Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 348

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly dime novel (March 1884) features the first chapter of "Fireheels; or, Old Skinflint, the Death-Shadow" by Roger Starbuck. The serial opens in Idaho Territory with a coach robbery in a mountain gorge. Bell Danton, a sixteen-year-old girl, and her father are attacked by bandits disguised as miners; a young hunter named Frank Belton—nicknamed "Fireheels" after escaping through a burning thicket set by Snake Indians—intervenes with armed companions and drives off the robbers. Belton escorts the Dantons to their new settlement of Logville, where Mr. Danton is building a salmon factory. Chapter Two introduces Luke Lorne, a wealthy young settler who pursues Bell romantically despite her suspicion that he was among the coach robbers. Belton's visits are discouraged by Mr. Danton after Lorne falsely claims the youth boasted of marrying Bell for her inheritance.