Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 870

"The Rival Ranchmen" by Coll Coomes This Western serial follows Dan Temple, a young, prosperous ranchman, who loves Alfa Bond, daughter of the reclusive "Doctor Dave" living in the Wyoming mountains. When Temple proposes, Alfa refuses, bound to her father's hermit existence. Clinton Roper, a dissolute rival rancher and fellow suitor, arrives with Ira Bondurant, an Eastererner bearing unexpected news: Doctor Dave is actually Powell D. Mitchell, an estranged man whose father recently died, leaving a quarter-million-dollar inheritance. Roper overhears Temple calling him a knave and challenges him to a duel. Alfa distrusts Roper's suspicious demeanor upon learning of the inheritance, suspecting hidden motives. The narrative cuts short before the duel; subsequent chapters focus on the rivalry between the ranches and competing claims for Alfa's hand.