Beadle's Pocket Library, No. 26

# Museum Catalog Note

This issue of Beadle's Dime Novels (Vol. II, No. 26, July 9, 1884) features the serial installment "Old Avalanche; or, Wild Edna, the Girl Brigand" by Edward L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick series. The narrative opens with four men—English baronet Sir Henry, his associate Milburn, guide Alva Lanch, and Canadian youth Raleigh—camped atop a remote mountain peak above the Nebraska plains. The discovery that Fremont and Kit Carson previously reached the summit disappoints Sir Henry. That night, Milburn and Raleigh betray and bind the baronet, revealed as enemies with long-standing grievances. They confine him by rope over Death Gulch, an immense bottomless abyss, after casting the expedition's supplies into the chasm. The narrative suspends as the villains prepare to release their captive into the dark depths.