Beadle's Pocket Novels No. 87

# Phil Hunter, The Boy Scourge; or, The Shawnee Maid's Sacrifice

By Capt. Chas. Howard, this frontier adventure tale is set in October 1782 near present-day Troy, Ohio. A Shawnee war party, led by Black Eagle, executes a captive named Starlight—a fair-skinned sixteen-year-old girl accused of killing Omatla, a chief who sought to marry her. Starlight maintains her innocence; she claims to have found Omatla already shot. A mysterious youth in panther disguise intervenes, shooting Black Eagle and others with a rifle before freeing Starlight and escaping across the Great Miami River in a hidden canoe. The youth's identity remains unclear, though he possesses both white and apparently some indigenous characteristics. The episode concludes with the Shawnees vowing vengeance against both Starlight and her rescuer, initiating a blood feud.