A complete, restored issue of Pulp Fiction from 1897 — all 16 pages of painted-cover fiction magazines that launched science fiction, horror, and hardboiled crime, free to page through at ComicBooks.com.

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A complete issue · 16 pages · 1897

Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1039

1897 · Free to read

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About this issue

Mustang Merle, the Boy Rancher; or, Old Joe Bundy's Wipe-Out, serialized Western fiction by Major Sam S. Scott, published in this dime novel issue (Beadle and Adams, twenty-five cents). The story concerns seventeen-year-old Mustang Merle, who inherited Mesquite Ranch from his former employer Captain King and now operates it with assistance from overseer Kyd Kemble and resident Lona, a distant relation of King's. Old Joe Bundy, a garrulous drifter, arrives seeking shelter. The narrative centers on a protection racket: the outlaw Captain Red Jacket (called "Captain Cussed" and leader of the Red Jackets gang) delivers a threat demanding three thousand dollars, threatening to burn Mesquite Ranch and salt its ground. Merle responds with defiant written refusal. Kydd leaves the answer at a designated boulder in a gorge; a Red Jacket messenger retrieves it immediately, racing toward the gang's camp. The serialization continues with the messenger's journey to Captain Reddy's hideout.

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