Old Shadow Shot — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

PADDOCK'S DESCENT. to his companion, they would not give up their quest until some more lives had been taken. Over at the foot of the cliffs the two men hurried down the stream. to reach the young fugitives ; but many rods of ground were traversed without finding them. “Whar can they be?’ asked the long ranger, pausing and giving Gustin a puzzled look. “I told ’em not to go too fur. It ar gittin’ interestin’, Jack. I’m kind o’ fearful like’!” Gustin looked around before he attempted to reply. He saw the moonlight on the water far down the ravine; he noticed great dark walls above him, but no signs of Nightingale Nat and Violet were seen. “Curious!” he ejaculated. “No! it isn’t curious! I’ve got the two birds in my power, an’ I’m goin’ to throw "em squar’ down to you! Look out!” If a thunderbolt had burst in the faces of the rangers, they would not have started back more horrified. “Great Czesar’s ghost!” cried Shadow- Shot, staring upwards. “In the name of creation, who are ye?” The question was answered at his side by Gustin. : “Tt is Zimri Paddock !” Then he sprang forward. “Hold, Zimri!” he shouted, “I am here— Jack Gustin!” “Oh, that doesn’t mend the matter, Jack,” was the reply. “Tl throw the boy down first. Hold still, my little nightingale ; you won't be a minnit fallin’ !” The last brutal words were distinctly heard by the horrified rangers below. “Catch the boy if he comes!” Gustin said, quickly, to Shadow-Shot, and the next moment he sprang to the ascent of the cliff. Shadow-Shot dropped his gun and planted himself firmly as a statue at the edge of the moonlight. —_———= CHAPTER XiI. PADDOCK’S DESCENT. ‘HE scene above the bed of the stream, or, to be precise, fifty feet above Shadow-Shot and his new-found ally, was quite exciting. The causes that led to it were simply Obedient to the ranger’s command, as we have seen, Nightingale Nat and Violet left him to guard the retreat, and hastened along the stony bank of the forest river. Not far away an individual who stoodalone! “No! youll not be. jong. fallin: They were eager 21, had been startled by the sudden shot fired with fatal effect by the girl-avenger upon recognising Noel Gordon in his true role at the head of the Vultures. Following that shot came the other reports before which two more outlaws bit the dust. They startled him beyond description, and he was about to leave his station for the purpose of inquiring into the reports, when the sound of voices rapidly approaching saluted his ears. He changed his purpose, and, with a pistol in each hand, threw his gaze up the stream. Straight towards him came the youthful pair. “The Nightingale, by my life!” he ex- claimed, as his eyes dilated with astonish- ment. “Now, my singin’-bird, I'll clip your feathers, an’ those, too, of the pretty mate you've found somewhar in these woods. She’s the creature who untied you from the tree. Well, it will be her last untyin’—her very last!” All at once the young fugitives were startled to see a figure spring from the shadows of the ragged rocks and plant it- self firmly in their path. “Not a trigger, my birds!” said the man, coarsely. “TI kin shoot with both hands at once. Zim Paddock used to do thet fur amusement, you know, boy.” Nat recognised his old tormentor at a glance. At his command, which was accomprnied by a terrible threat, the two threw their weapons aside. His eyes told that dis- obedience might be followed by death. “Now, for’ard march !” : That command was also obeyed. At a wide path to the cliffs above—a path whose sides and bottom were brilliantly revealed by the light of the moon—the villain halted with his prisoners, and they began to climb up. Close behind, with his pistols, moved Zimri Paddock, the very essence of savage glee in his evil.eye. Biting his lip and biding his time, the boy of the train toiled aoe up the path with the girl’s hand in is. They heard the shots of the mysterious slayer which played such deadly havoc with the pursuing outlaws, and thought, that they came from Shadow-Shot’s rifle. Zimri Paddock heard them, too, and was puzzled. At the top of the cliff he halted and listened. The approach of the ¢jo rangers was soon heard, and from the‘; spot he startled them with the terrible th¢eat recorded at the close of the foregoing chapter. eo S LN