Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 634

# "The Rakestraw Ruestionist: A Romance of the League of Hard Luck" by William R. Eyster

This installment of a serial western opens with Little Lum, an experienced young frontiersman, hearing a girl's crying near a mountain stream. He cautiously descends the forty-foot bank and spots a weeping child across the water. Before he can approach, a rough trapper named Kale Kanyon emerges, clearly intending to shoot the girl. Lum shoots Kanyon's carbine from his hands without injuring him, then confronts the man at gunpoint. The girl—who had run away from Kanyon's camp, fearing for her life—recognizes Lum's voice as a friend and crawls to his side. Lum and the child escape by moving silently along the gravelly stream bank while keeping Kanyon pinned behind a tree. The narrative emphasizes frontier violence, vigilance, and moral conflict over taking a life.