Gentleman Joe's Double Eagle; or, A Dance at Frog Back Curve — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Pt sa need Mell VO Fare se oF ? ; . ‘ fe te 4 : ‘ 2 mE 4 ‘ oft pt at at a ts res ae ; =) ants Af: SUF} > 7 : i IN LIBRARY | He saw that the fellow had a regular pent about ten Gentry watched them until all except one fad turned § yards in length up and down the trail in front of the en- for the night. ae trance to the cave. | The latter was a tall, powerfully built man, eit eae ae | Except for the narrow line of light which shone out slightly gray hair and a heavy black beard, which almost & = through the passage-way, the DORE of the sentry was in entirely concealed his face. se é “ darkness. | This man stirred the embers of the dying fire, and, Crawling on his hands and noes) nar cautiously ad-' glancing around at his companions who were all ipa vanced toward the entrance. down, he got up and walked out toward the entrance to. qi -When the back of the sentry was toward him, he would the cave. 7 - as creep forward’a few feet, taking care to make no sound. | Gentry saw him coming, and quickly stepped back into aN When the sentry turned to come back over his post, ; the shadow of the cliff. oa ates ee feet Gentry would lie flat on the ground. He felt that this man was the leader of the gang, | mewes In this way he managed to reach a point within a few! The fellow was probably coming to make sure that the Pe tahe feet of the end of the post without being seen. sentry was on duty and that everything was secure for the Again the sentry came forward with slow and measured night. ‘ : ve , tread. Realizing that the absence of the sentinel would quickly At the end of his post he turned with military precision | result in discovery, Gentry resolved on a desperate plan to ie ce and started back all unsuspicious of danger. save himself. aS Like a flash, Gentry leaped to his feet, and rushed for-| Crouching in the shadow, he waited until the big outlaey i on ward, stepped out into the trail clear of the entrance to the cave, ec ~ The startled sentry turned at the sound of footsteps and| As the outlaw chief stepped out into the darkness, hes 73 prought his rifle down from his shoulder. . looked up and down the trail, and failed to see the sentry. Before he could make another move the weapon was! Then he called him by name in a low tone. snatched from his hands and hurled down into the rayvine| Gentry waited no longer. below. He sprang upon the big outlaw chief from behind, and Then the strong arms of Gentleman Joe gripped the fel- | threw him heavily to the ground. giant low around the waist and threw him to the ground, and| The attack was so sudden and unexpected that the sit ae a before he could make an outcry, a strong hand gripped vantage yas all with the Gilt-Edged Sport at the start. | his throat. But he quickly found that he had to ‘handle a man who, Taking a piece of strong cord from his pocket, Gentry | despite advancing years, still possessed ‘phenomenal started to bind the fellow. strength. ie - But the man who had been left on guard seemed to sud-| Not a word was spoken by either man, and no weapons ~ denly recover his wits and made a desperate struggle for were drawn. It was a hand-to-hand struggle—a fight for | hyp io ‘liberty. life or death—in which strength and skill were bound toe He proved to be’a man of tremendous strength and | win. ‘ oh agility. Over and over in the darkness rolled the two men, each « Gentry could hold him on the ground easily enough, but struggling desperately to catch the other by the throat. Ae to hold a fellow and bind his hands and feet at the same| Once when the big outlaw seemed to realize that the time was not such an easy matter. contest was bound to oO against him in the end, he opened. Coaeens | The two men rolled over and over ina desperate struggle | his mouth as if to call to his men for aid. pote for the mastery. ‘‘Make an outcry and you are a dead man!”’ said Gentry, In the darkness they were rapidly getting closer and |! 4 low tone. | closer to the edge of the cliff. This warning had the desired effect. ae. Gentry was first to discover this, and, giving up the at- Again the desperate hand-to-hand struggle on the Mice es seb tempt to bind the fellow for the moment, he wrenched edge of the cliff went on, fa ee himself loose and sprang back a few feet from the edge of | There wasa sharp descent from the entrance to the . mM the rock. cave to the edge of the precipice twenty feet away. =” Ae | As the two strong men struggled they were slowly but ee surely working their way closer and closer to the edge of sibiag the precipice. eee A faint red glow of light from the dying fire in the Sana ~s “ was still shining through the opening, and as it flashed ~~ up brighter for one brief instant, the-two men caught a — fe f glimpse of the blackness beyond and realized that they = were in danger of going down to a horrible death together. =p, There was no let up, however, in the terrible struggle, »- {| Each man was bound to win the fightif he could. . a. It now seemed certain that one or both would be hurled es over the edge of the precipice, and if was a question of | in strength and skill as to which could save himself when it came time for the final effort. a) \ Gentry, who was .underneath, reached out one hand quickly, and found that he could touch the sharp edge of. z the precipice. ae Bxerting all his strength, he suddenly gave a quick turn — ts 4 and rolled his adversary over. _ ; s # | The latter slipped on the smooth rock, and in a moment P on hs ee was hanging suspended over the edge of the cliff. 4 The big outlaw clutched the edge of the precipice with Be ¥ es both hands with such force that the flesh on the ends of his > hs fingers was broken and bruised, and the blood trickling ae : bY out from the wounds made the smooth stone so slick that ie his hands soon began to slip. | ua x 4 Gentry saw the danger of his adversary, and lying flat: afin he reached out one hand and caught the big follows 4 a wh by the arm. ae It was not much he could do in the way of pulling, for » 4 : ee ¥; The outlaw, finding himself free from the grasp of his assailant, struggled to his feet. His back was toward the edge of the cliff when he started to get up. He did not realize his danger. As he rosé from the ground one of his feet slipped on the smooth stone, he lost his balance, and, like a flash, fell backward into the ravine a hundred feet below. The thing had happened so suddenly Gentry was taken com pletely “by surprise. He could not have saved the fellow if he had tried. The outlaw went down without a cry, and his body struck the rocks below with terrible force, killing him in- stantly. Fearing that the sound of the struggle might have been heard by the men inside of the cave, Gentleman Joe leaped back into the shadow of the cliff and kept perfectly still for several moments. But no sound came from the interior to inggcate that the outlaws had even a suspicion that anything Was wrong. The light in the cave was now dying out, and the sound of talking had almost ceased. Gentry crept forward cautiously to the opening and looked inside. Two hundred feet from the entrance in the side of the cliff there was a large room. In the centre of this a small fire burned on the stone floor. Grouped around this camp-fire were a score of weer looking men. fear he would be carried over the cliff himself. 6 alle As the fire continued to die down, the outlaws began to But bés hold on the arm of the outlaw added to dos “8 put away their rifles, and, rolling themselves in blankets, perate energy with which the latter was holding 0 Ss lay down to rig eps Bi eehe. -. enough to sa him hanging there for several minutes. que me ie Oe Rey - Me con,