Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 820

1893 · 16 pages

The Girl Rancher's Rough Rustle By William G. Patten, published in this 1898 Beadle and Adams weekly dime novel. Major Agnus Blukes, president of the United Southwestern American Cattle Company, receives a formal letter from Gertrude Grant, owner of Cross Bar Ranch, protesting a barbed-wire fence being erected across Rocky Gap that cuts off her cattle's water access to Clearwater Creek. When Blukes dismisses her concerns, Grant threatens to join forces with "nesters"—small ranchers opposed to the company's land enclosure practices. Foreman Mustang Harris praises Grant as "Git Thar Gert," a resourceful young woman who learned to shoot, ride, and rope after inheriting the ranch from her deceased father. The company has hired Eastern detective Nathan "Nobby Nat" Kirk to investigate fence-cutting activities. When Blukes encounters the twenty-year-old Grant on horseback, she confronts him directly, demanding he either allow water access or sell her passage rights. Blukes refuses and orders the fence built double, prompting Grant to declare war on the company.

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