The Old Boy of Tombstone: Or, Wagering a Life on a Card

1883 · 32 pages

This issue features "The Old Boy of Tombstone: Wagering a Life on a Card" by Joseph E. Badger Jr., a frontier adventure tale set in the 1879 mining camp of Tombstone, Arizona. The narrative centers on Dianthe's Bower, a gambling establishment run by an enigmatic blonde woman known only as Dianthe, who wields pearl-handled revolvers and maintains order through force when necessary. When a drunken prospector named Peter Papagon attempts to embrace Dianthe, he's revealed to be under mysterious control—speaking as if compelled by "the Old Boy," unable to resist commands. An eccentric man in black arrives to explain that Peter is essentially a puppet, his movements controlled by someone else. As Dianthe counts down to shoot Peter, she grazes his nose with a bullet, yet he remains impassive and rigid. The story combines mining-camp frontier action with supernatural or psychological mystery elements.

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