Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 715

This April 7, 1891 weekly issue from Beadle and Adams features "Wide-Awake Len," a detective serial by T.C. Harbaugh, author of "Buckskin Detective" and "Boy Shadow" novels. The narrative follows sixteen-year-old Len Dalray, discharged without explanation from the Philadelphia counting house of Gummage & Blynn. Suspicious that his nocturnal observation of a closed carriage crossing Girard Avenue Bridge precipitated his firing, Len resolves to investigate. He consults a blind man—his employer—who suspects criminal conspiracy and suggests contacting Detective Captain Dick Ferrars if needed. Meanwhile, two thugs rob an elderly furniture dealer named Isaac Wendel of a pocketbook containing mysterious documents, delivering it to Gummage himself. The recovered wallet contains an enigmatic black arrowhead wrapped in oilcloth, suggesting a deeper criminal plot involving multiple parties in Philadelphia's commercial underworld.