Beadle's Pocket Library No. 60

About this issue

This Beadle and Adams dime novel serializes "Abe Colt, the Crow-Killer" by Albert W. Aiken. The narrative follows Abraham Colt, a lean, fifty-year-old prairie guide dressed in deerskin who operates along the Yellowstone River near Fort Bent. Colt is renowned for his vendetta against Crow Indians, whose braves killed his father two decades prior. Accompanying him is Dave Reed, a twenty-year-old half-breed guide with striking physical resemblance to Colt. At Fort Bent, a wagon train of twenty wagons carrying sixty emigrants prepares to traverse dangerous territory. A mysterious stranger wrapped in a red blanket arrives—his features remarkably echo Dave Reed's own. When questioned, the stranger identifies himself in a "guttural voice" as Sioux. The narrative emphasizes frontier geography, Indian tribal territories, and Colt's fearsome reputation as an Indian-fighter.