Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 380

# "The Golden Serpent," by Philip S. Warne

This California-set story opens with the discovery of Adam Farley's corpse, stabbed by stiletto. A woman wearing a mask—the "Golden Serpent"—is blamed by Tom Cosgrove, who witnessed the killing. Pursuit begins toward Mulligan's Bend. However, the fugitive encounters Don Giacomo on the road and reveals the truth through tense dialogue: the Spaniard had been impersonating the Serpent, wearing women's clothing, while she wore his Spanish-Mexican dandy attire. Farley, dying from wounds received elsewhere, came home seeking her and was killed while she wore Giacomo's clothes. Trapped by her revolver, Giacomo reluctantly agrees to flee together, both retaining their switched clothing to preserve evidence of her innocence—though she must bear the crime's odium if captured, while he remains in petticoats.