The Laws' Plot; or, Alone on the Plains

The Outlaws' Plot This dime novel by Edward Willett (No. 187, 1889) follows Walter Bligh, a young Missouri trader leading a caravan of goods and currency from Missouri to Santa Fé, New Mexico. Accompanied by guide William Beeler, clerk Simon Leonard, and several teamsters including orphan Charlie Simbell, Bligh believes his expedition secure. However, Beeler and Leonard have orchestrated a conspiracy: after crossing the Arkansas River, they convince the teamsters—a Yankee, a Missourian, and a Canadian half-breed—to join their plot to murder Bligh and steal the goods and money. Young Charlie, threatened into compliance, reluctantly joins. On the prairie beyond the Arkansas, they seize the sleeping Bligh, bind him, strip him of possessions and weapons, and abandon him in the desert with minimal provisions, planning to divide the caravan's valuable cargo among themselves. As they depart, the defiant Bligh vows he will survive and exact revenge.