Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 366

This issue of Beadle and Adams' Weekly (Vol. XV, No. 366, July 1884) features "Velvet Foot, the Indian Detective; or, The Taos Tiger" by T. C. Harbaugh. The serial opens in Dead Line City, a rough Colorado-New Mexico border settlement, where an insulting letter addressed to "the Ugliest Galoot in Dead Line" arrives in the mail. When a mysterious mounted stranger claims the letter and introduces himself as "Captain Clutch" by scratching his name into a post-office window with a diamond ring, the townspeople are stunned and vow vengeance. Moments later, Velvet Foot, a Comanche tracker employed as a Government detective to pursue a band of stage robbers, arrives in town. Red Scar Dave, observing the Indian's reaction to Captain Clutch's name, pulls him aside to inquire about the mysterious newcomer, suggesting deeper intrigue ahead.