Beadle's Dime Library No. 709

The Alcatraz Millions: A Romance of Nevada This serialized dime novel installment, written by Lieut. A. K. Sims, follows Lodestone Lem's confrontation with John Cushman's "Land Pirates" over competing claims to vast Nevada territory under the disputed Alcatraz land grant. Trapped in a cabin by masked gunmen, Lem refuses a five-thousand-dollar bribe to abandon his associate Chestnut Burr and the town he founded. He escapes through a daring rush past the door sentinel, then retreats to Chestnut Burr as dawn breaks. The narrative exposes the legal dispute's origins: both parties filed competing claims and mines before a lower court ruled favorably for Cushman's league. Confident in their cause's justice, Lem and his supporters prepare to appeal to higher authority, viewing their struggle as existential. Lem's reputation as an honorable, magnetic leader makes him dangerous to Cushman's monopoly ambitions.