Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 869

About this issue

This issue contains "Ned Norman, the Gamin Negotiator; or, The Shake-up of Grip and Gorley" by Charles Morris. The story concerns a persistent street boy hired by the business firm Grip & Gorley to move bricks, with payment promised as "anything he finds." When Ned discovers a lost pocketbook containing $500 beneath the bricks and demands his contractual share of $100, the partners refuse. To rid themselves of him, Mr. Grip gives Ned a fraudulent order on an enemy merchant named Burton & Jones in New York for $100. Unknown to Grip, Mr. Gorley had carelessly placed a sensitive business letter in the envelope instead of the intended missive. When the envelope is torn in half during the mistake's discovery, the compromising letter goes to Ned, who departs for New York to collect his money. Grip and Gorley pursue him by express train, having learned Ned's address but missing him.