Sidney Groves Burghard (1867-1943) was a prolific British western and thriller writer. He wrote under the pseudonym Ridgwell Cullum. He was an adventurer who left England at age seventeen to go gold-prospecting in the Transvaal. He crossed the seas and settled in the Yukon region of Canada. During his stay in that area, he narrowly escaped starving to death. He next crossed the Canadian border, and became a successful cattle-rancher in Montana. His works include: The Devil's Keg (1903), The Hound from the North (1904), The Brooding Mind: A Mountain Tragedy (1905), The Night Riders: A Romance of Western Canada (1906), The Watchers of the Plains: A Tale of the Western Prairies (1909), The Compact (1909), The Sherriff of Dyke Hole: The Story of a Legacy (1909), The Trail of the Axe: A Story of the Red Sand Valley (1910), The One-Way Trail (1911), The Twins of Suffering Creek (1912), The Golden Woman: A Story of the Montana Hills (1913), The Way of the Strong (1914) and The Law-Breakers (1914).