The Project Gutenberg EBook of Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road
by Edward L. Wheeler

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Title: Deadwood Dick, The Prince of the Road
or, The Black Rider of the Black Hills

Author: Edward L. Wheeler

Release Date: February 4, 2005 [EBook #14902]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

BEADLE'S HALF DIME LIBRARY

1877, BEADLE AND ADAMS.

Vol. I. Single BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS, Price, No. 1
Number. No. 98 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. 5 cents

=Deadwood Dick,= THE PRINCE OF THE ROAD;
OR,
THE BLACK RIDER of the BLACK HILLS.

BY EDWARD L. WHEELER.

CHAPTER I.

FEARLESS FRANK TO THE RESCUE.

On the plains, midway between Cheyenne and the Black Hills, a train
had halted for a noonday feed. Not a railway train, mind you, but a
line of those white-covered vehicles drawn by strong-limbed mules,
which are most properly styled "prairie schooners."

There were four wagons of this type, and they had been drawn in a
circle about a camp-fire, over which was roasting a savory haunch of
venison. Around the camp-fire were grouped half a score of men, all
rough, bearded, and grizzled, with one exception. This being a youth
whose age one could have safely put at twenty, so perfectly developed
of physique and intelligent of facial appearance was he. There was
something about him that was not handsome, and yet you would have been
puzzled to tell what it was, for his countenance was strikingly
handsome, and surely no form in the crowd was more noticeable for its
grace, symmetry, and proportionate development. It would have taken a
scholar to have studied out the secret.

He was of about medium stature, and as straight and square-shouldered
as an athlete. His complexion was nut-brown, from long exposure to the
sun; hair of hue of the raven's wing, and hanging in long, straight
strands adown his back; eyes black and piercing as an eagle's;
features well molded, with a firm, resolute mouth and prominent chin.
He was