Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 537

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly dime novel publication presents "Against Desperate Odds: A Tale of Idaho" by John W. Osbon, serialized under the heading "Old Buckeye, the Sierra Shadow."

The story opens with Major Cool, a skilled gunfighter, ambushed by masked road-agents on a wilderness trail near a rushing river. Cool recognizes them as agents of High-Card Hank, a faro king operating from Chispa Canyon, rather than the notorious Captain Trackless. Cool draws hidden revolvers and kills two of his attackers before riding toward the canyon's lights.

The narrative then shifts to the House of Gold, High-Card Hank's gambling establishment in Chispa Canyon, where the deformed giant Red Joaquin attempts to auction a captive girl to miners. High-Card Hank, a mysterious dapper gambler who rose to prominence three months prior by bankrupting the previous proprietor, intervenes on behalf of the girl. After a tense confrontation, Joaquin and Hank reach a temporary truce, though both are established as exceptionally dangerous men within the isolated gold camp community.