Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 186 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

mouthed, slab-sided galoot!” Desmond exclaim- ed. ‘‘ You too much, and I am sick of hearing you spit out your foolishness. Now, you stay out here or l’ll bore you—do you un- derstand?” The Taos man did understand, and, what was more, with all his bluster he was ‘ skeered ” of the gambler. He had never heard him called aaa ay but Cool Desmond, the Desperado since he had struck the camp, and so, without really knowing much of his quality, he was afraid to incur his enmity. Grumblingly he said that he would remain outside, although he protested that it was rouzh on him, and he would be ‘‘durned” if he would ‘a’ stood” it from any other man. The gambler knocked at the door, the sweet voice of the girl bade him enter, and he walked in. The maid was sitting by the window in the side of the cabin which commanded a view of the distant hills that, like grim sentinels, hem- med in Death Valley and the camp of Juanapo- is. The boy was in one of the bunks, all wrapped up in a blanket, and he started as Desmond en- tered and gazed anxiously at him as though he feared that be came with some evil intent. The sun had sunk behind the western hills and its last dying rays were making glorious the western sky, and as the girl sat by the win- dow the rich light shone full upon her face, making her beauty still more striking. Briefly, as was his wont, Cool Desmond ex- plained that he had come for the urpose of es- corting the two to the meeting which had been gotten up in their behalf. But the boy in- santly manifested a strong repugnance to the idea. ‘Oh, I cannot go!” he exclaimed; ‘‘I cannot pr to face a crowd of strangers; I will not go Desmond was amazed at the strange excite- ment, and could not understand why it should arise The girl evidently was alarmed at the boy’s anes and went at once to the side of the ‘*Do not be afraid,” she said; ‘‘ you need not go unless you wish.” **But you—you will go and leave me all alone here,” he exclaimed, evidently in a state of feverish fear. ‘* You will have to go, miss, because the boys won’t be satisfied at allif they don’t see you, but as for the young man, I suppose that he can stay at home if he wants to,” Desmond ob- served, ‘*] shall only be absent a little while, and you can bar the door; there isn’t any danger; no one will disturb you.” “Oh, no, not the least bit of danger,” the gambler added, ‘“‘and you need not be afraid, young man, about your sister; I will see that she is well taken care of and comes safe home again. You see, miss, 1’‘m a very plain man and I never sling many words, but what I say, I mean, and although I say it, who perhaps snouldn’t, 1am about as safe a man to tie to as you will find in this valley. I came up alone this evening so as to have a chance to talk to i without interruption. I heered your story his morning, but I thought, maybe, that you might want a friend to tella leetle different one to. Ofcourse, your business is your own, but, maybe, it might pay you to take some such man as myself into your confidence. Maybe you’ve come down here ona secret trail—maybe you are on the scent of a good thing, and there is enough in it, so that you can afford to let a third party in for a share.” The girl looked amazed at this, and the boy, half raising himself in the bunk, glared at the visitor with anxiouseyes. | ‘* You see, I kinder got an idea in my head,” he continued, ‘‘that maybe you are on a trail that leads right back to the massacre of Cone- os With a loud scream the boy fell back in a dead faint, while the girl sprung to her feet, white with horror. CHAPTER XI. THE MEETING. DESMOND, although so cool, was surprised at the consternation excited by his words. He had expected to produce a certain result—had expected to see surprise and apprehension ap- pear upon the faces of the two, but was not prepared for this exhibition of fright. ‘* Hallo! what on earth is the matter?” he de- manded. As soon as she could recover herself the girl | wood, had wandered down into Death Valley, bs Cool Desmond. had seized a basin of water and immediately commenced bathing the boy’s temples. **'W hat’s broke—what’s the matter, anyhow?” the gambler continued. ‘‘Do you know any- thing about this massacre of Conejos?” By this time the girl had recovered her self- pea and was on her guard, or at least, so esmond thought, and she turned an inquiring face upon him as she said: ‘* Why, sir, what should we know of it? We are strangers here.” Desmond understood the evasion at once. "Ob, — might be strangers here and yet know all about it,” he observed. ‘‘ But, if you don’t know anything about it, how is it that the mere mention of the thing upsets you so?” A shrewd question, shrewdly put, but the girl was ready. ‘*My brother is very weak and nervous, and apt to be hysterical, and the very thought of blood or murder or anything of that kind affects him terribly; it almost drives him crazy as you have just seen,and of course when I see him thus afflicted naturally I am terrified, for I have been told that a sudden fright might cause his death.” The explanation, though a reasonable one, did not satisfy Desmond; he knew better— knew that the girl was deceiving him. ns 7 you know all about this massacre, don’t you ** No, sir, I do not; I do not know anything about it.” The prompt denial considerably astonished the questioner, the more soas the manner of the girl seemed to indicate that she was speaking the truth; but, although baffled for the present, the gambler felt sure that he had struck the right scent. ‘I see that you ain’t inclined to speak,” he remarked; ‘‘ but I tell you what it is, you won’t finda man in this town who would be of more use to you than I, but I don’t wish to force myself into your confidence; you can just think the matter over. You will find out before you have been here long that you won’t be able to do much alone and that you will have to have assistance, and when you come to that conclu- sion just you bear me in mind, for I am the very man you want.” The girl did not reply to this, being busy at the moment with the boy who, under her min- istering care, had slowly revived. ‘*Oh, Constantia, shall we never hear the last of these deeds of blood?” he moaned. If Desmond had not been well informed to the contrary he would surely have thought that this stripling boy had had some active part in the massacre of Conejos, the most terrible deed of blood that has ever stained the annals of Colorado. * Cheer up; you must not yield to these weak fears ; there isn’t any danger; no one will trouble ou. ‘‘No, my lad, not while I am around,” Des- mond hastened to say, and he approached the bunk where the boy lay, much to the discomfort of the lad, who rolled himself tighter in the banka and shrunk as close as he could to the wall. Desmond was puzzled; the boy was either only half-witted or else laboring under the in- fluence of some terrible fright, and if his guess was right—if the two had sought Death Valley for the purpose on which he believed that the had come, what reason was there for all this strange emotion? x Must you go now?” asked the boy, suddenly. “The meeting has been called at nine, and it is getting pretty well on to that now,” Desmond explained. ‘I will be back soon. Come, be not afraid; there isn’t any danger.” Very reluctant indeed was the boy to have his sister leave him, but, as there was no help for it, he was obliged to submit. Conducted then by Cool Desmond she left the house, and on the outside encountered the huge- bearded man from Taos who had been amusing himself by swearing at Desmond in two lan- guages, there not being oaths enough in one to satisfy him. : Quite a crowd had collected in front of the hotel when the trio arrived there, and by the time fixed for the meeting to commence there was hardly a man for twenty miles around who was not on the spot. Old Shannon had been selected to preside over the deliberations, and as the old store- keeper was quite a fluent, off-hand speaker no better choice could have been made. In a few well-chosen words he explained the situation; two orphans, likes the babes in the S 9 ne re a and it behooved the citizens of Juanapolis to look after them until they were able to look after themselves. A few of the men of the town had talked the matter over a bit, and they had come to the conclusion that the best thing to be done was to get up a subscription so as to give the two a good fair start. This proposition met with universal favor. The presence of the beautiful girl on the plat- form was a powerful aid. She was the only woman in the camp, with one exception, and the other one being a little ‘‘ off-colored,” and decidedly bad-tempered, didn’t count, in the opinion of the miners. Few men were there in the crowd who declined ‘‘ chipping in” to help the “gal” along. The managers of the affair had arranged everything very well indeed. Those who wish- ed to subscribe money or dust, and had it with them, could plank it down at once, while those who hadn’t the ‘*‘ plunder” handy were invited to put down their names on a subscription pa- per, and opposite to the name the amount of money, or lacking funds, the article or articles which they were willing to give. As old Shannon said, every man in the town ought to be represented, and if in some cases funds were low, why there wasn’t anybody but what had some article, no matter how trifling, which could be spared, and these articles, after they were all collected, could be put up at auc- tion and sold to the highest bidder. This idea took with the crowd atonce. There were a good may liberal but impecunicus souls in the camp who would not haye been able to contribute if the contributions had been se- stricted to money alone, but, as Shannon had remarked, there wasn’t one of them but could give something, it didn’t matter what; at auc- tion somebody would give something for it for sweet charity’s sake. The meeting broke up in a blaze of glory, and, as more than one of the citizens declared, the camp of Juanapolis had done herself proud that evening. Upon the next evening the auction was to take place, thus allowing time for the miners to go to their cabins and hunt up their spare treasures. One by one the men marched up to the tem- porary stand and deposited the plunder, and a more peculiar lot of miscellaneous articles prob- ably was never collected, One man, totally broke, and working for another party on a ‘‘ grub stake,” donated half a dozen candles, all that he had in the world that could be spared, and a great big rough fel- low bought them for a dollar apiece, and then, ain them together in his hand lit them, saying that for once in his life he was going to have an ijlumination regardless of expense. The Taos man contributed ten dollars, and then, inspired by the sight of the miners plank- ing down their odd articles, drew out the long eight-inch bowie-knife which he wore in bis belt, and cast it down upon the heap, saying: ‘‘Mebbe the gal will want a knife to eat her hash with, and this toothpick will answer.” Some way the giant did not understand that all the articles contributed were to be sold at auction to the highest bidder, and happening to be absent—busily em in a neighboring saloon taking a drink—when the sale took pores great was his wrath when he returned and saw a big fellow, nearly as large as himself, strut- ting around with the knife. Instantly the Taos man seized it, despite the remonstrance of the other. ‘TI gi’n it to the leetle gal for her hash!” he cried. But, the other was not willing to Bive it up, and then in the fairest manner possible the giant offered to fight him for it. The battle.took place, and the ‘‘ hump-backed elephant” came out victor. The other was sat- isfied, and yielded up the knife. One thing only puzzled him. ‘Say, I gi’n five dollars for that knife to help the pilgrims along, and you won it in a fair fight, but what in thunder did you put up ag’in’ the knife?” This was a knotty question, and one that the Taos man did not attempt to solve. The donation party, as the miners popularly termed it, was a most decided success. Two hundred dollars in cash was raised, besides pro- visions enough to last the two for a month at least, and then came the most difficult question of all. What could the orphans find to do? What light, easy business could they go into with a cash capital of two hundred dollars with a reasonable prospect of success? Finally the committee decided that a res- — Eomichboo 5 (E(o)|