Beadle's Pocket Library No. 19

Lasso Jack, the Young Mustanger This Beadle and Adams dime novel by Oll Coomes (also author of "Antelope Abe" and "Keen-Knife") follows two young mustangers pursued across the Texas prairie by Comanche warriors. Lasso Jack, a twenty-year-old expert with a lasso mounted on a clay-bank mustang, and his companion Henry St. Elmo flee after venturing into Comanche hunting grounds. After a harrowing chase, they leap a creek to escape immediate capture, though Apache warriors await on the opposite bank. The narrative then shifts to a siege: a wagon train carrying traders and two young women—Rosalind and her companion—is surrounded by approximately eighty Comanches. Lasso Jack, who promised the dying uncle to protect the women, coordinates the defenders' rifle fire to repel successive charges. With supplies dwindling and few horses remaining, the trapped party faces mounting casualties. Sir George, a British adventurer, contemplates recording the ordeal in his adventure journal while resigned to probable scalping.