Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 405

Content Summary

This issue opens with "Deadwood Dick" by Edward L. Wheeler (serial continuation), a Western adventure in Chapter I. The plot follows a stagecoach journey between Gordon's Gulch and Redville, Arizona. Driver Amasa Jukes transports two passengers: Jonathan Jester, a corpulent businessman heading to Redville, and Ferret Fan, a young woman in masculine attire also bound for Redville.

En route, Ferret Fan reveals she is tracking the notorious road-agent Deadwood Dick to avenge the death of her lover Fred, who was lynched by vigilantes who mistook him for Dick. When the stage is waylaid by a highwayman demanding the mail pouch, the mystery deepens—the robber is revealed to be Deadwood Dick himself, reading newspaper accounts of his own supposed death. Chapter II, "A Nocturnal Advent," begins but is cut off. The narrative combines frontier action, mistaken identity, and romance elements typical of dime novel serials of the period.