Beadle's Dime Library No. 789

The Lawyer's Foxy Clerk

This Beadle & Adams story by Joseph E. Badger Jr., serialized in the December 6, 1898 issue, opens with a desperate gambler marooned on a shrinking sandbar in the Mississippi River. As rising waters erode his refuge, he desperately searches downriver for rescue. The narrative shifts to the steamboat Old Hickory, heading toward New Orleans, where in the bar sits a handsome man named Sam with yellow hair and silk hat—identified as "Top-Sawyer Sam"—conversing with Elegant West, the clerk. Sam dismisses West's observation about three gamblers in the card room, claiming knowledge of their disreputable character. One player is a thin, foxlike man in worn black clothing, his covetous manner suggesting a card sharp rather than the preacher his garb implies.