Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 376 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

—_ As for Joe, he saw that there was no time to lose. He was as yet unwounded, but he did not know how much longer he might stay so. He rose from the ground where he had been stretch- ed, and taking the bridle of the pack-mule, ran off as hard as he could across the grass, trying to get out of gunshot as soon as he could, hot after shot was fired at him, and he heard the thud of the bullets all round him, while the pack of the mule was struck more than once, The animal beside him ran fast, dragging him along, and he had hard work to keep it from twitching the balter out of his hand and leaving him alone on the plain, But the other horse, carrying Alice ran on as if it knew where there was safety, and Joe saw it nearing the tents from the distance, while, from the appearance of several spots on the grass, between bim and the tents, he judged that the occupants thereof had caught sight of the puffs of smoke, and were coming to the rescue. At last the bullets ceased to whistle close to the fugitive, and Joe, looking round, saw that the horsemen had disappeared from the top of oe mountain, and were coming down after im, He knew that, if they caught him on foot, he would find no mercy from them, so he hastil halted; threw the pack off the mule; mounte bare-back, and pursued his way under whip and spur. The bay thoroughbred of Alice Foster was still before him and she could be seen still sit- ting in the saddle, but Joe bad not forgotten that he had seen her sway to and fro in the seat, in a way that convinced him she was hurt. At last he got time to look back again. The whole band of horsemen, that had pursued him and his fair cbarge, were now clear of the mountain, and coming across the plainat racing pace, Joe looked forward and saw that the stran- gers of the tents were still some wart off, while the “‘ Destroying Angels” were not half a mile behind him, and coming up fast. They evidently hoped to catch and kill bim before he could get to the soldiers; for such, he had no doubt, were the men at the tents, The massacre of the day before had to be hushed up; and his death and that of the girl were probably necessary, for the safety of the Mormon community from discovery. _ Joe plied the whip over the mule he bestrode, in a way that astonished the animal, and man- aged to ar his distance for nearly two miles further, wh le he had the satisfaction of seeing that Alice was gaining on him and the pur- suers, at a rate that showed the superiority of her horse, At last the young hunter glancing back, saw that the Mormons were getting ready to shoot, and the determination to defend himself to the last took possession of him. He halted and wheeled his mule, when the first shot from the enemy sent the poor beast down in a heap, and Joe found himself unable to fly — longer. With the instinct of self-defense, but no idea that he was doing the very thing which a veter- an on the prairie would have done in his place, Joe rolled over behind his mule. Sheltering himself behind the body he leveled his rifle over it and awaited the pursuers. On they came at full speed, one after the other, as they had been strung out in the chase, and Joe, with a beating heart, for it was his first fight in earnest, since the trial by the In- dians—fired at the Jeader, and had the satisfac- tion of seeing him tumble from his saddle, while his pony ran on alone. He had found the sighting of his new Sharpe’s rifle correct as that of the old Kentucky wea- pon, on which he had prided himself, and from that moment he felt secure. The loading was so rapid and simple that he had a cartridge in before the pony had fairly flung the body of its rider, and fired a second shot at the next man in file just as he was about to return the compliment. Again the true rifle laid its victim low and tbe Mormons, who resembled Indians in their ferocity, seeming also to resemble them in their dislike of death, faltered and halted in full sight for a moment, when a third shot senta third man from the saddle, a corpse. That settled the business, for they fled in haste, but still pursued the girl, passing by Joe as he Jay there, and firing a volley at him, with no other effect than to make him hug his cover more closely. Then, as they dashed on, he saw that the ponies of the men who had been shot had been a ae ee 8 ray ~~ _ ———— gt — ~< » California Joe’s First Trail. = ————— — — left by the rest, and he thought he could do no better than to try and capture one. He saw that the animals had taken to feeding as soon as they were released from their riders, and he crept softly toward the nearest, keeping a sharp lookout all the time for the rest of the Mormons, till he had gotten quite close to a pony which was too. busy feeding to notice him, or too tame to run away. A thrill of happiness shot through his heart as he caught the bridle, and in another moment he was on the back of the little animal and at full speed after the Mormons. It did not take bim long to catch up, for the Mormons were riding much slower now, as if they despaired of catching the girl; and he, putting the pony to the utmost speed, soon came up close enough to open hostilities. To do this he halted the pony and fired a shot at the nearest Mormon which sent that worthy out of his saddle, when the rest of the ‘* Angels” turned and came back at him like a tempest, determined to kill him at least. But the tables were turned now; for Joe knew he had the heels of any there, The pony he bad secured was the swiftest in the party, or it would not have taken the lead and got its first rider shot by him, when it did. He therefore kept the animal at sufficient pace to keep out of close action, while he began to try his band at those flying shots which afterward became his specialty on the plains, The Mormons replied, but they did not seem to have as much skill as he, and he managed to keep from getting hit, while he wounded two more men, and dropped a pony in its tracks, In the excitement of the fight he had become forgetful of where he was, when he was roused by the whistle of a bullet close to him from the opposite quarter to where the Mormons were chasing him showing that another party bad come on the scene. Looking round, he saw the blue uniforms of the United States soldiers, and his heart leaped in him as he recognized them. With a wild yell he rode to meet them, while the Mormons turned tail and rode to the moun- tains, with a desperate speed that showed how they were completely demoralized, A moment later he met the soldiers; and as they dashed by him, he shouted to them: ‘“Give ’em the devil, boys! Give it to ’em! They murdered a hull] train, yesterday.” There were but a half-score of soldiers in the party; but as soon as the Mormons saw them, they fled, with a desperate speed that evinced how much they were afraid of being caught, lo good sooth they knew that, if their secret practices and murders once got out to the world at large, and they were discovered, as they really were, the States would soon be too hot to bold them. But the soldiers did not pursue far, Joe, as he halted by the steaming horse which had carried Alice Foster to safety, saw that they were but the escort of a party of men, with surveyors’ instruments and tents on whom they had come by accident, and when he rode up to the officer in command and told him what bad happened, he received for reply: ‘* My good fellow, we have nothing to do with that. If the Mormons come here to attack us, we will defend ourselves, and report the fact; but as for your stories about massacres, we don’t believe them; for we have been among the Mormons ourselves, and have found them very quiet, good sort of people; industrious, ac- tive and enter peas ng. and ready to help us on all occasions. The trouble with you is that you have been stealing from them, or something of the sort, and they wanted to punish you. It was not the right thing for them to do, in the way they were doing when we saw them; but since they have acknowledged our party and gone away,l don’t see what else we can do. You can ride with us for protection for awhile if you like; but I don’t want to hear any of your cock-and-a-bull stories.” And that was all that Joe could get ont of the young West-Pointer who commanded the party, who had spent his time among the Saints to good purpose, and who afterward published a book to tell the world what very nice people they were. He absolutely refused to believe a word that Joe or Alice told him about the mas- sacre, and insisted that they had been stealing from the Mormons, and were being chased therefor. But the party was too strong and well sup- lied with provisions to make the journey any onger dangerous, and Joe had an opportunity to find whether Alice had been hurt. He ascertained that, when be saw her sway to and fro in the saddle, when she started, it was the effect of nervous fright and not of the wound that he feared, so that he was enabled to take her to California, along with a relief party that came over the mountains with a train of provisions for the surveyors of Lieutenant G., and finally arrived at the city of San Francisco, where the young hunter had a right to the title of ‘‘ California Joe,” at last. There be found that the uncle of Alice Foster, of whom she bad told bim, had set up in busi- ness for himself, and was rich already, so that the grateful girl was able to repay Joe for some of the kindness and devotion that he had shown her. When they parted, Joe bad become, as he thought, a pretty good plainsman, in the course of the journey, and spent the rest of the sum- mer, and late into the next year, in the mines seeking for gold-dust, and finding plenty, as did most hard-working men in those early days, « The spring came on, and still California Joe did not think of leaving, for he had not enough to satisfy him; when he took a trip to “* Fris- co,” after a successful month’s work to “ bave a good time,” as he put it to bimself. Tt was while there that he went, for the first time since he had been in California, to the San Francisco post-office, and asked at the window, in his broad Keutucky twang: ‘‘Say, mister, is thar a letter byar, fur Moses Embrie Milner ?” The clerk bunted for some time and at last brought out a letter, faded from long lying there, with the remark: ‘‘Lucky you come here, young feller, or that ’u’d ha’ gone to the dead-letter office in another day. Thought there was no such person,” “ Waal, ye see,” explained Joe with a grin, “that ain't the name the boys knows me by, for they give me the name of California Joe— why or wharfore nobody knows—but they give it me, and it stuck to me, so I don’t kinder reckin it’ll ever gofrom me. And what’s the news in this hyar letter, mister?” ‘‘How can I tell?’ the clerk growled, ill- temperedly. ‘Do you suppose I have got to read all the letters to men tbat don’t know how to read. Get out and get some one that can read, to tell you,” Joe, considerably humiliated at the cavalier way in which the post-office man spoke, turned away, fabri watt “iT ain’t that I can’t read, I’d have ye unner- stand, but this writing ain’t the same as print, and I disremember the handwrite of this byar.” Scratching bis head, he suddenly exclaimed. ‘“T know what Ill do. Vl go to see Mrs, Hardy, and she’ll read it fur me.” Mrs. Hardy was none other than Alice Fos- ter, who had recently married the very officer of whom she bad spoken when in the moun- tains, and who was in charge of a branch of the same expedition of which the unbelieving Lieut. G. bad the chief supervision. Lieutenant Hardy had resigned from the army and gone into business in the city where he was making a fortune very rapidly, and had built him a fine house, where Joe knew he was always welcome, When the rough miner, in bis best clothes rung the bell of the mansion and asked for Mrs. Hardy, the servant—a new arrival from the East, engaged, at fifty dollars a month, as the cheapest that could be got in those days— after a han at him, showed him into a parlor and took his name up to the lacy, who came down a li'tle later, with a baby in her arms, happy as only a mother with her first baby and ROCA health can be. i : ‘Why, Joe,” she exclaimed, ‘‘and what has brought you here? I declare I am very glad to see you, and Mr. Hardy will be delighted. You must stop and have dinner with us, of course, and if you have any time to stay in the city we won't hear of your spending your money at those fearful hotels. “You must sleep here.” — Joe twisted in the chair she had forced bim into, with a violent attack of bashfulness. He had seen, since the girl had come to San Fran- cisco and especially since she had married the army officer, that she was of a very different class in life from what he was, and the knowl- edge had made him bashful. But Alice Hardy would not let bim feel so long, for she was as kind to him as if he had been her own brother, and continued: ‘‘ And now, Joe, what can I do for you to- day ?—for I know you would not have come here to see me so early if you bad not had something for me to do. What is it?’ Joe grinned. “Waal, the fact is, marm—” ‘‘Call me Alice,” she interrupted. ‘6 It ~ ea, Sh; ne Ete a Wes tee 900ks.com — ee