No wonder

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

79138

Title

No wonder

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

In the melting-pot West, two seasoned locals, Ike and Magpie, reluctantly take in Reginald Hilton, a naive Easterner who believes he can become a hero by reading dime novels. When Reginald's beloved Violet arrives, the pair concoct a dangerous plan to stage a bank hold-up and stagecoach robbery to make him look like a cowboy legend. Chaos ensues when the plan spirals out of control, leading to a muddy, explosive, and hilarious adventure that tests their friendship and sanity.

Summary up to 500 words

Set in the rugged American West, W. C. Tuttle's *No Wonder* offers a humorous satire on the romanticized ideals of the Western genre. The story centers on Ike and Magpie, two cynical but kind-hearted locals who run a cabin near Paradise. Their quiet existence is disrupted by Reginald Alfred Jackson Hilton, a hapless young man from New York who arrives with a mule and a collection of romanticized novels. Convinced he can become a hero like those in his books, Reginald is desperate to impress his sweetheart, Violet, who has eloped to the West to marry him. Believing Reginald lacks the grit to survive, Ike and Magpie devise a scheme to manufacture a heroic reputation for him before Violet arrives. The duo plans to stage a bank robbery and a stagecoach hold-up at the Wind River crossing. They intend to let Reginald 'capture' the outlaws while they escape, thereby proving his worthiness. The plan goes awry immediately. During the staged robbery, Reginald's terrified mule bolts into the river, dragging the stagecoach and its occupants into the water. The situation devolves into a frantic chase involving the sheriff, a judge, and a posse. The protagonists narrowly escape capture and a river plunge, only to be arrested and locked in a jail cell. In a twist of fate, Reginald manages to light dynamite he had hidden, blowing the jail door open and trapping the sheriff inside. The trio escapes the chaos, only to discover that Reginald has lost the stolen money in a swamp. The story concludes with the three friends fleeing town on the runaway mule, covered in mud and clothesline. Having learned that real life offers far more comedy and danger than fiction, they realize that Reginald is indeed a 'wonder,' though not in the way he imagined. The narrative pokes fun at the absurdity of trying to live up to fictional standards, highlighting the gap between literary heroism and the chaotic reality of the frontier.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79138.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg79138.epub

Download EPUB

Downloaded at

2026-08-13 21:26 UTC

Categories

• Short Stories
• Western stories