New Nick Carter Weekly, No. 40

About this issue

This installment from Nick Carter Weekly (October 2, 1897) features the serial "Nick Carter's Detective School; or, The Young Reporter's First Case" by the author of Nick Carter. The story follows Nick Carter training young detective students in his private gymnasium and school. Student Dan Lewis approaches Carter seeking his first real case. Lewis is a young reporter interested in an arson investigation: the burning of the historic Johnson house, a century-old building surrounded by modern development whose landpoor owners have refused lucrative offers to sell. The elderly occupant, Malcolm Johnson, survived severely burned. Lewis proposes an unconventional theory: rather than the arson being committed by a developer seeking to force the owners to sell cheaply, the fire was set by treasure hunters seeking to uncover wealth allegedly buried by the wealthy Johnson family during the War of 1812. Lewis has spotted a familiar face—one of three men previously involved in a failed Captain Kidd treasure hunt—loitering near the ruins. Nick Carter approves the investigation.