Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1005 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

” <* ae “a ~ St ee 2 ty <; . ey yy in Fo oes 7 * + 3 ~ he BS ae S| tS he an 4 Dek ° ‘; = “4 Fed .* i? ' ar fr i a nS hel ‘* Ji om 4 2 A +: a ‘ , ie 2 i ) bade, \ ie”. ae rm “ * te ’ ot i vi) a bs 5: he rs bs fal pe , “eh O30 : fey ' am: A & — i‘ Yi o* « Li ‘ - » - ~~? , = ‘Deadwood Dick, Jr., Branded. ‘a TT .. .- ~~ 3 —_ ; : : ~ . 1 * und “Then you desire to escape him now?” “Heavens! he would murder me now, after what: I have done. Yes, yes, 1 de- sire to escape; I want you to protect me.” “Fnough said,” agreed Dick, giving her another embrace and releasing her. *“T’ll try and do something in return for the risk you have taken for me, and to- gether we will hunt him down.” “At once? ” “No, we will Jet him feel secure for a time, and the blow will be all the great- er when it falls. But—’” “What? ” “ Are you to be depended on?”’ “To be depended on? I do not under- stand you, sir.” “Call me Dick. I mean, will you hold out to the end, when it comes to the test?” -*“ Will I hold out—’” ‘ Perhaps your love wil: rekindle, and you will balk my revenge when it comes to the hour—’” “ No, no, a thousand times no! My hate is even more intense than was my love. No, no, I will not falter; 1 am now yours, if you will let me be yours, and our pur- pose is one.’ “Tt is a bargain,” said Dick. is my hand, little pard.” The girl placed her hand in his. “Hands up! both of ye!” The voice was so near that both were startled, and Dick felt a gun behind his ear. It was so sudden that Dick obeyed be- * Here - fore the thought came to him to resist, but perhaps it was as well, for that might have meant his instant death. “Tt is Booth!” cried the girl in dis- may. “ We are lost—lost!”’ “Bet yer life ye are,” said the man. “Ye forgot to reckon me, I guess. Et took me a good while to worm up} into that peak by the crevice inside and take this galoot by surprise, and et has took me a good while to git down again, but hyer I am and hyer you be, C0. 4 “And what do you expect to do with us?” asked Dick, grimly. “Take ye straight to Captain Joaquin, of course.” “ Never!” said the young woman. “T’ll show ye. You turn— Ugghh!” Deadwood Dick’s foot had suddenly Caught the fellow in the middle, and over he went with a grunt terrific. No sooner had he fallen than the girl was upon him, and her knife was buried in his breast, straight and true, and the cutthroat stiffened out to rise no more. “There is one less,” she said, rising. “T never killed a human before, but I would kill a score rather than be taken k to that man. Thank heaven, we are free yet, Dick. Do you want further proof of my devotion to you? Can you ask it?” “T did not ask anything more than your word, Susana. You are a pard worth having. We will hang this fellow to the tree where they hanged me, and should they come this way again they will be- lieve that Deadwood Dick ig still there _owhere they left him, and the surprise will be all the greater when the blow falls, as fall it must.” CHAPTER XV. BANKER BROWN, OF POWDER POCKET. Meantime, Captain Joaquin had gone straight to the cabin. , He believed that Susana would go there to gather up some effects before «trying to run away. Of course he knew, or believed, that the shot had been fired at him by her, and that only confirmed the suspicion he had formed against her. Had he caught her, a horrible fate would have been hers. Smarting under the wound she had given him—for the bullet had lodged jn his shoulder—he was in the right mood to wreak ven- geance. ) But he failed to find her. There was no sign of her at the cabin, no indication that she had been there— in fact, the servants declared that she had not been there. Back he started, and had gone but a little way when he met his men coming, and he scattered them all to look for the missing young woman, with orders to take her dead or alive. | They went out by the various trails— rather possible avenues, for there were no trails proper there, but they failed to find her. And when Captain Joaquin and two of the men came out at the place where Dick had been hanged, they found his body swaying to and fro in the breeze. Nor was she found. And when, later on in the night, others of the band came in im haste with certain intelligence con- cerning the sheriff and his posse, Cap- tain Joaquin deserted his cabin and took to the hilis, and was not seen in that sec- tion again. On the following day the cabin was discovered and looted and burned, but the birds had flown. Meanwhile, Deadwood Dick, with Su- sana, was making his way to the south, keeping to the hills in order not to be discovered. Dick wanted it to appear that he was dead, He learned enough from Susana to give him a suspicion as to what Captain Joa- quin would do, and he felt that he could afford to give him time. They crossed the border into Mexico, where Dick quietly rested for a season to recover his full measure of health and strength, and where Susana was his de- voted slave and companion. Inquiry was being made in every di- rection for Deadwood Dick. It was known that the last case he had undertaken was the hunting down of Captain Joaquin, Or the Red Rover, and it was feared that he had met his death at the hands of that cutthroat and his band. Dick remained in hiding. and thus Cap-’ tain Joaquin, wherever he might be, would be lulled into the confirmation of his belief that Deadwood Dick was no longer to be feared. In fact, that worthy was chuckling to himself, whenever a newspaper item concerning Dick met his eye. He believed that he alone, and those of his men who had been in the secret, could solve the mystery. And go time passed on. Powder Pocket was a roaring camp. It was at the top notch of the biggest kind of a boom. It had been a paying camp from the first, with rich mines on every hand. New finds, too, were being reported al- most daily, and people and money were flowing in as freely as water flowed down from the snow-capped peaks. The newest institutien of which Pow- der Pocket could boast was a bank. It was a private concern, had been opened on a grand scale, and was being | con- ducted on a paying basis. Money ‘could be had in almost-any amount, on big in- terest and bigger security. The head of this institution was one Sigmund Brown. He had come to Powder Pobiiet about six months prior to the time of this. in- troduction of the camp. “4 i ae » an - PAG & > ¥ Be; 4 eet ee Sei gf nae tyr Fearne fe hee seri: ” « has yy ‘thn ie oe ab ints se, ni - ‘ PUT Ps = Settling down quietly, he had rented. one of the best buildings in the place, re-- fitted it in fine style, and one morning: his sign was found adorning the front— S. Brown, Banker. He had a game in contemplation. He had money, the other fellows had the property. They could not do any- thing without money. His money was on e¢all, as said, but every loan was vouched for by an iron- clad mortgage, and it was his boast that. in five years he would own the town. The interest was high, the loan was not sufficient, beyond the mere beginnings, and on the day when the interest could not be met. nor the principal paid, he would fore- | close. He was there to double—to treble this: pile, and he made no secret among his. intimates of his means. One day a miner entered his private office in an excited state. The private office was always open to those who came on particular business, and this man had announced that his business was of the utmost importanée. The clerks in the main room had seen his kind before, often, and he was readily admitted. He was, undoubtedly, a@& man who-had struck it rich and was eager to mortgage and begin working the claim. He was a bearded fellow, roughly clad, and was begrimed from hat to boots with mud and clay. : “You aire Mr. Brown?” he eagerly demanded. “Yes, sir, I am Mr. Brown. What cam — I do for you, sir?” “T have struck it rich—so all-fired ° rich that it has ’most turned my head. [ want you to look at my find, which I — have registered all correct, and lend me a. loan on it so [ kin open et up.” “That so? I congratulate you. Where does it lie?” “Hardly out of gunshot from the camp, and it is the prince of ’em all, I’m bettin’.” “Tt will be a pleasure to me to loak at. ¢. it, the first opportunity, and if it is what you think, there will be no trouble about. your getting a loan, I guess.”’ “No trouble at all, I’m. bettin’, will open yer eyes when ye see et.” “What do you consider it worth?” “ Seventy-five thousand, if a cent.” ~ “And how much of a loan would you want?” “ Twenty-five thousand—” “Whew!” “What’s the matter?” “ That is steep. I have never gone over ten thousand into the best of them.” “ But I tell ye this is the best of the bunch. You will say so when ‘ye see it, and you won't hesitate a minnit to fork ~ et over, either.” ‘IT must see it first of all. two—” ‘““Can’t wait. I am in a fever. “Impossible; I can’t— “JT will pay ye, boss. Why, it” opens: up bigger’n that Castleville Bank shelled | | out a year ago, and I ain’t hardly cracked the ground yet.” The banker had become suddenly pale. He was a man with long hair, and wore — a mustache and goatee, and was alto- ; lie asked, huskily, striving ‘hard to remain com- — gether a good-looking man. ‘What do you - mean?” posed. “ Where. is Castleville? What do you suppose I ness at. Castleyille?”’. ‘“ Castleville? Why, they closed the in most cases, to develop — YOU. 54 In a day or You in must come with me to- day—right now! hag de wv?» p ale tha ¢ if; a” 2 &> a o" 7 « os ie . 7 ip! now about any bank busi- es ‘7 ven you know, and set out to remove ; es i a a a . : ’ - - he i p Ted. sd p> oe 7 , 7 *4 4 Pa 4 =) an Le) ao (TEs q BY ine