Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 218

The Wild Huntress; or, The Big Squatter's Vengeance This serial novel by Captain Mayne Reid follows Edward Warfield, a former captain of cavalry discharged after the Mexican-American War, who receives 640 acres of government land scrip near the settlement of Swampville, Tennessee. Unable to afford a civilian suit, Warfield travels in his worn military uniform to claim his property, located on the Obion River near the Mississippi confluence, known as Holt's Clearing after its squatter-improver. At the Jackson Hotel in Swampville, Warfield encounters a young backwoods hunter in buckskin dress—a poor but handsome man who shows him courtesy at supper. Warfield also meets the hotel's proprietor, Colonel Kipp, from whom he seeks information about his newly acquired land. The narrative establishes frontier settlement details and apparent tension between genteel townspeople and poorer frontier figures.