Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 36

# "The Death Shot of Shasta" by Albert W. Aiken

This dime novel serial depicts a stagecoach robbery in California's mining country. Express driver Tommy Mack encounters a mysterious white-clad, white-masked horseman on the road between Yreka and Cinnabar City. Initially fearing the figure supernatural—a vengeful spirit of a dead rival—Mack later recognizes it as a disguised road agent. The bandit, armed with a repeating rifle and revolvers, halts the coach and demands a passenger named Jimmy Hughes (also called James Yorker), the landlord of the Occidental Hotel. When Yorker refuses to exit and reaches for his revolvers, the masked rider fires through the coach. Mack protests, revealing a woman passenger inside. The masked horseman pauses, seemingly startled by this revelation. Aiken's narrative combines frontier action with mystery elements regarding the masked rider's true identity and motive.