Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 312

Museum Catalog Note *Redtop Rube, the Vigilante Prince; or, The Black Regulators of Arizona* by Major E. L. St. Vrain, serialized in this July 1883 issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly publication. The opening chapters establish the protagonist, a young red-haired stranger named Reuben Redtop who arrives in the rough mining town of Torpedo Gulch. When local bully Sam Lefferts attempts to drive him out through intimidation, Redtop responds with witty deflection, then draws a knife and eventually revolvers. A sympathetic miner, Moses Halpine, intervenes but is shot by Lefferts. Redtop knocks Lefferts unconscious and assists the injured Halpine and his daughter Zella. As they attempt to flee the saloon, Lefferts revives and renews his attack, forcing the group toward armed confrontation with the town's roughs. A Western action serial combining gunplay, physical confrontation, and dramatic tension within an Arizona mining-town setting.