Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 207 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

. hatred. Nav a Se ground; but the plan—the precious diagram— had disappeared! ** A wind took it off; but we’ll find it!” said the Man with two Names. The bunt for the missing map was extended over the little valley in which the trio happened to be. All at once Dagobert stopped and pointed at the ground. Nick and Helen ran up. There was before the Avenger a human foot-track. ‘*'The map has passed beyond our hands!” an- nounced the giant. ‘‘1t now belongs to the last of the three pards.” ** Not to Captain Carlos?’ gasped our hero, ‘To that same. But I think I kin find the mountain without it. Pve got the map kind o’ photographed on my brain.” mice ne grant that you have!’ murmured ick, CHAPTER XVII. VENGEANCE AND SUCCESS. DESPITE Dagobert’s assertion that he had the lost diagram of the gold mountain “kind o’ photographed” on his mind, there was another man whoseemed to be ona surer trail. This was the person who held the map itself, Near the close of a long summer day, one week after the events last recorded, the finder of the ‘ Injun map” came out of a cave at the base of arugged mountain a few miles north of Navajo Canyon. He levine the desperado that he really was. A pair of avaricious eyes glittered like a basi- lisk’s above his wild uncombed beard. They had the triumphant look that leaps from the tiger’s eyes when he stands over the game finally run to earth. The man was Captain,Carlos. The possessor of acunning mind, the strange marks on the map had been deciphered, and we need not dis- guise the fact that he stood at the close of that articular day at the door of the gold mines. e had explored as much of the interior of the ' famous mountain as man could explore, and his practited eyes had dilated over the golconda of wealth which the old Indian’s secret had at last yielded to him. He felt like the sole possessor of such a secret would naturally feel. He was the last of the Twelve, if we except the Cactus, who was but aspy, and at no time a regular member of the Hit ; he was, too, the only survivor of the Three Pards of the Basaltic Buttes, against whom the vengeance of a human tiger had been directed. He stood for a moment at the mouth of the eavern, his familiar figure more than half con- cealed by the bushes that grew about him; then he turned and disappeared. At that moment a figure rose above some mountain grass not far away, and two keen eyes regarded the opening. ‘* A cave, sure enough!” parted the lips of the watcher. ‘‘ What ef the captain hez struck the boss bonanza? Shatter my photygraff! ef I didn’t always imagine it was somewhar in these ts. Cactus, you’)! jes’ take in the situation. ut be cautious, old boy! The cap’n’s death with the trigger.” The speaker crept toward the cave like a snake. When he reached it, he put a bowie be- tween his teeth, drew two revolvers, and went in. Darkness enveloped him, but the Boss Cactus guided himself through it by his shoulder, which touched an unseen wall. ‘‘T don’t care somuch fur the rocks myself. {I want the boy to hev ashow. He didn’t trust me even when I war holdin’ my own ag’in’ the last ov the buffler boys, an’ he guv me the slip. But, when I kin hunt’im up an’ tell’im thet I’ve diskivered the mountain ov gold, why he'll take me furapard. He'll hev to!” The Cactus executed a sudden halt, for the flash of a lucifer had pierced the darkness. The jight grew larger, and creeping forward he saw oo Carlos inspecting some stones which he had taken from the wall. The spy stood up and leaned forward with a cocked revolver in his bronzed right hand. The light of the torch revealed the stalwart figure of the captain of the Arizonians, who saw nothing but the precious quartz lying on his broad hand. ‘‘He tumbled me from my hoss—tried to shoot me through the brain!”’ grated the Cac- tus as he looked with eyes blazing with eternal ** An’ all becausel war goin’ to help ee SSeS ET rene cnn nnn cncccc ccc ncn the gal—the boy’s pard. My time is hyar! Every dog hez his day: cap’n, an’ the day ov the mastiff ov Arizony hez come!” The arm of the Boss Cactus was lifted and straightened, the revolver hidden by the shadows of the rocks beyond the torch’s light covered the beart of Captain Carlos; but no report rung through the cave of gold. Something like a specter rose from the ground at the spy’s feet, and a hand, certainly one of flesh, fel! on his outstretched arm, ‘‘ He belongs to me, pard—to Dagobert!” fell from the intruder’s lips. ‘‘Tbhe mills ov ven- geance grind slow, but the grist always gets ground.” The Cactus lowered his weapon. ‘* Ov course he b’longs to you!” he said. what you please.” Dagobert glided forward until he reached the edge of the light. There he stopped and glared for a moment at the man he had hunted. ‘** Captain Carlos?” he called out, The gold hunter turned. As he faced his foe something traversed the space between them, struck him in the face and fell to the ground. “In the first place, look at my challenge!” commanded Dagobert. Carlos lowered his torch and saw a dead hand —the hand of Mohave Bill! He raised his head witha half growl, half oath, which delighted the man who seemed to await his pleasure. ** You know that hand, Carlos?’ **Ov course I do; an’ [ know who took it. want his heart.” ‘* Tt is here!” The eager Avenger cleared the intervening distance with a tremendous bound, and an ex- clamation of horror fell from the sole specta- tor’s lips as the men closed. ; ‘* This for the tragedy at the cabin in the Ba- saltic Buttes!” accompanied the first blow that Dagobert struck with his bowie at the breast of his foe. ‘‘And this fur the hands ov my hunted pards!” was the answer. For one awful minute the two giants battled in the gold cave, watched bv the gaunt spy who with naked bowie, was ready to leap forward if the seales of battle should favor his late leader. Suddenly the combatants separated. Dagobert the Avenger stood alone, and at his feet, his unhandsome features revealed by his last torch, lay the stalwart form of the last survivor of the gold league of northern Arizona. The Boss Cactus was about to join the victor when he stooped over his foe. ‘The spy kept his position, and from it saw the captain’s right ae amputated by several quick strokes of the owie. Drawing back for a moment Dagobert glared triumphantly at the hideous trophy, and then dashed it into its owner’s face! ‘‘Vve kept my oath,” he said. “I have taken from the three murderers the right hands that slew their victim, Winella, you have been avenged.” ‘** Ay’ hyar’s a witness who will go afore any squire in the West an’ sw’ar that it war well done.” Dagobert picked up the torch and scrutinized the Cactus by its light. The searching look was well borne. ‘** You were there that day?” he said almost savagely. ** Not exactly thar, but I know all about the sarcumstance,” answered the Cactus, ‘I couldn’t hev saved her ef I hed tried.” ‘*T believe you, Cactus.” The spy of the Mountain Twelve held out his hand. Dagobert took it, but he relinquished it abroptly. ‘IT want to solve one doubt,” he said. Stooping over his last foe, he plunged his hand into a pocket and produced a piece of colored paper. ‘‘T knew it!” he said, holding it up before the Cactus. ‘‘He found the map, just how er where we may never know; but here it is, proof that he got his fingers on it. I didn’t have the map photographed on my mind as well as I thought. We’ve been huntin’ for this place ever since we lost it; but we’re here at last! at last!” ‘* This is the mountain ov gold, then?’ queried the Cactus. ‘‘T haven’t inspected it, but we’ve found it, Cactus. Tl bet my lifo on that!” The two men thus brought face to face, ex- amined the interior of the mountain together. Every now and then ejaculations of amazement escaped their lips; they looked like men who had been suddenly transported into a mine of 7 ée Do I ajo Nick, the Boy Gold Hunter. ee I nO oC” L5 a a a pure gold, and Dagobert in an eutburst of ex. citement, would strike the Cactus on the back, exclaiming: ‘The old Injun knew gold when he saw if, didn’t he, pard? Just think of the gold king and queen this “find” makes, What’ll you take for your share?” ‘‘ ve guv it to tlhe boy!” was the spy’s reply. ‘Pm goin’ to force ’im to believe thet I kin be trusted in some matters.” The next day a little company of four persons went through the gold mine. That it was a mine long since abandoned by a race of sg a who had passed away, Dagobert readily be- lieved. They saw evidences of such a thing all around them. ‘We may have to fight for the prize yet,” decided the Man with two Names, ‘‘ The sur- vivors of the Twelve and the Brethren of the Buffalo Band will contest the ‘find’ with us.” __ The little party felt that the battle for the gold mountain had not begun; but as days wore away without bringing any contestants for it into the country, their convictions gradually fled. Where the Navajoes had attacked the moun- tain men lay the bodies of nine stalwart gold hunters, The league was powerless to wrest a prize from a child; as an organization it had passed from life, and from histcry. Where the Cactus proved himself true to Navajo Nick, ten savages lay dead on their weapons. Ontheright arm of each was the distinguishing sign of their league for gold, Had the spy exterminated the band? All, perhaps, save the one shot from the rock by the waif of the train, and the spy killed in the can- yon cave. A few weeks since the leading paper of Tucson contained the following paragraph which commanded wide spread attention: ** Colonel Nick Emerson, known in the great Southwest as ‘‘ Gold Nick,” has returned from a visit to the famous ‘‘ Helen” mine in the northern part of the territory. He reports everything lovely in that region, the Indians quiet, and a vast quantity of ore on its way fast. Our readers are familiar with the young Colonel’s adventures while hunting the mine; they will recall the deeds of the young lady who was strangely thrown into his company during those stirring days; therefore, they will not be surprised to learn that “ Gold Nick” is on his way to San Francisco where the lady is, there to be one of the high contracting parties in a notable wedding soon to occur. We congratulate the colonel in advance.” We are at a loss to determine the nature of the service that brought Navajo Nick a mili- tary title, but on his first visit to the chief city of Arizona after the character of his ‘‘ find” had beccms known, be was greeted as ‘ Colo- nel” by the many who sought his acquaintance, The Boss Cactus of Arizona still insists that he is ‘‘one of the lost arts,” and is one of the prominent features connected with the ‘t Helen mine,” Dagobert—Dagobert the man who hunted gold and buman hands at the same time—re- mains at the scene of his last triumph, helping to enrich, more than himself, the handsome youth who won from the old Navajo chief the secret of gold. — Let us take leave of them here with Winella avenged, the secret known to the world, and with the red and white gold leagues of the South-west baffled—dead!—literally extermi- nated. THE END. THE Sunnyside Library 1 Latta Rooxn. By Thomas Moore.... ,....... 2Don Juan. By. Lord Byron... ..... 5.00 ween 3 ParapisE Lost. By John Milton.............. 4 Tue Lapy oF THE LAKE, By Sir Walter Scott.. 10c 5 Lutrtz. By Owen Meredith. .........ccceseees 10¢ 6 UNDINE; or, THE Water-Sprrit. From the German of Friederich De La Motte Fouque.. 10¢ For sale by all newsdealers, or sent, postage paid on receipt of twelve cents for single numbers, double numbers twenty-four cents. ADAMS, VICTOR & Co., Publishers, 98 aoe fof anvite 0) (0) (6) aS