The Half Dime Library, No. 1042

1897 · 16 pages

Little Grit, the Wild Rider *Beadle and Adams, 1897* This serialized western romance by Col. Prentiss Ingraham follows "Little Grit," a youth of seventeen employed as a Pony Express rider. The narrative opens with Grit rescuing a beautiful girl named Bessie from two abusive train supply-party members on the moonlit prairie. After defeating her pursuers in gunplay, Grit escorts Bessie back toward the supply train but encounters seven horsemen led by "the Boy Bandit" (Captain Firebrand), a fifteen-year-old bandit chief seeking to capture him. During the ensuing chase across the plains toward the Red Ravine, Grit alternately carries Bessie on his black horse Firefly when her own mount tires. At the ravine's head, he dismounts strategically beneath a tree, allowing Bessie to continue while he prepares to elude his pursuers. The narrative emphasizes action—gunfire, horsemanship, narrow escapes—within a frontier setting featuring armed combat and mounted pursuit.

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