Cowboy Chris, Desert Centaur

This December 28, 1897 Beadle and Adams weekly features "Cowboy Chris, the Desert Centaur," a western action serial by Wm. West Wilder (Wyoming Will). Chapter I, "Friends in Need," depicts two cowboys—the sharp-featured old Round-up Rube and the young, striking Cowboy Chris astride his magnificent black horse Black Cloud—witnessing Apache warriors pursuing a fleeing plainsman across the desert plains. The cowboys ambush the Apaches from timber cover, helping the fugitive kill several raiders in a fierce firefight. Chapter II, "A Queer Old Nomad," reveals the rescued man to be Dan Pike, a peculiarly built (long-legged, short-bodied) prospector who speaks in comic dialect. Rube ropes an Indian pony for Pike's use after his own horse collapses. The frontier narrative emphasizes gunplay, Apache combat, horsemanship, and cowboy camaraderie.