Beadle's Pocket Library No. 186

# "Dainty Lance and His Pard"

This serial installment, authored by Joseph E. Badger Jr., features the continued adventures of established characters: the Mad Hermit (revealed as Howard Glenn), his daughter Sibyl, and their servant Hercules. The story opens with a highway robbery staged by a mysterious outlaw captain and his gang in a mountain canyon. The captain shoots and wounds Hercules when he resists, then reveals knowledge of the hermit's true identity—Howard Glenn—triggering a psychological crisis. The captain forcibly separates Sibyl from her father, abducting her on muleback to a remote log cabin while promising the hermit will follow. Throughout, Sibyl displays courage under threat, attempting escape and resisting coercion. The narrative hints at a hidden criminal past connected to the hermit's identity, which the outlaw captain apparently knows. The OCR becomes increasingly garbled toward the text's end; concluding passages describe Sibyl noting their route and spotting riders in the distance.