Beadle's Pocket Library No. 268

This issue of Beadle and Adams' Half-Dime Library (No. 268, February 27, 1889) contains "Dead Shot Dandy: The Rio Grande Marauders" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. The story, set near a Texas fort on the Rio Grande, introduces Duke Decatur (nicknamed "Dead Shot Dandy"), an elegantly dressed scout with a mysterious past. When scout Monte and hunter Bronze Bill conspire to ambush and rob Decatur during a patrol, the assassination attempt backfires—Bronze Bill shoots but fails to kill Decatur, who returns fire and mortally wounds Bronze Bill instead. Monte arrives afterward and finds his dying accomplice. Seeing opportunity in the failed murder, Monte plans to use Bronze Bill's death to frame Dead Shot Dandy as a traitor working with Rio Grande marauders, falsely claiming Decatur fired unprovoked during an accusation of treachery.