Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 286 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

2 Josh, the Boy Tenderfoot ; OR, ; The Wild Men of Buzzard Bar, A Story of Colorado, BY CAPTAIN MARK WILTON, 2) UTHOR OF ‘BLIZZARD BEN,” “YOUNG KRN- TUCK,” “CACTUS JACK,” “*‘ DON SOM- BRERO,” ‘‘LADY JAGUAR,” ETC., ETC. CHAPTER I. THE PRICE OF A MINE. Two men were riding through a mountainous region of Colorado, in the heart of Gunnison county, at a pace which showed no sign of pesto. The place was wild and beautiful in th treme, with its succession of ridges and val opty its grent cliffs and yawning canyons, fr all the Gunnison is in one way or another handsome, Still, these two horsemen paid no attention to the scenery. Chasms yawned at their feet one moment, and lofty peaks, pine-clad, towered above them the next; but one of the two had eroseed the spur many times before, and the bad matters of more importance on his The former was # young man whose every leok bespoke him a citizen of Colorado; the lat- ter, a man of sixty years, bad the dress and air of - man of the er st. S e was ing earnestly as they rode through a aah. Z *“ If matters are as you say, Mr. Wilbur, there will probably be a long lawsuit,” he observed. Paul. Wilbur looked at him in surprise, oe ae yor me oe can Sets be? Buzzard r don’t own a or a justice, or a ju There’s nobody to try the case.” vee “Then bow am | to recover my propertiv?” ‘*Basy as rolling off a log. Walk up to Jared Thayer and Peter Foster, and say, ‘My name is \ Randolph Barr. I own the mine you are work- ing, and here are the papers to prove it. ru give you two hours to get outof the claim!’” ‘But they may not go.” ‘“Then you must argue with them.” ‘But even after that they may refuse to give up the property.” “Probably; you don’t understand me, Mr. Barr. It is all well enough to say to these men, ‘I am the rightful owner of the Cinnamon mine. I bought the concern while I was in Washing- _ ton, paid my money and secured my deed. sent a lawyer to examine the same, but he came back and told me it was a salted claim. Sol settled back and remained quiet for a year, when I heard that you gentlemen were working the mine and | getting rich. Now I have come for my own.’ That's all very well, in its way, but you want to do more.” “What is that; Mr. Wilbur?” “Use a volver argument.” ~ “I do not understand,” — “Well, sir, here in the West we are frequent- ly obliged to enforce our rights by the power of sixes, alias revolvers, I have seen a bit of the life myself, during the six years I’ve been here, and I assure you a man must give as well as take. Therefore, if Thayer and Foster conelude to stick, you must load your six-shooter and argue with them through the medium of lead.” Randolph Barr gazed at the speaker in ucter astonishment. He had been worrying all the way from Washington to the Guunison for fear that he could not secure a good lawyer when onée on Colorado soil, and now he was informed that that particular section to which he was go- i g had neither lawyers, judges, justices or juries, It was the second great surprise he had lately received. The first came when he learned that the mine he had supposed worthless was being worked by other parties. How he became its possessor, the reader has already seen, but he never supposed that his chosen agent bad until a few a plared him fa ‘weeks before. en he did discover this, he had promptly started for the Gunnison, and now only a few miles separated him from Buzzard Bar, near which was the mine in question. At Crested Butte he had sec the services of Paul Wilbur, a veteran p tor, though i ung im years, and the latter, having no love or ayer & Foster, himself, intended to see the emple oe gee i and Mr. Barr in possession of his He malnd by intimating t revolvers might be They wore the red shirts and usual costume of | miners, but little more than this could be told. Over their heads were curious masks, which said a ip ty the old gentleman’s. ae osh, the ine Boy TenGeetoot. TenGestot. ee a se eee ee —— = used in the case, but, really, he did not expect anything of the ‘kind. Very likely the illegal workers of the mine would rebel at first, but Paul had a very convincing way when he went into a scheme to win, and he fully believed Thayer & Foster would pack their baggage and surrender the claim. **Do you intend to “a in Colorado?’ Paul continued, after a pau ee | hardly think I will, ” said Mr. Barr, his mind running on oo previous conversation. ‘“‘[ shall try to dispose of my mine. I am an ! old man, and all I ie left me in this world is -- ee 0 my daughter, Nora. She needs the softenin a fluences of civilization at her age—she is e teen—and Colorado would hardly. be the broke: place for her.” Paul did not answer. ‘He really cared little for his companion’s plans, but his mind drifted back to the time he had bimself leff an Eastern home, atthe age of twenty, to seck his fortune in the land of gold. **T must give up this wild life and return to Ohio,” he was thinking. ‘* Mother and my sister a Ae mf te ma be all wre girls are not met lieve spose of my property here and at t for the old home.” ih The wide-awake, observing way he had be- om Se era ed Fie " torgetful | mén’ ady a of all around lye I They iy passing a can aa an horses’ feet rung sharp a7 on th gone soil to be echoed back with re- markable distinctness. Tall cliffs arose on each side, and through the pass ran a small stream. Pretty soon the Dey reached where the supply of water came tumbling down the eastern cliff, and there the opposite wall of rock suddenly re- ceded, leaving a chasm at its base. Between this chasm and the eastern cliff ran a shelf of rock twenty feet wide and curving steadily, and along this shelf was the road of the travelers. , Perhaps it would have done no but it was & moment in the life of Paul Wilbur when alertnéss was imperatively necessary. th ered in his path, but he knew not of it. His 'was on the old Obio home, and he was forget al of all else. Ata bend in the rude road two men lay be- hind a bowlder, smoking short black pipes. concealed even the color of their hair. One of 2 two lay flat on his back, the other watching the southern trail. sign n yet?” Watt” arked the former, lazily. ary sign,” was ths curt answer. ¢ “They are uncom! n slow.” -a-hyar,” said the other, suddenly; ef Pan afeerd ther wareifots hev slipped through our fingers. It’s h Ein old they was hyar ef they are comin’. Kin old Thayer hey fooled us; **Lord love ye, no. Et don’t stand ter rea- son. Dien’t he give us a retaining fee, as he called et?” The second man did not answer, for, ust.at that moment, around the bend in the shelf road a i a a re Eber imag Fi three year, an’ them twe critters are ther first I ever knowed ter godown in Bar- rel Chasm. Nobody’ll find ther bodies—don’t you worry.” “Of course they are dead,” said the other man hesitatingly. “Wal, [reckon they be. They couldn’t live through ‘that tumble ef they was made oO’ el’ar iron. Why, ther rocks an’ bushes ain’t left sea’cely a piece on ’em.”. " That's so; ah’ what proof be we ter offer ter old Thayer that they are dead?” ‘““Preoff <Ain’t our word enough?” “It orter ye considerin’ hem we kin Hie; but he He kick a yin’ without proof.” @ dassent. et sirree, he will come Gown with Anas dust t starved as we s’arved them,” He pes down the chasm. It had abrupt ending te Randolph Barr’s m and a terrible ending te twe human live “but the wretches who had se Doody sped the fatal bullets cared nothing ter a To them, Barrel Chasm seemed just the Poder grave for men who had been in some- 3 way. me EE IL Sut ut an’ eb yorsolt; ys n’ streteb yersolt; hyar we % y opened the’ door of the’ stage with a = and shouted the feregoing words in a which seemed unnecessarily loud, and * ti ere was a stir from within as ef some animal moving in his cage. And the crowd of men who had surged forth from Jack Magoffin’s ‘‘ hotel” as the stage neared the door — brawny, Bak sbirted miners were they—looked in eag Tom Barney had that day Butte. All the way along the road Long Tom had been growling because he bad but one passe), . ger; but he had a spice of bumor in his nature, nd from the polite way in which he opened tlc ge door, the citizens of the Bar were expect- ing to see hag a fernale beauty or a broadcloth nate from Denver. — solitary passenger alighted and stood be- fore them, but the sight was not one to dazzle their eyes. Since the discovery of gold west of Marshalt Pass, the flood-tide of emigration bad sent into Gunnison county a representative of almost every nationality and class of human beings under the sun; but never had so r a speci- men come to B Bar, in the opinion of the old inhabitants, as this last deposit. He was young for an emigrant, for his years were less than eighteen in number, and about as ‘“‘ green” in appearance as any young man Colcrado bad ever received from other climes. In stature he was almost a man, and plenty of muscle lurked along bis arms and shoulders, but be had not yet bad time to expand, and was not of faultless shape. The same fault wight have been mne-wee his clothes. They were, without exception ought ‘tom Crested tancy to see what © came Paul Wilbur sud Mr. Barr. Then the | small for him. His pants reached only half. men in ambush dropped their pipes and raised | way below his knees, the sleeves ef his eoat their rifles instead. were equally short, and his hat Jacked the "You take ther old one, an’ I) spot Mister | manly proportions of the typical Colorade ar- Wilbur, plum? center,” said the first ambusher, | ticle, ** All Tight.” And as this awe overgrown young fel- Crouching side by side, concealed Be the | low stood awkward] in front of the dcer, a bowlder, the villains took careful aim, cov- | valise in one band ard an umbrella in the ether ering a man, and then at a given si their | the spectators failed to see that he had an inte!- weapons rung out sharply, and two bits of lead | ligent face and sharp eyes—tbey saw him only asad cH their way. as he was, a boy and a tenderfoot, and a broad It was a terrible interruption, ard “ropping | smile ran around the cirele. their rifles the murderers ran forward with their.| Then one of their number, a stout young fel- revolvers ready, though they bad no: doubt of | low a little older than the new-comer, ran out their aini in the first cise. to meet bh What they saw was not e ae Both Barr | “I’m the porter,” he said, , briskly. “Let mo and Wilbur gave evidence of being hit, byt be-.| take your grip-sack, mister,” fore they could fall the horse of the former | The tenderfoot looked at him closely. a sideways like a flash, collided agg t4 ‘*T was brung up. tew be my own "he the second animal, and then both with modestly said, ‘an’ I guess I wont trouble their riders disappeared iver the ledge! you The surprised assassins hastened 1orwand and “But se 1 all do it,” persisted the other. looked down the abyss. Men and beasts bad | ‘I’m the porter, you see, an’ I Keney shee bag- disappeared in a growth of pines and ragged gage « an’ they eiva me a leetle ‘fur my rocks far below, but it was as sati: as ble though they lay dead on the shelf above, ea al,-if I —_ Ng a you, I won’t ewe you hey’ve saved ther undertaker 8 expense,” "the te so I guess Sa my — dug said one of the masked men, bt a dong. The tent neat oot ed past th and “Yes, but how are we ter get down the steps « of Jack | Mago n’s hotel. “What in thunder do we want ter go dewn th but he ks were made by the men fur?” ** Mebbe somebody’ll find ther bodies, ef we leave them thar.” ‘“*Don’t you worry about that. I’ve on in : ed them and en- tered. “Oh! whar in hada aia you get it, Tom Barney?” demanded the young fellow who had AMUSE (EO) <S (E(@)