The Valley Scout

# The Valley Scout: A Stirring Indian Tale

Published by Beadle and Adams in 1878, this dime novel by Seelin Robins follows Josiah Bowles, a sixty-one-year-old farmer in Cherry Valley during 1777. Searching for his missing brindle cow in a swamp, Bowles encounters a copperhead snake that embeds its fangs in his boot, then discovers the cow has been killed by a Mohawk Indian using its bell as bait. Armed with only one rifle charge and no ammunition reserves, Bowles shoots the Indian dead. Suspecting larger hostile forces—given the region's wartime anxiety over Tory and Six Nations raids—he reconnoiters the woods but finds no additional Indians. Confident the dead man was merely a wandering hunter, Bowles prepares to return home to his strong-willed wife Cynthia. The narrative concludes as he is about to encounter an undisclosed remarkable adventure, suggesting further developments.