Deadwood Dick's Big Deal; or, The Gold Brick of Oregon — page 33: what you’re looking at

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

= - DEADWOOD DICK. 35 Deadwood Dick paused a moment, his voice betraying intense emotion, while his stern gaze rested upon the. homely visage of the veteran scout. Avalanche was grim and silent. + “You may imagine that this much could but arouse any F husband’s curiosity; still, believe me, that I kept my own 4 counsel, and did not let on that I knew anything of the matter. I, however, kept a watch, and found that nearly every time I went forth to hunt that man visited my home. “Binally, one day, Blondell, the road-agent was cap- tured, and I rode over to the Bar, and privately identified him as the visitor to my cabin, while publicly I identified him as the man who robbed me on the trail. The same night of his capture he was released from jail, and made his escape. That same night Calamity and my boy dis- appeared. : “You cannot fully imagine my feelings. At first I made up my mind to let them go; then, I grew revengeful, and swore to follow them to the end of the earth but what I would at least recover my boy. I had no difficulty in striking their trail, and began to follow it. For a week I dogged them. One night I came across an infant’s skele- ton in the mountains, from which the flesh had been eaten by ‘wolves. It needed only instinct to tell me it was the remains of my little boy. “Maddened. almost to insanity, I buried the bones, and fied on in pursuit. One night I stopped for rest at a de- serted shanty, and during the night it was fired, and I nar- ; Towly escaped being roasted. Again, I was shot, on the Gila river, and nearly killed. At last, one day, a ranchero gave me a letter from her. _““‘Fool—why follow us longer? she wrote. “You are but wasting your time, and endangering your life. After what has happened, I am well aware you seek our lives, and we must defend ourselves. You are not the only cluded. Go back—or die. I cannot save you. The die is cast, and fate has sealed the future. Henceforth we must conmmicloolks. Gorn