Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 262

1882 · 16 pages

"The Young Sleuths: Rollicking Mike's Hot Trail" by Charles Morris appears in this August 1882 Beadle and Adams weekly (5 cents). The story follows Mickey Malone, a street-smart newsboy and bootblack in Philadelphia, and his younger, more innocent partner Joe Joram. In Chapter 1, Mickey sells newspapers and shines boots while skillfully evading a man attempting to pass counterfeit currency. When the man pays for shoe-shining with a fake coin, Mickey pursues and bites his calf, recovering payment. The boys pool earnings from a month of streetwork. In Chapter 2, they head toward an oyster saloon for a celebratory dinner, but Mickey notices the counterfeit-coin man passing by with another gentleman. Abandoning oysters for pursuit, Mickey resolves to track and outmaneuver his adversary before the man can "get even" with him, suggesting an emerging mystery-detection plot.

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