Diamond Dick, Jr.'s Call Down; or, The King of the Silver Box — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

No. 15, DIAMOND DICK LIBRARY. 9 of the rock which Spitzer had thrown out of his prospect ‘‘Why, them plates that we printed the queer from, to- hole. gether with the paper and what was left of the lay-out Bertie was not rendered entirely unconscious, but he after the blow-up in town.”’ was stunned and bewildered and was an easy subject for The gambler voiced a deep oath, as he angrily queried: two burly ruffians who came running from the cleft in the; ‘‘I told you to destroy the stuff. Why didn’t you do it?” — — ————- —_ Fe a rocks. “That's jest what we brought it out yere fer.”’ A second time our hero was in the power of the Spanish| ‘‘Well, destroy it and lose no time. Where’s Hankins?’” Don. é ‘*He’s over thar, in the cabin.’’ Ortego pointed toward the opening between the bowl-| ‘‘Tell him to keep shady.” ders, and Bertie was picked up and borne through it to) ‘‘After we destroy the stuff, what then?”’ the secluded and ruinous cabin once occupied by the un-! ‘‘You’re to pull out for Arizona, as I instructed you fortunate Spitzer. when we left Cripple Creek.”’ Unable to resist his captors in the slightest degree, the| ‘‘Keno!’’ youth was cast into an iron cage that stood in one corner. | Larkin started away, but suddenly paused and turned The heavy door of the cage was quickly closed, and the, back. two men departed. ‘‘Say, ole man, I want ye to answer me one question.’’ A few moments later Bertie recovered the full power of | ‘‘What’s that?”’ mind and limb and caught the iron door and shook it with | ‘‘Who was that feller that I upset with the barrel?”’ all his strength—but he might as well have sttuggled to| ‘‘What do you want to know that for?”’ overturn Pike’s Peak. A nasty look came into Larkin’s face as he replied: While he was engaged in his fruitless attempt, the Don| ‘‘’Cause I’ve got a sneakin’ idee that it is Diamond Dick, entered and took a chair against the opposite wall of the 'Jr., in disguise.’’ “ room. “That’s who it is, Larkin.”’ Instinctively Bertie’s hands wandered to his revolver| The man gavea black scowlas he drew his knife from belt, but his weapons had been removed, unknown to him. ; his belt. / The gambler noticed his prisoner’s move and smiled| ‘‘Knowin’ how much you thought of Bruce Baxter," grimly. eritted Larkin, ‘‘’tan’t possible you’re goin’ ter let Dia- “No, you don’t, my boy. I took the precaution to have | mond Dick, Jr., git away from ye.”’ your guns taken away from you.”’ ‘*No.”’ ‘““What do you mean by treating me like this?”’ ‘oTan’t possible you’re goin’ ter do anythin’ else but ‘‘T-would rather face a royal Bengal tiger than confront |——”’ you in your present mood,’’ returned the Don. ‘‘While Larkin finished by drawing his finger across his throat. that cage is not of my contriving, it certainly answers my| The Don shrugged his shoulders. purpose. . ‘“You don’t take me for a heathen, do you, Larkin? You ‘A short time after the unfortunate Spitzer passéd in|don’t expect me to murder a man in cold blood?” his checks a man named Higgins came into Cripple Creek| ‘‘No,”’ replied Larkin, running his thumb along the edge with his family. Higgins was known as a poor rancher, | Of his knife, ‘I dof’t expect nothin’ like that of you. I’m and the supposition is that he must have struck it rich heathen enough ter have the sand ter play even fera somewhere. L pard’s takin’ off, an’ I'll do it, too!”’ “Well, Higgins’ wife’s ideas all ran to blue calico, and| He turned and started for the house. she bought up every roll in town. His children allgraved| ‘‘Stop where you are, Larkin " candy, and they bought out two candy stores. As for These stern words of command caused the ruffian to Higgins, he bought a circus—or, rather, the menagerie halt. part of a circus—and then the entire family vanished| 48 he whirled about, he was confronted with a six- never to be heard of again.* That cage, there, is a melan- shooter in the hands of the Don. choly relic of Higgin’s menagerie. It held the bear, and| ‘‘ You'd kill me, would ye, Ortego?”’ how it came here no one knows; but, as I said before, it} ‘Quick enough, Larkin, if you attempt to cross my answers my purpose.”’ purpose. I want to use Diamond Dick, Jr.’’ “T care nothing about all that,’ replied Bertie. ‘Ihad|_‘‘You swore you’d be revenged upon him on the day supposed you would treat even an enemy in a humane ae . ieee was sont to San Quentin. manner.’’ eo Sw CO a “So [I shall, in spite of the way you treated my partner, ae now's the time, while you've got him in yer clutches. Black Bruce. Do you recall what I said in the Lost Pocket?”’ ‘You said that if I could make a shot as good as the one you had made, I might be able to call you down.”’ “That's what I said.”’ ‘“Well, Ortego, I made the shot.”’ “So you did; and you’re a veritable wizard, as your partner called you.”’ ‘Rot! That cuts no ice with me.”’ ‘‘Tt does with me, my boy. I’ve got ascheme that I’m going to work. You and I look a little alike, and I’m going to impersonate you for a while longer, keeping you caged up here while I am doing it.”’ Bertie made no reply, and the Don got up from his chair. ‘‘Rest easy, Diamond Dick, Jr. You’re not going to be hurt. It won’t be healthy for you to try to escape—that’s all.’”’ Thereupon the Don left the room. | He had proceeded but a few steps from the cabin when one of the ruffians who had taken part in Diamond Dick, Jr.’s capture stepped out from behind a pile of bowlders. ‘‘What do you want, Larkin?”’ asked the Don. “T’ve got the stuff thar, in the cabin.’”’ ‘‘What stuff?’’ : *Higgins is no mythical character. His peculiar investments and sudden vanishing are still absorbing topics 1n certain portions of the south-west. “Now is not the time. .My feelings toward Diamond Dick, Jr., are as bitter and vengeful as your own, but the Prince of Sports never yet knifed a man in the dark. Man to man, I shall some day settle accounts with him. For the present, however, I tell you that I have use for Dia- mond Dick, Jr.’’ ‘‘And I tell you, Don, Ihave no use for him and had just as soon knife him in the dark, or any other way, so’s ¥ get him.”’ “Do any injury to Diamond Dick, Jr., and you settle ac- counts with me.”’ “Good! We'll talk about that later.’’ “Throw down your knife.’”’ ‘‘Look here, Ortego——’’ “Throw it down!’ The Don’s words rang out sharply, and his slender fore- finger flexed upon the trigger of his six shooter. With a muttered anathema Larkin cast aside his blade upon the ground. ‘‘Now go and do as I told you with those plates,’’ com- manded the Don, and Larkin took his way toward the cabin. ; Slipping his revolver into his pocket, the Don turned with a grim smile and walked in the direction of the town. He had not gone far when, surmounting a slight rise of iground, he turned and looked back. ' An ejaculation of surprise and anger fell from his lips. Not far from the Spitzer prospect hole he saw a thin: COMICOOOKS.com ? a