Beadle's Pocket Novels No. 221: Dick Darling

About this issue

This issue of Dick Darling, the Pony Expressman by Frederick Whittaker (Beadle and Adams, 1874) presents a Western adventure set at Dolores Station on the Nevada Pony Express route. Chapter One establishes the station's sparse conditions through contrasting characters: Jack Hardin, a rough, unkempt Kentucky rifleman, and Dick Darling, a fastidious, skilled younger expressman. Their marksmanship competition—where Dick successfully shoots a silver dollar edgewise from a hundred feet—demonstrates his surprising prowess. Chapter Two introduces two half-Indian girls, Chevrette and Levrette, daughters of a deceased French-Canadian fur trader and an Echipeta Indian woman. The educated, armed twins visit the station to warn the men that a Ute brave named Cat's Eye, spurned by both girls, pursues them on the warpath. The narrative establishes romantic tension as both sisters have developed feelings for Dick Darling.