Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 434

# Catalog Note

"A Cool Hand in Hot Heads: A Romance of the Red Divide" by Captain Howard Holmes features a mountain tramp named Jeroboam Butterball who arrives at a gambling cabin in Thunder City, Idaho, during an illicit card game. After the tramp falls asleep, the cabin's owner Major Sphinx and his associate Ozark Oll reveal their conspiracy: they possess a letter from a mysterious accomplice called "The Spider" in New York, detailing their search for an unnamed person worth over a million dollars. A detective hired to find this person has been killed. Major Sphinx instructs Ozark to telegraph The Spider, summoning him to the Red Divide. Unknown to them, Butterball has overheard their plans. The narrative then establishes the setting: Thunder City and its rival Lightning Lay-out, separated by the "Red Divide," both mining communities founded on Devil Duke's silver mine, locked in bitter territorial conflict. Major Sphinx subsequently visits a young woman named Flavia, suggesting further plot entanglements.