Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 86

# The Big Hunter; or, The Queen of the Woods

This adventure serial by the author of The Silent Hunter features Daniel Boone during the early settlement of Kentucky. The narrative opens with twelve armed Indians crossing a clearing on the Dark and Bloody Ground at dusk. Two white hunters conducting a nighttime hunting expedition with a fire-pan encounter an Indian girl on horseback and briefly mistake her for game. Boone pursues her alone after his companion Stewart flees with their horse.

Hunted by the Indian party guided by the girl and her tracking dog, Boone employs frontier tactics to escape. He hides in a panther's lair overnight, then flees across open prairie pursued by painted warriors. Using swift running and woodland cunning—including a dramatic swing across a stream on grape vines—Boone temporarily eludes his pursuers at a narrow river crossing. The Indians scatter along the banks while a skilled young warrior with a gun remains, setting up continued pursuit.