Deadwood Dick Library No. 12

About this issue

This issue contains the opening chapters of an adventure serial set in the Black Hills gold-mining country during the rainy season. Five miners—James Belmont, Old Buzzard, Squirrel Sam, Hooper Vandegrift, and the dwarf Miaco Rullon—occupy Flood Bar, a gold-rich sandbar along Squirrel Creek. When a mysterious horseman identified as "Flying Floyd," lieutenant to the outlaw Deadwood Dick, gallops through their camp, the miners face dual catastrophes: Gray Wolf's Indian "Vagabonds" blockade their escape route while a burst dam sends a massive flood down the gorge. Old Buzzard devises an improvised refuge by hoisting their supplies and themselves into giant linden trees. Simultaneously, in a nearby valley, the wealthy settler Cyril Waltonby receives an ominous visit from the antagonist Red Lark, who arrives with a coded message. Waltonby, bedridden with heart trouble, refuses to see him, sensing mortal danger. The narrative promises escalating peril for multiple parties.