Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 451 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

— 3 5 *~ _ ery eat hana d Cree eal Set ay ae Se ee oa hy me Jf - A x seaes Stans ES ERS eas. a) ar aE Len ike ope 22 4 i . y 74 , , : A = = a. f ° ote” « 7 ~ a < be ral 1 0S «.. a, pe }- - Ey s* de A% 4 r + Pv, “a aad c oe . : ey » * od ae wi hk ie She Se aca oie A i lea ow | ores eS ae ¢ we oe 7” > 3S PU 5 és _* my <n a d J a | 14 Colorado Kate. Mrs. Saunderson had fallen back in the coach, burying her face in her handkerchief. Burt Younger gave directions to the boys, and they set about obeying them with a will. In the bustle of changing horses, no one heard the rapid approach of a rider who came at full gallop. The Squire was the first to catch sight of the new-comer, and the effect on him was startling. His jaw dropped, and into his eyes came the wild look of a hunted beast, ‘* What shall I do?’ he gasped. ‘' Kill her?” And he plucked a revolver from his belt, But then he saw the madness of that act. It would only be exchanging one dilemma for an- other even more hopeless, ‘“* Tt’s all up!” he cried to himself, following up the abandonment of hope with a bitter curse. Then came the thought of flight. His life was all he could hope to save from the wreck of his schemes, He sprung toward a horse stand- ing near by, with his bridle thrown over a post, A clear, ringing voice cried: ‘‘Stop that man! He is a murderer! a liar! a thief! everything that is vilest! Stop him J” In amazement at the sound of that voice which all instantly recognized, the boys whirl round, to stare at the approaching rider. It was a woman with her hair streaming out behind her with the speed at which she came, Her horse’s eyes were ablaze, his nostrils blood-red, his lips and breast flecked with foam. She was seated astride, with her feet tied be- neath the animal’s belly, and her hands bound at her back. A cry went up from the crowd. ** Colorado Kate!” ** Stop him! stop him!” she shouted again. Then the boys saw that the ores was mount- ed and spurring away for dear life! He rode directly toward Colorado Kate, and as he met her, drew his revolver and fired. The girl threw her body to one side, and by a pressure of her knee caused her horse to swerve in the same direction. In that posture she shot by the Squire. He turned in the saddle, and fired at her again, with as poor success as before. Burt Younger did not understand it; but he saw that there was something under the surface. No one but a knave detected in his guilt would take so desperate a step as the Squire had. What then was the meaning of Kate’s return to the camp in this predicament? She did not look like a run-away wife. She was bound—a ca pe ve ! Vith his head in a whirl, Burt Younger cried: ** After him, boys!” They responded with a united yell. There was no Lng tp they would hunt more willingly than this fellow, who, besides ‘‘ cleaning out” Little Jingo, had ‘‘slung so much style” that they all disliked him, So they bounded after him, firing their revolvers as they ran. Burt ran forward, caught Kate’s horse by the bridle, and threw him back on his haunches. ‘*Oh, Burt!” cried the girl, ‘don’t let him es- cape! It’s the worst plot you ever heard of! i. Charley believe that I had run away from im? ‘‘ No!” shouted Burt, with an oath, telling a lie for which he could never afterward be brought to say that he was sorry. . With a slash of his bowie, he cut the rope that bound Kate’s feet, and lifted her from the horse’s back. At a bound he was in her place, and wheeling the animal short round, gave chase to the fleeing Squire. ~~ Saunderson had come forth from the coach, amazed at the strange turn matters had taken. She looked for the woman whose strange ar- rival had set all commotion going, She ueard her scream: ** Charley!” She saw her rush forward and throw her- self headlong into the arms of a man who was just entering the camp from the other direction. She thought she had never seen so woe-be- gone a face as his—so ghastly and_ haggard; such sad eyes; so bowed a figure. He seemed old, with the age of profound grief. But at sight of the woman with streaming hair, his figure had straightened up as if touched by a magic wand, He received the woman on his breast and wound his arm about her as if he would crush her into his heart, and kept repeating over and over and over again: “Kate! Kate! Kate! Kate!” But into the camp dashed another rider— this time a man—who claimed instant attention. ‘Don’t ask no questions!” he shouted. “‘ but ~~" > &. 4. 4 , < ' - / : e 9 . " “= a _ : . a aie : - Ls . « , . ~~ Pi ~ > vm nw i re * f ? Pa 0 7 “+ foller me! Let the Squire go! You can’t touch one side of him with that jaded hoss! Git fresh stock, and come with me! If you want to vee the ndertaker’s life, come!—an’ come 5 The last word was lost in the hubbub; but the boys had gathered the sense of it. Want to save the life of the Undertaker? Well, now, you may believe they did! All of a sudden every last man of them was ready to lay down his life for him! Then there was a rush to stables. Saddles were scorned. Every one mounted the first thing he could lay his hands on, Then a wild snorting and excited whinnying, a whisking of tails, a flying of heels, and away! But there!—we have almost for otten to say that the man in advance was Fasiy-wanake the ex-road-agent! Andy, whom Limpy Dick had pushed over the cliff! Andy, who had lain hidden in the shed, and overheard the plot formed between his would-be murderer and the man who was indirectly the cause of his having to fly the retreat for his life: and who had there sworn to be even with them all. He was now keeping his oath! CHAPTER XXT,. ALL HANDS ROUND! Wuat Andy had done so far in fulfillment of his determination to ‘‘get square” with the Squire and Limpy Dick, the reader shall know presently. Let us now follow him at the head of the men of Canyon City, on their way to suc- cor the Undertaker, The boys saw that, as Colorado Kate had rid- den one of Little Jingo’s horses, so was Andy mounted on the other; and this was a guarantee of some connection with her, and therefore hos- tility toward her enemies. Andy led the rescuers directly to Big-fisted Frank’s mountain retreat. He did not attempt to surprise the sentinel since, with such a rout at his back, that would be almost impossible, forced as they were to do whatever they proposed to do befora the escaped Pave” could communicate with the road-agent chief. Charging headlong through the defile, they met with no opposition, the sentinel knowing that, with no one at his back, his single arm could availnothing. He therefore ‘‘lay low, and looked out for number one.” They found the retreat with no one at home, but the Undertaker a prisoner bound, ‘““And now, gentlemen,” said Andy, ‘‘the quicker we git out o’ this, the more whole skins we'll be likely to take back to Canyon City! Ef Big4isted Frank should happen to find out that we had stolen a march on him, he might give us a brush yit!” Back to Canyon City they rode like the wind; but before they reached it they were arrested by a startling spectacle. / Jt was the dead body of a man dangling from the limb of a tree by the neck, in a moonlit glade through which the road Pate * Why, it’s Limpy Dick!” cried Burt Younger ‘“‘It’s him, fur a fact!” admitted Andy, com- placently. ‘*Ts this your work?” asked Burt. ‘** Not much!” replied Andy. ‘‘I wish it was!” *“'What’s this hyer?” asked one of the men, ‘* A paper tacked onto his breast,” our took it off, and examined it in the moon- ight. ‘On it was traced: “This is Cal Vrooman’s way of squaring accounts with a man who was fool enough to let his game slip through his fingers, and spoil a dead-sure thing. Leave this rope; as I may have further use for it be- fore this thing is played out.” Andy chuckled softly to himself as he listened, ‘* An’ who in Cain is Cal Vrooman?” asked uire,” said Andy. he?” r Burt. ‘“* He's feelin’ bad about it, ain’t ‘* The ‘** What shall we do about this carcass?” ‘Shove it under ground, I say.” ‘* An’ leave the rope whar it is?” i . Yes—to hang the Squire on, ef you ketch im! This suggestion tickled the boys’ fancy; 80 they indorsed it to aman, ‘“ He’s had dog’s luck, from fu’st to last,” said Burt, as they took the body of the cripple down. ‘‘That’s so,” admitted Andy, taking the thing quite philosopbically, however. ‘I allow he was born whinin’; he’s been growlin’ all his life; an’ he died a dog’s death, as a finisher.” . The burial was a hasty one, only sufficient to secure the body from the coyotes. Then they rode on to Canyon City. With his Wonted reserve, ‘Whe Buabitaker had re 4 a d . o ‘ ~~ “s ” -t4 fe . ° “7 ; ” a wh - JF i er ae LS ys ; wae 4 Soe hile p. > “f Ny 5 os peas oS ale Lal - * s, “a. Pe A SPR ie od of J a“ ~ *s -T bd * i jing => . , . ba : _— asked no questions, nor volunteered any expla- nation of his own share in what had ooceerea: He was equally dumb when, riding into the camp, they found an immense bonfire burning, in the light of which stood Little Jingo and his wife, whose happy faces showed that they had come to a perfect understanding: and ide — the lady whom the Squire had brought ither. She bent forward to scan them with an eager look on her pale face: and when the Undertaker drew up with the rest, and sat staring at her with a strange, troubled look, she advanced to the side of his horse with her hands clasped on her breast, and asked, piteously: ‘George, can you forgive me?” He did not answer; but his lips trembled, and his breast labored, as he still gazed fixedly down upon her, She took his hand and drew it to her lips, while all the spectators stood staring breath- lessly, wondering what was to come of it all. The Undertaker did not repel her. He let her Po her cheek upon his hand, and bathe it with er tears; but yet he did not speak, However, this was more than Little Jingo could stand. ‘‘ Look hyar, pard,” he said. ‘That ain’t the way to settle that sort o’ thing. Thar’s the old shanty in good shape yit. Jest you take her down thar, and show us a happier woman in the mornin’ an’ don’t furgit to shorten up yer own mug some,” | . Without more ado, he Ilfted the pleading wife and set her before her husband, on his horse’s withers. Mechanically the Undertaker yielded her the support of his arm, still with locked lips and that deeply-troubled look, She let her head sink against his shoulder, and so rested with closed eyes. “Now, git along!” said Little Jingo, slapping the horse on the rump. And the long-separated pair went thus to the shanty Little Jingo and his Queer Pard had occupied before his marriage, Then Little Jingo explained to a curious audi- ence how the Undertaker and Colorado Kate had been carried off by Big-fisted Frank and his men, Limpy Dick lingering behind to effect the robbery on his own account, _ At this point Andy took up the narrative, see- ing that from thence on he had been one of the principal actors. ‘He told why he had arrayed himself against the plotters; how he had ambushed Limpy Dick and his captive, and by assaulting the former had given Colorado Kate her opportunity to escape; and the rest the reader already knows, The boys voted what he had done an ample squaring Of his account as a road-agent; and ‘Little Jingo rewarded him substantially, The Undertaker obeyed his pard’s injunction, and on the morrow showed them a happier look- ing woman than he had taken from their midst; besides that, he was a changed man himself. A clean shave and a hair-cut at the hands of a certain deft Chinaman, and a suit of the best clothes the camp afforded, made him look twenty years younger, | It had been a misunderstanding between him and his wife, effected by the scheming Squire; but now all was happily made right, As Mayor of Canycn City, Little Jingo declar- ed that day a legal holiday, which was to be cel- ebrated at his expense as a “ grand united blow- out,” in honor of the reunion of himself and wife, and his pard and wife, ‘An’ now, pard,” he said, when the music struck up, ““ were goin’ to make a clean sweep 0’ this thing. No more hangin’ in the doldrums. Take that leetle woman o’ yourn an’ open the ball with her.” ** Suppose you lead off with my_ wife; and I will see how well I can follow with Mrs, Low- den,” suggested the Undertaker. ** Done!” cried Little Jingo. And the steps he took in that famous dance with his pard’s beautiful wife are the boast of Canyon City to this day! Every one had thought that the runaway was a “‘dead-sure thing;” the Squire had thought that the success of his plot was “a dead-sure thing;” Limpy Dick had thought that he had ‘‘a dead-sure thing ;” but, notwithstanding these repeated illustrations of the wisdom of the prov- erb, that ‘*There’s nothing so uncertain as a dead-sure thing,” the boys all swear that Little Jingo and his Queer Pard and their two wives are ‘*the happiest four-in-hand that ever run in matrimonial harness; an’ that is a dead-sure thing, an’ no e about it!” FAL THE END, a x ‘ wf : : 7 3 ’ “ ; - ho x Hh. é Re : 4 ' s * ea al e > > at fi5 on je " a z ~~. a aa ot, Se ? : e, : < be . a S he ‘ ” i Py ‘ 7 sie ona Pe. ot ed oe . - a 4 a Bp A a t com