All of the icy bitterness of the north, had come licking across the Dakotas, and the town of Lode Hill was being sealed off by the worst blizzard of the winter. Lode Hill had been a sleepy place the last time Hoppy had seen it, but that was before the gold strike - and now it had ten thousand people, quite a few saloons, and a hotel with a fancy stove that Hoppy was warming himself in front of as our story opens now...