The Bonanza Band; or, Dread Don, of the Cool Clan

# Museum Catalog Note

This issue of Beadle's from February 17, 1886, features "Dread Don of the Cool Clan," a Western adventure serial by Captain Howard Holmes. The story opens in Red Blade, a Black Hills mining camp, where the boastful prospector Noisy Nick challenges anyone to fight, claiming cowardice among Dakota miners. A stranger called Full Hand Frank accepts the challenge but abandons it when Nick claims he won't fight a man with living parents, prompting Frank to denounce him as all noise and no courage. The narrative then shifts to Dread Don, the acknowledged leader of the "Cool Clan"—a secret organization controlling rich gold deposits beneath the camp—receiving a mysterious wooden box delivered by stage. Upon opening it, Dread Don discovers a severed woman's hand pierced by a dagger. A card inside directs him to "Colonel Erastus Snowdrop," revealed to be an associate from five years prior. The colonel arrives with a young woman passenger and cryptically references an expired agreement, initiating an investigation into the hand's origin.