Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 296

"Apollo Bill, the Trail Tornado; or, Rowdy Kate from Right Bower" by Edward L. Wheeler (author of the Deadwood Dick series) is a western serial in Beadle and Adams' weekly pulp publication from January 31, 1882. The narrative opens on a peaceful prairie farm where William Blake's household awaits news of his election as sheriff against the incumbent Owl-Eye (Ben Boghart), a corrupt lawman. That evening, Owl-Eye and his gang of ruffians attack Blake's home, burning it and massacring his family—the story's opening chapter concludes with Blake discovering a flaxen-haired child's scalp among the ruins. Chapter Two shifts the narrative forward two years, introducing a stagecoach traveling between mining towns Gilder's Bend and McGuffin's, driven by old Cornelius Leggin. The serial combines frontier domestic drama with action-adventure elements typical of the era's mining-camp fiction.