Beadle's Pocket Library No. 70

# Museum Catalog Note

Sure Shot Seth: Boy Rifleman and Spy, a serial installment from an 1885 dime novel published by Beadle and Adams. The narrative, set in August 1862 during the Civil War, follows Sure Shot Seth, a young spy working in Minnesota. Seth overhears a clandestine meeting between a Southern Confederate agent and Sioux chiefs—Little Crow, Inkpaduta, and Little Priest—who are plotting armed rebellion. Seth eliminates the boatman Serleque and hijacks the canoe to intercept the conspirators on an island conference. Later, the supposedly dead Serleque attacks Seth in the river; his companion Beaver attempts a rescue as additional figures—a "boy brigade"—watch from shore. The excerpt concludes ambiguously with a triumphant figure emerging with a scalp, leaving Seth's fate uncertain to the readers.