The Green Ranger

About this issue

This Beadle and Adams dime novel by Edwin Emerson follows two Eastern travelers lost on the western prairie. Henry Rathburn, a skilled and handsome horseman from Boston, and his conceited cousin Adolphus Perkins, a foppishly dressed dandy, discover a mysterious campfire in a grove of timber near the Oregon Trail. Investigating cautiously, they encounter a weathered white trapper—a muscular, middle-aged hunter dressed in buckskin and coonski cap, possessing a mild countenance with fierce eyes. The trapper surprises them by seizing their horses' reins. After initial relief that he is not an Indian, Rathburn explains they were traveling with a wagon-train and became separated, subsequently pursued by four armed Indians. The novel records what appears to be the account of a captive woman, presented as factual narrative.