Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 153

EAGLE KIT, THE BOY DEMON: OR, THE OUTLAWS OF THE GOLD HILLS By Oll Coomes This dime novel opens in the Black Hills gold country, where outlaw leader Doc Middleton and five companions camp at Dead Pine, awaiting the arrival of Daniel Baron's gold-hunter train carrying valuable horses and women. They plan to ambush the convoy, aided by an accomplice named Handsome Dan. When a mysterious young boy spy is spotted in the tree overhead, the outlaws set it ablaze—only to witness the boy carried away by a winged creature they believe to be a demon. The narrative then shifts to Nebraska Ned and Dick Rodman, young border rangers escorting Baron's party, who have pursued horse thieves unsuccessfully and are returning to camp. Along Beaver Creek they encounter two eccentric strangers: the tall, angular Professor Carl Jimrack (astronomer, geologist, naturalist) and a rotund Carolina judge named Zelotes Prosper, who quarrel over a canoe. The text suggests escalating conflict between multiple factions converging on the gold-hunter camp.