Beadle's Dime Library No. 940: Captain Jack the Scalper

Captain Jack, the Scalper This issue features the opening chapters of "Captain Jack, the Scalper; or, The Private Detective" by Albert W. Aiken. The narrative begins at Fulton Ferry in New York at night, where Fulton Frank, an eighteen-year-old flower-girl, encounters Captain Jack Leipper, a handsome but morally questionable divorce lawyer known for unscrupulous practices. Leipper, intoxicated on champagne, becomes intrigued when Frank reveals her name and backstory: she was abandoned as an infant in a basket and raised by a man named Lysander Limowell, who eventually attempted to seduce her, prompting her flight to the streets. Leipper reveals he searches for Francesca, the missing daughter of Antonio Vendotena, heir to a half-million-dollar Italian fortune left by her grandfather Lorenzo. The will stipulates the estate goes to Francesca or her heirs. Frank's origins—born in Long Branch, New Jersey, around 1858-1859 to Delecta Blakey—match Leipper's requirements precisely. The lawyer begins investigating whether Frank might actually be the missing heiress.