Beadle's Pocket Library No. 318

Colorado Charlie's Detective Dash This serial western by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels, opens with "The Insult," Chapter II of *The Cattle Kings*. General Gleason, an ex-Confederate cattle magnate in southern Colorado, learns that his daughter Lenore has been meeting secretly with Colorado Charlie (called Quick-Shot), a skilled frontier scout who recently rescued her from abducting cowboys. The general, who intends to force Lenore to marry the wealthy but disabled Colonel McIntosh to advance his financial interests, confronts Charlie at the Cinnamon Bear Hotel in Daggersville. After insulting the scout as a "low mongrel," Gleason is shocked when Charlie calls him a liar and coward, precipitating an angry confrontation with bystanders witnessing the exchange. Chapter III opens with discussion of an impending duel between the two men.