Beadle's Pocket Library No. 106

Night-Hawk Kit: The Daughter of the Ranch This 1886 dime novel by Jos. E. Badger, Jr., opens with "Captain Kit," a young, well-armed ranger of twenty-five to twenty-six years, arriving at a timber island near the Brazos River in Texas to meet his outlaw gang of forty men. Using secret signals—a white-starred flag and a peculiar whistle—Kit assembles his immediate band of eleven notorious desperados with aliases like Bob Rattlesnake, Old Mose, and Corncracker. He proposes robbing a Louisiana cattle drover of his gold, claiming no risk involved. The gang enthusiastically agrees, though one member, Cock-eyed Smatters, expresses doubt, insisting Kit resembles Kirk Dalton, a local ranch herder. When the anticipated victim arrives, he proves to be the elderly, formidable Joshua Crane, who recognizes Kit as Kirk Dalton and reproaches him for keeping outlaw company. Tension erupts when Rattlesnake threatens Crane; Kit intervenes, extracting Crane's promise to keep silent about the encounter for two weeks.