Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 40

*The Tartars of the Plains* By Jos. E. Badger, Jr., this Beadle and Adams dime novel centers on a frontier festival and sporting competition. Two scouts—"Bru" Comstock, a small but skilled plainsman with long black hair, and "Happy Jack," a tall blond giant—observe tension between the golden-haired Jack and Captain Lawrence Stone, a military officer and "brave tyrant" intent on impressing Kate Markham, daughter of the commanding colonel, during her eighteenth birthday celebration. Stone publicly wagers one hundred dollars he'll win a saddle in *El Gallo*, a dangerous mounted sport where riders at full gallop must pluck a greased rooster from the ground. Happy Jack accepts the bet. During competition, Comstock initially captures the bird but loses it; Jack seizes it and races toward the distant post. Comstock suspects Captain Stone has enlisted the half-breed Indian Dan to employ foul play against Jack during the melee.