Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 995

About this issue

This serial by Col. Prentiss Ingraham, author of Buffalo Bill stories, follows two rival youths whose families have long been feuding. Ned Duncan and Willis Wynkoop, both eighteen, unexpectedly encounter each other while their respective emigrant wagon trains travel independently toward the Big-Horn country. When Duncan discovers Wynkoop's camp nearby, he fears bloodshed between the groups. After meeting in a stream valley, the youths propose a deadly compact: to duel for honor, agreeing that whichever falls will end the vendetta permanently. They draft a formal agreement and prepare for a ritualized gunfight. However, at the crucial moment, Willis attempts to shoot Duncan treacherously. An armed stranger on a roan horse suddenly intervenes, covering Willis and preventing the assassination. The mysterious rider—described as a striking, fearless man in buckskin—has disrupted the duel, his intentions unclear.