Ben Bird, the Cave King; or, Big Pete's Big Scoop

This 1884 Beadle and Adams dime novel features "Ben Bird, the Cave King; or, Big Pete's Big Scoop" by W. J. Hamilton. The story opens in the Rocky Mountains north of Missouri, where artist and naturalist Ethelbert Grandison sketches a panoramic landscape while his guide, Big Pete Burns—a weathered mountaineer—grows anxious about approaching darkness. A terrifying encounter with the "Wild Man of the Hills," a giant hairy creature wielding a club, sends them fleeing. Pete reveals the creature has stalked the region for two years, apparently targeting villainous men: a murdered outlaw named Bob Frazee and a dead Mexican found subsequently. When the pair discover a dead "Greaser" in a canyon with signs of brutal assault, Pete refuses to bury him, but Grandison insists on giving the corpse proper burial. They deposit the body in a streamside crevice and head toward a camp-fire glowing in the darkness.