Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 32 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

—_ ) i 18 Beadle,s Half-Dime Library. kats! look thar! see w’at ye’ve drapped,” and he pointed to the ground. : Cecil picked up the package, in a dazed sort of way, and turned it over and over in his hands, in greatest wonder. To the bottom was pinned a shéet of paper, which he at once de tached. It was written with pencil, in a neat, feminine hand, and ran as follows: “Mr. Cecrt GROVER: “Dear ‘Sir:—Enclosed in this packet you will find the exact amount stolen from your father’s bank, excepu what was used by Aubrey Lee Lester in settling with the miners, [, his betrayed affianced, have been on his track for some time. He murdered your father—I saw him! He robbed your father’s bank—he has just confessed it. He sought to ruin your sis- ter—lI have saved her. When you forbade his visiting her, he disguised himself as an ex-rob- ber, and set-out to murder you. He hoped by so doing, once more to be able to cast his in- fernal spell over your sister, and in the end, get back the Grover estates—thus coming into possession of two fortunes, by his villainy. In the disguise of Hidaglo, the Mexican, I have followed on his path to baffle him. To-night I found him almost in the act of saturating you with oil of vitriol! **T took him a prisoner, I bound and gagged him, and extorted from him a confession of all / his crimes, He has led a blacker life than I had supposed. I got the money from him, and with this communication placed it on your breast, as you slept. “‘T have prayed for him, long and earnestly, and now have hung him by the heels, a prey for the wolves! Go and see that what I say is true. You will find him in the center of the motte. Even while you are reading this, I am speed- ing far away. Have I done wrong? No! he doubly deserved a worse death. Remember me kindly, for such is the vengeance of the confiding, pure-hearted girl, whom Aubrey Lee Lester betrayed to her ruin, May God have mercy — ADA KENT.” Silently and with palpitating hearts Cecil and the ranger turned and plunged into the timber, to asswre themselves of the arch-fiend’s death. They had not far to go. They soon came to where a lifeless body was hanging, head down- ward, suspended from a limb to which he had been drawn by aid of a lariat. It was Aubrey Lee. The wolves had not touched him, but retri- bution had overtaken him in the shape of a knife-thrust in the heart. Evidently Ada Kent had reconsidered her words, and con- cluded to kill him, herself, before departing. CHAPTER XVIL ’ ‘HE TREE-TOP PRISONER, Yes, free was the Girl Deadshot, but sorely burned and begrimed with smoke and soot. But, how trifling was this as compared with the awful doom that had stared her in the face but a short time before. Enough to be thank- ful for it was that she had been permitted to escape, at all. She turned from the spot, and sped across the valley to the eastern side, where a belt of timber seemed to offer her protection and shelter. Reaching this cover, she set about searching for some sharp projection of rock or knot over which she could saw the bonds that confined her wrists, and wear them asunder. She found a sharp corner upon a neighboring bowlder, and soon succeeded in freeing her hands, Then she stood alone in the depths of the woodland free. Then from an inner pocket of her hunting- shirt, she drew forth something the ruffians had failed to discover—a pair of little silver- mounted revolvers, and a sheath knife, which she had carried concealed there, for years. The knife she thrust into her belt, but the revolvers she concealed inside the hunting-shirt again, for, in case she should be recaptured by ‘the robbers, she desired to keep herself armed. Now for work! Hurrying along through the wood, she soon came to the eastern boundary. Before her stretched away a vast ocean of rolling prairie, treeless and ‘seemingly limitless. Far ahead through the pall of gloom, she could trace the clouds down to the horizon, which was marked by a faint tinge of purplish white. This told her that day-dawn was not more than an hour distant, at the most. “The first thing necessary,” she mused, ‘‘is to get possession of a rifle—miine, if possible.” She turned back in the direction of the val- ley, and in hurrying along, she suddenly came upon a well-beaten trail. It ran in a northerly and southerly course, and was evidently a horse-path, it being wide and well-worn. - With a smile of satisfaction she followed the path cautiously toward the north, and in course of half an hour came in sight of the corral. It was a large yard built by laying rails from tree to tree, and was filled with animals belong- ing to the outlaws, All were turned loose, and the saddles, bridles and other equipments were hung to the fence. An Indian was reclining upon a bunk of leaves, just outside the corral, and though he was probably left there for the purpose of watching the horses, the heroic girl soon as- sured herself that he was fast asleep. Creeping like a panther upon him, she grasped him fiercely by the throat, and the next instant his life blood was dying the leaves beneath where he lay, and he was dead. Then she relieved him of his weapons, which con- sisted of a brace of pistols, a tomahawk and rifle. Thus armed for an emergency, she hur- ried away to the southwest, for the purpose of noting how matters stood in the valley. Advancing slowly to cover her trail as she went, she soon came within thirty yards of the boundary, This was quite as far as she cared to go, therefore she halted and glanced searchingly above and around her. In a few moments she singled out a tree suitable for her purpose, and proceeded to climb it. The tree was a giant fir—the only one of the species in the vicinity— and towered high above its neighbors, like a monarch, in its pride. It was covered with thick, wide-spread- ing branches, and from its top could be com- manded an extensive view of the surrounding country. Hurricane Nell experienced no difficulty in mounting the tree, and. soon was at an alti- tude of a hundred feet. : Before her lay spread out one vast, glorious expanse of landscape, just now blushing under the mellow tints of the early morning sun. To the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west rolled the billowy ocean of green prairie, beyond which stretched away the baked, parched plains, Right at her feet nes- tled the picturesque little depression known as Cherry Valley, while directly behind and be- low her spread out the belt of timber. She was on an average of thirty feet above the surrounding tree-tops, and securely hidden from view in among a bower of matted fir branches. She could sée_ the cabins in ‘the valley, and the spot whereon was erected the terrible. wind- lass, which was to have been her death gallows. “Not a stir was visible about the Rendezvous, but this did not deceive the maiden. She knew that doubtless her enemies had apprised them- selves of her escape and were even now either searching in the forest, or lying in wait for her appearance from covert. The forenoon passed away slowly, ‘and no sign of life was seen in the valley, The sun crossed the meridian and commenced its down- ‘ward journey toward the western horizon. Still Hurricane Nell kept upa vigilant watch on every side, her mind becoming more settled to the thought that mischief was brewing. About an hour before sunset, as she was scanning the prairie to the eastern side of the timber, she was startled to see a man rise sud- denly out of the grass, and gaze steadily to- ward the top of the tree in which she was con- oealed. | Had he discovered her / It was a horrifying thought, She had no trouble in r ing him as one of Woolf’s band; in fact, it was the noto- rious Guzzler, one of Cap’n Bob’s picked con- federates, and one who had been with the ruf fian chief, at the time of the great prairie fire. Should she shoot him? | It would take a well-aimed bullet to fetch him, for he was distant something over a hun- dred yards. He continued to stare directly toward the retreat, as if suspicious, but yet doubtful. Her rifle lay resting across a limb, bearing on a level with his head. The muzzle was turned upon him, Should she risk a shat? She picked up the weapon and cocked it, with a little shiver. She brought it to her shoulder, then hesitated. “Tis murder!” she murmured—“but bah! 1 am faltering. It shall not be. Such is not vengeance. I will shoot him, and may God have mercy on his soul!” She ran her eye along the barrel, without a tremor, she brought the weapon to bear upon the ruffian’s breast, and fired. A sharp, whip- like crack rung out on the still afternoon; then there was a yell of pain and rage, and spring- ing wildly into the air, Guzzler fell forward prostrate upon the earth—dead! The bullet had proven a deadshot. Simultaneous with his fall, there rung out loud and discordant yells from the depths of the forest, and full two score of border-ruffians leaped from under cover, and hurried toward their comrade. But he was beyond all aid they could render. The ball had gone home, true to the centre of the heart, Wildly glanced the outlaws around in every direction, for a glimpse of the murderer, but they failed to glance up into the retreat in the fir top, where sat Hurricane Nell, watching them with a smile of blended triumph and pity. Night fell black and breathless. Not a breath of air was stirring, and a strange, weird blank of quiet seemed to prevail. Far down in among the treetops, the Dead- shot occasionally caught a glimmer of light, coming from a camp-fire. She presently dis- tinguished enough to convince her that the ruffians were scattered around the edges, and through the timber. Did they know she was somewhere within the forest, and were they intending to starve her out of her retreat? The night passed, and placing herself in as comfortablé position as her close quarters ont admit she managed to catch a few hours sleep. ) | In.the early light of morning she awoke, with a knowledge that she was very hungry. Since the morn when she had partaken of prairie fowl, in the outlaw camp, not, a morse! had passed her lips! How could she hope to procure food, when the wood below her was swarming with her enemies, She resolved to attempt a descent, under the cover of the next darkness, hazardous as it might be. _ The day wore slowly by, and night succeed- ed it, blank and breathless as had been the previous one. About midnight, as near as she could determine, Hurricane Nell began her de- scent, weak and faint, but from limb to limb she lowered herself, stealthily and carefully, and in the course of half an hour was rewarded by touching the ground. Here she stopped aoe listened. All was dark and silent’ around er. For an hour she hovered around through the timber like a restless spirit. Now she was close upon the camps of the enemy; then she would search around through the gloom for something to appease her hunger. She found that there was no chance of escap- ing, for the present, at least. The ruffians had repossessed themselves of their animals, and a barrier of guards surrounded the wood, in addition to those around the camp-fires, At last she stumbled across what was evi- dently a remnant of some of the outlaws’ meals, It was a neck-piece of a deer, and had been thrown aside as being unrelishable. Hurricane Nell seized it with avidity, and —=Gom ES JOO