Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 592

Catalog Description "The Rivals of Sunset: The Romance of the Rattlesnake Mine" by Captain Howard Holmes opens a serialized western adventure. Chapter I, "A Headless Horseman," follows a dark-featured rider through California's Shasta region tracking blood-stains on mountain trails. He discovers a black horse returning riderless down Echo Canyon with a corpse trapped in the stirrup. Using a knife, he severs the stirrup-strap, revealing the headless, mutilated body of Colonel Delle Paso, an outlawed nabob. The rider, later identified as Shasta Sid, retrieves an ornamental button from the corpse as proof and carves Delle Paso's name on a boulder. Chapter II shows Sid reporting to a wealthy San Francisco gentleman. Sid confirms Delle Paso's death, describing how the outlaw was dragged by his horse—killed by mysterious "Shadows of Shasta" enemies. The button serves as identification. The gentleman produces a matching button and expresses satisfaction, though Sid remains unable to locate two other targets: a woman and Teton Sam.