Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 986

# Museum Catalog Entry

Deadwood Dick, Jr.'s, Best Card, from Beadle's Weekly (No. 986, June 16, 1896), features a serial adventure by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The story, titled The Mystery of Church City, follows detective Deadwood Dick Bristol and his Black companion Whitewash as they traverse a treacherous mountain trail toward Church City. They discover the corpse of a horse and, investigating further, find a hidden cavern containing the body of Morgan Mansfield, shot and dead for approximately a month. An inscription on the cavern wall—carved by an unskilled hand—reads "VENGEANCE FOR A FOUL CRIME ACCOMPLISHED AT LAST! MORGAN MANSFIELD MEETS HIS MERITED DOOM." The narrative includes a comedic encounter with Wilhelm Schloss, a German immigrant with a mule, whose dialect-heavy speech punctuates the account. Dick determines to proceed to Church City regardless of the corpse's discovery.