pulps
Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1116
This August 1901 issue of a weekly pulp magazine features "Crimson Kate, the Girl Trailer; or, The Cowboy's Triumph" by Colonel Prentiss Ingraham. The serial opens with a conspiracy: Judge Langdon and his disreputable son Loyd plot to murder the judge's nephew Lester, who has inherited his father's half-million-dollar estate, allowing Loyd to impersonate the heir after several years. Lester, now eighteen, works as a cowboy on a Texas ranch inherited from Don Bartolo, a rancher who befriended him years earlier and has just died. When a cavalry soldier approaches seeking fresh horses, the suspicious Lester draws a revolver, disarms him, and ties him up. Investigating further, Lester discovers the soldier's companions—one of whom is a woman with bound hands, apparently captive. The youth confronts the remaining horseman, discovering the kidnapped woman and initiating a dramatic rescue.