Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 486

About this issue

This Beadle and Adams dime novel by Ed. L. Wheeler (author of the "Deadwood Dick" series) presents a melodramatic narrative set in Washington Territory near Crystal Lake. The opening depicts a young woman, Sadie, being rowed across the lake by Lieutenant Lee, who blackmails her with knowledge of a supposedly dead child, revealing she is unmarried and of unknown parentage. When she refuses his marriage proposal, Lee abducts her with accomplices and flees on horseback toward the mountains. The second chapter shifts to Hunki-Dori mining camp, introducing Bollivar Bullwhack, a massive, crude ruffian who enters the Cremonia, the settlement's most prominent gambling and drinking establishment. Bullwhack announces himself loudly, disregards the bartender's request for quiet, and offers to buy drinks for everyone present. The narrative combines frontier adventure with sensational domestic secrets and criminal violence.