Wild Bill, the Dead-Center Shot

This issue of Beadle's Dime Library presents "Wild Bill, the Dead-Center Shot: or, Rio Grande Ralph, the Cowboy Chief, a Story of Elmo's Bandit Band" by Buffalo Bill (Gen. W. F. Cody). The western action opens when Buffalo Bill visits Wild Bill Hickok in a Santa Fe gambling den, interrupting a dangerous card game with three Mexicans suspected of a paymaster robbery near Leavenworth. A gunfight erupts; Wild Bill kills one Mexican and subdues the others. Later, Cody recruits Wild Bill for a detective mission: to investigate Captain Adrian Valdos, a decorated officer engaged to Colonel Monastery's daughter Marcelite, whose mysterious past harbors shadowy rumors of criminality. Wild Bill pledges to verify the accusations or clear Valdos's name. The narrative then flashbacks to establish Valdos's introduction—a mysterious guide in buckskin and sombrero mysteriously appearing before a cavalry camp in Texas, approaching Captain Vernon Canfield.