The Red Wizard

The Red Wizard; or, The Cave Captive By Lieut. Nед Hunter (Beadle and Adams, 1873) This dime novel follows an emigrant wagon train crossing the plains toward California. Scout Wash Lawton intervenes to protect a young Sioux woman with a broken arm from being killed by fellow emigrant George Parsons; the physician Ernest Mayo sets her injury while she recovers briefly in camp. When Indians attack at night, Lawton attempts to secure the horses but is ambushed, bound, and captured. The narrative interweaves a romantic subplot: Mayo has declared his love to the orphaned Olive Myers, a blue-eyed girl traveling with her uncle's family. Olive fears Parsons, who had previously proposed to her and grows jealous of Mayo's attention. As the Indian assault intensifies around the wagons, with arrows exchanged for rifle fire, the settlers find themselves surrounded by attackers described as "painted demons." The excerpt ends mid-battle, the outcome uncertain.