Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 420

This issue of Beadle and Adams' Weekly (Vol. XVI, No. 420, August 11, 1885) features "A Boy Without a Name" by J. C. Cowdrick, author of "Shasta, the Gold King."

The serialized story follows fifteen-year-old Harold Vernet, a messenger boy for the American District Telegraph Company in New York. After his guardian, Aunt Polly, dies in a hospital, Hal learns she was not actually his aunt and knows nothing of his true identity or parentage. Devastated and homeless, he confides in fellow messengers Dick Smith and Dan Emmery. The bully "Seedy Jim" (James Seeds), the office boss, mocks Hal mercilessly about his unknown origins, sparking a violent confrontation where Hal defeats him in combat. The station manager dismisses them both. As Hal departs on an errand delivering an important letter to Mrs. Giles on Fifth Avenue, Seedy Jim follows him into the storm-darkened streets, seeking revenge with an iron weapon.