Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 337

Beadle & Adams Dime Novel, Vol. LXXVI, No. 337 (April 8, 1885)

"The Tragedy of the Deserted Camp" by Edward Willett opens in Jim Coates's bar-room tavern in Jimtown, a struggling settlement in a mountain region. Old Gabe Cryder, a grizzled mountain tramp with gray hair and a weathered face, entertains the assembled patrons with an elaborate tall tale about winter of '56: while crossing snow-laden hills, he encounters a massive grizzly bear attacking him, just as a six-foot rattlesnake descends the slope. The snake leaps into the bear's open mouth; the bear's jaws crush the snake, which bites the bear internally, killing it within minutes.

A tall stranger named Bob Strahan angrily denounces Gabe's story as outright lies, but Gabe and the Jimtown regulars make light of the accusation, treating it as harmless tall tale-telling. When Strahan bullies the polite young civil engineer Henry Hinton into drinking, Gabe, Jim Coates, and Dick Venner defend Hinton's right to refuse. Strahan submits. Later, Gabe mentions "Crazy Kate," a mysterious woman living in the hills whose husband reportedly shot her and threw her into a gully over money and secrets. Strahan becomes visibly disturbed by this account and departs abruptly.