Beadle's Pocket Library No. 304

# Bald Head's Pards: Creeping Cat's Cunning — Beadle and Adams, Vol. XXIV, No. 30 (1889)

By "Buckskin Sam" (Maj. Sam S. Hall), this Western romance follows star-crossed lovers Carlos Courtney and Alice Arundale in 1850s Texas. After Captain Arundale and Charles Courtney lose their plantations through failed speculation, the captain forbids his daughter from seeing Carlos and emigrates westward. Carlos, determined to protect Alice on the dangerous frontier trail, secretly follows the wagon train. After meeting scout Perlow Cabase ("Bald Head"), he rides ahead toward the Rio Llano to scout for danger. The narrative captures Carlos as a lone horseman crossing the desolate Texas plains at sunset, troubled by the harsh landscape and Indian threats. The chapters establish mounting perils ahead for the separated lovers as Carlos searches for the Arundale outfit in the wilderness.