The Boy Hercules; The Prairie Tramps

This September 1897 Beadle and Adams dime novel installment features "The Boy Hercules: The Prairie Tramps," a Dakota romance by Oll Coomes. Frank Morton, a young Indian Agent, loses his horse during a winter journey across snow-covered plains and becomes lost in a blizzard while traveling to his wedding. Lost and freezing, he encounters a mysterious figure driving an enormous elk-drawn sledge with another person inside, which vanishes into the storm. After the weather clears, Morton discovers the Good Samaritan Ranch, a legendary frontier cabin that provides free shelter and provisions to all travelers—hunters, trappers, Indians, and outlaws alike—supplied mysteriously by unknown benefactors. The narrative establishes the ranch's reputation as a neutral sanctuary where enemies never clash, sustained by provisions secretly ordered from a post-trader. Morton enters the cabin seeking refuge.