Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 888

This pulp western serial by Wm. R. Eyster concerns Monte Saul, a skilled gunman and mine owner at Dead Latch. Saul overhears Clark Bruce and associates plotting against him and a man named Ames, apparently to claim mining interests. Bruce challenges Saul to a formal duel at the Headquarters Saloon. During the confrontation, Bruce shoots Saul, leaving him apparently dead on the plain. However, Saul survives—Bruce's shot merely wounded his shoulder. A boy named Harry Carter, who witnessed the shooting, tends to Saul's wound with surprising medical skill. Saul confides his suspicion that Bruce deliberately used guns loaded with only one bullet per chamber, suggesting the duel was rigged assassination rather than fair combat. The narrative emphasizes frontier gunplay, mining claim disputes, and themes of betrayal within a criminal conspiracy.