Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 219

1881 · 16 pages

This October 1881 Beadle and Adams weekly presents "Despard, the Duelist; or, Mountain Vampires," a sequel to "Captain Mask, the Lady Road-Agent" by Philip S. Warne. The narrative opens in Hell Hole, a notorious mining camp, where two prospectors, Foxy and Tidy Tip, witness a grotesque execution by "Skeleton Avengers"—robed figures with self-luminous bones and skull-torches who murder James Kane for seducing an innocent woman. The band vanishes when discovered. The story shifts to the arrival of Joe Smedley, captain of the Vigilantes, greeted enthusiastically by miners. His emotional reaction to seeing the "Queen of the Green Cloth"—an equestrienne revealed to be Mrs. Despard Dangerfield, formerly named Hortense—provokes jealousy in another woman. A subsequent confrontation between Smedley and Hortense involves accusations of infidelity and abandonment; Smedley vows vengeance against her husband, Iron Despard.

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