Beadle's Pocket Library No. 215

The Denver Detective: or, Daring Dan, the Ranger This serialized western adventure by Oll Coomes follows the exploits of Daring Dan, a twenty-two-year-old ranger commanding thirty men across the American plains from Dakota to Texas. The narrative opens when cannon fire alerts Dan's band to a young woman fleeing mounted Indians near the Arkansas River. The pursuit reveals a clever deception: the "maiden" is actually Little Wildfire, a resourceful boy in disguise who orchestrated the encounter to draw Indians away from the real Lillian Barnes, a gold-seeker whose party has been surrounded downriver. Old Limber Jim, an eccentric elderly hunter, and Daring Dan's rangers assist in neutralizing the threat. The story establishes a cast of recurring frontier characters—the dashing young captain, the impish boy scout, the grizzled old plainsman—engaged in rescues and combat against Native American adversaries.