The Rivals of Montana Mill

# Catalog Note: "Redgrave, the Renegade"

Beadle's dime novel series, December 29, 1886

This installment of W. H. Manning's serial western melodrama depicts Chapter XIII, "A Wrong to Be Righted," and Chapter II, "The Renegade at Bay." Horace Brotherton races by carriage toward Montana Mill accompanied by his daughter Lucia, seeking confrontation with his trusted employee Paul Redgrave. Brotherton believes Redgrave has betrayed him by surrendering the valuable mill—Brotherton's entire fortune—to a rival claimant, Cephas Stamford, without legal contest. The narrative reveals Redgrave's origins: raised from Eastern city slums after his mother's marriage to Brotherton's brother, he was educated at Brotherton's expense. Now Brotherton arrives armed with a revolver, threatening violence. At the mill office, confrontation erupts. Redgrave defends his action as administering justice upon seeing Stamford's proof of legitimate claim, while Brotherton denounces him as traitor and renegade, vowing murder. Lucia remains mysteriously composed throughout, suggesting hidden connections to Redgrave.