Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 837

The Big Four of the Bowery: Detective Bob, the Rattler By Jo Pierce, this serialized story opens with a boy messenger named Robert Burns (alias "Bob the Rattler" or "Risky Robert") delivering a letter from a pool-betting operator to Henry Corliss, a young man involved in a mysterious financial matter with a Swede named Olaf Petersen and Petersen's daughter Hecla. When detectives arrive to arrest Corliss for alleged embezzlement from his firm Morris & Finnerty, a struggle ensues. During the confrontation, Corliss strikes one officer and grapples for a revolver; it fires, wounding the detective. Corliss flees and evades his pursuing captor, escaping into the neighborhood. Robert, sympathizing with the accused man, witnesses the entire incident. The wounded officer is hospitalized while police search for the fugitive. Petersen and Hecla remain anxious about Corliss's fate.