The Deadwood Dick Library, No. 21

This issue of the Half-Dime Library (August 2, 1899) is devoted entirely to Edward L. Wheeler's "Deadwood Dick" serial fiction. The catalog lists over 170 individual Deadwood Dick, Jr. adventure tales, primarily from the western frontier setting. The featured serial in this number is "Deadwood Dick's Device; The Sign of the Double Cross," described as "a wild, strange tale of the Leadville mines—of men of steel—of toughs and tigers—of road-agents, regulators, avengers, adventurers—and of the thrilling life in the new eldorado." The opening chapter introduces Edward Harris (also known as Deadwood Dick), who is summoned by a veiled woman to the cabin of dying miner David Howell on the Dead Pine Tract near Leadville. Howell, wealthy from mining, seeks Harris's aid in executing a will to circumvent his greedy relatives. The narrative encompasses mining adventures, storm sequences, and mysterious intrigue typical of the pulp adventure genre.