Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 52

This Beadle and Adams dime novel (No. 52, 1878) contains the first installment of "Strange Adventure in the North-West" by Charles E. Lasalle. At a Missouri tavern during a storm, three strangers meet: Waufy, a grizzled trapper; Lieutenant Willard Putnam, an officer awaiting an escort; and Jabez Spikes, a talkative Yankee trader. Waufy relates a harrowing tale of his encounter with Blackfeet warriors ten years prior while transporting valuable beaver pelts. Pursued across mountains, he becomes separated from his hunting partner 'Lije Havens and flees through a freezing stream. Exhausted, he falls asleep in a tree but tumbles onto an extraordinary white buffalo passing beneath, which he rides wildly across the prairie while evading gunfire. Eventually thrown from the animal, he reunites with Havens and recovers their cached furs. Later, Spikes hints he has important private business with Waufy, suggesting schemes to follow.