Beadle's New Dime Novels: 'Bess, the Trapper'

About this issue

This Beadle and Adams dime novel, Bess, the Female Trapper, by Lieutenant J. O. Randolph, opens with a frontier adventure tale set in the Colorado territory circa twenty years prior. Two experienced trappers, Buck Buckram and Dick Havens, paddle upriver at night to investigate predators destroying their catches. They encounter a panther swimming the creek, which detects them and diverts course. Upon returning to camp, they discover their younger companion Dick Inglis dead—shot through the heart by an Apache arrow. The Indians have arranged his corpse upright with props and his pipe, attempting to lure the trappers into ambush. Buckram and Havens maintain vigil through the night, spotting shadowy figures along the shore. At dawn they find Inglis has been scalped. Unable to dig a proper grave, the trappers face the grim task of disposing of their comrade's remains while remaining vulnerable to further Apache attack.