Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 186 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

/ herself of the weapons, the gleaming knife brandished in the air would have found a scab- bard in her fair body. So overcome by terror was she at the horri- ble and unexpected sight, that she could only stand, statue-like, with straining eyes, and gaze awe-struck upon the fearful form. Again the apparition repeated the warning. ‘*Not a word—not a sign of alarm, or you die on the instant!” ‘*T will not speak—I will not attempt to give an alarm,” the girl gasped. ‘‘And you, young cub, do you understand?’ The boy wasso much under the influence of fear that he could hardly move, but he man- aged to stammer out a reply, although he might aS well have spared himself the trouble, for there was no sense to his words. ‘“‘And now, what brings = here? Speak truthfully or youdie!”’ the unknown questioned, in a threatening tone. “Tt is by accident that our footsteps came this way; we merely seek a place where we may live,” the girl replied, with perfect truth. But the man in the disguise of the cat did not believe her, though candor itself sat on her brow. ‘You are speaking falsely, and I know it!” he exclaimed, in harsh and angry tones. ‘Do not think to deceive me, for it is not possible. Do you know who I am?’ ‘** Indeed, I do not!” ‘“‘Tam Captain Wild-cat, and [ have written my name in blood in every mining-camp from Canyon City southward; noram I alone, either; I command a band of a dozen trusty men, each one as merciless and as bloodthirsty as the cat whose head he wears. I have watched you from the moment you first struck southward into this trail, and I know the errand upon which you come, the prize which you seek.’ The girl was greatly amazed at this strange declaration, the meaning of which was a most decided maretary to her. 7 por my life, sir, you have made some great mistake!” she answered, earnestly. ‘' Again I say it was but accident that led our steps this way; we sought a mining-camp, but no par- ticular one; indeed, until we entered this valley we did not know that such a place as Juanapo- lis existed, for we had never heard of it before, and, if we had, we should not have sought this place in preference to any other, for all places are alike to us; we only seek a chance to earn our daily bread ‘by honest toil. We have no er- rand other than that; we seek no prize except the money that our poor toil can gain.” But, honestly and candidly as the girl spoke, truth apparent in every word, and in every line of her face, it did not convince the strangely- disguised man. ‘** You carry it out well, mistress,” he replied, **and did I not know the truth you would most certainly deceive me, but I recognized you the moment I saw you, although I had no thought that you were near. Again I say that I know -your errand, and what you seek, and again I warn you to beware, for you will most surely lose your life if you persist in this mad en- deavor. Do you think that you, a weak girl with this fragile boy, will be able to succeed where strong men have failed? Bah! it is mad- ness!” _ “Ido not know what you mean; you speak in riddles!” she replied, evidently bewildered or, if the ignorance was assumed instead o “ha then in truth was she a most finished ac- ress. ‘A ‘single word will explain—a word that you know well enough—a name, Conejos!” The face of the girl was as pale as the face of a marble statue, and for a moment it seemed as if the very beatings of her heart were stilled, but, by a wonderful effort, she kept her agita- tion from being apparent. The boy fainted dead away the moment the name reached his ears, but, as he bad been extended at full length upon the ground, with his face pressed close to the floor, neither one of the others noticed the effect which the name produced upon him. Slowly the girl shook her head. ‘* What is the name to me?” she asked, ‘‘and what has it to do with this place?” ‘* You know well enough!” the disguised man returned, angrily, ‘‘ but, I see that you are de- termined to pretend ignorance. Beitso; it mat- ters not; but ce have had fair warning; I would not strike without a caution, but now, from this time forth, be on your guard. If you attempt to progress one single step toward the point you ve in view, then not all the powers of this world will be able to save you from my ven- geance; be warned in time, and turn aside from your purpose ere it is too late!” : Cool Desmond. 5 -_-—_—_—— - — And as suddenly as he had appeared, the mys- —— being threw open the door and aa: peared. ‘*In Heaven’s name what is the meaning of all this?” the maiden cried, in great astonish- ment, kneeling by the side of the boy and en- deavoring to restore him to consciousness, But this was destined to be a night of sur- rises, for, down out of the big chimney where © had evidently been concealed, drop the idiot boy, much to the terror of the girl, who rose in alarm at this new intrusion. ‘Bar the door! bar the door!” he cried; ‘‘ are you mad that you do not bar the door? He mar come back!” The thought was a wise one and at once the girl proceeded to bar the door. ‘Ha, ha! that’s good! ‘Now, we can talk at our leisure without being disturbed!” croaked the strange being, rubbing his hands briskly to- gether and then holding them out before him as if he was warming them over an imaginary fire. ‘*T was up the chimney and overheard all that he said. I knew that he would come, and now that you have seen Captain Wild-cat, the captain of all the Wild-cats, what do you think of him? Wasn’t I right when I told you to take the upper trail and warned you not to come near this town? Wouldn’tit have been better for you to have gone off to the wilderness and made friends with the red-skins? What red devil of them all would be worse than this ugly thing?’ ‘*But, why should he seek me out—what have I ever done to him—what have I ever done to anybody that I should be thus persecuted?” cried the girl, in a sudden outburst. **Oh, ho, ho, ho!” laughed the idiot; ‘‘ you make believe first-rate ; I couldn’t do it any bet- ter myself; but, you see, he knew you—he rec- ognized you as I did when I met you on the mountain trail, and he feared that you have come to tear away t rize which only a little while ago he sold his S6ul to the devil to gain; but he didn’t get it, and that is where the laugh comes in. Oh, it wasa terrible deed of blood. I think that I see them now, every man with the terrible cat’s head on—every man hearing gleaming steel in his hand, and the red-mouth toy dogs of war; and then they stabbed, and the shot, and the crimson life-stream flowed thic andfast, and the pale moon above got frighten- ed at the scene for she thought that a legion of devils from the flames below had broken loose, and she went and hid herself behind a cloud, and then played bo-peep with them, just as she plays bo-peep with me when I lay among the rocks by night and watch her, and beg her to tell me the secret of the Cats, so that 1 may go and cut their claws and pull out their teeth and laugh in their whiskers—there were thirteen of them—thirteen red-handed marauders, and at night they steal by me when I am alone in the mountain canyons, but Iam afraid to say any- thing to them, for I know not whether they are men, beasts or devils,” and then the idiot rock- ed himself mournfully to and fro crooning to himself after the fashion of the death-keepers at an old-time Irish wake. To the girl’s memory came the words that Shannon had uttered. The idiot had a sad his- tory and his thoughts dwelt continually on blood and slaughter. But, what had this to do with her? and why, in this strange place, should an enemy start up at once with threatened words the very moment she entered it? ‘‘Good-by!” cried the nondescript, suddenly, rising to his feet, going to the door and unbar- ring it; ‘‘I must go and look after the Cats, and see what other mischief they are up to. Don’t you be frightened; since you would come to this camp I will look after you. I will watch you as the moon watches the earth by night; but I will not play bo-peep with you as she does with me. You must kill the Cats if you havea chance,” and then he passed out into the night and was gone. These were strange things for the first night in the mining-camp. CHAPTER VI. DEAD IN HIS TRACKS. THE arrival of the travelers, so apache un- expected and so utterly unlike any party of tenderfoots—perhaps I should write in the plu- ral and say tenderfeet, but as a veracious chronicler 1 am only repeating the words of the men of the camp—was destined to mark an era in the history of Juanapolis—one of the white stones, as one might put it, scattered along the wayside to mark important events. In a short time the citizens, when discussing — eee past events, would say such and such a thing appened just before—or after, as the case might be—that lovely young heifer with the boy on the mule struck the town, just as now one of the most prominent events of the past, and one by which time was dated, was the ar- rival of the ‘‘humped-back elephant” who Prengny termed himself the Tearing Terror of aos, and who took itinto his head to instruct the citizens in regard to the proper pronuncia- tion of the name of the camp; but as every man always wound up—‘‘ the ‘crick’ took that non- sense out of him—quick!” But now the Taosite and his Wanapolis was clean forgotten and beauty ruled the madness of the hour. Late that night the town sat up and discussed the wonderful circumstance, and the fact must go on record that there was more whisky con- sumed that night at the bars of the ‘‘ Tender- foot’s Rest” and the ‘‘ Desperado’s Den” than had ever been known before in the same length of time. When one of the boys got out of words to ex- press his admiration of the beautiful woman who, like an angel from the clouds, had de- scended into the town, he would caper up to the bar and planking down his dust would say: * Well, gentlemen, here’s my ducats that she lays out any she-female that ever trod in shoe- leather south of Denver, and I don’t bar no- body, black, white, yaller nor red, and the man that won’t drink her health with me is a hoss- thief and no gentleman, nohow!” And the crowd invariably drank, As the Tearing Terror observed afterward: ‘We drank that gal’s health that night in whisky enough fur her to swim in. Nineteen hundred times I bh’isted pate fur her that night, an’ [ got so full that I was afeard some- body would hoop me up and roll me into one of the recap for a whisky-barrel!” And the gentleman from Taos would glare around him as if anxious to catch somebody who doubted his assertion. The town was proud; she ‘‘ humped ” herself that night: she felt that she was getting big and could put on metropolitan airs; for she ha a real live white woman now within her con: fines—no dusky daughter of the wilderness, no painted Jezebel whose mission it was to sow the seeds of destruction and death—but a real live Pr ais and Juanapolis would bet high on a Two men in the town did not share in the general rejoicing, although they profited most by the excitement, and they were so busy that the absence of their expression of satisfaction was not noticed, and those two were the Doc- tor, the hcst of the Tenderfoot’s Rest, and si- lent, white-faced Desmond, the Desperado—Cool Desmond. | The Doctor foresaw work ahead for him in a pers capacity, for, even if she was a ady, the “ boys” would surely get to cutting and shooting about her, as soon as the novelty of her aU Peerenee had died away; and as for Desmond, he believed that women were “ bad medicine,” anyhow, although it was currently reported that he made an exception in favor of one rather off-colored damsel who lived with her father up the creek a short distance above the town, of whom we have made mention be- fore, and whom we will introduce to the reader oe we have gone many pages further on in our e. Both the men were too wise to say anything, though, when they saw how strong the Range a tide was running in favor of the girl, although both fully and firmly believed that they saw evil in the future springing from her appearance in the town. The saloons generally kept open until twelve, and sometimes, when gambling was running high, until one, but on this night of which we write there was very little play going on; for once, cards had lost their attraction. The miners were too busy talking over the new arrivals and discussing what was the a thing for the town to doin the case, for uanapolis believed that in a measure she was responsible for the well-doing and the safe- keeping of the two waifs that a mysterious Providence had safely conducted over the rude and rocky trail to the wild and lonely Death Valley. The brother and sister—for, without question- ing, the town had jumped to the conclusion that they were such—were without father or mother, or other natural protectors; ergo, Juanapolis then must be father and mother to the helpless. wanderers, who, like straws drifting with the tide, had come into her confines, | 900 G ~. cS