Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 528

This fourth edition Beadle and Adams dime novel (September 6, 1887) serializes "Trapping for Human Game" by T. C. Harbaugh. The story features Felix Fox and Florus Falcon, the "Bowery Shadows," the city's youngest detective partners operating from the Bowery. When a long-delayed letter arrives addressed to Phineas Fox, it contains an urgent plea from Philadelphia merchant Truman Lacey: his son Clarence vanished on October 1st, lured away by a mysterious letter signed "Morgan" from a Mott Street address. Felix and Falcon send a telegram inquiring after the boy, only to learn Lacey died October 5th and Clarence remains missing. Felix departs for Philadelphia to investigate. Meanwhile, street gamin Tommy Todd, an unreliable associate of Fox & Falcon, is seen near the train station and encounters a well-dressed man named Julius returning from Philadelphia, discussing Felix's sudden departure with evident concern.