Joe Phenix's Lone Hand

# Joe Phenix's Lone Hand

This 1895 Beadle and Adams dime novel by Albert W. Aiken features the detective Joe Phenix investigating a complex case involving mistaken identity and kidnapping. The narrative begins when a racing tout, Reddy MacKuan, approaches Phenix on Broadway to relay that Tommy Kline, a sporting butcher, wishes to surrender himself. Kline had fled New York years earlier after striking Long Larry in self-defense during a barroom altercation, believing he had killed him. Phenix reveals that Larry survived and is imprisoned in Massachusetts for murder committed during a burglary in Fordham. Relieved, Kline abandons his fugitive status. As Phenix departs, he discovers a weathered shingle bearing a desperate message from an orphan girl imprisoned in an isolated house by two mysterious men. The message, written in pencil by female hand, describes her confinement behind high brick walls topped with broken glass, hinting at the serial's larger mystery involving the girl's kidnapping and unknown captors.