Beadle's Dime Library, No. 240

1883 · 32 pages

This Beadle & Adams dime novel serial installment (May 30, 1888) features "A Cool Head; or, Orson Oxx in Peril," by Isaac Hawks, Ex-Detective. The story concerns detective Orson Oxx, a skilled athlete and fighter known as "the Man of Iron," who arrives in the small town of Ardville to investigate a series of arson crimes. Mistaken for an arsonist after chasing a lame fire-bug from the scene, Oxx is surrounded by an infuriated lynch mob demanding his death. He is saved by Brayton Russell, a sympathetic townsman whose mother died in one of the fires, who convinces the mob to conduct a fair examination. Oxx survives interrogation by Russell, town Justice Shadrach Yelland, and ex-sheriff "Sam Six-Eye," while Peter Twiggenbottom, a cowardly shoemaker-turned-amateur detective, provides dubious testimony. Oxx conceals his true professional business in Ardville while establishing his innocence.

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