Beadle's Pocket Library No. 419

Frisco Guy's Big Bonanza: The Boy Prospector

This dime novel by Roger Starbuck follows the search for a secret gold mine. Henry Watson, a California miner, is crushed to death by a boulder while prospecting in the Sacramento Valley. Before dying, he entrusts his map—showing a remote, unworked gold-rich location discovered months earlier—to his friend Fiery Ned, a weathered hunter with a distinctive facial scar. Ned promises to guide Watson's fifteen-year-old son Guy to the treasure.

Guy and Ned set out on foot toward the Sierra Nevada. Following the map, they encounter a treacherous mountain torrent spanned by a weakened single birch tree (thieves having stolen the original fir-log bridge). As Guy crosses, the birch gives way above a deep gorge. Ned saves him using a lasso-rope, securing him to a rock. The serial continues from here, following their journey toward the promised mine.