Beadle's Dime Novels No. 309: Mountain Ned

About this issue

W. J. Hamilton's frontier adventure serial (Beadle's Dime Novel No. 310, June 1874) follows the exploits of Mountain Ned Campbell, a young border scout in the New Mexico mountains. The narrative opens with Ned witnessing a mysterious flying figure—the "Flying Scout"—dramatically intervene in a confrontation between a young white woman dressed in Turkish military costume and a band of Comanches led by Silver Lance. The Flying Scout, a spectral being with expanding wing-like garments, kills several warriors using explosives and abducts the woman (called the "Blazing Star"). When Ned demands her release, the Scout employs a blinding smoke bomb to escape. The story depicts frontier conflicts involving Comanches, mysterious aerial combat, and a confrontation between Ned and the Indians over the captured woman's fate. Ned's German companion Jan Pliester provides comic relief throughout.