Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 186 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

16 | rr ee +e ee ee the massacre of Conejos: Conejos was the first man to strike a ‘lead’ in this valley, and he set- tled with his family on a ranch at the upper end of the town, where the old ruins are now. He came up from below on the south trail, and that was before any one had come in here from the north. He had quite a place fixed up when the first parties from the north came in and located this camp, and was supposed to have taken out a heap ot dust, which of course he had on the place, as there wasn’t any way of sending it off, as the express had not reached here then. Well, one night Conejos’s ranch was attacked; set on fire, and every soul within the stockade walls was killed except this boy, and he was knocked on the head and left for dead. The flames started us here in the camp—’twas in the dead of night, when there wasn’t a soul stirring—and _we all turned out, thinking of course that the house had accidentally got on fire, but when we got there we saw that murder had been done and all were dead except the boy; we manag to revive him, but his head was affected by the injuries which he had received, and he never has had good sense since. All that he could tell was that he woke up and that there was a lot of big black Cats with knives and pistcls in their paws around him, and then he got a lick on the head, and that is all he knows.” ‘‘Cats—big black Cats! durned if that don’t beat me all hollow; I never heered of anything like it since I was hatched; Cats—black Cats! and the colonel brought his hand down with a heavy whack on the table by which he was started from his slumbers. **Cats—black Cats!” he cried, repeating the words of the other; ‘‘ yes, I saw them all— thirteen—thirteen big fellows, and all of them with gleaming knives in their hands! Oh! see their eyes! how fiercely they glare! And the blood! see how the blood flows, warm, red and shing blood!” and the idiot, rising slowly to s feet, looked with distended eyes into the _vacant air. ‘‘ And there are spirits round me now,” he continued, much to the uneasiness of the miners who glared about them and looked askance at the dark corners of the room as though they expected to see the airy forms of which the boy spoke lurking there. And the ps ie from Taos, with open mouth, stared, the most wonder-struck man in the m. ‘*T see them in their white robes, waving their silver wings!” and the boy’s voice was thrillingly low. He moved toward the door with outstretched hands. ‘‘ They beckon me to follow them; I know what they want! They want me to come with them on the hills under the moon. All niga, lam coming!” and then, opening the door he passed out into the night, much to the relief of the crowd, who were natur- ally superstitious, and did not at all relish this sort of talk. Even after the boy’s departure they looked anxiously around them, not quite sure that ghosts were not lurking in the dark re- cesses of the room. man was the first to break the silence. *men, you may skin me for lariats if this hyer don’t beat all that I ever did heer tell on; but I say, how ’bout this Cat business? Is this hyer camp going to be run over by a parcel of Cats? Are we a lot of dog-goned skunks for to howland crawl into our holes ’cos a few black Cats come a me-owing ’round the town? Not by a ju if I know myself, and I think I do. I kin whip my weight in Cats, wild or tame, and I allers could.” ‘Well, gents, it does seem really rough that these fellows should dare to come right into our town,” the Doctor declared. ‘Yes, and to walk right over us!” the colonel added, excitedly. Then up spoke a brawny and grizzled miner a staid and steady man, one of the solid ones o the camp. ‘‘The kurnel is right, and we mustn’t stand it Peo must take the war-path and clean ’em ou This idea took at once, and every man in the room immediately volunteered. Some one sug- gested that to ap int a leader was about the be es thing. e gentleman from Taos, with hat modesty so characteristic of him, was about to volunteer for the post when the brawny miner headed him off just as he had got his mouth open by nominating the Doctor, and the approval with which the nomination was re- ceived was quite strong enough to convince even the giant, who was not noted for clearness of comprehension, that he stood no show at all. The host of the Tenderfoot’s Rest had never been noted as a fighting-man, but there was _ that peculiar something about him which gave - ~-~- ei 8 re _ Cool Desmond. — a i i ee a ee ee even a stranger an idea that he would prove a tough customer to any one who took the trouble to wake him up: The Doctor, as a rule, was a quiet man, and rarely bothered himself with anything outside of his own business, but on this occasion he for once broke through his rule and accepted the responsibility. “Allright, gentlemen, it is your say so; and if it is the sense of the meeting that Iam the man to fill the bill, why I am agreeable,” and so he accepted the office—a Vigilante leader. A bright idea occurred to one of the miners. ‘*Say, gentl’men, we ought to ring Desmond in on this deal seeing as how he is the boss fight- ing-man of this deestrict,” he suggested. his took immediately, and the crowd pro- ceeded to wait upon the gambler. By this time it was near midnight, and as it happened to be a dull night as to business the Desperado’s Den was on the point of closing up when the miners marched into the saloon. Desmond was considerably surprised and for a moment apprehensive, for, as the crowd en- tered, he backed behind the table as if prepar- ing for an attack. It wasa natural action, for men who run such places in the mining camps do so with their lives in their hands, . The Doctor acted as spokesman for the crowd, and speedily made known the errand upon which er ad come. But to the surprise of all who had expected that the gambler would only be too eager to join in the ‘‘ picnic,” he declined. ‘‘T ain’t lost any cats,” he declared, ‘‘and I am not going to prowl round in the dark look- ing for anybody else’s; ’sides, 1 don’t take much stock in the yarn, nohow,”’ This was an rsion that the Taos man in- dignantly resented, but the gambler scornfully repeated tke remark, and the miners, rather nettled at his refusal, withdrew. They were all armed, therefore all prepared for the expedition, so at once they set out. And then, for the first time, a suspicion of what the object of the marauders was, in enter- ing Se town, came to them. e Cats had been lurking near the cabin oc- cupied by the two pilgrims, the boy and girl! Did they threaten harm to the adopted children of Juanapolis? CHAPTER XXII. THE SEARCH. DEEPLY excited were the citizens at the bare thought of mischief threatening the two ‘‘ babes ae the woods,” as one of the miners termed the S. < Durn my skin if it wouldn’t be a ’tarnel shame!” cried the brawny, gray-bearded miner, old Uncle Pete, as he was termed, when one of the crowd suggested that the ‘‘ Cats” might be prowling around the cabin of the two wander- ers with hostile intent. Each and every one in the band echoed the sentiment, and as for the giant son of Taos he swore with a dozen blood-curdling and decided- ly original oaths that he would, single-handed, exterminate all the Cats west of the ississipp1 if a hair of the heads of either of the two was harmed. But as they approached near to the cabin of the pilgrims the Doctor commanded silence. 4 Ouit your talking!” he exclaimed, ‘“‘ or else the birds will be alarmed and give leg bail if they are around.” ‘*Cats ain’t birds, by a durned sight!” the colonel muttered, who, though his brains were still considerably muddled by liquor, yet had sufficient sense to understand that the order must be obeyed. ‘*Let us know when we are pretty near the spot where you saw the fellow s ing,” the leader of the party remarked to Taos. A hundred — further on the giant came to a halt, and the rest of the party guessing from the action that they were near the place of action halted also. ‘*There, Doc, the cuss was, jes’ over by them big rocks,” Taos said, in a hoarse whisper, while all clustered around the Doctor, rom the trusty revolvers which they carried, ready cocked, and gazed with inquiring eyes at the point indicated. ‘“Now, boys,” said the Doctor, ‘“‘ we must kinder spr out and surround that ’ere rough bit of sile over yonder, for I reckon that that is whar we will find our ag A shrill, sharp whistle rung out clear on the still night air! The miners looked at each other amazed, not knowing what to make of the sound, but before any one of the party could make any remark again it sounded, shrill and sharp as before. eee eee It was evidently a signal. Twos whis- tles, in quick succession, and the sound came from the rear—from the center of the town. ‘‘Hallo! what does that mean?” quoth the Doctor; ‘‘isit a warning to our game to make themselves scarce?’ ‘If it is so the Cats must have a spy right in the town,” Uncle Pete observed. ‘‘Spread out and advance; we'll soon find out!” the Doctor commanded. ' The command was obeyed with alacrity, but the leader of the party was wrong in his —_ sis; they did not soon find out, for they had nothing but their labor for their pains, Thor- oughly as they os the ground, all the way from the spot where they had halted to the cabin of the pilgrims, not a sign did they dis- cover to show that human foot had trod that bg that night. heir fruitless search over, the miners gather- ed a few paces from the pilgrim shanty. ‘Boys, these fellows are too much for us,” the Doctor observed, sagely. ‘‘Those whistles were a signal for them to get up and dust, I reckon, and if it is so, why, the Cats have gota pal and a s y right in the a But, while the miners had been occupied in their fruitless search, the doubting words of the scoffer, Desmond, had occurred to them. Had the giant from Taos really seen anything like the tig black Cat which he had described, or was it alla coinage of an imagination heated by potent fire-water? : The colonel was noted for big stories, wonder- ful yarns of wonderful adventures by flood and field; in fact was the biggest liar south of Den- ver—an accomplishment which he really was proud to claim. The wild, free air of the great West seems to make men more outspoken and less constrained in their ideas, than the tainted, confined breeze of civilization; therefore no one of the party was taken by surprise when old Uncle Pete shoved his big fist under the nose of the giant and shook it menacingly. ‘‘ You long-legged, mule-headed, p’ison son of a perarie skunk, you lied when you said that you see’d a Cat a-prowling ’round hyer!” the old man exclaimed. ‘‘ You lied, and you know you lied, you whisky-soaked, animated keg, ou! - 22 ae ae — eee oe ened 25a owe ‘*So help me Bob, I was giving it to you as straight as a string!” the colonel protested, as- tonished at the outburst, and really feeling hurt by the doubt so hey sapgeee expressed. _ “You lie—you know you do! You lie so much that you can’t tell the truth when you want to!” the other retorted. ‘‘And you were drunk, too; you are drunk, now; you couldn’t see a hole through a forty-foot ladder, if there wasn’t any rounds into it! A Cat! Oh, get out! You couldn’t tell a cat from a mule ten yards off, the way you are now!” ; ‘‘Gentl’men, I ap to the crowd if this hyer is the clear white article, and no mistake?” the colonel exclaimed, with a great deal of dig- nity and feeling in his voice. ‘“‘I have been h’isting a few inches of whisky into me, but, wot of that? It takes a keg to throw me off m center. I tell you I see’d a Cat as plainly as see any one of you, now, and it was a whopper of a Cat, too!” From the incredulous looks upon the faces of the miners, and the expressive way in which they shook their heads, the big loafer under- stood that his word was doubted, and his rage began to rise. ' I kin fight any man in the crowd, hyer, wot says that I didn’t see a Cat!” he avowed, doub- ling up his huge fists, and shaking them in a de- fiant manner. ‘‘Mebbe you kin, but that don’t prove that you did see one,” responded the old man dog- Sera ‘Well, whether you did or not, it is quite plain that we are not going tosee one,” the Doc- tor interposed; he, like the majority of the par- ty, was rather inclined to the belief that the colonel had been the victim of a delusion, al- though the whistles, evidently given as a signal and a warning, he could not account for except by the supposition that some of the Cats had been concealed amid the rocks, and that a spy of the gang in the town had watched the miners depart on their errand, and then had warned the marauders, by means of the whistles, that danger threatened them, and, hence, they had retreated in hot haste. ‘‘So, the quicker we get back to town the better,” he continued. ‘‘ Keepin’ us out of our bunks, the mule-head- ed mutton-jack !’ old Pete muttered, with re- vengeful looks at the colonel, who was terribly put out by the complete failure that had been made. | com: See