Beadle's Dime Library No. 845

This issue of Buffalo Bill Stories contains "Buffalo Bill's Red-skin Ruse: Texas Jack's Death-Shot," a serial by Col. Prentiss Ingraham. The story opens with Buffalo Bill confronting a giant, mad man of Herculean strength—six feet four, weighing 230 pounds—on a cliff overlooking a canyon, preventing him from hurling a boulder onto a column of soldiers. The narrative then shifts to Fort Vale, Utah, circa twenty-five years prior, where Colonel Carroll Kent, commanding 1,000 soldiers, plans a surprise attack on an Indian village despite Buffalo Bill's reservations about the expedition's success. Buffalo Bill scouts ahead through a mountain pass while Texas Jack guides the main force. Texas Jack grows anxious at Buffalo Bill's disappearance and reaches the Indian camp at nightfall, only to discover the village appears abandoned with suspiciously fresh fires—suggesting the Indians have learned of the attack and deserted.