxed mustache, livid neck scar, and monocle—about a week before her departure. The narrative establishes the mystery's initial parameters as Dick prepares to pursue the case in New York City.