Beadle's Pocket Library No. 223

This issue of Beadle's Weekly contains the opening installment of "Gold Conrad's Watch-Dogs: The Two Pards of Vulture Bar" by T.C. Harbaugh, a frontier adventure serial. Conrad Gordon, a wealthy mining magnate in the San Juan district known as "Gold Conrad," dispatches his Apache servant Catana with an urgent message to Colonel Thunder at remote Vulture Bar, apparently warning of a dangerous knife-thrower he fears may be an old enemy. The mysterious "Rosebud of the Pink Forks," a giant desperado, arrives at Conrad's house and ingratiates himself by offering to eliminate the threat. The narrative shifts to Vulture Bar itself, a rough mining town where Conrad secretly runs silver operations through six "watch-dogs" who control the miners and ore. A girlish figure named Esmer, apparently living disguised in male clothing among Conrad's men, emerges from the cabin, prompting the colonel to speak privately with this enigmatic character.