Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 606

# Deadwood Dick's Leadville Lay

This serialized detective novel by E.L. Wheeler features Deadwood Dick (R.M. Bristol) undertaking an unusual case in Leadville, Colorado. Rachel Cohen, a young Jewish woman, engages him to investigate the stage robbery and murder of her father seven months prior. The robbers stole over $140,000 in cash, bonds, jewelry, and rare diamonds. One robber left her the ace of diamonds card marked "of Leadville," and she subsequently discovered her father's pawned watch at a local pawnbroker's shop, suggesting the criminals remain in the city.

Cohen proposes opening a pawnshop under assumed management by "Samuel Jacobs" as a trap to intercept the robbers when they attempt to dispose of the stolen jewelry. Dick agrees to the scheme. In Chapter II, Dick searches for boarding accommodations and discovers Mrs. Sheldon's modest lodging house on the town's outskirts, where he encounters the proprietor's daughter.