Nobby Nick of Nevada; or, The Scamps of the Sierras

This issue of volume VII contains the opening chapters of "Nobby Nick of Nevada; or, The Scamps of the Sierras" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick series. The serial follows an outlaw organization called the Bearded Brothers, a forging gang operating in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Operating from a remote mountain hut, they use telegraph communication to coordinate their counterfeiting and document fraud schemes against miners and banks in towns including Hard Pan, Blue Canyon, and Deviltry. Their operations are threatened by a mysterious avenger called Grim Goblin and the arrival of Nobby Nick, a sharp character whose reputation precedes him. The narrative intersperses the outlaws' scheming with Nobby Nick's introduction: a plainspoken adventurer traveling with a donkey named Doxy who rescues an elderly Indian named Stern Face from miners attempting to rob him, establishing friendship and kinship before heading toward Deviltry.