The Pale-Face Squaw

This is a dime novel by C.O. Dunning Clark, serialized in Beadle and Adams' Popular Dime Hand-Books. "The Pale-Face Squaw" combines frontier adventure with colonial Virginia intrigue.

The story opens in Virginia's early colonial period near the Alleganies. A dark-visaged man flees through the forest carrying a stolen infant, the daughter of Spencer Keller. Meeting a young Shawnee boy named Kee-na-too, the man obtains food but abandons the child when he departs. Kee-na-too discovers the infant, adopts her, and vows to raise her as a Shawnee.

The fugitive is revealed as Braxton Keller, Spencer's younger brother, consumed by bitter jealousy. He resented Spencer's superior position, their father's favor, and particularly Spencer's marriage to Maud Carroll, whom Braxton himself loved. His abduction of their daughter constitutes an elaborate act of revenge against his brother. Spencer and his search party, believing Indians took the child, organize a rescue expedition upriver.