Beadle's Pocket Novels No. 117: Abdiel, the Avenger

Abdiel, the Avenger: The Madman of the Miami by Edward Willett is a frontier adventure serialized in this 1873 Beadle and Adams dime novel. The story opens with five frontiersmen—Joseph Proctor, John McGinnis, Hugh Rallston, Henry Ewing, and Benjamin Pirtle—pursuing horses stolen by Shawnee raiders north of the Ohio River in 1780. Samuel Seavey, a treacherous cook nicknamed "Dog-face" by the Indians, is revealed as a traitor collaborating with the enemy. When suspicions arise about his account of the theft, Seavey poisons the men's venison dinner, rendering them unconscious. Before Seavey and his Shawnee allies can capture the sleeping frontiersmen, a mysterious tall old man with long gray hair and beard, clad in deerskin and calling himself God's agent, rescues them by carrying them to a hidden cliff cavern. He fortifies this position with rifles and a powder trap as Seavey arrives with a dozen Shawnee warriors. The narrative remains incomplete.