Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 3 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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Kansas King. 15 edging you as my father,” and the outlaw spoke with terrible bitterness in his tone. Then Red Hand continued in the same deep tones: ** At length I tracked this man to his home, and—lI believe I killed him, for I drove my knife deep into his side, and it was the first time my hand was stained with blood, though from my birth I have borne this mark which has given me my name ‘upon the frontier,” and Red-Hand held up his hand so that the moon- light revealed its crimson hue. agen he went on: ‘* But I was only half avenged, for Boyd Ber- nard still lived. ‘What destiny ever led my footsteps into these Hills, God only knows; but here, five years ago, I met Boyd Bernard—and killed him.” **Ha! tell me, Vincent Vernon, tell me—is the grave in the Haunted Valley that of my son?’ said the old hermit, eagerly. ‘*I¢ is; I killed him, and for the sake of the happy or we had passed together in boyhood, I buried him and carved his name upon a tree at the head of his grave.” “I. knew of the grave, but never saw. it— never knew that Boyd lay buried there, for I thought he had gone East with Grace,” muttered the old hermit. ‘*Tell me, Carter Bainbridge,” continued the Scout, ““did Boyd Bernard come here with ou? ** Yes; I fled here in fear of my life, for I have been a great sinner, and Boyd and Grace came with me; but we had a quarrel. and they left, as I believed to go East, and—” ‘And they settled in the Haunted Valley; and there they lived until I killed Boyd Ber- nard, and yet poor Grace still remained alone, to watch his grave, until last night she fell by her own hand, as this scout knows. “Ay, fell by her own hand, and we two buried her there in the valley. ‘Then I sought the cabin where they lived, and the papers I found there told me all; yes, that Boyd Bernard had slain the father of my wife and then placed the crime at my door to have me hung, and that, believing the story told her, Grace had fled, a guilty thing, from my love; but I have forgiven her all. “ Ay, more did I learn, and that is that this maiden here—who has heard every word of my story, ts my own daughter. ‘* Pearl, will you come to your father’s heart?” Words cannot portray the tenderness with which Red-Hand spoke, and, comprehendin the whole plot of crime against him, and feel- ing that he was indeed her father, the maiden rung forward and nestled close in the arms of the man whose life had known so much of mis- ery. "Not a word, not a motion marred the silent joy of that moment for those two, father and daughter, so cruelly divided through life, until at length Red-Hand turned once more to the old hermit, and said: “Carter Bainbridge, I can now, in my joy, even forgive you.” No word of reply came, the eyes gazed straight at the moon with a fixed stare, and the voice of Lone Dick said, ae . He’s gone to another trapping-ground, com- e. Instantly Paddy stepped forward, and feelin the lifeless pulse, said aloud: S ‘‘Thrue for you, Misther Lone Dick, he’s off for Purgathory, and no m 6; and av he wasn’t sich an ould sinner we’d be afther hav- in’ a wake over his bones.” ‘““He’s not worth it, Irish; wait until I am hung and then have a fandango over me,” bit- terly laughed the outcast son, Kansas King. “Silence! let no man dishonor the dead,” rung out sternly the deep voice of Red-Hand, as he turned and led poor Pearl into the cabin to prepare for the return to the stronghold of the miners. CHAPTER XXXL CONCLUSION. shadow of the hill that sheltered his a Garter Bainbridge, the Hermit of the Black Hills, found his last earthly hermitage— t ve. , “Goodie by, watching the burial of the her- mit, was Pearl, leaning upon the arm of her father, and so intent were Tom Sun, Lone Dick and Paddy in digging the grave, and Edwin Archer in gazing upon the beautiful face and form of Pearl Vernon, that no one noticed the prisoner, Kansas King, quietly steal away, un- til, when all was over and the party ready to go, they missed him.* Search and pursuit were then useless, and mounting their steeds, awaiting them in the gor , the party started for the miners’ strong- old, where they arrived just at sunrise, and were greeted with wild hurrahs from all. Tom Sun then accompanied, Red-Hand and his daughter to the Haunted Valley, and while he went on to tell the — tidings of victory to the anxious party in the secret retreat, the hus- band and the daughter halted at the grave of poor Grace, and guilty though she was, they sorrowed for her most deeply During the day the whole of miners and settlers were gathered together at the stronghold, and most warmly was Pearl wel- comed by Ruth Ramsey and all, when they heard the strange story of her eventful life, and hea congratulations were bestowed upon Red-Hand in honor of his new-found happiness. Toward evening Major Wells arrived with his squadron, and then it was made known to the invaders of the Black Hills that the country be- longed wholly to the Indians, and that they must depart therefrom at once, and leave the red-skins in possession. The greater part of the two bands were most willing to acquiesce, and the following day the entire party, accompanied by the cavalry, left the inhospitable, but beautiful land, and took up their march for the boundary of civilization. During the march, Edwin Archer and Pearl Vernon were often together, and so also were Red-Hand, now known as Vincent Vernon, and Ruth Ramsey, and the result of this intimac was that, shortly after their arrival at Nort Platte, there was an engagement entered into between each couple, to be consummated one year from that date. Then were the two bands of invaders into for- bidden lands scattered to the four winds of heaven—some remaining upon the frontier among whom was Lone Dick, and who returned to trapping, and Paddy, who re-entered the army, under Major Wells, and Tom Sun, who now roams the Western plains one of the cham- pion Indian-fighters of the age. As for Captain Ramsey, he went East with his family, and purch a home in Maryland; while Captain Edwin Archer started for New York to take possession of a fortune left him by maiden aunt. Tired of a wild life on the border, and rejoic- ed to have found a beautiful daughter, - Hand also left for New York, where he placed Pearl at school for one year, and then she be- came the bride of Edwin er, the same day that beheld Ruth Ramsey married to Vincent Vernon, and well I know that every reader of these lines will wish them happiness as they journey through life together. * A white man, said to be chief of one of the north- = tribes, is believed to be Kansas King.—BurraLo ILL. THE END. CHEAPER THAN THE CHEAPEST AND BETTER THAN THE BEST! A Dollar Book for a Half-Dime! Answering to the demand for ‘‘Good Reading at Popular Prices,” the publishers of the celebrated BEeap.Le’s Dimz Novets will hereafter give, in BEADLE’S Half-Dime Library, Splendid Stories by Authors of Celebrity, equal in quantity to a full Die Novet, and in char- acter unsurpassed for exciting interest, originality, and the very spirit of Western, Border, Mining, Mountain, Plains, Hunters, Indian, Sporting, Trap- ping, and Sea and Land Adventure Life. “Live” stories, every one of them, by “Live” Au- thors, in the popular “folio’’ form, each Number a complete novel, at the extraordinary price of a Hatr- Dimze—this HALF-DIME LIBRARY distances all competitors and will command an immense circula- tion. NOW READY; 1—DEADWOOD DICK, tae Prince or THE RoaD; or, THe Brack Riper oF THE BLACK HILLS. By Edward L. Wheeler. 2.—YELLOWSTONE JACK; or, THE TRAPPER OF THE ENCHANTED Grovunp., ‘A tale of the “ Spirit Region”’’ of the Upper Yellowstone. By Jo- seph E. 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