Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 831

Detective Kit's Diamond Haul This issue of *The Chicago Drummer* (June 27, 1893) contains the opening chapters of "Detective Kit's Diamond Haul" by J. G. Bethune, author of "The Third Man" and other detective stories. Detective Felix Skidmore is summoned to banker Addison Livingston's home at midnight. Livingston explains that his nephews Dick and Jo Hyler, who struck it rich at South Africa's Kimberley Diamond Mines, secured ten diamonds worth $150,000. Fearing pursuit by criminals who learned of their treasure, the brothers attempted to split the risk by carrying separate caskets on different routes home. The deception failed catastrophically: Jo was sandbagged on the Bowery, beaten with an empty casket, and died hospitalized. Dick arrived in Bluffton with the real diamonds intact, but received a threatening note from the assailants, who now know he possesses the stones. Livingston holds the caskets and needs Skidmore's protection to prevent theft and deliver them to Dick's cousin Muriel in Chicago.