The Specter Riders

This issue of *Beadle and Adams* "Pocket Series" (No. 123) contains "The Specter Riders: The Fort Mystery" by George Gleason, a frontier adventure tale. The narrative follows young hunter Edward Westlake, who is pursued across the prairie at night by three mounted figures. His horse Cherokee stumbles and falls; cornered, Westlake fires his pistols at the pursuers. When moonlight breaks through the clouds, he sees three human skeletons seated upright on horseback, draped in white sheets, holding reins like living riders before vanishing into darkness. Old trapper Adam Griff appears and reveals he too witnessed these "Specter Riders" the previous day. Griff attributes them to spirits, while the skeptical Westlake insists they must have a rational explanation, though he cannot yet conceive what it might be.