The Tenderfoot Trailer

# Catalog Note

"The Tenderfoot Trailer: Plucky Phil of the Mountain," serialized in this issue, is authored by T. C. Harbaugh. The Western adventure follows seventeen-year-old Phil Steele as he is deserted by hired scouts in the Big Horn Mountains near Custer's battlefield while searching for a missing wagon train. Discovering the massacre site, Phil finds Captain Campbell's dying inscription on a canyon rock confirming the train's destruction by Sioux raiders. However, Phil refuses to accept Campbell's claim that all perished, particularly doubting the fate of Nora Dalton, a young woman who reportedly fought during the attack. When the mysterious 'Tana and the half-breed scout Coyote arrive seeking information about the massacre, Phil emerges from hiding and confronts Coyote under rifle, demanding truth about Nora's survival. The chapter concludes with Phil firing at the evasive Coyote, launching the serial's central mystery and revenge plot.