Beadle's Dime Library No. 329

# "Buffalo Bill's Pledge" (The League of Three)

This serial by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham follows Mabrey Markham, a former English sailor turned American settler, traveling westward with his daughter Madge and household staff to establish a cattle ranch in Nebraska. Markham grows suspicious of his guide, Kiowa Carl, after discovering their route deviates from the marked trail and witnessing Carl meet secretly with a stranger. The narrative includes Markham's backstory: rejected by his wealthy father and later his brother Daniel, he became successful abroad, eventually returning to England to offer his brother reconciliation, only to be dismissed. Marrying an American woman and adopting citizenship, Markham now travels with Madge—described as a beautiful nineteen-year-old—across the prairie. Kiowa Carl, a taciturn guide with mysterious past and hidden features beneath beard and hat, has developed romantic interest in Madge, though she finds something unsettling in his dark eyes. The narrative combines domestic drama with frontier adventure, establishing tensions around the guide's questionable conduct and Carl's unrequited attraction.