Beadle's Dime Library No. 211

Colonel Plunger: or, The Unknown Sport, by Captain Frederick Whittaker, published November 8, 1882. A story of life and racing in the city, centered on a racetrack encounter between multiple characters: Frank Noble, a young clerk-turned-heir nicknamed "the Baby" or "the Pigeon," who has lost fifty thousand dollars to the professional gambler Crooke; Crooke himself, a "Boss Better" operating under an assumed identity; and a mysterious clerical-dressed gentleman called Colonel Plunger, who appears to have recognized Crooke from California and harbors knowledge of his past. The narrative unfolds at a racetrack with betting, horse races, and a jockey in a lemon-silk jacket. Colonel Plunger engineers a ten-thousand-dollar wager with Crooke on a horse named Ambition, with tensions escalating as the colonel hints at previous criminal connections and confronts Crooke about his real identity.