The Indian Mazeppa: or, The Madman of the Plains

"The Madman of the Plains" by Albert W. Aiken This dime novel installment opens with a dramatic chase: a beautiful young woman of mixed Spanish-Indian heritage, bound hand and foot to a black Arabian horse, flees Canyon de Uva pursued by a wolf pack. The narrative then shifts to the hacienda of Bandera, where wealthy Mexican landowner Ponce de Bandera quarrels with his twenty-year-old daughter Giralda over her refusal to marry the wealthy suitor Ferdinand Tordilla. Giralda secretly loves an American adventurer called Gilbert the Mustanger, whom her father forbids her to see. Ponce warns her that the Comanche chief White Mustang threatens the estate, and hints at a possible rival claimant to their lands. An unidentified dusty stranger with "cruel" features arrives demanding private audience with Bandera, claiming prior acquaintance the Mexican doesn't recall.