Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 673

This 1891 Beadle and Adams dime novel features "The Hummer from Hummingbird," by Lieutenant A. K. Sims, a Western adventure set in Santa Fe. The story opens at a bullfight spectacle where the skilled espada Manuel Garcia slays bulls for the assembled crowds. When a wild bull escapes and threatens a nun named Juanita Concha, a well-dressed sporting man called "Stuttering Sam" shoots the beast and saves her life. The narrative shifts to introduce Hike Hartsook, styled "the Hummer from Hummingbird," an eccentric antiquarian visitor from Denver distinguished by long blonde hair and a hat adorned with cuckoo wings. Claiming scholarly interest in Spanish colonial records, Hartsook approaches Father Petrie at the Mission of San Muerto requesting access to old manuscripts and documents housed there. The priest, though finding the stranger peculiar in appearance, agrees to let him examine the archives, though insisting on remaining present during his viewing.