Night-Hawk, The Mounted Detective — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

10 ‘* Yes, it is my decision.”’ ‘You cast me off?’’ ‘* Yes, I cast you off.’”’ ‘* This is all your side of the story; now hear mine; I love you, I will not be cast off. You encouraged, me to love you, and when you once won my_love it was love eternal that you secured. Emmie, I will not be cast off, you must, you shall be my wife!’’ ‘* Is this my former lover whom I hear speak- ing ?”’ , eS Yes, it is your loving faithful Chazlie.’’ ‘* Were I not gazing upon your face and looking into your. eyes, I could not believe it; but I repeat, never shall we meet again after this night.”’ ‘‘ Emmie, do not tempt me.’’ ‘*Tempt you! What do you mean?’’ ‘*] mean that no power on earth shall sepa- rate us. You go with me to-night.’’ The girl turned deathly pale, and fixed her beautiful eyes fuily distended upon the young man. ‘** Charlie,’’ she said, ‘‘ 1 du not understand you.”’ ‘* My words are plain.’’ ‘* But you do not—you can not mean what your words would imply.”’ ‘*] mean all that my words imply.”’ ‘* Suppose [ refuse to go with you? Indeed, 1 do retuse ever to see you again, ” | ‘* You must go with me.’”’ ‘* Your words suggest force, outrage.”’ ‘* My words mean force !”’ ‘* Tt can not be!’’ moaned the fair girl. ‘*] trust force willl not be required; but you go with me to-night to\remain with me for- ever.”’ ‘* No, no!’’ ‘* | have made all arrangements. 1 suspected the declarations to which I have listened trom your lips. I am resolved not to give you up. 1 came here prepared to take you away with me.’’ | ** Do you wish totake me when | declare that now | despise ycu?’”’ _** Ah, that is but a momentary sentiment. ‘You once loved me: you will love me again. I know well what a woman’s heart is. Yes, yes —you g0 with me to-night!” ** Never!”’ ‘* You shall!’’ ‘* ] will scream for help!’’ ‘* No, you will not. I will smother your screams, ”’ | ‘* Listen to me, Charlie: 1 will resist this cut- rage to the death, and though you succeed you | will only find a corpse upon your hands. I was a simple girl, but now I am a determined woman! Go your way aud may you and I never meet again on earth.”’ ‘‘'This is.all nonsense, Emmie; you are ex- cited now, but you will think better of it to- morrow; my love so warm, so ardent, so ure, so intense, will reawaken yours, and you will some day bless the hour when | carried you off by force, if need be.”’ . ** 1 already curse the hour | ever met you! No, no; | am an honorable woman! and were you a prince royal I would not wed you, ccv- ered as you are with the stains of crime!”’ ‘* Be careful, Emmie. Restrain your words.”’ ‘* No, no, [’ll not restrain my words! Could I provoke you to kill me 1’d thank you; but I’) die befcre 1 ever become the wife of a com- mon burglar, an assassin who would have shot down in cold blood his own father!’’ CHAPTER XIIf. Tom HAwk crept nearer to the parties. saw that an outrage was tp be attempted, and he was thankful that he was present; but for his presence he felt that a crime would be com- mitted, a wrong perpetrated, which could never be righted on earth, The detective was even near enough to read the glance in the young man’s eyes, and he saw that the villain was raging with fierce anger. ‘* Unsay those wcrds, Emmie.’’ ‘* Never! [ 1epeat them with emphasis!’ ‘* And yet you dare say I have changed?”’ ‘‘ No, 1 do not now believe that you have changed. Il believe you were a villain when you first won my love. 1 believe you have been Jong living under a mask; all vestige of the love 1 once felt for you has disappeared; go, robber; go, murderer! and may my eyes never rest on your evil face again!”’ ‘*] am disposed to be forgiving, Emmie, but you may drive me too far; you may cause my sd -* } . 45 ae ‘ me ¥ e - 2 " 2 va ; ~ A . a A, , Rey " J re { «a 7 i) “ : ‘ 7 +s i — 5 -—* + , -_ Theeer He. *> Le M4 . ra “AE ©) ee . -< A ~ = ’ S Pe, wo VE “Sy B ns . ~~! , ' a == wr rs a + NIGHT-HAWKE, Sees 0000 onononoOQuoaoaoaoaoaomomomeee eo love to vanish, but you shall be mine all the same; yes, you may kill my love, but you can not deaden my admiration for your beauty. What was love may become a mad passion, but mine you are, and mine you shall be! will you come with me?’’ ‘* No, no, 1 will die first!’’ ‘* You shall go with me, dead or alive, mark well my words!”’ '** | have marked well your words, and what is more, | mark by your tace you are not the same character ] loved! you are a false fiend in human shape! so go your way and never cross my path again!’’ ‘“ And these are ycur final words?’’ — sé Yes. ’’ | ‘* Your set decision?’’ 6 Yes. ”’ ** Listen fo one word, Emmie.”’ The man advanced close to the tair girl. The latter recoiled, when he said: : ‘“ Do not recoil from me, Emmie. It may be that 1 will go away alone; but 1 desire that you shall hear my words.”’ ‘* Speak; 1 can hear you.”’ 5 ‘The words 1 would speak 1 must whisper in your ear; permit me.”’ She stood as if rooted to the spot, and he ad- vanced closer to her; then suddenly he leaped forward, clasped her in his arms and forced a silk handkerchief to her nostrils. Without a murmur she fell back, a helpless and uncon- scious victim, in his treacherous arms, lt was time for Tom Hawk to act, so he sprung forward, exclaiming: ‘* |t’s time for me to come on, Pe},’’ The robber, still holding the girl in his arms, turned and beheld the oilicer, and his hand grasped a weapon. | But the detective leaped forward, and, with: his club, struck the weapon ficm his grasp, and raised the locust to deal the man a blow, when, with # curse, the scoundrel let the gir] fall from his grasp, and sprung away and dis- appeared. The detective could have dropped him, but there were reasons why he preferred to let the rascal go, and he turned his attention to the fair irl. | , The latter was just recovering from the effects of the drug, and as the detective raised her up she murmured: ‘ Kill, kill me, and I will die blessing you!”’ ‘* Well, well, miss, this is the second time we have met, and under strangely similar ci1cum- stances,’’ said the detective. She sprung away and fixed her lovely eyes upon our hero. ‘* You are safe, my child; time.”’ | ‘* Who are you?’’ ‘* Do you not recognize me?”’ ‘* Your voice sounds familiar to me;’ but 1 am strangely excited.’’ ‘* Well, 1 don’t wonder that you are excited. I am the man who found you on the road a few nights ago, and I am led to believe that one mystery is solved.’’ ** One mystery solved, sir?’’ se 6 =: Pe ‘* What mystery ?’’ ‘“‘ The mystery of finding a young lady after dark in a dead faint beside the road. Yes, yes, I reckon you had an interview with the same scoundrel who to-night left you as 1 found you. "9 ‘* | see now.”’ ‘* W hat/do you see, miss?”’ ‘* | discern who you are.”’ ‘* And who am [?”’ _ “* You are the detective who has been trailing the turglars,”’ . ‘* Yes, right to the minutest particular, miss, and it is lucky | was trailing the burglars, and more fortunate tbat 1 trailed one of them here, or what would have become of you?”’ ‘* Tell me, sir, what became of him ?’’ ‘* 1 will answer your question later on, miss, but as an officer I have a few questions to ask ou.”’ The girl stood pale, trembling and silent. ‘‘ How is it, miss, I find you keeping a late night tryst with a burgiar?”’ ‘“Is he a burglar?’’ : ‘“ You know he is a burglar, and 1 am sorry you asked me that question. I would- rather feel that 1 could trust implicitly every word that fell from your lips.”’ ** Oh, sir! 1 will ask one favor.’”. ** Speak.”’ ‘* Do not ask me any questions, I am a poor, helpless, wronged girl, and there are reasons I arrived just in - 3 . a P as . 4 a “ Ss . ee ? 3.24. ‘ ~ 2g. > ew > 7 « a. *s28@ why 1 can not speak, and 1 would not teil a lie. Spare me; I swear I am not allied to these bad men in their crimes, but 1 must be silent, spare me, dO not ask me any questions, or I will be compelled to refuse to answer in the face of any consequences!’’ | ’ My dear young lady, there is no reason why you should not speak to me.”’ ‘* Why should I speak to you?’’ ‘“ Because 1 am your friend; you neea a friend now, and there is no one else in whom you can contide.”’ ‘" You are a stranger tc me, also, sirt’’ « ‘* Well, yes, in one sense. But listen. Cir- cumstances sometimes make strange frends. You and I have met under stiange cireum- stances. [I know a part cf your secret—the worst part; your own good name demands that the brighter side of the story should be told to me.”’ ; : ‘* 1 must remain silent.”’ ‘‘ No, you shall not remain silent; you are now a hopeless woman, but I can renew a hope in your heart,”’ ‘‘ Renew a hope in my heart, sir?’’ ‘“ Yes, the brightest and dearest hope of your ife,”’ ** Never, never!’’ She spoke in a tone of extreme sadness, ' “If you knew me better, miss, you would trust me, But you must, you shall trust me, and listen; vou will never regret your con- fidence.”’ ‘“ No, no; I must remain silent.’’ ‘' Do you think that by remaining silent you will save the man who would have done you such great harm? If so, dismiss the thought; it is for-your sake and the sake of another that he is freenow. 1 could have put my hand on him to-night, but I let him go.”’ A sirange look came to the girl’s face. “* You followed him here?’’ ‘* No; 1 followed you here.’”? ‘* Followed me?”’ Fes? Ss ‘“ Why did you follow me?’’ demanded tie girl, in trembling tones, : ‘* Because I suspected you were to meet him.”” CHAPTER XIV. A Low cry burst trom the girl’s lips as she exclaimed: ‘‘ ] am lost!’’ ‘* No, my child; you are saved! you to rescue you!” ‘‘ What strange mystery is this?’’ ‘*] know all your story.’’ ‘* You know a:] my sto1y?’’ eé Yes.’’ ‘* What do you know?’’ ‘‘ I know you are an honorable girl. I know that you imagined once that you loved this scoun ire] !’’ ““ You were present during our interview?’’ ‘* J was not tar away; professional duty was my license, and 1 overheard every word that I followed . passed between vou and that man.”’ ‘* Then, sir, if you are apn honorable man 7 have your sympathy. When | gave my love to that man | thought-him to be an honorable man, one of the noblest men among the best, and my-heart was broken when 1 discovered the sad truth!’’ , My dear girl, listen to me; mark well my words, for some day you will recall with pleas- ure all that 1 speak!’’ | ‘“ Nevet, sir! never again will joy come to my heart in this life!’’ ‘* That is all right, as you feel now; and ac- cording to what you know now, your convic- tion is warranted, but you do not know what I know; you do not suspect what I suspect, and among the first of my suspicions is that there is still'a yreat jcy in the near future for you; but you must trust me; you must consider me your friend, and in that way aid me to obtain for you once again-peace and happiness!’’ ‘* Never! never!”’ ‘“ Well, we shall see! Ie am a s{range man, and I have had large experience in my time, and I have been cognizant of very strange and remarkable occurrences, ’”’ ‘‘] see what you mean; you hope that this young man may ke redeemed, but mark my words; I would be happy to know that he had reformed, happy to know that he had repented and thereby made others happy. ] could for- give him; but ever love him agsin? Never! Hiver become his wite? Never! Ever be happy again after my terrible experience? No, never!” ‘* My child, 1 do not take much stock in the * = e |