Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 38

This issue features "The Velvet Hand; The Iron Grip of Injun' Dick" by Albert W. Aiken, a frontier adventure serial. The prologue depicts Injun Dick Talbot, shot near Mount Shasta, apparently dying. The Blackfoot chief O-wa-te performs a funeral pyre ceremony as requested, only to discover Dick still lives—his constitution too strong for the fatal wound. Dick awakens vowing to reclaim the contested Cinnabar mine.

Chapter One introduces Cinnabar City a year later. Fernando del Colma, a Spanish-Mexican Californian gentleman, has purchased the mine and hired superintendent Bertrand Redan. Fernando's beautiful sister Blanche attracts local admiration but remains aloof. Among the town characters is Richard Velvet, a mysterious card-sharp wearing an all-black velvet suit, legendary for his gambling prowess. Velvet notably avoids courting Blanche despite his intimacy with her brother, claiming women interfere with his card-playing.

Chapter Two begins following a horseman riding through McCloud canyon near Cinnabar as evening falls.