Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 197

Roy, the Young Cattle King, by Col. Prentiss Ingraham

This Western adventure serial follows the plight of Edith Balfour, a young Eastern woman newly arrived at her father's Texas ranch. Riding alone on the prairie against warnings, she becomes lost and is pursued by a wolf pack. Facing certain death, she attempts suicide but is rescued by a mysterious, dandyish stranger—a young man with golden hair, velvet jacket, and silver-mounted revolvers who swiftly dispatches the wolves with his revolvers. He offers her shelter and promises to guide her home.

The narrative establishes the Balfour family's backstory: Floyd Balfour fled Eastern financial ruin and came to Texas, where a young man named Roy Brandt—childhood acquaintance of Edith and heir to a business fortune—offered assistance and proposed starting a cattle ranch. The text suggests Roy's motivations may involve more than business, though the OCR becomes garbled before their arrangement is fully explained.