Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 478

"Laramie Joe's Forest Pards" by Oll Coomes This Western serial by Oll Coomes opens with a murder mystery in the mining camp of Last Lick, Colorado. Judge Benoni Randall is killed by a barbed arrow while the sun is still high, shocking the community. Though suspicion falls on local Indians, investigation proves no Native Americans are within fifty miles. The crime remains unsolved despite reward offers and vigilante searches. Judge Randall's orphaned daughter Zulima finds support from the camp community and befriends Sybil Bell, daughter of Major Robert Bell, a recent arrival. Months later, Reverend Paul Postle arrives to establish religious meetings, prompting gamblers and bummers to dispatch three bullies—Grizzly Dave, Cale Bunce, and Sonora Steve—to intimidate him into leaving. The preacher, an angular fifty-year-old with thin whiskers, refuses to drink liquor with the men, standing firm against their threats and mockery. A young tenderfoot named Albert Joslin, inspired by dime novels, observes the confrontation at the hotel bar.