The Wire Devils

Frank L. Packard

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9780816685110
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Crime & Mystery Literature
• Index: Literature

Best known for his Jimmie Dale series of books, which have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, Frank L. Packard first published The Wire Devils in 1918. A “wire thriller” that uses the booming railroads and telegraph lines of the old West as its backdrop for fast-paced adventure, The Wire Devils follows a criminal gang of the same name who hijack a railroad’s telegraph lines to glean information about profitable shipments. But foiling them again and again is the Hawk, the outlaw hero who robs from the robbers and is ultimately on the side of law and order.

Combining elements from dime-store novels and Packard’s own experience on the rails, The Wire Devils is at once a hybrid western and a thriller still worth reading nearly a century after it was written.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter I: The Secret Code
• Chapter II: The Ten-Dollar Counterfeit Note
• Chapter III: The Paymaster's Safe
• Chapter IV: At Bald Creek Station
• Chapter V: In Which a Cash Box Disappears
• Chapter VI: Some of the Little Spiders
• Chapter VII: Wanted—The Hawk—Dead or Alive
• Chapter VIII: Threads in the Web
• Chapter IX: The Looting of the Fast Mail
• Chapter X: The Third Party
• Chapter XI: The Lead Capsule
• Chapter XII: Blindman's-Buff
• Chapter XIII: The Man with the Scar
• Chapter XIV: The Clue
• Chapter XV: The Ladybird
• Chapter XVI: An Even Break
• Chapter XVII: A Hole in the Wall
• Chapter XVIII: The Hawk Packs His Valise
• Chapter XIX: Birds of a Feather
• Chapter XX: "Confidential" Correspondence