Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 707

"Uncle Bedrock's Big Break: A Romance of Paddy's Flat" by William R. Eyster opens this 1892 Beadle and Adams dime novel installment. Lewis Stafford, a wealthy railroad magnate, arrives at a remote mining settlement seeking a man named Rufus Primrose on a friend's introduction. The hotel proprietor Billy Divine provides Stafford with a small pistol and warns him about frontier dangers. Primrose arrives—a ragged, disreputable-looking prospector known locally as "Ragged Rufe" or "Uncle Bedrock." Despite his rough appearance, Primrose reads Stafford's letter of introduction from a man named King and accepts some unspecified employment. When three men attempt to confront Primrose in the bar, he demonstrates impressive gunhandling skill, subduing them with drawn revolvers. Stafford, initially skeptical, observes Primrose's capability and prepares to work with him, recognizing he's been identified in town.