Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 207 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

10 with a moisture that drove a shudder through her heart. It was somebody’s blood, Dago- bert’s most likely, for the knife had evidently been used above the stair by an enemy. The girl tound herself listening once more at the foot of the stairway. ‘‘Come what may I am going up,” she said resolutely, as her band tightened around the hilt of the bowie. ‘* Dagobert and I are friends. His enemies are mine. I have told him this. I will prove it!” Our heroine sprung into the darkened corri- dor and began to ascend. The ascent was not diflicult, but it promised to be an endless one, After awhile Helen paused for breath. All was darkness above and below; she did not know how near the top she was. Suddenly her heart stood still. <A wild rough voice had assailed her ears. ¥ ow down you go, C’lar the track;” it said. Helen instinctively hugged one of the walls of the underground stair. The voice which sounded like Dagobert’s seemed to tell her that she was in danger of being hurled to the bottom by something about to be thrown down the causeway. Nor was she mistaken. A moment later an object that could not be seen shot past her like a descending bowlder, and the girl uttered a wy of terror. t was not a rock but a man, for a hand had actually brushed her cheek! Helen did not hear the sickening thud that came up from below an instant later, for with a swooning cry she, brave as she was, sunk on the stones, and the crimson bowie onyppec from her nerveless hand. The wail could not have been heard for no- body came down the natural stair. By and by Helen opened her eyes; darkness still surrounded her, and eager to escape its thrall she crept down the steps. She shuddered when she thought of the sight that would greet her eyes at the foot of the stones if the fire still burned in the cavern. She could not escape it, and therefore she went forward emboldened by the inevitable. The fire was still alive, and the waif of the train saw a human figure lying on the rocky floor of the cave. She approached and bent over it. Before her lay the man who had been hurled down the amt | Helen saw that he was an Indian, and as she gazed he opened his eyes, gasped once and died. The girl turned away. She had seen many Indians; to her they were all alike. She did not notice that this one had a band around his left arm—a band made from the hide of a buffalo. A member of the League of the Buffalo Band! CHAPTER XI. WHEN OLD FOES MEET. Wuat had happened in the caverns above the waif of the train? Let us see. When Dagobert left Helen it was with the avowed purpose as we know of finding proof that the mountain of gold was not a myth. The light of triumph glittered in his eyes, as, torch in hand, he went up the steps. He had evidently scaled the ascent before. “Ef the rocks ar’ whar we Icft ’em four year ago I'll make her eyes snap,” he said, talking to himself, in a semi-audible tone. ‘‘ They must be thar, for we war alone when we hid ’em, an’ | know the boy hesn’t been back to ’sturb 26m.” Dagobert was not permitted to reach the top of the stair without having his thoughts turned into other channels. Stopping suddenly, he put out his torch and drew his knife, then crept upward until the stair ended. He was on level ground, but far beneath him his keen eyes saw the light of the fire he had lately kindled. “Pm not alone!” he thought. ‘‘Somebody’s hyar besides Dagobert. Injuns, mebbe.” ‘** Tam hyar!” Dagobert sprung back at the three words. They seemed to answer his thoughts, for he had not spoken aloud. At the samo time a hand struck his throat and closed upon it, but the giant tore it loose and grappled with its owner. “So you ar’ hyar, eh? I’m glad ov it! I dont want to take advantage ov you, though. You’ve got but one hand. I’ve got two. Ef you'll go below we'll fight equally. Ill tie one ov my hands, er the gal shall do it, an’—” “No! I’ve seen Monte; thet war worth two hands to me,” was the answer, and again the speaker made a dart at Dagobert’s trachea. * Ar’ you alone, Mohave?’ asked the Man with two Names. * Alone? D’ye think I’d hunt you with aregi- mental band, an’ a squad of helpers?” ‘‘1 know what you did among the Basaltics; you warn’t alone then.” ‘*But Pm alone now /” ** You lie, Mohave!” Dagobert’s foe hissed forth an oath. ‘*You’ve got help with you. I hear ’em,” said Dagobert. ‘*By my mother’s grave! I came hyar alone; but et—” ‘*Tnjuns!” A heavy figure leaping from the gloom had fallen upon the enemies. They fell apart, strik- ing madly with their knives at the new foe, who, whirling with a cry of pain, tore Mohave’s dirk from his grasp and hurledit away. Strik- ing near the landing of the stair, it fell forward, and bounding from stone to stone, leaped into the cave below to horrify the anxious girl. Dagobert did not entirely relinquish his hold on the Indian; but securing it, he drove his bowie into his breast, and in a moment of rage bore him to the causeway, down which he flung bim headlong. Then he turned back to renew the struggle with his whiter antagonist, but no sign of his presence reached him, ‘Whar ar’ ye, Mohave?” he asked. No answer. ‘You're a coward as ov old!” grated Dago- bert. ‘* I’ve settled yer Injun an’ am ready fur the rest ov the gang. Not alone, eh? No, ov course not! You hevn’t lost the faculty ov lyin’ since you left the Basaltic Buttes. hy on’t you come on?’ A sound more like the growl of an enraged tiger than the voice of a human being came from a point at Dagobert’s right hand. “Oh, thar you ar’, eh?’ exclaimed the Man with two Names. ‘ What ar’ you holdin’ back for?” ‘* You’ve disarmed me,” came from the dark- ness. ‘* Whar’s my knife?” ‘* Heyn’t you got one, Mohave?” ‘‘No. I struck the Injun with mine; he tore 3 out ov my hand. He warn’t my Injun, Dago- ert.” ‘* We'll hunt for your knife. you a fair show.” A moment later the deadly enemies were ‘‘ feeling the ground ” for the lost bowie which Dagobert little suspected had lately belonged to him. Their shoulders almost touched on several occasions, but neither uttered a word. — ‘““Mebbe,” said Dagobert, “it fell down- stairs.” ‘* Pr’aps,” replied Mohave Bill. loan me a knife?’ ‘*T hev but one now. [ left one at the shanty the other night ” The one-handed Avenger let a cry escape im. ‘‘ Thet’s tho one I’ve lost!” he said. Dagobert sprung up. The man before him was an enemy indeed; he had taken his bowie from Monte’s dead hand and had been hunting him with it. ‘You hev a revolver, Mohave?” he said. ‘“T hed one jes’ afore I got hyar. My hoss stumbled an’ throwed me over his head into the creek thet runs through the canyon, an’ I lost my weepin, I’m helpless, Dagobert; but I want to fight you jes’ ez bad.” Dagobert could not see his foe. He had not seen him since their last wild meeting in the basin of the Basaltic Buttes; but his voice told him that Mohave Bill still enjoyed good health. ‘‘?’m sorry I kin help you in no way hyar,” Dagobert said. ‘‘ But ef you'll go down—” ‘ld go to the place ov torment to fight you!” was the interruption. ‘‘You_ killed Monte; thet is all I want to know, Dagobert.” ‘‘-Yes,I did kill Monte; he’s but one ov the three; you’re another an’ I’m goin’ to sarve you the same way!” ** Not to-night!” ** To-night!” Mohave Bill laughed. ; ‘We'll go down an’ sce my old acquaint- ance,” he said, “I’m eager to try conclusions with you.” As the stony stairway was wide enough to let two persons go down side by side the ene- mies descended in that manner. ; They stepped over the body of the Indian, evidently a spy belonging to red gold league, and looked at each other. As they did so Helen uttered a cry of sur- prise and came forward; but Dagobert’s look checked ber. It told her that those two men were not friends. I mean to give “Vou can’t i Navajo Nick, the Boy Gold Hunter. A strange light appeared in the eyes of Mo- have Bill as they encountered Helen. “Purty’ez a pink!” he murmured. ‘I won- der whar Dagobert diskivered thet bonanza. They don’t grow in Arizony, them kind ov flowers don’t. What a pard she’d make fura man like me! By George! she’s worth fightin’ fur! Dagobert seemed to interpret the flash of his foeman’s eyes. ‘*'Yas, she’s a blossom—a pearl!” he said. ‘‘She b’longs to me, Mohave. Now, ain’t she a lily?” : ‘‘ Whar’s my knife?” cried the enemy. ‘‘Did a knive come down the steps, gal?” asked the Man with two Names. ** A bowie-knife? Yes.” Mohave Bill hailed the appearance of the avenging knife with an oath of joy. = Hyar itis! Injun blood on it!” cried Dago- bert, extending to Bill’s one hand the knife which Helen proffered. ‘Tll mix it with yours!” was the response, as Mohave stepped back and drew his figure to. its natural hight. ‘*T’ve got two hands ag’in’ you, Mohave.” * Keep ’em!” ‘By hokey! I will. Stand back, gal.” Helen was not loth to sbrink from the imme- diate presence of the two desperate characters who, thirsting for one another’s blood, stood face to face with terrible looking bowies in their hands. She wanted to shut her eyes, to hide, but something with invisible hands seemed to hold her to the spot. Were there no loves in Ari- zona? Was it altogethera land of endless feuds, of eternal hatreds? The gladiators glared at each other for a mo- ment, then Mohave Bill sprung at Dagobert, who, braced to meet him, did nothing more than ward off the blow aimed at bis heart. They stood within arm’s-length of each other’s hearts now. “Tm fighting fur the past, Mohave,” hissed Dagobert. ‘So am I—fur Monte!” A plunge forward, a momentary closing, three mad blows by the strongest arms in the Na- vajo country, and the men separated. ne reeled backward dropping a bowie whose blade was red; the other stood erect, holding a knife crimsoned like its adversary. ‘‘Monte kin sleep now!” cried the man who did not fall, as he glanced at the white-faced irl. “I told him, dead though he war, thet i'd avenge ’im. I promised to throw Dago- bert’s right hand on his grave in the bushes. IL keep every oath I take!” Mohave Bill strode toward Dagobert who had fallen to the ground, with the brutal intention of cutting off the hand which had maimed him for life. iseyes were coals of fire; his words were so many ejaculations of a fiend’s victory, Helen did not seem to divine the yictor’s in- tention until he was crcuched over the hand he wanted, nay, not until the fourteen-inch bowie almost touched it. Then she sprung to the fire and caught up the revolver which Dagobert had left her for sejf-protection. Mohave Bill saw her movement, and leaped up. MS See hyar, my mountain pink!” he exclaim- ed. «Pm master hyar. Drop thet weepin, er—” The girl’s answer was a pressure of the trig- ger, and the burly form of the half-breed’s avenger reeled backward to fall across the body of his deadliest foe. ~ Helen stood for a moment bewildered in the smoke of her revolver which she still held. in her hand; then she sprung away. Dagobert’s enemies were hers as well, and she could not believe that the two lying before her —the Indian and Mohave Bill—were alone in the neighborhood. The bowie had snatched her protector from her, and the fate of her remaining friend— Navajo Nick—was a matter of mystery. Is it a wonder, then, that Black Mahomet, the faithful horse, soon afterward carried the waif of the train from the cave and into the great gloomy canyon? ‘“‘Tam alone but I will find friends,” said the girl, ‘*T have one who must be alive. Guide me to him, Heaven: and together we will fight the men who hate us so terribly.” The next moment the horse went down the oulch, his shoes striking fire here and there on the rocks. He seemed to know that he was bearing the most precious of burdens. When he got beyond the mouth of the canyon his gait increased, but Helen held on. = ECOMIIcbooks. q at