Deadwood Dick Library, Vol. IV, No. 41

This issue of the Half-Dime Library (December 20, 1899) presents the serialized novel Deadwood Dick's Ward: The Black Hills Jezebel by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the "Deadwood Dick" series. The catalog lists over 150 previously published Deadwood Dick, Jr. adventure novels dating back to issue 443. The featured story opens in the Black Hills at sunset with Kentucky Kit, a young woman dressed in boy's clothing, driving an overland prairie-schooner wagon carrying her father—a hunchbacked man consumed by thoughts of vengeance. When Kit ventures hunting for provisions, she encounters two rough prospectors, "Bloody Bill" and "Black Bob," who have killed a buck deer she was pursuing. Through bold confrontation, Kit forces the men to dress the kill and quarter it for her provisions, though the roughs exchange meaningful glances suggesting ulterior motives regarding this independent young woman.