Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 340

This January 1884 issue of Beadle and Adams' dime novel contains "Clip, the Contortionist; or, The Vigilantes of Montana" by Edward Willett. The serial follows Clip Saunders, a young contortionist lodging at Mat Warner's remote ranch near the mining settlement of Orodia. When Sam Bunker, a bull-slinger, forces Clip to perform acrobatics, the boy executes a handstand and kicks Bunker in the stomach with both feet, escaping the angry miner's retaliation only through intervention by Miss Nettle, proprietress of the Stunner saloon. At the Warner household, Clip recounts the incident to his hosts—Matthew Warner, his wife Fanny, and their daughter Helen. Warner worries about Clip's dangerous enmity with Bunker and questions the mysterious youth about his past, learning only that Clip came from Kansas and lost a sister. Harry Venn, a railroad surveyor, is revealed as Clip's defender and object of Helen's affection.