Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 558

This issue of Beadle and Adams pulp weekly (1888) contains "The Sure Shot Pards: Thirteen," a western serial by Arthur C. Grissom, author of Little Foxfoot and Bowie Kid.

The story opens in Tenderfoot, Arizona, a rough mining camp founded six months prior by Mountain George and twelve associates who murdered the original prospector and appropriated the site. Mountain George now runs the corrupt Pickpocket saloon, fleecing miners through rigged gambling while his gang maintains order through violence. A mysterious well-dressed stranger named Captain Sure Shot arrives at dusk and investigates the town's circumstances. After buying drinks at the Pickpocket and mentioning his name—which startles several patrons—he questions Bowie Joe, the camp's second-most powerful figure. Sure Shot reveals knowledge of the murdered tenderfoot and declares he has come to Tenderfoot to pursue justice for this killing, warning that reckoning approaches for those responsible.