Beadle's Pocket Library No. 130

*Gold Trigger, the Sport: The Girl Avengers* This serialized western story by T.C. Harbaugh appears in Beadle and Adams's weekly publication. The narrative opens in Panther City, a lawless gold-rush settlement in the Northwest where "the code of law in force there, is the work of the rope, the bowie and the trigger." Old Bizness, an eccentric horse-trader, arrives attempting to sell his worn horse Morpheen. When the dandyish gunslinger Gold Trigger (Murell Anton) mocks the animal, Old Bizness challenges him to a knife duel. After waiting for moonlight, the two prepare to fight. But Murell reveals private knowledge: he is the last surviving "Sport"—one of nine men who broke their dice-boxes in New York two years prior. The others have died violently across the frontier. Murell believes Old Bizness is a hired agent of an unseen "Avenger" sent to kill him. Before combat, Murell demonstrates his marksmanship by shooting a thrown knife mid-air, then returns it to Bizness.