Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 981

"Black Lariat Blot-Out: A Story of the Colorado Desperadoes" by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, published in Beadle and Adams (May 12, 1896). This Western tale opens with seventeen-year-old Bird Bainbridge discovering his family slaughtered on their Colorado ranch. A mysterious stranger passing through reveals evidence that white outlaws, not Indians, committed the murders: they rode shod horses, left behind a spur and reddish hair, and displayed paint from the struggle. The man identifies himself as a frontier dispatch carrier. Bird reunites with four young comrades—Kane Noland, Nick Walter, Seth Saunders, and Bud Rainey—known locally as "the Fighting Five" or "Five Ferrets," scouts patrolling against raids. They vow vengeance. The stranger argues the killers were paleface desperadoes, likely the outlaw band Red Rovers, and cautions against wrongly blaming Indians for their crimes.