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  128 Pages.]      Published Semi-Monthly.      [Complete.


  BEADLE'S

  [Illustration: DIME NOVELS

  UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  ONE
  DIME]

  No. 21.

  The Choicest Works of the Most Popular Authors.


  SYBIL CHASE;
  OR,
  THE VALLEY RANCHE.


  BY MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS.
  Author of "Malaeska," "Fashion and Famine," Etc., Etc.


  New-York and London:
  BEADLE AND COMPANY, 141 WILLIAM ST. N. Y.
  A. Williams & Co., 100 Wash. St., Boston


  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1861,
  by BEADLE AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,
  for the Southern District of New York.




AN ENTICING STORY.

Beadle's Dime Novels Number 22.

Will Issue Wednesday, May First,

THE MAID OF ESOPUS;

OR, THE

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS

OF THE REVOLUTION.

BY N. C. IRON.


The era of the American Revolution is so fraught with romance that it
ever will prove a chosen one to novelists. In this present instance
the author has selected unusually stirring historic incidents, around
whose facts he has woven a most beautiful and enticing story of love,
devotion and patriotism. Such tales fire the love of our country in the
hearts of all, old and young; while they fill, in the highest degree,
the love for romance, which _all persons_ possess. The "Maid of Esopus"
is a _purely historical_ fiction, written with a thorough knowledge of
the men and women of those times which truly tried and tempered souls,
and embodies all the interest which attaches to that most eventful era.
It will be found not only unexceptionable as a novel, but _unusually_
good in its literary merits, as well as intensely exciting and
absorbing in its narrative. It will become a household favorite.

For Sale by all News Dealers.

  BEADLE AND COMPANY, Publishers,
  141 William St., New York.

[Illustration: THE VALLEY RANCHE.]




  SYBIL CHASE;
  OR,
  THE VALLEY RANCHE.

  A TALE OF CALIFORNIA LIFE.

  BY MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS.

  [Illustration]

  NEW YORK AND LONDON:
  BEADLE AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,

  141 WILLIAM ST., CORNER OF FULTON, N. Y.
  44 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.




  Entered according to Act of Congress, In the Year 1861, by
  BEADLE AND COMPANY,
  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
  Southern District of New York.




THE VALLEY RANCHE.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I. THE BRIDLE-PATH.
  CHAPTER II. A FACE FROM THE PAST.
  CHAPTER III. HUSBAND AND WIFE.
  CHAPTER IV. TWO CONFEDERATES, IN COUNCIL.
  CHAPTER V. A SHORT RIDE AND A LONG WALK.
  CHAPTER VI. THE WELCOME THAT AWAITS RALPH HINCHLEY.
  CHAPTER VII. ARRIVAL OF THE GUEST.
  CHAPTER VIII. THE GAMBLER'S FATE.
  CHAPTER IX. A CANTER AND A FALL.
  CHAPTER X. THE GAME AT CHESS.
  CHAPTER XI. THE FEMALE IAGO.
  CHAPTER XII. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER.
  CHAPTER XIII. HIGHCLIFF.
  CHAPTER XIV. THE JAIL.
  CHAPTER XV. THE DUEL.
  CHAPTER XVI. THE BATTERY.
  CHAPTER XVII. THE VALLEY RANCHE.




CHAPTER I.

THE BRIDLE-PATH.


A small valley cutting through a range of mountains in California--a
green oasis that looked strange and picturesque in the midst of that
savage scenery. The cliffs rose in a solid wall on one side to the
height of many hundred feet. Dwarfed fir-trees and dead cedars were
scattered along the summit, stretching up their gaunt limbs and adding
to the lonely grandeur of the scene. Great masses of broken rocks,
which, in some conflict of the elements, had been wrenched from their
bed, projected from the rifted precipices and lay in great moss-covered
boulders in the lap of the valley. On the southeastern side a break in
the heart of the cliffs was covered with thrifty verdure, and, over the
rocks that obstructed it, a mountain torrent rushed thundering into the
valley, dividing that cradle of verdure in the middle, and abruptly
disappearing through another gorge, breaking to the open country
somewhat lower down, where it plunged over a second precipice with the
sound of distant artillery.

Just above the spot where this mountain stream cut the valley in twain,
a collection of huts, tents and rickety frame houses composed one of
those new villages that are so often found in a frontier country, and
half a mile above stood a small ranche, with its long, low-roofed
dwelling half buried in heavy vines that cl