Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 915

This issue of *Flip Flasher, Ferret* contains the serial adventure "The Fire-Bug's Booty" by Jo Pierce. Two street boys, Flip Flasher and Shoestrings (real names William Flash and Edward Green), discover a fire at the East Broadway home of Peter Mainford, an inventor. Rushing inside through smoke-filled rooms, they confront two fleeing men—one strikes them both before escaping. After helping extinguish the blaze, the boys learn that thieves have stolen a mysterious box from Mainford's home, its contents initially unnamed but crucial enough to devastate the distraught inventor. Mainford mentions electricity in cryptic terms before rushing to contact police, leaving the boys to investigate the burned-out rooms and discover a broken lamp. The story emphasizes the boys' quick thinking and street dialect, blending urban crime mystery with juvenile protagonists in turn-of-the-century New York.