Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 807

# Catalog Note

This issue contains "The Baffled Sport: The Story of the Startling Expose at Bowlder Bend" by Ed. L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The serial depicts a mining-camp entertainment at the Old Rye saloon in Bowlder Bend, where French mind-readers Monsieur and Madame Arnauld perform character changes and demonstrations of supposed telepathic powers before an audience of miners and townspeople. After successfully identifying objects held by audience members and naming individuals by touching them, Madame Arnauld claims to read Mayor Dunn's unspoken thoughts regarding a recent unsolved murder of someone named Harry Deerland. She identifies the killer but refuses to reveal the name, citing danger to herself and her husband. The narrative establishes a mystery involving the sport Barlow Gobert, whose possible involvement with the mayor's daughter is suggested by the mind-reader's cryptic warnings.