Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 481 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

/ | fichtos' bund of execration, treating the fugitives, Little Ah Sin, Abednego Swayne, and himself with equal impartiality. '- ‘Nes 4 Little Ah Sin. zs) chop-chop! China boy he no makee killum one teem. Makee killum twoteem, you bet! No makee bobbery ‘long that lillee missee! That Overtaking his recreant supporters, he could | one piece lobbah man he chin-chin he b’long searcely restrain his bitter contempt within bounds which even they would endure. ‘* Pretty fellows you, to pretend to stand at any man’s back!” fs cried. ‘‘If I was one of such a pack of cowards, ’'d wear petticoats and have done with it!” **'That’s all right!” replied one of the delin- quents. ‘* But he who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day!” ** Yes, if you had only done a little fighting!” sneered Jack, bitterly. Sut it’s precious little fighting any of your crowd will ever do. You run away before it begins!” ** Pard, it’s one thing to pull up the coach, and uite another thing to sling the passengers cold. ain’t ready to go to glory yet—not at the end of a rope, anyway!” **Bah! You were scared off by a little vaga- bond of a heathen Chinee!” “Tf he was such a contemptible little cuss, why didn’t you stay and plant him yourself?” ‘*Could I fetch away the yirl alone? And after [ had her, what could I do with her? I suppose you’d all have stood by me, and car- ried out the programme? Oh, yes!—I see you!” ‘‘ Well, we’ve got the money, anyway. That’s something.” ‘For you fellows! How much do you sup- »0se you’ve earned of it? You’ve done the eavy standing-round while I did the work.” ‘Don’t flunk on that, Jack. Hang it all, man! you don’t want us to swing, so that you may come the gum-game on a girl that you can get just as easy some other way.” But Jack wasn’t easily placated. ** Tt’s not only that you’ve beat me out of what I had set my mind on,” he said; ‘‘ but by your cowardice you’ve, as like as not, given the whole thing away.” ‘i don’t see that. Nobody said a word but you.” ‘*Oh, you were mum enough! But what set of genuine road-agents would have skedaddled like a flock of frightened sheep, as you did? Any one with half an eye would spot this crowd first shot.” At this there was no little concern, until one suggested an avenues of escape. “Your old man can’t crowd us, Jack, with- out pinching you. Suppose you make it up with him by returning the loot!” ‘Well, you do take the chromo!” cried Jack, contemptuously. And without deigning further discussion, he put spurs to his horse, and dashed on ahead of the party. . Meanwhile Abednego Swayne had risen from the ground, covered with dirt and bleeding from a wound where the hoof of Jack’s horse had grazed his forehead. Little Ah Sin had greeted the success of his shot with a wild laugh of delight. ‘Hi! that b’long one piece heap colo teem that lobbah man he hab got behind side! Maskee he largee talkee, he lun alla same likee one piece cow chilo!” } But Edith was unconscious; and neither Ab- ednego Swayne nor the driver could understand that he said: “It’s a very cold day when that robber gets left! For all his bluster, he runs like a girl!” Seeing Edith’s state, his excitement returned. ‘* Hi! you, Joss pidgin man!” he cried, forget- ting his respect in his anxiety. ‘‘That b'long what thing that missee he catchee? He so ’flaid he no can makee talkee. He no can lookee floo he eye. Mi ‘flaid he makee finishee, alla ‘long that lobbab man bobbery !” All of which was pi rin English for: ‘‘Say! parson, what’s the matter with my young lady? She’s so frightened that she can’t speak nor see. I’m afraid she’ll die of that thief’s insolence.” But Edith was far from ‘‘ making a finish” of it. : Little Ah Sin whipped out a fan, and began to wave it frantically before her pa face, But her guardian, wiser than he, quietly put him aside, and laid her on one of the seats, sup- porting her head and shoulders in his arms over the edge, so that they were a little lower than the rest of her body. The blood being thus al- lowed to run into the brain, the heart having fallen to force it there, she revived almost in- stantly. ittle Ah Sin’s delight knew no bounds. He instantly burst forth: ‘‘ Hi; lillee missee! You all lightee; Joss pid- man, he all lightee; Lillee Ah Sin, he all That any piece lobbah man, he walkee / muchee topside. ' | China boy he catchee one piece ’volvo; he makee talkee that lobbah man he makee walkee chop-chop no hab got spilun— alla same likee ’Melican man!” This was Little Ab Sin’s crowning triumph— to handle a revolver like a ** ’Melican man,” and he threw himself into a menacing attitude, squinting over the barrel of the weapon. Edith, to whom his higgly-piggly English was perfectly intelligible, understood him to say: ‘You're all right; the parson’s all right; and Vm allright! That lot of thieves made off ina hurry. I didn’t shoot to kill the first time; but [ would the next! Youshouldn’t behurt! That robber fancied that he was boss; but I took my revolver and ordered him to clear out before he got spoilt!” Later, when Little Ah Sin detailed this ad- venture over and over again to her, Edith made ample acknowledgment of her indebtedness to him; but just now she was too much excited to pay much attention to what he was saying. ‘*Oh! is he gone? Are we safe?” she cried clinging to her guardian. Then she saw the blood trickling down his forehead and over his beard, and voiced her quick sympathy. ‘* But you have been hurt, dear uncle Abe! See! see! how your head is bleeding! What can l do for it?” ‘It isnothing!” said Abednego Swayne, shak- ing his head gloomily. ‘‘ My sorest wound is not there. Would it were!” She insisted upon examining it, and upon find- ing that it was only an abrasion of the skin, stanched the blood with her handkerchief. ‘*Ttis the brand of Cain!” said the sufferer, in his deepest, most sepulchral voice. ‘The hand of an offended God is like the flaming sword that flashed all ways before the gates of Paradise! I1t findeth us out wherever we may flee!” The girl shrunk from him in dread. What was the meaning of the dark fanaticism that haunted him? ‘* Drive on!” he said, to the driver. Then, sitting with his elbows on his knees, he dropped his face into his hands, and so sat, sunk in profound melancholy. Little Ah Sin’s enthusiasm was chilled. He sat as silent as Edith, peering through the deep- ening darkness at the strange man with whom their lot was to be cast for good or ill. It was a relief to both when they drove into a ts BT where they could once more be surrounded by human beings who had no terri- ble mystery clinging about them like grave- clothes, Lanterns gleamed through the blackness of the night; gruff voices hailed and answered one another, with no dearth of profanity; shadowy figures cast gigantic, phantom shapes on the walls of the rude slab buildings; thestage horses exchanged friendly whinnies with their fellows, brought from the stables to relieve them. In the midst of this—to Edith—strange scene, Abednego Swayne alighted in gloomy silence. No one greeted him with friendly familiarity. The men who were slapping one another on the back, or trying to effect an unexpected trip, with good-natured, though rough badinage, stopped their horse-play as he passed. For some reason of his own, the stage driver had not, in response to the first hail, shouted out the information that they had been ‘pulled up.” He waited until Abhednego Swayne was beyond ear-shot, and then made the communi- cation in a low voice. The men looked curiously at the bowed figure that passed among them like a mistrusting and mistrusted alien. “But they asked him no ques- tions, and he volunteered nothing. A team of well-kept horses was brought out of the stable and hitched to a light farm wagon, Seated beside her saturnine guardian, with Little Ah Sin perched on one of her trunks be- hind, Edith was driven away from the coach station, leaving the gleaming lanterns behind, plunging into the black darkness as if into the Then passed hours of unbroken silence. The horses were left to pick their way, their animal instinct a safer guide than human direction. That the road was strewn with unseen perils on every side was indicated by the pitching and geen of the wagon, and by the dim perception —partly through sight and partly through hear- eS jutting cliff and yawning chasm. dith dared not break in upon the gloomy From time to ’ ‘ nether pit! reverie of the map at her side, time he muttered or groaned, as if oblivious to his surroundings. She could distinguish now and then only some expression of human sinful- ness, or Diyine wrath, or an unctuous ‘* Amen!” Long after midnight they came upon a group of low buildings, where they were greeted by the vociferous barking of several dogs. But at a stern word from their master the an- imals slunk away, and stood aloof in silence, looking at him, A sleepy hostler came out from the stables; but he got his wits about him when he saw who it was, as if he did not care to provoke a rebuke by his stupidity. Edith stood in the night-chill, utterly wretch- ed and homesick, shrinking from the reception she was to receive in he house which continued as dark and silent as a tomb. Presently the door opened with unexpected abruptness; and a woman, with a candle held above her head, appeared on the threshold, But such a woman! She was almost the counterpart of her husband. Tall and gaunt, so that her straight cahco gown hung upon her angular shoulders as if on a clothes-horse, the yellow light of the tallow dip, falling from above, brought out the harshness of her sharp features, With the sallow skin stretched from the high cheek-bones to the clearly-outlined jaw, her hol low cheeks looked like the warped covers of an old vellum-bound — book. Her sunken eyes seemed to have caught the weird gleam of her husband’s, Her lips were so thin and com- pressed, that, with its corners drawn down, her mouth formed only a curved line beneath her pointed and drooping nose, Abednego Swayne and the woman exchanged a glance of silent intelligence, It was as if Le needed no words to communicate with eac other, Then the woman looked at Edith as mutely, with a thrilling intensity of inquiry in her eyes. The girl advanced timidly, and said: ‘* Aunt Mercy?” ‘You are welcome, my dear,” said the wo- man, in a hard, mechanical way, as if her heart lent no warmth to the words her lips framed. Then she, as her husband had done, took one of the girl’s hands, and bending, left a cold, un emotional kiss on her forehead. As before, Edith turned pale, arid with diffi culty repressed a convulsive shudder. Had she come to live with these strange, re- yulsive people? She felt as if her soul would Sede in their icy atmosphere. And'\ what was this horror that hung over both of them like a pall? Without a word further she followed her hostess into the house, the flaring flame of the candle revealing to her curious and apprehen- sive glance a room almost as barren of com- forts as a soldiers’ barrack. There was a rag carpet on the floor. A pine table, stained black, and having a scant and much-faded cover, stood against the wall, bear- ing a well-worn family Bible, a copy of Fox's ‘‘ Book of Martyrs,” Baxter’s ‘Saints’ Rest,” and a work on demonology. <A few straight- backed chairs, a large wooden rocker, which looked uncomfortable enough to be an engine of torture, an armless settle and a footstoo] com- pleted the furnishing of the desolate place. The walls were of unpapered deal boards, the joists being exposed overhead, A brass candlestick on the mantilepiece was the nearest approach to anything ornamental in the room. Passing through this room, up a narrow box stairway, Edith was shown immediately to her chamber. It was as small and bare asa prison. cell. It contained only a bunk-bed of pine and a single chair. No table, no wash-stand, no bureau not even so much as a little triangular bit of look- ing-glass nailed against the wall! ter, Edith found that in this strange house- hold a mirror was regarded as a device of the devil to insnare the soul through vanity, _ A row of nails driven into the wall behind the door served as a wardrobe. , ‘We breakfast et five,” said Mrs. Swayne, with a face so set, and in tones so cold and hard, that it seemed as if she were administering a re- buke; ‘‘ but, as I suppose you have not slept and are tired, you will not be called in the morning, but can sleep as late as you wish, pp And closing the door, she walked off with the candle, leaving Edith dumb with surprise, in the dark. | Later, she learned that it was taken for pipee that every one should go to bed without a light. Economy,” said Abednego Swayne, “is one += . i . ont + . ~ * ‘ . .* . t é ‘ ‘¥ 1c 4 7 pes 2 ‘ . phe SS ee p \ » 4 \ ~ ws =. 7 - , a