Beadle's Dime Novels No. 18

This issue contains two serialized works by Edward S. Ellis. "The Hunter's Escape" depicts a missionary forty years after his introduction in "Lost Trail," witnessing the 1860 Northwestern Indian outbreak—described as an absorbing episode combining dramatic and personal interest.

The primary serial, "Nathan Todd: The Fate of the Sioux Captive" (sequel to "Bill Biddon"), follows protagonist Nathan Todd's solitary forest journey west of the Missouri River. Determined to locate Irene Merment, a lost captive believed taken toward Oregon, Todd travels from the Yellowstone region equipped with rifle and Indian plumes. After camping in "Death Rock"—a cavern filled with skeleton remains from a tribal massacre—he drives off attacking wolves, then adopts a religious practice of daily prayer. Discovering two abandoned Indian ponies, Todd captures one and retrieves his hidden canoe and hat from a hollow chestnut tree. The narrative concludes as he encounters Upsarena, chief of his former tribe, near the lake.