Beadle's Dime Library No. 321

# California Claude (Beadle & Adams, December 17, 1884)

This serial installment introduces Eldorado Eph, a gold-hating mountain tramp, and his companion Crooked Tom, a deformed dwarf, traversing California's gold country. When Tom produces a large nugget, Eph throws it away to maintain their equality in poverty. That night, returning to retrieve Tom, Eph discovers a hanged man on the trail—recently murdered by an unseen rifleman who leaves behind a mysterious buckskin diagram. Eph destroys it, fearing it marks a gold location, contrary to his poverty-stricken philosophy. Tom, however, sneaks back alone to retrieve the diagram fragments, suggesting hidden motivations beneath his ostensible loyalty. The narrative establishes a mystery involving the dead man's identity and the significance of the diagram, while portraying Eph's ethical opposition to gold-seeking as central to his character.