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Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 779
This issue of *Beadle's Dime Library* (June 28, 1892) contains "Saving the Senator's Daughter: The Romance of the 'Ugly Gang,'" by George C. Jenks, author of "Git Thar Owney" and "The Pitcher Detective." The narrative opens with a train robbery on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the Alleghany Mountains. Three masked bandits—Jim, Swipey, and the soft-voiced Wilkie—commandeer an express car and force the messenger at gunpoint to surrender. Using specialized burglary tools called "the old man," they crack open the safe and steal a diamond necklace of inestimable value plus thousands in currency. However, when they attempt to seize the locomotive to escape, the engineer reveals himself: Iron Hand, the Charmed Detective, a fugitive from California whose very name terrifies Jim Sturgis, the robbery's ringleader. As the engineer apprehends his nemesis, the train catastrophically derails, with cars piling up as the engine rolls over. The text cuts off mid-action.