Overland Kit; Or, The Idyl of White Pine

This Beadle and Adams Dime Library installment presents "Overland Kit; or, The Idyl of White Pine" by Albert W. Aiken. The narrative follows an Overland coach traveling from Austin toward Spur City, Nevada. Passengers include Judge Ephraim Jones, lawyer Salmon Rennet, and Bernice Gwyne, a young woman seeking her missing cousin Patrick, who fled east after stabbing someone in a gambling dispute. The coach is robbed by the legendary highwayman "Overland Kit" and his band, who target the Judge's government bank notes. Kit recognizes Bernice and is visibly shaken. When cavalry soldiers appear—their horses muffled to muffle their approach—the robbers flee. The narrative then shifts to Spur City, a rowdy mining camp where the "Eldorado Saloon" serves as the principal gathering place, its furniture famously destroyed in early brawls between rival mining districts.