Old Shadow Shot — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

+ DIAMOND CUTS DIAMOND, 23 boy lay inthe moonlight with the ghastly hue of death on their upturned faces. Where was Captain Dave ? Seated on a beautiful iron grey whose curved neck was the emblem of strength and pride, the forest Apollo met the gaze of his returning band. His jaunty hat had | fallen to the ground. His chin lay on his breast, and below the. white face a little stream of blood trickled across his neck. He was not dead, for he started at the voices of his men returning from the unsuccessful and deadly pursuit, and looked with a glance of anxious inquiry into the face of the man whose arm seemed) to stay his body in the saddle. That man was Captain Rough. “The boys are back !” Rough said, answer- _ ing the glance. “Call them up,” was the response, in a hoarse whisper. In a bricf time the White Vulture was surrounded by his angry, discomfited men. His eye wandered among the crowd, and he seemed. to be mentally counting their numbers. “Not dead yet!” and the speaker tottered in the saddle as he spoke, as if to tell his followers that the grim monster even then was shaking him. “I’m worth twenty dead men. Oh! we'll have vengeance fér this! “T don’t know where the bullet is. I feel as if it went clear through me. He shot a little too low! Go down to the camp by the ford. If I am able I will join you there to- morrow.” The rough-riders hesitated; they did not want to desert their leader. “Go!” was the command, accompanied by ~ the look and lifting of the finger-that com- manded respect and obedience. “Boys, I am Captain Dave yet.” a One by one the Vultures began to turn their horses’ heads. . The two captains were left alone. “Your plans?’ asked Rough, inquisi- tively. “My plans! Captain, we've been friends a long time; before we met in these woods, we knew one another. You brought the boy here for a purpose. It is knowito me. I'm not going to interfere, captain. Your busi- ness is not mine, mine not yours. You are going to conduct me to a certain place; you will see somebody there. Will you keep my secret?” Captain Rough started. So the forest out- law possessed a secret. ~ “Did I ever blow on you, Dave?” he asked, appearing offended at the question. -“No. I’ve got a girl in these parts—one of the prettiest creatures that ever inhabited them. Why, Ive known her for five years, == a So ae ee ne and she does not dream that I am Captain Daye, of the Vultures.” ° A girl in love with the leader of the out- laws? The thought was ludicrous to the brutal Rough. “ Where did you get her?” he asked. “Neyer mind that!” was the reply. “I want you to see her.” There was a strange light in the train- master’s eyes. It was well that he turned them away, for had the Apollo caught their glance, he would have repented of his words. Slowly the two rode from the spot. Rough still held his companion upright in the saddle, and again the chin sank upon the crimsoned bosom. At last the journey ended; the cave-home stood revealed in the dim light of the waning moon, " Captain Dave, who had been helped from his saddle by Rough, tottered forward to sink upon a heap of skins with a sigh of intense relief, “Violet?” he exclaimed. Of course to the name there was no response. He called again and again, elevating his vores and manifesting impatience at each. call. Captain Rough stood in the shadow, eager to see the person who bore the name. “She isn’t here, captain!” the Vultucm cried, rising with a pallor: of fear on his fac& “I always found her here. I wonder if she was with that shadow who has followed me and my men for five years ?” Captain Rough could not reply, for he did not know. “Well, she may Seiad Ria: Dave said, catching at a bubble offhope of his own blowing. “We must waits Here are pine burrs and sticks, my frierid. Make a fire at, the edge of the bed, andfwe will look at my hurt. My lungs seem full of needles just now. If the bullet went through them, eh Pll have to laek for a coffin, after a CAP ‘ The outlaw returmed’ ta:the cot while Rough proceeded tosbuild a)fire on the floor of the cavern, and the light#of a ruddy blaze soon illumined the/place. It revealed no ‘enant besidtas the two men, and Captain Dave's eyes ff lied with blank disappointmenifas they retur ned to his bleed- ing breast aftery the search § or Violet. . He bore theyunsurgical $ sxamination with that fortitude, which the od :asion demanded. Heedless, as it were, of thei value of life, Cap- tain Rough probed the f yvound below the tight shoulder-blade, and! smiled grimly to himself as he noticed thy it it promised to —— i” prove fatal to the Apollo,» HOOKS CO =