Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 121

This issue of The Sea Cadet (Vol. X, No. 121, February 16, 1881) contains the serial "The Rover of the Rigoletts: A Romance of Green Shores and Blue Waters," attributed to the author of "Merle, the Mutineer" and "Freelance."

The narrative opens with a dramatic storm scene where a ship wrecks offshore. Young Hazel Dean, son of old sailor Daniel Dean (called "the Commodore"), volunteers to pilot a surf-skiff through dangerous waves to rescue survivors while other fishermen refuse. He succeeds in saving two children—a boy of eight and a girl of four—who become separated into the care of Daniel Dean and Captain Ethan Mountjoy respectively.

The second chapter shifts to a young woman of about fourteen riding her horse along the beach, racing against the incoming tide. When she discovers her escape route blocked by a collapsed cliff, she attempts a desperate flight along the sand as waves increasingly threaten her and her horse. The fragment ends as she spots something appearing over the cliff edge during this perilous moment.