Deadwood Dick Library, Vol. III, No. 31

This issue of the Half-Dime Library (October 11, 1899) primarily catalogues Edward L. Wheeler's Deadwood Dick, Jr. serial novels—over seventy installments listed, including titles like "The Crimson Crescent Sign," "Dog Detective," "Among the Smugglers," and "Big Play." The issue opens with "Blonde Bill: Deadwood Dick's Home Base," also by Wheeler, a romance set in Colorado's San Juan mining region. The narrative follows a south-bound stage carrying miners, gamblers, speculators, and passengers including the mysterious "Blonde Bill"—a blonde-haired man in goggles carrying substantial gold and greenbacks, traveling to Deadwood Dick's Discovery near Silverton. The stage encounters dangerous canyon terrain where the outlaw gang "Silent Tongues" regularly raid for treasure. The excerpt establishes tension between civilized passengers (including a pacifist clergyman) and rough bordermen, with immediate threat of ambush anticipated.