Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 614

1889 · 16 pages

Catalog Note "The Queer Combination" by Jo Pierce begins a serial in this April 1889 issue of the Beadle dime novel series. Detective "Mr. Gotham" enlists Eliab Godown—a shabby, eccentric vagabond with ten years' service—to recover fifty thousand dollars stolen from a New York bank and hidden in the small town of Birdseye. The currency is marked and dangerous to pass, and intelligence suggests the thieves plan to conceal it there. Godown arrives in Birdseye with his operatives: Whistling Jacob, a fifteen-year-old boy of remarkable musical talent, and Lightfoot Peter, a trained brown bear. They perform publicly as "The Three Innocents," attracting crowds with Jacob's extraordinary whistling and Peter's dignified, clumsy dancing. Godown's theatrical patter entertains townspeople while the trio observes suspects. The narrative establishes this cover operation as their method for investigating the hidden thieves among Birdseye's respectable but gossipy citizens.

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