Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1055

# Red Raven's Redskin Ruse

This serial by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, appearing in Beadle and Adams (October 12, 1897), opens with a Western adventure mixing mystery, outlawry, and romance. After establishing the hacienda's haunted history—a Spanish mission massacred years prior—the narrative introduces the current conflict: Señor Marco Fuentes, supposedly the ranch's legitimate owner, is revealed to be Red Raven, chief of the "Redskin Ropers" (Indian laborers). A confession exposes that the man calling himself master is actually Marlo the Merciless, a smuggler and outlaw who imprisoned Fuentes under false pretenses and stole his ranch. Government sailors arrest Marlo but Fuentes mysteriously vanishes through secret passages. The narrative then shifts to Captain Edgar Yerger of the revenue service arriving at the wealthy Señor Samos's neighboring hacienda, where he encounters the beautiful Lulita Samos, sparking immediate romantic attraction amid ongoing outlaw pursuit.