Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 499

# Museum Catalog Note

The Girl Protégé of Red Flash: A Story of the Old Fatality Mine, by T. C. Harbaugh, opens the issue. This mining-camp western serial begins with a murder mystery: Babette, guardian to the orphan Finette and the fifth owner of the cursed Old Fatality Mine, is found stabbed with a dagger bearing a cryptic message—"One of Six"—indicating systematic killings tied to the mine's ownership. Young stage driver Chickadee, upon learning of Babette's death, boldly declares himself the sixth and final owner, vowing to solve the murder. Simultaneously, a well-dressed stranger calling himself Captain Ringbolt arrives at the Beelzebub Hotel alongside a Chinese passenger; Ringbolt meets secretly with Rico Rob, the camp's strongest man, revealing themselves as operatives in some larger scheme. The narrative juggles multiple plotlines: the cursed mine, the mysterious deaths, Finette's fate, and Ringbolt's unexplained agenda.