Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 481 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

-—— - - A ce a el ee o---— _ — ——__-_-~ — ~ Little Ah Sin. -_—_—_— ee “Tia! ha! ha! You may count on that. | we could make a strike of—say a cool thou- Jack Swayne is nobody’s saint; and don’t you | sand?” forget it!” ‘* What’s the matter with your jaw, old man?” ** He’s as glum as if he’d just come irom his father confessor !” ‘*Ho! ho! Jack at confession! so disgrace his bringing-up!” There was a general laugh at this sally. Jack’s departure from the law of his fathers was a never failing theme for the witticisms of his friends, ‘*Oh! give us a rest!” he cried, half in an- noyance, and half in accord with their humor. ‘*Give you something to drink. That’s more like it, old boy.” Then, calling across the room to the bar- keeper, the speaker shouted: ‘“Ho! you, Sam! Trot out something hyere to shorten up Jack Swayne’s mug!” Jack was received into the crowd in a way which showed that he was a general favorite and a leader among these young reprobates. The dice box was thrust into his hand, with the laughing recommendation: ** Chuck-a-luck! Try your luck! You’re sure to win, if you don't get stuck!” He, nothing loth, spilled the dice with the air of one to whom it was not an unaccustomed sport. Then the old scene was renewed, with Jack Swayne’s voice heard oftener and more pro- fanely than any one’s else, He played recklessly, losing the more he drank, and drinking the more he lost. At last he rose, with the laconic declaration: ‘* Strapped!” By that time the whole party was fired with liquor so as to be ready for any sort of devil- ment, They left the saloon in a body, mounted some mustangs, dashed through the streets at a break- neck pace, yelling like Comanches, then away over the plains toward the foothills, They were a half-score of young blades, the sons of more or less well-to-do parents, who spent their time in riot, So dare-devil were some of their exploits, that old heads had long since predicted that they would one day ‘‘run up a tree.” But so far their fathers’ money, as a last re- sort, had. bought off justice in their worst scrapes; and they had kept within the point at which the Vigilance Committee interferes, ‘‘Tsay, gent !” cried Jack Swayne, as they or, along, ‘‘ this racket has petered out dead at. ‘*That’s what I say!” corroborated another dissatisfied one, ** We didn’t have rocks enough to start on.” ‘** That’s what’s the matter! I call it a blasted shame, if we can’t raise the wind some way so’s to have one red-hot fling!” “Hang it all! My old man screws me down so tight that I never have enough to hold out till the turn in my luck.” “You're no worse off than I am. The gov’ nor has shut down altogether. He swears that if I want any money after this, I’ll have to turn to and earn it, or steal it;—he’ll be hanged if he'll pave the road to perdition for me any longer!” ** We're all in the same box, or soon will be. After that last pinch, my head-center sxid that if I ever got dropped onto again, I might go to jail for all bim.” The subject thus broached, all gave in their testimony; and it appeared that, to a man, they had worn out the patience of their respective parents. To judge from the tone of complaint, all felt ill used. Only one listened serenely, without joining in the general murmur. ‘* Hyere’s Wade—he hain’t got nothin’ to say!” observed one. ‘* Confound him!—he has no cause, He cleans us out, so that he’s always heeled anyway!” “Don’t squeal, Tommy, so long as you lose your money on the square,” said Wade, coolly. ** We can’t all be wouden-heads, you know.” “Td give something for your sleight!” mut- tered the fellow addressed as Tommy. Wade was ready to nip in the bud any covert insinuation against the integrity of his methods. ‘‘]T have sleight of another kind that I'll be happy to let you sample, whenever you call for it!” he said, with meaning. ‘* Keep yer shirt on!” was Jack Swayne’s cool recommendation. He always interfered to head off trouble, and with authority. ‘See hyere, gents,” he went on. ‘‘Suppose He wouldn't we c - hy. we) : rai ; a ate Mt, ae one 2. af + yee “ 4 t “© eon Vu / bi : id : 7 se OS F Fe BS Vo eet = — " » 5 , el if ‘* Make it a million. Itdon’tcost anything to suppose,” ‘1 don’t waste my time in your tom-fool way. When I talk business, I talk business,” ‘** What’s the show now?” ‘What I said. A thousand, if you’ve got the nerve to collar it.” The interest now became general. The party had had evidence in the past of Jack’s fertility of resource, ‘** But you don’t get anything for nothing in this world, ye understand,” he warned. ‘** What’s wanted in this case, Jack?” ‘** Nerve, I told you.” ‘*¥You’ve tried us before in that line. You know that we don’t balk at trifles.” ‘* Well, you'll have to take a bigger contract than you’ve ever had on your hands,” ‘*We’ve sampled everything but murder, haven’t we, Jack?” The crowd laughed, as they recalled past deeds of recklessness, ‘** Well,” said Jack, ‘Sif I let you into this pees. I don’t want any crawfishing.” ‘* Try us, old man!” ‘Will you risk a chance for five years 2 the lock-up?—for a cool thousand remem- er. A sudden gravity came over the faces. Then some laughed recklessly, ‘* That ain’t the royal road to riches!” suggest- ed one, To which another added: ‘* Jordan am a hard road to trabble, I be- lieve!” And a third: ‘‘ Nothing ventured, nothing gained! I ain’t afraid to follow where Jack Swayne ain’t afraid to lead!” ‘*1’'m with you, my jolly boys!” ‘* Count me in!” 66 Me too!” ‘‘This chicken can scratch gravel with the best of you!” ‘*Hold on! Give mea hand before the cards are all run out!” ‘* So say we, all of us!” ‘* Drive ahead, Jack. There’s no weak knees in this gang.” “Even with a right smart show for neck-stretching?” asked Jack, still holding off, ‘‘Hang the difference! In for a shilling, in for a pound!” ‘‘ That’s sol We're goin’ the whole hog!” 2 ‘‘ Now’s your chance to pass out,” still urged ack, But no one had the nerve to show the white feather now, even if he felt any misgivings. Goaded on by the dare-devil spirit, they be- came the more eager the graver the risk. ‘* Well,” said Jack, finally, ‘‘ ] don’t propose to put my neck in the halter without some sort of pledge that the noose is not to be tied by one of my pals,” ‘“'That’s what we want all round.” ‘* We've stuck together so far like a tramp and his dirty shirt.” ‘‘That’s so. If there had been a smeak in the gang, what we've been through would have made him show his hand before this.” ‘* That’s allright,” persisted Jack; ‘‘ but you’d better have things a little too tight than not quite tight enough. Pull up here, and we'll fix it in no time,” They drew up in a circle, with their horses’ heads to the center, Jack then dictated an oath binding each and all to secrecy touching everything pertaining to the proposed project, ‘* Now, ,then,” he said, in conclusion, ‘‘ you still have another chance to back out.” But no one availed himself of it, though one or two were unusually grave, ‘‘Very well! Hyere’s the scheme. My old man is in Denver, with a thousand dollars in his pocket. Been settling up a little sheep ac- count, “Day after to-morrow he will be in Dead- man’s Pass not far from sun-set. You know the stage time as well as I do, “Tf, now, a party of masked road-agents pull up that particular stage—” ‘‘And get shot for their pains!” interposed Wade, quietly. ‘* Not by the deacon,” was Jack’s assurance. ‘If you knew him as well as I do, you would know that he has an unconquerable horror of fire-arms. He never will carry so much.as a toothpick.” **'Why not?’ was the curious question. ** You tell,” said Jack. ‘I reckon it’s his re- ligion,” SS sss sss teres 3 — ee es ee ** But there are religious men in this commu- nity that go heeled all the same.” ‘* He don’t. And that’s enough for us,” No one expressed any stirprise at Jack’s will- ingness to rob his own father, If there was any- thing peculiar about his scheme, it was that he should let others profit with him, He forthwith explained that. ‘* But the loot ain’t all that he fetches from Denver,” he went on ‘‘ He’s got a little daisy that the hussies about hyere can’t hold a candle to. That’s my game!” ‘What! Do you mean to steal her too?” ‘“{ mean tomake a big try to get the inside track of the deacon. He has sat down on me, of course. He’ll fill her little head with my wickedness, and all that rot.” ‘*And make out a confounded good case!” laughed one of the crowd, ‘* The pot can’t call the kettle black!” ‘* Oh, that’s so! We ain’t any of us saints,” ‘Well, suppose a band of road-agents—terri- ble fellows, you know!—were to capture the lit- tle lady—for ransom, of course; aad then that one Jack Swayne was to rescue her, with appro- priate dare-devil risks and hair-breadth es- capes?” ‘By Jove! that’s no fool of a plan!” “Thank you! That’s my plan! You’re wel- come to the money. J wantthe girl.” ‘*'You shall have her, my boy!” ‘* We’re to play road-agent?’ ‘Tt looks as if our necks were to go into that halter!” ‘* For a hundred dollars apiece! Cheap!” ‘What in Cain are you whining about? Am I in the habit of asking others to rake my chest- nuts out of the fire for me?” ‘No! Dll be hanged if you are, Jack!” ‘*Then wait until you’re hurt before you squeal!” ‘**Go ahead, Jack. Let us have it all.” ‘* 7 propose to act as the head-center of that road-agent band! What more do you want than that?” ** Nothing.” ‘*T do all the talking; and if there is any one to be given away, it’s i» ‘We couldn’t ask anything fairer than that,” ‘*But our horses?” objected a cautious one, ‘* They'll be spotted—every last one of ’em!” ‘* Exactly!” said Jack. ‘‘ We'll do the spot- ting as a part of the masquerade.” ‘* Ha! ha! ha!” laughed one who was some- what disposed to play the flunky toJack, “I call that good! We spot our horses so that they may not be ‘spotted ’ by some one else!” So the plot was formed. Let us see what came of it. CHAPTER ITI. A HEATHEN CHAMPION, EpitH had made no repiy to Jack’s parting salute. She was afraid to interfere in this quar- rel between father and son. She did not even look after him. His father’s unwavering gaze held her as if by fascination. Abednego Swayne had waited with the im- passivity of an automaton while his son had his say. hen Jack was gone, he spoke in the same dead, mechanical way: ‘*My dear, it has pleased Divine Justice to afflict me with an ungodly son. I do not mur- mur, The punishment is meet. My sins have been as scarlet! ‘‘T saw the meeting with you. I waited for evidence of his ruthless profligacy—his contempt for the most sacred human ties. He has ex- pressed the hope of meeting you again; but as you would shield the lamb from the wolf, pray God to stand between you and him. Amen!” There was something horrible in this cold- blooded denunciation of his own son, A cant- ing, Puritanical whine in the voice of the man before her gave Edith a cue to his character, She was fart more repelled by him than by the younger man against whom he warned her. ‘““This is uncle Abednego?” she asked, timid- ly. "Tt was noticeable that she gave him his full name, instead of the affectionate abbreviation with which she had spoken of him to Jack, ‘Tt is one who was your father’s friend, be- fore—before—” A huskiness seemed to choke him. He broke off and dropped his head, murmuring: ‘* God’s mercy be upon him!” Then, in a still lower voice, almost inaudible, he added: ‘* And upon me, a sinner!” The girl’s heart swelled with quick gratitude and remorse, Tears sprung into her eyes. What was his outward appearance, if he so loved her dear dead pupa? n ne ety | _ sa G _..., © PGs a _i ee ) ae 7. Ol sy Sey ad ‘al i. P= Aa t Y ey a-, \ Py ‘ my toe er? i Oe °. "> yf ; r, > . ¥ ‘ Add al : +s 9 s- vay i . AP ime fe q 4 + +