The Scorpion Brothers; or, Mad Tom's Mission

Catalog Note This issue of *Beadle & Adams* contains the opening installment of "Mad Tom's Mission" by Captain Mark Wilton, a Western adventure serial. The narrative follows two young men—Roland Gilbert, a practical miner working for Eastern capitalists, and Giles Percival, a Texan returning home after five years abroad—who meet when they jointly defend a stagecoach from road-agents near Porcupine Pass. After they part ways in Arizona, Gilbert takes an evening stroll near Snicker's Camp and is attacked by a Mexican assassin wielding a knife. During their struggle, Gilbert kills the assailant in self-defense. The dying man reveals he belongs to a mysterious organization called the "Silver Scorpions" or "Scorpion Brothers," claiming Gilbert is a doomed man marked for death—though he then realizes, too late, he has murdered the wrong person. The only identifying object on the corpse is an ornate talisman: a coral block with an elaborately carved silver scorpion suspended from a golden chain. The episode establishes the serial's central mystery surrounding this secret society's true purpose and targets.