Beadle's Pocket Library No. 327

About this issue

Ned, the Roving Miner: Arkansaw Jack's Match is a western adventure serial by Harry Hazard, published in this 1890 issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly. The narrative follows young Georgia Ned Payson, a prospector traveling through a California valley, who encounters the boisterous Arkansaw Jack Gabriel and his gang of man-hunters pursuing the outlaw Joaquin and his Mexican gang. After sharing a meal at Jack's camp, Ned learns that a scout named Whistling Dick has located Joaquin's party, which includes two imprisoned women. Aroused by the prospect of rescuing the captives and fighting their rivals, Jack's crew—including characters named Pet Pete, Slippery Jeems, and Turkey Egg—sets out under moonlight to attack the Mexican encampment via a creek bed to avoid detection. The serial emphasizes action, frontier dialect, and violent confrontation between American miners and Mexican outlaws.