Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 449

This 1886 weekly serial, *The Brand-Burner's Daughter* by Joseph E. Badger Jr., opens with cattle-drive drama. Deputy-sheriff Carl Wesendorf confronts cowboys Bill Fracker, Dick Stumpf, and Tom Hickey at their night camp in Wilbarger County, Texas. Wesendorf verifies their legal claim to a hundred-head cattle drive for widow Dearin's ranch. The narrative reveals Wilbarger's status as a hotbed of cattle-rustling, where criminals systematized theft by burning brands off stolen stock and selling to complicit dealers. Wesendorf suspects foul play in rancher Cuthbert Dearin's recent hanging death—officially ruled suicide after losing two thousand cattle to raiders. Though Dearin's bound and shackled body suggested he jumped from a sapling, doubt lingers among those who knew him best. The story promises investigation into whether the death was murder disguised as suicide.