Beadle's Dime Library No. 748: Arizona Charlie the Crack Shot Detective

Arizona Charlie, the Crack-Shot Detective; or, Diamond Dick's Desperate Wipe-Out: A Romance of Northwestern Arizona by Col. Prentiss Ingraham (serialized).

The narrative establishes a frontier setting near Cross Trails City in Arizona. Captain Stanley, a former officer, operates a ranch with his wife and seventeen-year-old daughter Viola, who teaches school for forty pupils (including a young rancher named Jack Joslyn, age twenty-eight). A mysterious plainsman arrives at their cabin warning of a plot to attack it while the captain is away, offering his protection.

The main action involves Viola's kidnapping: two men attempt ransom while she's returning home from school, but Jack Joslyn opportunely appears, shoots one kidnapper dead, and wounds the second (who escapes). The wounded kidnapper, observing their fire in the cedars where Joslyn places the dead man's body, vows revenge, swearing he will kill Joslyn and kidnap Viola for ransom.