Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1010

Kit Bandy's Big Six: This Beadle and Adams Weekly (December 1, 1886) features a Western serial by Oll Coomes, author of "Kit Bandy's Brigade." The narrative establishes a tale of rustlers and frontier justice in Montana and Wyoming. Young homesteaders have organized a six-man mounted patrol to combat cattle rustlers operating from Jackson Basin and preying on both large ranchers and settlers. The patrol includes Ralph Kirkman (captain, age 22), Joe Randolph and Tom Morgan (20), Billy Myers (18), Peter Anderson, a Swedish youth, and George Washington Bee, called "Buzzy" (20). After three weeks of patrol, Kirkman witnesses Mollie Adamson, the beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter of rancher Captain David Adamson, fleeing on a failing horse from pursuers including Jackson Basin outlaws and Indians. Kirkman helps her escape on his fresh mount toward safety while he eludes his pursuers through wooded hills and reaches the patrol camp at dawn on foot. The excerpt concludes with the boys discovering an unexpected old man sleeping in a hammock above their campfire, initiating another narrative strand.