Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 564

The Man Without a Past by John W. Osborn is a Western serial novel set in the Montana gold camp of Yankee's Find. The opening chapters introduce Powder Phil Atherton, a poor but honest young miner, and Austin Handy, a wealthy, aging mine magnate. When Phil refuses Handy's demand to cease courting Handy's ward Della, he is discharged. The conflict deepens when the sinister Major Jordan, who holds Handy's darkest secrets from his past in Georgetown, Ohio, arrives to extract his blackmail price: he demands Handy ensure Della marries him instead of Phil, threatening to expose Handy's hidden crime. Jordan vows "this Powder Phil must die" if Della remains obdurate. Phil returns home to his sympathetic mother, troubled but resolute.