Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 639

This issue of Beadle & Adams dime novel (No. 6639, January 21, 1891) features the opening installment of "The Gold King: Montebello, the Magnificent," a mining romance by Hon. W. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill). The story begins in Colorado's Territory with a shooting at an isolated canyon cabin. A dying man, Kit the Stranger, crawls from the cabin toward Gold Dust City but expires en route. A young miner named Bugle Bill discovers the body clutching papers—a sealed envelope addressed to Miss Kate Kittredge and a message written in the dead man's own blood. Kit's will leaves the cursed Ill-Omen Mine to the mysterious addressee or whoever can claim it within a year, but forbids anyone from opening the sealed letter or working the mine during that period. The miners entrust Bugle Bill with executing Kit's wishes. The narrative then recounts the mine's dark history: its original discoverer was lynched, the second owner shot his wife and fled. Kit had purchased it from the wounded woman. The identity of Kit's killer remains unknown.