Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 281

1882 · 16 pages

This serial installment, "Denver Doll's Victory; or, Skull and Cross-Bones" by Edward L. Wheeler, features a wild Western action narrative. Denver Doll, a renowned female detective, intercepts a telegraph message revealing a plot by the "Terrible Tribunal"—a criminal organization—to wreck the eastward-bound Union Pacific Express at Devil's Curve for plunder. Racing her horse Colonel along the railroad tracks through a storm, she successfully flags the train to prevent the crash, but is captured by gang members. The train derails anyway, killing numerous passengers and crew. Doll is brought to the gang's mountain hideout, where Captain Crime, the Tribunal's leader, interrogates her after recognizing her identity. Threatened with execution, she is suddenly rescued by Bill Bethel, a ragged ten-year-old boy armed with revolvers, who confronts the desperadoes with determined gunplay.

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