Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 436

Blue-Eyed Belle of Bended Bow by J. C. Cowdrick

This dime novel serial, published March 2, 1887, opens in the mining town of Bended Bow, Colorado, eighteen years before the main narrative. During a thunderstorm, miners discover an abandoned baby in Blue Stone Canyon. Red-top Rube claims the foundling by right of discovery and names her Belle, after the embroidered name on her dress. Despite searches, her parents remain unknown.

The narrative jumps ahead eighteen years. Bended Bow has transformed into a thriving city. Mine superintendent Jared Kenneth repeatedly proposes marriage to the now-grown Belle, but Rube—now the mine foreman—firmly refuses his consent, deeming Kenneth unworthy. When Kenneth persists, declaring his intention to win Belle without Rube's approval, they quarrel bitterly. Kenneth demands an apology; Rube refuses and confronts him about his unsuitability, eventually offering to fight despite their age difference.