The Deadwood Dick Library, Vol. II, No. 24

This issue of the Half-Dime Library (August 23, 1899) features the opening chapters of "Deadwood Dick as Detective," by Edward L. Wheeler. Set in Rough Shod, a mining town near Leadville, Colorado, the story begins with a trap being laid. The Honorable Clancy Adair, the town's de facto mayor and ruling authority, visits Captain Sal Savage's saloon—the Champion's Roost, which doubles as hotel and gambling den—to hire Savage and his wife Nance to murder an incoming enemy named Carroll Holly. The stage arrives carrying several passengers including the registered guests Barry Merridin (tourist), Joseph Rainbolt (rifle-shot), Josh Page, Oswald Yates, and Phineas Porter, an elderly New York detective. The narrative establishes the rough frontier setting and introduces multiple characters whose roles in the unfolding murder plot remain unclear.