The Border King; or, The Secret Foe

About this issue

by Oll Coomes This frontier adventure serial opens during a November blizzard in Northern Montana, where a lone hunter shelters himself under snow on the Coteau des Prairies near Panther Mountain. Simultaneously, two mysterious riders—Herman Rochelle and a young woman named Camilla—journey westward through the same storm toward Black Pass. Despite Camilla's terror at the howling wolves surrounding them and her physical exhaustion, the taciturn Herman presses forward with cold indifference. After crossing the frozen Powder River, Camilla glimpses a human head, severed and upright in the snow—one she recognizes—before the party enters the dark wooded pass. Herman emerges alone from the Black Pass into the Tongue River valley. Camilla's horse gallops out riderless, while wolfish cries echo from the pass. The narrative breaks mid-sentence, suspending resolution of her fate.