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From the exhibition

Beadle's Pocket Library No. 132

· July 21, 1886

Beadle's Pocket Library No. 132
This week's installment features "Dainty Lance, the Boy Sport," by Joseph E. Badger Jr., a western adventure serial. Young traveler Lancelot Daintree rescues a woman named Myrtle Fair from two assailants on a dark road. She guides him to an encampment where she reveals her family—her father Edward Fair and nine armed men—are moving from Georgia to Missouri seeking new land. The story takes a decisive turn when Lance introduces himself by his full name, shocking the group. A dark, Gypsy-featured man violently disputes this identity, claiming Lance is actually someone named Harry Ballou, and attacks him. The confrontation ends with Lance delivering a decisive blow, knocking his accuser down.

Public domain (pre-1929), restored and presented by comicbooks.com public-domain