Beadle's Dime Library No. 562

This issue of Beadle & Adams from July 31, 1889, features "The Master of the Triangle Ranch: A Romance of the Wichita Country" by Albert W. Aiken, a Western adventure serial.

The story opens in Greer County, Texas—a disputed territory between the state and Indian Territory—where settlers and outlaws coexist. The settlement of Greerville sits on the Red River's south bank. Three masked men identifying themselves as the "Red Wolves of Wichita," wearing blood-red masks and gloves, break into the store of Abraham Goldsburg, a Jewish merchant. The gang leader, calling himself Gospel Dan, reveals that they function as vigilante "tax-collectors" protecting the community from road agents and horse-thieves. They demand two thousand dollars from Goldsburg, claiming he recently received that exact sum when a customer, Alexander Wallace of the Triangle Ranch, paid off a mortgage. The narrative emphasizes the outlaws' menacing politeness and coded brutality in this lawless frontier setting.