Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 761

The Great Mix-Up at Crescent Butte by Lieutenant A. K. Sims opens with an extended mustang drive at Crescent Butte in Wyoming's Wind River Range. Young mustanger Park Dwight pursues a spirited bay mustang that breaks from the corral, pursuing it alone across two miles of rough terrain. His saddle girths—deliberately sabotaged with a knife—tear under the strain of his lariat throw, leaving him dragged behind the panicked animal and beaten against rocks. An eccentric old man named Al Ashton shoots the mustang, then cuts its rope to free it, philosophizing about liberty. Dwight discovers the girths were deliberately severed, suggesting sabotage by enemies at the ranch. The text ends as Ashton offers to carry the injured Dwight, despite his protests.