Beadle's Dime Library No. 373 (July 17, 1895)

This July 1895 issue features "High Rollers of Silverton" by Lieutenant A. K. Sims, a serialized Western crime story. The narrative opens in Silverton, Colorado, where criminal Jack Kincaid and associates draw cards to determine who must murder a rival. Kincaid draws the lowcard and accepts the assignment. He positions himself on a mountain ledge overlooking a canyon trail and shoots Silver Belt Sid, a young mine and saloon owner, as Sid rides past singing. The bullet kills Sid's horse, and both horse and rider plummet into the canyon below. The story then flashes back to an Eastern city where brothers Gerald and Carl Crofton quarrel; Carl, drunk and violent, strikes Gerald before fleeing. Subsequently, Carl steals twenty thousand dollars from the bank where he works and disappears. A well-dressed horseman with a distinctive sombrero adorned with a rattlesnake then approaches the canyon where Sid lies.