Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 886

This 1893 Beadle and Adams dime novel installment, Sharper Stokes' Double Deal: Old Disaster the Border Nomad by William G. Patten, follows a four-man expedition searching the Black Hills for the legendary "Cave of the Gold Genii." The party comprises young Ethan Sherman (haunted by the fate of a lost sweetheart), the mysterious Albion Junardo, the taciturn Flavus Stokes, and garrulous Old Disaster, a border veteran known for recounting improbable misadventures. During the night, Junardo is murdered with a knife while on watch—the weapon bearing Sherman's initials. The young man vanishes, appearing guilty, though Disaster doubts his culpability. Sioux warriors then attack the camp. The narrative blends frontier adventure with mystery elements, employing dialectal frontier speech and action-driven plotting characteristic of the period pulp western.