Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 556

# "The Big Racket at Slide-Out" by Albert W. Aiken

This mining-camp romance features the scheming of General Washington Clairborne, a Tombstone lawyer, and Estervan Del Santo, a Mexican speculator, who control the Red Dragon Mining Company in Slide-Out, Arizona. They plan a "freeze-out" maneuver: reorganizing the company and levying a twenty-dollar-per-share assessment to force out fellow shareholders, particularly the young, penniless Miss Catalina Blanco and her associate Francisco Gomes, the superintendent.

Gomes, infatuated with Blanco, is tempted by the prospect of winning her through engineered poverty—the lawyers cynically assure him she'll accept his suit when desperate. However, Gomes confides his misgivings to his cousin Pedro Sanches, a Cuban assistant miner. Sanches mentions Blake, a local "Fresh" (sporting type) who previously aided Blanco, complicating the scheme. The narrative explores whether Gomes will betray Blanco or resist the corrupt arrangement.