Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 742

Museum Catalog Note This issue of *Beadle's Weekly* (No. 742, Vol. XXIX, dated April 13, 1891) features "Breaking the Meshes of the Golden Coil" by T. C. Harbaugh, serialized in chapters. The mystery-detective narrative follows Billy Winks, a bell boy at Manhattan's Metropolis Hotel, who encounters two mysterious guests—Chuck Holcomb and Fred Phlox—from Philadelphia. The men examine Billy intently, discussing a "Pettibone" family resemblance and a quest for "lost heirs." Pappy Pink, an elderly inventor visiting Billy, sends Holcomb a cryptic letter offering information about his search. Holcomb is kidnapped by armed men who intercept him en route, searching his belongings and discovering Pink's letter. The narrative combines hotel melodrama, criminal abduction, and inheritance-mystery elements typical of the era's serialized adventure fiction.