Beadle's Pocket Library No. 53

Hawkeye Harry, The Young Trapper Ranger This 1885 dime novel installment, authored by Oll Coomes, follows Hawkeye Harry Houston, an eighteen-year-old trapper and ranger operating in Iowa territory during the frontier era. The narrative opens as Harry and his companion Optic, occupying a stone conical structure in a secluded valley, prepare for potential Indian conflict. After discovering moccasin tracks near their lake traps and evidence that Indians have stolen their catch, Harry pursues the raiders into darkening woods. He encounters successive mysteries: smoke from an unknown source, a black hairy object mysteriously rising from a creek bed, and a panther's scream. While investigating by moonlight, Harry witnesses an armed Indian warrior wading through the stream suddenly struck down by an unseen assailant. A hooded, blanket-wrapped figure emerges to scalp the slain warrior with swift brutality. The identity and origin of this mysterious slayer—whether white or Indian—remains unexplained as the chapter concludes.