Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 756

This issue of Street & Smith's detective weekly contains the opening of "Old Burke, the Madison Square Detective; or, The Mystery of the Morgue" by William G. Patten (author of "Double-Voice Dan" novels). In the first chapter, "Death in the Storm," a violent storm strikes Madison Square late at night. Police observe three men—two supporting a heavily intoxicated third, one carrying a small leather grip—passing through the square just before rainfall. After the storm, a passerby discovers the drunk man dead beneath trees, exhibiting mysterious burns on both palms. Police initially suspect lightning strike, but the recovered body proves to be Roscoe Venton, a wealthy Buffalo druggist missing three days. In Chapter II, veteran detective Manton Burke ("Old Deadsure"), who had left the force years prior, examines the corpse and declares it murder, not accident. The story continues as Burke meets with Superintendent Byrnes and the victim's beautiful eighteen-year-old daughter Doris arrives to identify the body.