Beadle's Dime Library No. 735: Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill and His Merry Men: The Robin Hood Rivals This serial by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham opens with a cavalry captain using a lariat to ambush and capture a disguised man—the outlaw Silk Lasso Sam, revealed beneath a false hump and white wig. The officer reveals that Sam kidnapped two women, Miss Clarice Carr and Miss Nina De Sutro, and claims he was released to negotiate ransom. He orders the prisoner taken to the fort while he pursues the outlaws. Cowboys execute Sam by hanging, though Mustang Monte—a skilled, distinguished-looking herder—secretly saves him by firing without bullets and lowering his body gently, owing Sam a debt of honor. Chapters shift to Miss Leigh in the South receiving a letter from Colonel Dunwoody, commanding officer at Pioneer Fort, informing her that her brother (the outlaw) died escaping cowboys. Buffalo Bill, Surgeon Powell, and Captain Caruth rescued the kidnapped women and discovered Carroll Dean, a miner and rival for her affection, starving in the outlaws' retreat. The final chapter begins with Miss Leigh turning to a letter from the miner himself.