Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 343

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**Manhattan Mike, the Bowery Blood; or, 'Working-Up' a Difficult Case," a metropolitan detective tale by Edward L. Wheeler, serialized in this February 1884 issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly dime novel publication. The story introduces Manhattan Mike, a shrewd young Bowery detective operating outside official channels. After a chance conversation with Terry, a sympathetic saloon bartender, Mike receives word of a job at the Hotel Devonshire through Pat Reilly, a porter there. Using the assumed name M. Maverick, Mike meets with his eccentric client, Mr. Peleg Prancer, a Vermont miller recently arrived in New York. The volatile Prancer, characterized by backwoods speech and appearance, has traveled from Hartford seeking detective services for an undisclosed but urgent matter that has left him furious.