Beadle's Pocket Library No. 163

Deadwood Dick's Dream: The Rivals of the Road This 1887 Beadle and Adams weekly serial by Edward L. Wheeler presents a mining-camp adventure set in the Arizona Territory. Deadwood Dick, the famous reformed outlaw-turned-detective, relates a prophetic dream to a U.S. Marshal and lieutenant: he dreamed of a new mining camp called Tombstone City troubled by road agents and counterfeiters led by "Phantom Moll, the Girl Footpad," and of befriending a crippled orphan named Cora Clyde. Betrayed by his Mexican partner Cordova and left bound to a tree, Dick is rescued by the cavalry. The Marshal deputizes him to investigate the counterfeiting gang. The narrative shifts to the stagecoach route from Silverville to Tombstone City, where stage operator Joe Rapp runs a profitable twice-weekly service, detaining passengers at his tavern for refreshment and profit.