Beadle's Boys Library No. 54 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

} an’ they is knowed as— _ Major Van Dorn was no man to-be driven, and facing Bowie Bob he said sternly: ** Young man, you are going too far, and I warn you that I will not be bullied by you, nor shall I now leave this house to please you.” The bully winced a little at this bold front shown him, but after a glance at his pards, he | said: ‘“You won’t go, yer say?’ ~ 7 will not, nor can you force me to do so,” ‘Come, pards, let’s clip his spurs,” shouted the bully and he moved toward the major. ~“T guesses n t.” A form suddenly bounded forward and confronted tbe bully, and in each hand he held _@ revolver. It was the same young man that the major _had said he had seen before. ‘‘Look a-heur, Joe, what in thunder’s up, thet you plays thet tricky hand?” whined Bowie Bob, not liking the change affairs had taken. ‘“‘Tt are a leetle game I hes intended spring- iw’ ovter yer fer some time, yer cussed cut- throat, an’ ef yer hands don’t fly up like wind- mills durned suddint, yer toes will,” was the cool and threatening response. -*Pards, does yer all stand this heur music?” cried the bully. ‘*T guesses they bheurs ther tune I are shriek- in’, an’ hesn’t got ther narve ter set another— Hold on thar, Pant’er Pete!” A ringing report followed as quick as a flash, and the man addressed us Panther Pete fell dead in his tracks, a bullet in his forehead, sent from the unerring pistol of the man who so boldly faced the gang of desperadoes, while, with only the interruption of the shot and the fall, be continued in the same cool way: ‘Yer see, pards, I set another tune, an’ nove o’ yer hed ther narve ter jine in ther chorus, an’ it’s all well yer didn’t, fer I hev every durned gerloot o’ yer kivered, an’ ‘leven more fun'rals in these weepins, while you only counts nine.” ‘‘Come, Joe, is yer gone mad?”’ asked the ex- ; pected bridegroom. ‘“Nary, but Pant’er Pete hev gone some- whar an’ you'll foller if yer drops them hands o yourn. ‘“‘Up with yer throat-cutters and gold: -steal- ers, yer varmints o’ Satan, or I'll play the Dead March is Tbose be addressed knew to whom he refer-. red, and up went the hands of the desperado gang. **Oh, Lordy, anybody lookin’ in through the winder w'u’d think we were havin’ a pra’er meetin’ in heur fer sartin. ‘* Now, major, jist call in yer sojers an’ ther gang shell be tuck in slick as grease.” ¢T care not to arrest them, my fine fellow,” said the major. “Thar yer is all wrong, major, fer yer hev offered a reward fer these very gerloots.” ‘* Ha! who are they?” ‘Bowie Bob, are ther capt’in o’ ther gang, Look out thar!” With the last word a second shot rung through the cabin and another of the men, who had lowered his hand quickly to draw a weapon, fell his length upon the floor. ‘‘As I were sayin’,” coolly went on the young man, “ when thet dead pilgrim were so enperlite as ter interrupt me, this heur conven- tion o’ gerloots is knowed as ther Midnight Riders.” “Ha! that robber band?” cried the major, now drawing his revolver, while Captain Stew- art followed bis example and both stepped to the side of the man who made the bold asser- tion. ‘I talks Gospil, major, fer I hes been fer three months with ther gang, layin’ fer jist this heur moment o’ joy.” Thethonest settlers present now also stepped forward, and wholly at the mercy of their cap- tors, the band of outlaws offered no resistance, attd were soon secured beyond all ,.ossibility of SCHR, ‘ Now. try friend, whom bave lio thank for Boa California Joe, the Mysterious Plainsman. this night’s good work? said Major Van Dorn, as he stepped up to the-daring borderman who had been the means of saving his life and also of baving captured the very band of outlaws he had tried so hard to hunt down. ‘“My name are Joe, major,” was the quiet reply. ‘“Joe! By heaven, but I see it now! ‘You are Joe the Stampeder, as the boys called you at the fort?” ‘*T guess I are the one thet were thet Joe,” and Joe grasped the hand war-uly that was ex- tended to him, and that night accompanied the major and his prisoners back to the fort; but not one word could they get him to tell them of where he had been, and what adventures be had known since three years before he had ridden off alone as the Boy Pioneer, bound for the Rocky Mountains. CHAPTER XIX. THE SAME “JOE.” “WELL, Joe, why don’t you tell us what you have been doivug since we saw you last?” asked the major, for the twentieth time, as they rode on toward the fort that night, ac- companied by Captain Stewart, and with the outlaw, bringing up the rear guarded by two soldiers, *“T hev been rovin’, major.” “ But where?” ‘‘ About ther kentry.” ‘Did you get to the Rocky Mountains?” es, “And have met with many thrilling adven- tures, [ll wager?’ ‘“Yer’d win yer money, fer I hes been the quiet reply. “But how did you strike the trail of the Midnight Riders?” ‘I were a-ridin’ along the trail one day an’ comed across your dockiment stuck on a tree.” ‘(What was that, Joe?” ‘Tellin’ how yer’d give dust fer ther Raider Cap’n an’ his gang whether the’r toes were turned up or kickin’, ‘*So I jist thoughted I’d like ther job, an’ I lays round loose, got ther run o’ how ter meet an’ then j’ined ther gang with a tale o’ y [hed been put through thet made ’em weep fer me, “Yer knows ther balance, major, an’ thet I jist saved thet putty gal from bein’ a outlaw’s bride; but wimmin is sich queer folks I dunno ef she don’t cuss me fer it, arter all.” ‘*No, Joe, she, said ‘God bless you’ many times.” “Waal, I hopes He will, major; but does yer know I hev lost thet horse yer give me?” ‘*No; how did you do that?” and the major hoped to draw the young man out to tell some- thing about himself, ‘“‘And ther mustang, too.” ‘You lost your mustang, too?” at Yas,’’ “But how?” “They got kilt,” ‘‘ Indeed! How did it happen?” ‘*They got shvoted.”’ ‘Tn a fight, I suppose?” ““Yas, it were a. kind of a scrimmage like. ‘‘But I were sorry to lose your horse, and yer rifle got tuk from me.” ‘Tell us how it happened, Jce?”’ ‘‘T hes been among ther. Injuns, an’ they hain’t over honest,” was the significant reply, and with this his hearers were compelled to be satisfied. ‘But you'are well mounted and.armed now, Joe.””’ “Yas, this critter hain’t slow, an’ she kin keep movin’ as long as any of ’em,.” ““Well, Joe, the paymaster of the fort hasn’t paid over your money yet.” ‘No, ther time hed not passed,” ** And you'll have some to add to it, as you'll get your reward for those outlaws back there.” ‘Major, I trades in horse-flesh, I swaps rifles, revolvers, knives or buckskin, but I don’t take dust for buman blood. = through some leetle adventer in my way,” was’ 11 ‘Yer is welcome ter them pilgrims, an’ kin hang ’em fer all I cares, but I don’t sell ’em ter yer. ‘‘T heerd yer name spoke as I were passin through this kentry, an’ I seen yer dockymint, an’ I sets out to retarn yer kindness, an’ thar is ther gerloots; but don’t talk dust ter me fer human flesh an’ bones.” ‘Well, Joe, I meant but to give you what is your just due.” ‘* Divide it with the sogers of yer reégimint, major.” ‘* And the money I have of yours, Joe” ‘‘ Keep a keepin’ on it, major, until yer heur from me ter give it away.” ‘But I expect soon to be ordered away from here, Joe.” ‘Waal, leave it with ther one who takes yer place, subject ter my call.” By this time they had reached the fort, and when those who had known Joe before heard of his arrival, they pressed about him with warm greetings, ‘‘Joe, you have grown as handsome as a picture,” said a young officer. “*So [ hes been told,” was the innocent reply, and it caused a general laugh. That night Joe slept in the fort, the guest of the major, and when the two were breakfast- ing together the next morning, and the officer was striving to get the young frontiersman to enlist as a scout, the startling news was brought in that the prisoners had all escaped, having dug cut from the guard-house and under the stockade wall. Squads of cavalry were at once sent in every direction in pursuit of the fugitives, while Joe mounted his horse and started off alone with the remark: ‘*T guesses I’11 st¥ike ther trail myself.” CHAPTER XX. THE BANDIT TRAILER. WueEn Joe left the fort, he did not attempt to strike the trail of the fugitives, as the soldiers had done, He had heard that the outlaws had killed the guard over the horses, and mounting the fleet- est animals had separated to each go his own way. There were eight of them, and each one had been pursued by a squad of cavalry, led by an officer and a good scout. Joe however took big own way te follow them. up. Having been a member of their band, while he was plotting their capture, he at once deter- mined to start for their retreat in the hills. He rightly knew that when Bowie Bob had gone down to the settlement to marry pretty Mollie Kenton, he bad left at the retreat acou- ple of pards, and plenty of arms and plunder, with a score or more of horses. Though passing as a trapper, Bowie Bob was the captain of the gang of horse-thieves and murderers, and his handsome face and dashing way had won poor Mollie’s heart, for she sus- pected not his vile cbaracter. | Therefore Joe, knowing what he did, struck straight for the retreat, and did not spare his" horse in the least. It was a hard six miles’ ride, ard the sun was nearing the western herizon, when Joe hid his tired horse ina ravine and went to the outlaw cabin. ‘‘Hullo, Joe, whar’s the rest o’ ther beys?" said one of the two men who came out of the cabin as he approached. It was a wild, desolate spot, and where few soldiers would care to follow a foe. A rudely built, but stout cabin, a fenced-in lot for stolen horses, and an out-houre for plunder, comprised the outlaws’ retreat, avir which two villainous-looking men held guard during the abeence of the rest of the gang. ‘‘ They is comin’ as fast as ete kin,” truth- fully answered Joe. ‘‘ Did ther Cap git fixed?” “He did, Tom, durned well fixed.” ‘Waal, she are a prairie flower o’ a £1), — com icbooks.c