Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 988

Shadow Sam: A Romance of the Southwest

"Shadow Sam," the featured serial by Col. Prentiss Ingraham (author of Buffalo Bill novels), continues the adventures of the "Boy Pards of the Silver Star"—five young frontier scouts. In Chapter I, Buffalo Bill leaves the five youths after aiding them in avenging attacks on Meadowland Valley ranches. The leader, Bird Bainbridge, has lost his entire family and home to renegade outlaws. Months later, Bainbridge is approached at his cabin by a mysterious rider claiming to be Shadow Sam, an army scout who knows Buffalo Bill. Upon shaking hands, Sam draws a revolver and reveals himself as one of the escaped raiders. He forces Bainbridge at gunpoint to divulge the location of hidden gold and jewels—treasure his deceased father and mother had concealed before the fatal raid. The story combines elements of Western action, vengeance, and frontier adventure typical of the dime novel tradition.