Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 76

Museum Catalog Note This issue of *Beadle's Half-Dime Library* presents "Abe Colt, the Crow-Killer," by Albert W. Aiken, a frontier adventure serial set in 1878. The narrative opens at Fort Bent, a military outpost at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Powder Rivers that serves as the final resupply point for wagon-trains heading to Montana. The story introduces Abraham Colt, a lean, hard-weathered guide in his mid-forties who lost his father to a Crow attack two decades prior and has since established himself as an Indian-fighter renowned for repulsing Crow warriors. Colt's companion is David Reed, a young guide of ambiguous parentage—possibly a half-breed adopted by soldiers after a raid on Blackfeet Indians. The narrative establishes the region's dangers: the Mandan, Sioux, and particularly the Crow nation, described as the fiercest warriors of the northwestern territories. A mysterious stranger wrapped in a blanket arrives at the fort, bearing a striking physical resemblance to both Reed and Colt himself. Initial investigation suggests he may be a Sioux, specifically Yancton, though his origins and purpose remain unexplained as the chapter concludes.