Beadle's Pocket Library No. 291

Peacock Pete, the Leadville Sport By Albert W. Aiken, this serial western follows events in Five Mile Crossing, a booming Colorado mining camp near Leadville. Redmond Hawk, the powerful boss of the Gothic Mine, threatens violence after Miss Evangeline Hopkins rebuffs his repeated requests for a dance at the Black Bear Hotel's Saturday-night hop. When Evangeline frankly states she dislikes him and refuses to dance with him, Hawk declares that any man who dances with her that evening will face him in combat—implicit fatal challenge. The proprietor McMulligan, an Irish hotelier, maintains order at the hops through intimidation and strength. Evangeline's father, storekeeper Clinton Hopkins, is disturbed by his daughter's direct insult to the influential mine superintendent, fearing social and business consequences in this frontier community where frontier violence substitutes for Eastern legal restraint.