Gold Plume, or Buffalo Bill, The Boy Bandit; The Pony Express Rider

This issue of Beadle and Adams' weekly (August 10, 1897) features "Gold Plume, the Boy Bandit," by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. The story, subtitled "A Romance of Buffalo Bill's Early Life" and "The Kid-Glove Sport," serves as a sequel to "Little Grit, the Wild Rider."

Daniel Benton, a stock-tender for the Overland Pony Express who secretly mines gold in a hidden canyon, receives a nocturnal visit from a woman calling herself the Spirit of the Canyon. She comes bearing Gold Plume's demands: surrender his daughter Bessie or reveal his gold's location. When Benton refuses both, he is seized by the bandit's men and killed, leaving only a letter for his daughter.

The narrative then shifts to a saloon in Rocky Glen, where miners and stage riders discuss the situation. News arrives that Benton has been murdered. Little Grit, Benton's daughter's lover, rejects plans to flee and accepts a commission from Colonel Hewlett to fight the bandits. Discussion turns to a promising new Pony Rider named Buffalo Bill, a twenty-year-old from Kansas known for buffalo hunting and fearless riding.