The Half Dime Library No. 1050: The One-Armed Sport

This issue of Beadle and Adams' Weekly (Vol. XLI, No. 1050, dated September 7, 1897) features "The One-Armed Sport: Colorado Claude's Claim" by T. C. Harbaugh. The serial opening introduces a conflict between Captain Kidd, a one-handed mine magnate, and Claude Kimball, a sixteen-year-old boy prospector who has staked a legal mining claim in Colorado. Kidd, claiming the land is his, plots with cohorts Jericho Joe and Black Silas to intimidate Claude into abandoning the claim. They ambush the boy on his black mare, tie him, and lead him to Thunder River, threatening to throw him into a deadly whirlpool to "wipe out" the claim jumper unless he surrenders his rights. The excerpt ends as they approach the river with their captive.