Gold Plume, or Buffalo Bill, The Boy Bandit; The Pony Express Rider

This issue of *Beadle and Adams'* weekly (August 10, 1897) features "Gold Plume, the Boy Bandit," by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. The story, subtitled "A Romance of Buffalo Bill's Early Life" and "The Kid-Glove Sport," serves as a sequel to "Little Grit, the Wild Rider." Daniel Benton, a stock-tender for the Overland Pony Express who secretly mines gold in a hidden canyon, receives a nocturnal visit from a woman calling herself the Spirit of the Canyon. She comes bearing Gold Plume's demands: surrender his daughter Bessie or reveal his gold's location. When Benton refuses both, he is seized by the bandit's men and killed, leaving only a letter for his daughter. The narrative then shifts to a saloon in Rocky Glen, where miners and stage riders discuss the situation. News arrives that Benton has been murdered. Little Grit, Benton's daughter's lover, rejects plans to flee and accepts a commission from Colonel Hewlett to fight the bandits. Discussion turns to a promising new Pony Rider named Buffalo Bill, a twenty-year-old from Kansas known for buffalo hunting and fearless riding.