Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 423

This eighth-edition issue of Beadle and Adams's dime novel publication features "The Picayune Cashier" by Charles Morris, author of detective stories. The opening serial installment presents a bank robbery at the New York financial house of Ditson & Co. discovered upon opening on a November morning. Thieves have ransacked drawers and violently attempted to breach the safe, leaving behind a severed human finger wearing an opal ring caught in the iron door—later identified by the investigating detective as belonging to a woman of refined appearance. Investigation reveals twenty-five thousand dollars missing from the safe. The discovery particularly distresses cashier Foster, whose unusual emotional reaction attracts the detective's scrutiny. The narrative emphasizes the detective's methodical examination and swift analysis of evidence.