Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 279

1882 · 16 pages

This issue features "Old Winch, the Rifle King; or, The Buckskin Desperadoes," a western serial by T.C. Harbaugh, set in the California gold mining region. Old Winch, a sixty-year-old rifle-wielding frontiersman in buckskin, arrives at the rough mining settlement of Eldorado with Gold Georgie, a seventeen-year-old girl dressed in Indian maiden garments. Winch announces he and the girl are pursuing "a mystery" concerning her. He befriends the honest young miner Plumas Roy and requests his assistance. Meanwhile, the scarred outlaw Modoc and a Mexican conspirator plot against Winch's arrival, with Modoc sending the Mexican to alert "Ranch Rob." After a confrontation where Winch overpowers Modoc, the miners of Eldorado organize a mock court at dawn, suspecting Winch of child-stealing and planning to put him on trial.

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