Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 28

This issue of Beadle's Dime Library presents "Three-Fingered Jack: The Road-Agent of the Rockies; or, The Boy Miner of Hard Luck" by Joseph E. Badger, Jr. The western adventure serial opens with a confrontation between a young miner called Little Volcano and the notorious outlaw Three-Fingered Jack (Manuel Garcia) and his gang. Captured by these five road-agents, Little Volcano is coerced into robbing a traveling pilgrim under threat of death. The prisoner and an elderly traveler coordinate an escape by throwing the bundle of gold down a slope, then fleeing over a ledge while the outlaws fire after them. The narrative depicts violent frontier life and criminal pursuit during the Gold Rush era.