Beadle's New Dime Novels: Rob Ruskin

This pulp fiction installment from Beadle and Adams features "The Forest Maid," a frontier adventure by Mrs. Orrin James. The excerpt begins mid-action with Chapter II, "The Race for Life," set on the prairie. A young woman identified as Lizzie Dollar rides her black horse, Diamond, pursued by three men: Rob Ruskin (a hunter) and two Indians armed with bows. The pursuers intend to capture her alive and steal the horse. The chase intensifies as a violent storm approaches. After Diamond swims the flooded river, Ruskin orders the Indian to shoot the horse as it emerges. The arrow strikes fatally; Diamond drowns while Lizzie abandons her mount and swims to shore, disappearing into cottonwood brush on foot. The narrative emphasizes physical danger, the woman's courage and resourcefulness, and the treacherous antagonist's obsessive pursuit.