Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 47

1878 · 16 pages

Nightingale Nat; or, The Forest Captains This Beadle's Half-Dime Library story by T. C. Harbaugh, serialized across multiple chapters, concerns a singing youth nicknamed Nightingale Nat who travels northward with a wagon train heading toward Lake Superior's copper country. Despite warnings from the caravan's captain, Rough, Nat's constant singing alerts nearby outlaws and Indigenous raiders to the train's presence. When Captain Rough threatens to whip the boy, a mysterious stranger named Old Shadow-Shot intervenes. Meanwhile, a band of brigands led by Captain Dave and his men—described as "Vultures of the woods"—prepare to ambush the slow-moving train. The narrative alternates between the caravan's perspective and the raiders' camp, establishing escalating tension as both groups move toward collision. The text suggests complex backstory regarding previous attacks on merchant caravans.

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