Beadle's Pocket Library No. 228

This 1888 Beadle and Adams dime novel serializes "The Preacher Detective: The Boy Ventriloquist" by Oll Coomes. The story opens in River View, a Missouri River frontier settlement, where the newly arrived Reverend Ptolemy Frodd confronts local roughnecks in a saloon after refusing liquor; he physically defeats the bullies Rocky and Matt Hohn with powerful punches, then calmly announces his first sermon for the following Sunday. The narrative then shifts to young ranger Roger Millbank's capture by masked outlaws seeking information—they prepare to hang him when a seventeen-year-old boy in buckskin named Shocky arrives and rescues him. Shocky reveals he is a ventriloquist who created multiple voices from different directions to deceive the outlaws into surrendering. The boy possesses exceptional rifle marksmanship and frontier survival skills.