Beadle's Dime New York Library No. 168

This issue of Beadle's Dime Novels (Vol. XIII, No. 168, January 11, 1882) features the serialized story "Wild Bill, the Pistol Dead Shot; or, Dagger Don's Double" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, a prolific writer of frontier fiction.

The narrative centers on a duel between young Horace Hart and the villainous Dagger Don Darrell, motivated by an old family vendetta between the Hart and Darrell families. When Horace falls mortally wounded, a mysterious horseman intervenes, defeats Don (who wears a concealed steel shirt), and drives off Don's companions. The horseman identifies himself as Wild Bill, a famous border gunfighter. Major Hart reveals the decades-long feud originated with his and Don's ancestors over a woman. The story combines action-driven Western adventure with melodramatic dialogue and period frontier dialect, emphasizing gunfight sequences and frontier justice themes.