The Dime Library: Captain Volcano

Catalog Note *Captain Volcano; or, The Man of the Red Revolvers*, by Albert W. Aiken, serialized in this May 1902 issue. Set during California's Gold Rush of 1849, the story opens in San Diego, now bustling as the gateway port for prospectors heading to newly discovered gold fields near the Gila and Colorado rivers. At the Fandango Hall—a dance saloon operated by Don Ramon with masked female dancers—a tense encounter unfolds between a well-dressed Frenchman and a masked lady. Captain Volcano, notorious skipper of the sloop *The Fair Isabel* and rumored smuggler-pirate, intervenes aggressively, ordering the Frenchman away. A muscular card-sport known as "the Red Revolver" (identifiable by his crimson-handled revolvers) then interjects, rebuking the captain for bullying and challenging the Frenchman to stand his ground—setting up a confrontation.