Beadle's Dime Novels No. 250: The Border Renegade

THE BORDER RENEGADE; OR, THE LILY OF THE SILVER LAKE By Jos. E. Badger, Jr., published in 1872 as Dime Novel No. 250 by Beadle and Company. The narrative opens at Lake St. Clair in 1812. An aged but muscular frontiersman awaits a companion at an appointed rendezvous on a hillside, growing impatient as the sun passes a dead tree marker. While eating dried rations near the precipice's edge, a panther crouches above him in a tree limb. The beast launches itself upon the hunter, striking his rifle and disarming him. A desperate grappling struggle ensues; their violent combat edges them toward the cliff, which collapses beneath them. Both plummet onto jagged rocks below. Partially pinned by debris, the hunter fights the panther again with his knife through a savage exchange, mortally wounding the beast. Though victorious, the hunter loses consciousness as he becomes trapped and calls for help in vain. The narrative then shifts to a young woman in perfect oval-faced symmetry walking alone through the forest-covered hills.