Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 913

This issue contains the first installment of "Kit Keith, the Revenue Spotter; or, The Big Bag at Dark Run," by E. L. Wheeler, author of the Deadwood Dick novels. The serial concerns Kit Keith, a twenty-two-year-old federal revenue agent sent to infiltrate and dismantle a moonshining and coastal smuggling operation. The story opens with a storm-tossed Virginia coastline where Sadie Sefton lives in a cliff cottage above Jarvishaven, a haven for Jack Jarvis's gang—a dozen desperate men who profit from shipwrecks and protect illegal whisky distillers operating in the mountains. Captain Cussick, leader of the moonshiners, arrives at Jarvis's shanty with warning of Kit Keith's impending arrival via private steamer. Cussick suspects a traitor exists within their organization. Meanwhile, Squire Roger Darrel visits Sadie's cottage, his pursuit of her interrupted by a mysterious young stranger. The narrative combines detection, criminal enterprise, and romantic tension.