Beadle's Pocket Library No. 173

Dick Dingle, Scout: The Frontier Angel By Edward S. Ellis, this serial romance concerns frontier migration and Indian warfare circa the late 18th century. The narrative opens in western Pennsylvania where farmer Abbot prepares to emigrate his family westward to Kentucky. His daughter Marian, aged eighteen or twenty, and her suitor Russel Mansfield are established as lovers. The Abbots and Mansfields must delay their departure for business reasons, but send Marian downriver aboard a well-armed flatboat with neighbors for safety. A significant threat emerges: Tom McGable, a former suitor whom Marian rejected, has become a renegade collaborating with British forces and Indians. McGable reportedly operates as a decoy along the Ohio River, luring and ambushing flatboats. He has sworn vengeance against both Marian and Mansfield. The story follows the flatboat's departure into perilous waters.