Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 999

"The Velvet Hand; The Iron Grip of Injun Dick" by Albert W. Aiken This serialized Western novel opens with the apparent death of Injun Dick Talbot, superintendent of the Cinnabar Mine, who is revived by a Blackfoot chief after being shot. One year later, Cinnabar City has transformed: Fernando del Colma, a declining Spanish-Californian landowner, purchases the cursed Cinnabar lode with Bertrand Redan as superintendent. Del Colma's beautiful sister Blanche arrives, attracting miners' interest but remaining aloof. The narrative introduces Richard "Velvet Hand" Velvet, a skilled card player in black velvet attire who frequents the Occidental Hotel's "gang." He gambles heavily with Del Colma and maintains mysterious distance from Blanche despite knowing her brother intimately. The prologue establishes ongoing conflict over the mine's ownership, while the opening chapters present the cast assembled around the Cinnabar lode and hint at impending danger as a horseman rides through McCloud canyon.