Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 188

# "The Hyena of the Chaparrals"

A serialized romance by Major Dangerfield Burr, published May 31, 1882. The narrative follows Arta Preston, a young woman living in poverty with her destitute father Berkley Preston in a Boston garret. Desperate, Arta pawns her prized guitar—a gift from a mysterious Texan admirer—but receives inadequate offers. Instead, she performs outside the fashionable Union Club, where her beautiful voice attracts wealthy patrons. A drunken club member insults her; Lucien De Leon, the Texan who gave her the guitar years earlier, intervenes violently, knocking the man down. De Leon gives Arta two hundred dollars. Recognizing her benefactor from five years prior, Arta and her father decide to travel immediately to Nebraska to seek support from her wealthy cousin Ramsey Preston, a cattle king, using De Leon's money to escape their destitution.