Beadle's Dime Library No. 830

Buffalo Bill's Boys in Blue This issue contains "The Brimstone Band's Plot-Dat" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, a serialized romantic melodrama of mystery and murder. The narrative opens with Irma Enders, a beautiful adopted daughter of Major Enders, caught between two suitors: Douglass Dean, a mysterious schoolteacher she loves, and Edmund Allyn, a dissolute gambler. When Dean is convicted of murdering and robbing Major Massey, Irma strikes a bargain with Allyn—she will marry him if he secures Dean's escape from execution. The story then reveals the actual crime through flashback: Dean visits Massey seeking restitution for an old wrong—Massey had cheated Dean's father years earlier at cards during courtship of a Texan woman. When Massey refuses, Dean shoots him. The dying Major writes an accusation in his own blood, seemingly condemning Dean conclusively. Allyn now visits the imprisoned Dean, offering to bribe the jailer and gatekeeper for his escape.