Becky and the Outlaw
by A Bad Attitude
Copyright© 2025 by A Bad Attitude
Western Story: An 'Illustrated Dime Novel'(Google it) Western. It has everything-a wagon train full of settlers including a beautiful blonde-Indians-Texas Rangers-Quantrill's raiders-gunslingers and a bank robber-Disclaimer-No graphic sex and no illustrations just descriptions of what I think the illustrations should look like.
Tags: Fiction Western Cat-Fighting Violence
Author’s Note-Between 1860 and 1915 ‘Dime Novels’ were published in the United States. Many were short, illustrated stories about larger-than-life characters in the American West. Heroes were men who fought against impossible odds. Heroines were beautiful women who overcame great hardships to survive. These paperback books were the forerunners to the graphic novels of today. The authors frequently took ‘Poetic License’ with the truth!
The following story is a ‘Dime Novel’ written for today’s readers. Sorry, there are no illustrations. I can’t draw! In lieu of illustrations, I described what I think should be illustrated.
The cover would show a tall, young blonde-haired girl dressed in tight raw-hide clothes leaning into a tall red-haired man in a cowboy hat wearing a pistol. (sex sells, even in the 1800’s)
Part 1: Becky and the Comanches
Becky had come out of her room at the back of the cantina intending to cross the dusty street and go into what served as a restaurant in this frontier town. Suddenly she saw them! Riding up the street were the three men who she had been with the night before. The big guy wearing the Mexican sombrero was the one who had hit her when she demanded he pay for his ‘poke’. He had stolen the purse where she kept her money while she was lying knocked out on the floor!
Her hand touched the Comanche tomahawk she had tucked in her belt. The men reined up and started to dismount as she squatted down behind a wagon. She thought about what her life had become. It was not supposed to be like this. (Illustration #1—Becky dressed as an Indian, hiding behind a wagon watching as three men ride up and dismount in front of a restaurant)
She was 15 when the war started. Her parents along with a few neighbors did not want to get involved. They did not have slaves. Her father and four other families decided to pack everything they owned into five covered wagons and travel across country to a place where land was free and gold was in the rivers. They did not listen to the stories of wild Indians or the harsh conditions on the trail. They should have!
The first three months were full of new adventures. (Illustration #2—an overhead view of a covered wagon being ferried across a river while others waited their turn on the shore.) They had ferried across the Mississippi River at Memphis and turned south through Arkansas. It was when they crossed the Red River at Texarkana that they first heard of trouble. The Comanches were on the warpath! They were taking advantage of the recall of the Federal troops to fight in the war. Her father and the other men thought the local law and God would protect them. They held prayer meetings every night after supper. (Illustration #3—all the settlers standing around a big campfire with one reading from a bible)
No one believed that old saying, “There is no law west of Dodge and no God west of the Pecos”. They were about to find out how true that ‘old saying’ had become.
It was a beautiful sunny morning on the southern prairie. Becky was sitting next to her mother who was driving the wagon while her father walked along side with her older brother. Suddenly the wagons stopped. Her father pointed to a group of Indians up ahead. Before he and the other men started to walk towards the group, she remembered him saying, “Don’t fret. Everything will be all right”. The men were halfway to the group of Indians when the attack started! There were loud shouts as the Comanches swarmed towards them. In seconds it was over and all the men were dead or dying! (Illustration #4—dead men laying on the ground with arrows in them and Indians scalping them)
Becky remembered her mother urging the mules into a run. Then one of the mules was hit by an arrow and collapsed. The other mules fell and caused the wagon to flip over! Her mother yelled for her to run as the Comanches swarmed the wagon. The women tried to fight but were clubbed to death, along with the young children. Becky ran!
She did not get far before one of the half-naked savages knocked her off her feet. She rolled onto her back and kicked him in his groin. He became infuriated with her and slapped her face, then knocked the air out of her with a kick to the chest. He had pulled his knife and was holding her by her long blonde hair, preparing to scalp her, when another of the savages rode up. In a language yet unknown to her, he screamed at the one holding her. The warrior stopped suddenly then spoke. They argued for a minute, then seemed to come to some sort of agreement. She was jerked to her feet and her clothes torn off her, leaving her completely naked. Rawhide strips were used to tie her hands behind her back. Then she was lifted up and placed on the horse in front of the man who saved her. (Illustration #5—Becky sitting naked on a horse in front of one of the Indians. This would be seen from the back. No frontal nudity!) Later she would learn that he bought her life for her father’s three mules! She was taken back to where the wagons were being ransacked. Everyone was dead! She saw her mother on the ground, her head split open from a blow to the head. Her best friend, Sarah, who had just celebrated her first year of marriage to Becky’s cousin, was on her back, her unblinking eyes staring straight up. Her throat had been cut after she had been raped. The only sounds were those of the Comanche warriors as they scalped the dead or the Indian women as they argued over what they found in the wagons. Soon it was over, the mules and horses of the settlers divided amongst the conquerors, the wagons were set on fire and the bodies left to rot as a warning to others who dared to cross Comanche land!
(Illustration #6—A line of Comanches on horseback leaving the ambush site. Dead bodies on the ground and wagons on fire!)
The raiding party rode off in a line with Becky’s new ‘owner’ leading the way. As they rode his hands roamed over her naked body. She did not object out of fear of what he would do to her. But she cried. Her entire family was dead! So were all her friends, people she had known her entire life, but she was alive. She promised herself that she would survive, no matter what she had to do.
The Comanche camp was located alongside a river. Over 100 people came out of the tipis when they arrived. Everyone was screaming and going through what had been stolen from the settlers. Becky was thrown off the horse and tied to a pole in front of the tipi where her owner lived. Others in the tribe passed by staring at her. Some of the women touched her blond hair and made comments she did not understand. The young boys touched her naked body, laughing and making what she imagined were rude comments. All she could do was just stand and cry. (Illustration #7---Becky tied naked to a pole with a young man standing in front of her with his hands on her body. She is crying. Again, no frontal nudity)
Later that night her owner appeared with a flask of water. She was thirsty and she drank. Later she would discover that the flask was made from the stomach of a buffalo! He offered her a piece of mule meat that had been cooked over an open fire in front of the tipi. She refused. He untied her from the pole and hurried her inside his tipi. She knew not to resist. The next morning, she was led to the river and allowed to wash the blood off her legs. She did not refuse the mule meat that was offered for breakfast. (Illustration # 8—A naked Becky standing in knee-deep water washing blood off her legs. Again, seen from the back)
The first month flew by. Becky discovered she enjoyed spending the night in her owner’s bed! Those nights became a time that she could forget the drudgery of being a slave and enjoy a brief moment of pleasure!
She was slowly learning their language and customs. She found the Comanche women treated her worse than the men. They would scream for her to do something and if she did not understand or move fast enough she would be hit. She never tried to escape. What would be the point? She had no idea where she was and no idea where she could find help.
It was during the fourth full moon, the Commanche moon, that she realized she was pregnant! Two months later she was bleeding profusely. She believed the hard work and constant slaps caused the miscarriage. She was shown no pity or mercy. She was expected to continue her work. One morning as she was helping a woman clean a buffalo carcass, the woman screamed something she did not understand. Becky froze. The woman pushed her and began slapping her face. Becky fell to the ground. The woman grabbed her long hair and started dragging her towards the fire. Becky knew what she intended to do. There were other slaves in camp, slaves from other tribes. Some were missing ears that had been burned off! Others had horrible scars on their faces from being burned. Becky was not going to let this happen to her. She kicked the woman in the leg and was able to get up. Once on her feet Becky began to fight. A crowd of men gathered to watch. (Illustration #9—Becky in a short rawhide dress, fighting an Indian woman as a group of men watch.) Becky was knocked to the ground and as the woman moved to kick her in the face, she was able to pick up a bone from the buffalo they had been cleaning. Using the bone as a club, she struck the woman in her leg, breaking it! The woman fell to the ground screaming as Becky swung the bone a second time, striking her attacker across her face! She died instantly! There was complete silence in the camp. Becky dropped the bone and walked back over to the dead buffalo and resumed her work. Other women carried off the dead woman as her owner talked to the group of men who had watched Becky fight.
The next morning her owner took her down river to where the tribe’s horses were kept. There she was put in with a group of young boys who were being taught to be warriors. Over the next year Becky learned to ride like a Comanche, using her legs to steer the horse while keeping her hands free to use the bow and arrow, tomahawk and lance. After months of training, she began accompanying the warriors on their buffalo hunts. (Illustration #10—Becky riding with the Comanches as they chase a herd of buffalo across the prairie.)
Becky had turned 18, by her calculations, and was accepted as a member of the tribe. Her ‘owner’ had become ‘wealthy’ trading her ‘affections’ for horses. Becky did not have a problem being used as a whore. She enjoyed having sex with different men! Some could make her ‘happy’, others could not. (Illustration #11—Becky going into a tipi with a Comanche man while another walks away leading a horse.) She never became pregnant again.
It was the summer of her 20th year that she was rescued.
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.