Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 380

This is a Beadle and Adams dime novel, November 4, 1884. The featured serial is "Avalanche Alf, the Foot-Hills Guide: Or, The Snow-Prisoners of Colorado" by Major E. L. St. Vrain, presented in two chapters here. The story concerns a mining camp in the Colorado Rockies led by Captain Buck Rainer. When the weather-savvy youth Avalanche Alf arrives to warn of an imminent severe snowstorm, he meets resistance from the arrogant young miner Steve Williams. Though Rainer respects Alf's expertise and calls a meeting to vote on evacuation, Williams leads a mutiny of six miners opposing the departure. Williams secretly conspires with the wavering Tom Wilson; the chapter ends with suspicion that Williams intends mischief against the young guide. The narrative combines frontier adventure with environmental peril and interpersonal conflict.