Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1101

Prince Philip, or The Thugs of Triple Butte This issue presents the opening of "Prince Philip, or The Thugs of Triple Butte: A Romance of the Arizona Thunder-bolt Legion," by Albert Cecil Gaines, a Western serial novel. The story begins when a stagecoach arrives in the Arizona mining camp of Triple Butte with driver Eagle Jerry, who discovers his passenger dead inside—murdered by strangulation. The corpse is not the bearded man who boarded in Tucson but a smooth-shaven stranger. The stage stopped during a violent mountain storm, allowing the substitution to occur unwitnessed. Prince Philip, a genteel twenty-one-year-old Easterner who ostensibly buys gold-dust from miners, takes particular interest in the case. The camp suspects organized stranglers operating in the region. Philip dispatches a letter to someone outside camp explaining the mystery while keeping his deductions secret locally, determined that Triple Butte will eventually learn the truth. The narrative introduces the camp's colorful denizens: Apache Abe, Tomahawk, Doc Dimity, and others.