Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 625

This issue of Beadle's Half-Dime Library (July 16, 1889) features the opening chapters of "The Heroes of the Crater: A Romance of the No Man's Border" by Jos. E. Badger, Jr., a frontier adventure serial. The narrative introduces Chincapin Dan, a boy trailer living with his adoptive father Todd Dickerman and sister Elma in a canvas-covered wagon on the frontier. Dickerman reveals to Elma that she is not his biological daughter but a stolen child, producing a locket containing portraits of her true parents—a young military officer and woman. Dickerman confesses he is fleeing from a mysterious man he fears greatly, suggesting supernatural dread ("ha'nted"). The story establishes themes of pursuit, hidden identity, and frontier survival, with Dickerman's anxiety mounting as he scouts their camp, dreading the pursuer's approach before they can reach Texas.