Beadle's Pocket Novels No. 199: Keen-Knife

# Keen-Knife: Prince of the Prairies

This 1873 Beadle and Adams dime novel by Will Dexter follows Rob Radcliff, an eighteen-year-old frontier hunter and trapper in the northwestern wilderness. When Rob observes immigrant wagons crossing the prairie and suspects Indian danger, he encounters Camilla La Mort, a beautiful young woman confined at her father Manuel La Mort's isolated estate. Camilla reveals her father engages in illegal activities but is cut off mid-confession when La Mort attacks Rob with a rawhide whip. During the ensuing struggle, La Mort's Sioux allies emerge and attempt to scalp Rob. Keen-Knife, a half-Indian youth and "Prince of the Prairies," intervenes with rifle fire and tomahawk, killing one savage and driving off the others. The narrative blends frontier adventure with mystery, establishing Keen-Knife as Rob's defender and ally against La Mort's criminal enterprises and Indian associates.