Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 260

# Catalog Description

Dare-Devil Dan, the Young Prairie Ranger; or, Old Rosebud's Boy Brigade by Oll Coomes, serialized in this 1882 Beadle and Adams weekly (Vol. X, No. 98). The adventure narrative opens with five young hunters—Scott Vail (20), Frank Bartlett (18), Philip Gregg (17), Pat Eagan (17), and Sol Warren (19)—camped on the Grand River in Dakota, planning to reach buffalo ranges. While checking horses, Vail witnesses a stage robbery by five masked road-agents. A boy passenger unexpectedly joins the outlaws, revealing hidden valuables and stealing a gold ring from a young girl passenger, Adrian Field (17). Vail rushes back to camp for reinforcements, but arrives too late; the outlaws escape with the stolen goods and the boy. The hunters shelter the shaken passengers overnight. At dawn, an old borderman called "Old Rosebud Ben" joins the group, learning of the robbery with apparent amusement at the sleepy-looking boy's true nature.