Deadwood Dick, Jung; or, The Sign of the Crimson Crescent

This pocket-library issue features "Deadwood Dick, Jun.: The Sign of the Crimson Crescent," a Western adventure serial. The narrative centers on seventeen-year-old Dick Bristol, who flees pursuers on horseback while carrying his dying mother across the Nebraska prairie. Mrs. Bristol reveals crucial family history: she married Byron Bristol (Dick's true father), but after Byron descended into alcoholism—encouraged by his brother Budd—she was coerced into signing a document promising to marry Budd upon Byron's death. She did so to secure money for Byron's escape from lynch law. Now remarried to the seemingly reformed Budd, Mrs. Bristol has been brutally stabbed by him for refusing to sign over their property. Dying from internal bleeding, she entrusts Dick with documents proving his inheritance rights, warning him that Budd will pursue him relentlessly. The narrative combines melodrama, frontier action, and family intrigue typical of the period's pulp fiction.