Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 183

This 1887 Beadle and Adams dime novel installment features "Jabez Dart, Detective: The Hermit Trapper" by Oll Coomes. Set in 1846 Iowa territory, the story follows a mysterious young man—intelligent but anxious and sleep-deprived—traveling alone across the snowy northwestern prairie toward unknown destination. Pursued unknowingly by an Indian warrior on foot, the traveler camps among burr-oak bushes during an approaching blizzard, constructing a makeshift tent around a dead tree. After the storm passes under moonlight, he discovers his exhausted horse laden with snow. When the horse shows signs of distress, he investigates and discovers what appears to be a snow-covered bush is actually an Indian warrior in war-paint, motionless and nearly buried—revealing the source of the horse's alarm and suggesting danger ahead.