Beadle's Dime Library No. 549

"Four Horse Frank's Frolic at Bad Luck Bar" by William R. Eyster, the featured story, opens in the mining town of Blue Blazes, which has recently established a temporary government. Belshazzar Brick, a stable but obsessively single-minded man, serves as marshal and justice of the peace. Brick harbors an intense hatred for Four Horse Frank, a supposed outlaw who once attacked him with a club. When the genteel Gerald Sinclair arrives seeking protection and employment in the dangerous camp, he becomes the object of rough frontier amusement. Musicians—an aged Italian harpist, a young fiddler, a tambourine-playing girl, and a costumed monkey—arrive at the Spotted Dog Saloon. Conflict erupts when the brutal Roaring Rob Barker attempts to force a kiss from the tambourine girl; the ensuing brawl escalates into gunfire with lights extinguished.