Wildcat Bob, the Boss Bruiser — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

* bvat ees ey * Down—down—do ) The New York Lit ary. thet I am, et is az’inst my moral sentimentzs ter attack an’ wilfully kersmutch ennythi uv moore pigminniar dimensions than myself, an’ @ensekently I feel it ny duby, as a prescher an’ piller o’ ther church, 210% ter git offended an’ take h! how cowardly you have ad ap since I relieved you of your left eye,” said Wild- eat Bob, sarcastically. ‘“‘It must be you have been haunted by the spirit of him you murdered et the mill!” The raflian started, and whitened. / Up Ag preposteross challenge.” “What do you know about that?” be demand- | ed, hoarsely, while his hand sought his knife. Better Aba keep mun!” “No, I will not keep mum. Gentlemen, in this big, cowardly ru‘ian here, you behold | Hank La Verze, the chief of a band of cutthroat desperados who style themselves the Blood- hounds. Last night the infermal crew visited Wood's mill, down in the lower gulch, and be- cause the old man refused to give them his gold, they sawed him to death!” Aery of horror went up from the few by- standers who were in the saloon. ** You lie! you’re a double-dyed liar!” roared the giant, drawing his knife and rushing upon his enemy. it means thet!” He struck a fearful blow at the pugilist’s breast, but, with a skill and eass that were quite astonishing, the latter leaped quickly on go blattin’ yer lies about me. Take one side, his iron fist at the same instant reach- | ing the bully over the right eye. Down he went to the floor, while his murderous knife flew to tha opposite side of the room, the point yiercing a pictured nose of the Father of Our Conttey fair and square in tho center. Up sprung Big Hank again, his face flaming with an awful , and the lunge he made at his calm antagonist might have carried an ox from its feet. But the pugilist met the attack by simply stretching forth his wonderful right arm, and with a how! of pain the bully again went crashing down in a quivering heap. Again and again he staggered to his feet, cursing and ft ing at the mouth, but every time the iron fist of the Boss Bruiser met him with a stunning certainty, and he was stretched out for inspec- tion on the floor. The last time he fell it was in an insensible condition, and like some i chained monster he lay where he had fallen. His face was all bloody, bruised and battered, and the right eye swollen shut. © A more re- | ive, angie distorted object would have hard to fin ‘* There!” said the < gr he he saw that the ruffian was vanquished. ‘ That is just the sort of a lesson he needs every day to keep him un- | or the present.” - should say!” remarked Major Blood- good, facetiously, ‘‘ but Ishould awfully hate to ve administer such a li ge Re let day, for a lesson. actically viewing the case, T shonld say that yon rough is in a sad state.” “Tf he wasin a civilized State!” added ex- have been hanged oe oder hae ‘i o ve or m r, long ago. As there was nothi much to ‘ns sath him about the town, unless it was the fair Ma Belle, whom he felt it policy nob tovisit too often, thé hero of the fists armed himself, and mount- his horse, rode off down the gulch. mt of respect for Iris, he felt it his duty to visit the old mill, and give the murdered miller a decent burial His horse was swift, wiry animal, and it took him but a littie more our to reach the mill, which he did about ti hours before sunset. He found, however, that he had made the trip for nothing, for the Bloodhounds had burned the mill to the water’s edge, and the bones of E ze Wood had been swept away by the flood dashed over the dam. The formerly occupied by the miller had also been burned, and there was naught about the spot of life or cheerfulness. After gazing about on the desolate scene for a few moments, and perceiving that there remain- ed nothing for him to do, Wildcat Bob turned his horse’s head and rode silently away up the gulch. On his way, he spied the windiies and cur > bover the that had won the reputa- tion of being a haunted mine, and a strange de- sire came over him to explore the place and see how truthful were the reports concerning it. As he noted the fact that he still had an hour before sunset, in which to prosecute his search, he became resolved, and dismounted at the curb. his horse in a place where he could ry approached the shaft and peered over cur The bucket was down in the bottom, which was 90 far below the surface that tho sharp eyes of the pugilist could not penetrate one fifth of gloomy distance. a few moments, and hearing wh, and still he came to no His hands were vie renek the rope through pe er ye arp ached one con- position. i a ? <a & hee by s : “Ye cursed devil, Pll show ye w’at | fresh and a) Down—down; would the weird journey never | he would succeed in turning her, though, strive end? It seemed not, for as yet he could tell by instinct that he was up in mid-air. On—on—on! | Still the rope slid through his grasp | shot rapidly downward. , tached a piece of rock from one side of the , and he | éd silent, and listened eagerly for the missile to nearly at an end. Witha joyful exclamation . bottom. | Yes, wpon a solid rocky bottom, and sur- _ rounded by a shroud of gioom so dense and im- eaerlieag that he could not see a hand before ace. Groping blindly about, and feeling his way around by the aid of the wall, he soon came to a pa running off from the shaft. Far away he could see a chink of light, but not knowing whether it was fire or the glowing orb of some wild beast, he hesitated to advance. For sev- eral moments he watched the faint star-shaped | gleam, and saw that it remained perfectly sta- tionary. Wasit light, or simply a delusion of his eyesight? Andif a light, was there a per- | son or persons in the subterranean vault, and who were they? Over and over the Wildcat asked these ques- tions, as he stood, undecided what to do. At last, however, he was about moving forward, when his foot struck something lying on the rocky floor, that tumbled away, making a queer jangling noise. Searching about he scon found it, and imagine his rise and delight when he found that it was a bull’s-eye lantern. Feeling in his pocket he found a couple of matches, and soon succeeded in striking a light, which shone through the nozzle of the lantern, | flooding the passage with its bright rays. ‘Now, [£ can pursue my exploration with more ease and safety,” muttered Bob, taking | the lantern in one hand, and carrying a cocked _revolver in the other. ‘‘ This light is a capital _ thing. Now, let’s see what the light is tI saw off yonder.” . | He made his way straight along the passage, carefully and cautiously, keeping his revolver | ready for instant use. The p € was some | five feet wide by eight in hight, an<i at intervals | other smaller and niches branched off. | The atmosphere, too, was almost stifling, and it ns Pde by hard efforts that the pugilist could | breathe. | All along the bottom of the Drage were two | | rails which had probably been lai ore-truck upon to the shaft. | After several minutes’ walk, the explorer | found his further progress suddenly checked. The that had f to run an en from the ceiling overhead, and whether it extended any further than this he | was unable to determine. Two side passages di- vere to the right and left, at this juncture, and these he concluded came to an end ata | short distance away. As the pugilist stood looki fallen rock, several bright sparks in among the | granite ht his eye, and one of these he picked up. Holding in the tern, he was not a little snrp to find that it was a small nugget of gold. **Egad! this 1s luck,” he muttered, slipping | the precious morsel into his cartridge-pocket. ** Better I look sharp, for there may be more where this came from, and who has a better right to it than m , [should like to know? Rather think nobody has!” He sat the bull’s-eye on the floor, and drop- ping on his knees, began to search for more of the shining ks. So was he in his work that he failed to see something creeping u rear, which, otherwise, must Something, we say ;—an object clad in ra; eS a. Ler long, marine air, urninz, eyes, and a face ghastly, ue and hoarihie. vith its deep miki’ nod tt | rows, and its grinning mouth exposing a few long fangs. | It was a woman—there was no denying that ; —but such a roreenens and repulsive creature | as one would not like to encounter, often. Stealthily nearer and nearer to the absorbed worker she crept, not making so much as a sound in her movements. At last she stood directly over him—but only | | es a ——: ‘hy next a ae had ares er whole weight upon him, and dragged him | back to the floor. | Never for a moment losing his presence of | mind, he clinched with her, and they rolled over and over on the rocky r. She was his | watch in strength, he soon found, and writhe, | twist and work as he would, he could not free himself fromm her determined clutch. All the while she gave vent to an incessant snarling chatter, relieved occasionally by a ter- rible shriek. . Over and over they rolled, she endea to choke the life out of him, and he tryi tari Be himself from her tenacious 5 a e em . * *. would be on top, spitting, snar and jabber- | b uddenly his feet de-_ shaft, and clutching the rope tighter he remain- | reach the bottom, It struck sooner than he had | expscted, and he knew that his journey was | he descended, and ina moment stood upon the | ra was choked with a mass of rock | at the pile of | ht of the lan- | mn him from the | ve startled him. . wrinkles and fur- | as he best might he could not get free. During one of their yt he got one of | her fingers in his mouth and bit it savagely, | hoping thereby to cause her to release her gri But she seemed not to notice the fact and only _chattered, shrieked and jabbered the harder. Soon the Isntern was knocked over, and the passage was enveloped in a pali of Stygian gloom. | Over and over, and the moments fled by; still | the wild, desperate struggle continned. The pugilist saw that one thing was a certainty, end | that was: the struggle would not end until one or the other gave out. And he felt that he would be the first one to yield. Alresdy he was continually growing weaker and weaker while the strength of the wild creature secined to increase. | And still the struggle waged on. | Night had fallen over Pompeii’s gulch and the | surrounding country—a night that was sultry | and breathless. AU the saloons were vacated for the open air, and midway between Snick- er’s ‘‘ Heifer Shebang” and Tu ag “Spread Eagle Ranch,” a majority of the population were congregated about an improvised stand under the immediate superintendence of no less a personage than Proiessor Doertlinger, high gradnate in pharmacy. ‘Walk righty up, sntlemen!” he was saying, fiourishing himself about in a promiscuous style, ‘‘ walk right up, and receive a free sample o’ the Elixir 0’ Life—the greatest pharmaceutical tri- umph of the Nineteenth century—the cure-all warranted to relieve all pain, mental and pe- | euniary distress and suffering, and to drive away | despondency, ill-luck, ill-temper, and all cf the. ills that the human flesh is heir to. Recollect, gentlemen, it costs you nothing to try this won- derful and efficacious remedy ; this panecea that steer health and happiness to cne and all, alike, “Tt costs yon posing ® say, because in ordér tointroducethe Magic Elixtr, Ihave determined to make a gratis distribution of one thonsand bottles, this night, among you. I want every man to have a bottle—every man, woman or child to have one bottle of the triumph of the the wondrous remedy that raises ai] man- kind from the sloughs of despond, and starts him on the straight route to salvation!” One by one the vast assemblage stepped up and was presented with a vial of the fimen Clixir, which found room immediately afterward ix their respective stomachs, as all were eager to | be cured, the secret of the Professor's little | whisky geme being generally known throughout | the diggings, and the few new arrivals who had not heard of the game were speedily apprised _ of the excellent quality of the liquor dealt out under the disguise of medicine, and made haste to receive a bottle for drinking purposes. The Professor's advent was a dampener ¢o the saloonists, Tupper and Snicker. | Ali their custom left the hot saloons for the more congenial atmosphere outside, where they ' could listen to the oily gabble of the talkative professor and at the same time “liquidate” with- out expense. | Yes, gentlemen!” cried Doerflinger, his tones swelling to the strength of a Stentor, “the | Elixir has no equal from ther north pole to the south, from the east pole to the west. It stands Sapte for sagt in er diseases and world- | ly afflictions, an og cheap at the “Joni allow, si Pp price as ph bea sirs, just look at its pedigree: a Jatkecd ville it cured tones who actu- ally destroyed every building she approached | So bad did she have the ague. In New York it | cured the x so fast, and took so much traffic away from the loca! physici that they mobbed me outof town. In timore it a senator of Be scala Ss, and in Den- | ver, the last place I visi , it cured five people vb on seven-years’ itch, and four of egileric | This settled the affair. E man who hed not procured two or three bottles of the elixir hastened to do so at once, and the medica] agent soon shouldered his luggage and tramped away. q j yep t has e fallen | gulch and its population. ponin iy a! moving, and no | the night echoes. | from the vicinity of. the saloons, joes swiftl | down the gulch for perhaps a ansieed rods, set , then comes toa hait before a body of men whom at a glance we recognize as the notorious Bloud- hounds, with Big k at their head. “Its all right, cap’n,” says the voice of Pro- fessor Doerfiinger, ‘ ery een in the place is _ drugged by the elixir, which has done remarka- | ble execu Ail you have to-do, now, is to | make a charge, and all the gold in the diggings is yours. | Half an hour later the same band wereat this point again, where their horses had been left, the settlement they had man of earnings, while be slept from the ak 0 (el ooo) Vol.