Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 293

Stampede Steve; or, The Doom of the Double Face This dime novel, credited to "Buckskin Sam" (Major Sam S. Hall), opens with sixteen-year-old Texan Dora Dale gathering flowers near the Rio Guadalupe. When a lasso-marked, branded mustang spooks and bolts, a maddened black steer—a wild "maverick" recently escaped from cattle operations—charges directly at the helpless young woman. As the horns approach, a rifle shot rings out, dropping the beast dead at her feet. The marksman is Stephen Speed, a skilled West Texas ranger and scout known as "Stampede Steve," renowned for stampeding mustang herds into corrals. A frontier adventure tale emphasizing action and peril, the narrative combines romantic description with violent incident.