The Phantom Rider

Catalog Entry *The Phantom Rider; or, The Giant Chief's Fate* is a frontier adventure story by Maro O. Rolf, published by Beadle and Adams in 1872. The narrative follows events in the northwestern frontier. Settler Emmett Darke departs his cabin, leaving his beautiful daughter Vinnie behind. An Indian chief named Ku-nan-gu-no-nah, who has long pursued Vinnie and calls her "Sun-Hair," seizes this opportunity to abduct her, appearing suddenly in the cabin and forcibly attempting to take her. Meanwhile, the young hunter Clancy Vere, who loves Vinnie, travels toward Darke's cabin but is ambushed by six warriors near a stream. After killing two attackers with his rifle stock, Vere is overwhelmed, disarmed, and captured. His captors lead him toward a waterfall, suggesting his death is imminent. The story employs frontier wilderness settings, frontier romance, and captured-prisoner plots typical of the period.