Tip Top Weekly No. 61: Frank Merriwell in the Mines — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

16 FRANK. MERRIWELL IN THE MINES. The old man seemed to see that the|She didn’t have much sense anyhow, and sympathy of the crowd was with him, for: that is why we didn’t get along as well he turned to them and made a pitiful ias we might.”? appeal: ‘Don’t let him take her from me!’ he begged. ‘‘She is all I have to live for in the world—she is my very life! I shall die without her!’ “And that will be a good riddance for the world,’’ sneered the gambler. ‘‘You have lived too long already.’’ “And you should never have been born, vou wreteh!’* cried John North, his mingled anger and distress being pitiful to witness. ‘‘ You have never brought any- thing but suffering and sorrow into the world. Give back the child tome! You shall not keep her!’ The card sharp laughed, and the sound of that laugh was like a blow on the old man’s heart. John North staggered and clutched at his breast. ‘(He—he robbed me of her mother !?* came huskily from the old miner’s lips. ‘SHe robbed me of my son! His hands are stained with the blood of both! And now he would rob me of all there is left on earth that is dear to me!’’. He staggered, swayed and would have fallen, but Frank Merriwel] was at hand, | and the boy supported the old man with | his strong young aris. _In John North’ S ear Frank : gently and | firmly said: - “Be calm, “Those words . gave the old man new life and new hope. “*Reep the wretch from doing that, and God will bless you!’ he gasped. “Boys,” said Merriwell, ‘we must |" ominous muttering take a ‘hand in this.” : Powers heard those words, and he| laughed derisively. . ‘‘Better not, tenderfoot,”’ “The galoot who chips into Iny game un-; He shall not take her from | | ‘‘She was a girl—scarcely more than a child,’ declared North. ‘‘She was inno. cent—she knew nothing of the ways of the world. That is why she was foolish enough to run away with you against my wishes. I warned her, for I knew the sort of a man you were; but you had a smooth tongue, and you coaxed her from me. I knew you would abuse her, and I knew she would come back some time. Every night Iput a light in the window that she might find her way to my cabin. One night in midwinter one wild, stormy night she came back. She brought Little Blossom with her. She had fled from you in horror when she saw you shoot down Victor, her brother—Victor, my boy... He had found her, and you had not hesitated to stain your hands with his. blood.’? In self-defense, my dear. sir,’? said Powers, blandly. of murder.’’ ‘tT was never accused: “Then I accuse you now!” ‘shouted John North. of Little Blossom, whom she brought to ime in her arms, died that night in. my ‘‘My poor girl, the mother cabin. She sleeps at the foot of Shadder. Mountain, ani Blossom keeps her grave covered” with flowers all the Year when ‘snow is not on the ground. You killed. ‘her, as you killed my boy! And now you would rob me of her ehud—my. little blind darling !?”” “Gran’pa! gran’pa! p? cried. the little girl, struggling to rush to him. The rough men stirred, then there was vand scowling faces were turned toward Dan Powers. The gambler. did not miss those looks, jand he knew the sentiment of the crowd he warned. | was against him. “The fools!’ he muttered, and his red asked closes his account with the bani! \lips curled disdainfully under the black mighty sudden. child, for I am her father.’ I have a right to this mustache. “If the child were older,’’ he said, “Ts that true?” Frank asked of the old|‘‘she would prefer to go with me, as did man.. her mother before her, for I have money “Ves, yes!’’ was the husky confession. |and you are poor.” It js true, but he stole her mother from} me—Jlured her away.”’ Then it was that Frank Merriwell stepped forward and boldly faced Powers, “Stole her—bah! She was glad enough | quietly saying: to marry me, for I had money to burn. ‘*Under the circumstances, my dear sir, ECOMMICIOO© SS (CO)