Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 47 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

2 lost among the shadows that concealed the fore- most wagons, ‘** Captain Lige hasn’t been very happy these six days ee the musical prodigy muttered. “He is that he will not get all the gold that ea Be is to be found along the shore of the big e. Sometimes I think that some- thing besides the love for gold brought him into these woods, for didn’t the people tell us before we struck these woods that the ore was copper and not gold? But Captain Lige said that they lied, and here we are, creeping north toward Lake Superior. wre I did wrong in comin along; but I guess I couldn’t well help myself. I’m in for it now at any rate, and I'll face the music as it comes.” A moment’s silence followed the boy’s low words, and then, unable to repress the music which like a well-spring flowed from his heart, he began to drum with the whip on the horns of the plodding ox. “When a fellow can’t sing he can think the songs over!” he said to himself, with a smile. ‘* Bless me! if I wouldn’t like to give a concert in these woods! But just wait till I get to the lake! Blossoms and flowers! but Pll make the old shores ring. The captain will have to gag me if he wants me still there!” The lake-shore! Nightingale Nat did not think, in the midst of his castle-building, that 7 might never see the pictured rocks of Supe- or. All at once the drumming ceased, for the curses of the men ahead failed to salute the boy-bird’s ears, and instead, there rung in them a strange, rough voice which he knew he had never before heard. It seemed to denote danger to the train. “Get ready to fight!” cried a man who passed Nat at a quick e, and ghost-like vanished toward the rear of the column. ‘*That we will!” said the boy as he tossed the whip forward upon the yoke, and slid Mere me from the beast. ‘‘ Waspsyand crickets! I didn’t look for brush so soon, but it seems that we’re in for it. Well, we'll give the reds the best we've got in the train.” As he uttered the words he hastened to the wagon and drew forth a rifle. Then he slun pauce and powder-horn over his head, and too is station at the heads of the oxen, which, at his command, had come to a halt. ‘They'll be down upon us in a minute!” he heard the voice of the man who had him say. ‘‘The woods to the right ar’ full of ’em. The cap’n says ‘ fight,’ but this is a pretty place to corral the wagons, I’m thinkin’.” The man was coming back. ““Who brought the news, Jack?’ asked the boy as the trainman came in sight. “I hearda strange voice down where the captain is.” ‘* An’ a strange critter is the man what owns it,” was the reply. ‘*’Pon my word, Nat, you never see’d such 4 fellar. We'll hev to wait till daylight to see whether he’s a white man. Oh, we're in fur it. He says thet they’re not fur off an’—I didn’t stay to hear all his gab. Cuss the day we sot out fur the lake! hy, thar’s no more gold thar than thar’s in my eye.” “That is what I think, Jack. But we must- n’t whimper over spilled milk, not even when the pitcher is broken.” ‘*Of course not; but the cap’n—” The man did not get to finish his sentence for Zimri Paddock made his appearance on the scene, and caught the boy rudely by the arm. “The cap’n wants to see you!” he said, ina tone that boded the youth no “Tt wasn’t hard to tell thet your infa screechin’ would git us into trouble. Why couldn’t you re e to yerself? e snake wouldn er ton owt whar the cat-bird’s nest is if it wasn’t fur her squealin’.” Before the boy could reply, he found himself — forward by the brutal man, who in a ew words told Jack to guard the team until relieved by orders. At an _ inconsiderate e Nightingale Nat was hurried toward the head of the train, from which came the voices of the men in conversa- tion. He knew that the captain was ep pe ln for sundry ressions, more emphatic than elegant, told him this, and he expected to encounter a simoom of rage where. that, worthy stood. ‘‘ Here’s the blatant brat!” cried a strongly- built and dark-featured man as he sprung upon the youth who was released by Paddock, when a saw that Ge: had a ~ meget es ® group. “Time and again I have i to bridle his tongue; but he would sing. Here he is, sir. Come forward and look at bird.” The captain’s last words were addressed to a Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. | unt specimen of humanity whose shaggy ead looked in the dim light like a lion’s, ‘perched, and out of place, upon the shoulders of a man. The quaint personage took a long stride for- ward, and from beneath a tangled mass of long eyebrows fastened his gaze upon the boy. ‘“Why he’s a leetle one!” he said in a rough, uncultivated, but not unkind voice. ‘‘Is this the bird what I heard so far from the wagons?’ ** Yes!” grated Captain Rough—a name which _he wore with credit to his na . ‘*This is the bird... Wait! Pll shake his — e up a little.” Hard upon the last rough words, Nightingale Nat was jerked suddenly from the ground, and shaken so furiously by the captain of the train that his rifle fell from his grasp! “That’s what I call shaking hi oy up a little!” said Rough, as he released the boy and turned with a grin of brutal delight upon the uncouth visitor. Nat staggered when released. It seemed to him that the captain had loosened every bone in his img § ‘* He’s the scamp what is bringing the outlaws and Indians down upon us with this singing!” Rough continued. ‘‘ Bless me! if I’m done with him yet. The fiends wil) not attack us for ten minutes. Paddock, where’s a whip?’ The next instant a heavy ox-whip was thrust into the captain’s hand, and with an oath he pushed his right sleeve above the elbow. ‘“‘ Stand still, there!” he cried to the boy who involuntarily shrunk toward the wagons as he caught sight of the cruel whip in the hand of Rough. ‘* Move, if you dare! and b my life! Pll cut your chicken-throat the first blow.” White-faced now, Nightingale Nat halted and looked around. The faces of the members of the caravan did not exhibit any signs of pity. While few show- ed evidences of glee at the expected punish- ment, more than one was ially averted. It was evident that Captain Rough ruled supreme over the train. ‘Pll teach him to sing the enemy down upon us!” grated the brute as the heavy lash de- scribed a circle around his head. ** Yes, my friend—” There was the sudden darting of a figure for- ward, and the uncouth invader of the train — himself firmly like a rock before the eatened boy. “Don’t you hit the leetle one!” he cried, put- ting forth his long arm while his keen eyes sent sparks of fire from their dark caverns. “I reckon as how no giant hes a right to whipa dwarf. He didn’t know thet it war wrong to sing in these parts. Music is in him, an’ it hed to come out; thet’s all.” Captain Rough dropped the uplifted a and, witha face livid with rage, started bac His eyes were riveted upon the interferer in his **Who are you?” he almost yelled. ‘*‘ And what do you know about the boy?” “Answerin’ your last question first, I say ‘nothin’’!” was the reply. ‘“‘I am Old Shadow- Shot, at ae sarvice, an’ by the snakes of the woods! I'll kill the first man what teches the leetle one in my presence. Thet’s me, and I mi ightingale N t, with a lookof d ti ghtingal e Nat, with a look of deep grati- tude, crept closer to the strange being. ‘ CHAPTER II. THE VULTURES OF THE WOODS. “HARK! Can’t you fellows stop eet hee for a moment so a person can hear something At the edge of a dense forest, not very far from the scene of the incidents just narrated, a company of men, pee Sarr age were, with two exceptions, seated statue-like on the backs of horses whose ing heads proclaimed them rT hore i Fastin !” said the speaker, afte ere it is e er, ra moment of silence. ‘‘That is the voice of some one singing. We are going to strike the train to-night.” At the mention of a train the horsemen lift- ed their and eagerness flashed eyes. PE a Soe do you think it is whar that chap is ’ Tt was a dark-faced, uncouth individual who put this question. “There is just where it is and nowhere else,” was the y. **Cap’n h would not allow it, I ae a - thinkin’. Doesn’t he know that he’s gerous kentry?” “He had ought to. But, as he hasadvanced so far without accident, I suppose he thinks that in their —- — —— _ —— he will get on to the copper country without trouble. ‘* Poor fool!” sneered the rough man, ‘‘ Cap’n whar’s the train what has passed over this trail unteeched ?” A curious smile played with the cruel lips of the man called cap’n. Ay, where was the train which had passed through the Wisconsin forest unscathed, to the wonderful copper mines of Lake Superior? The Vultures of the woods had fallen upon it when in the midst of fancied security, and left but ruins of wagons and bones of oxen and men to mark the spot of the fatal sweop! ‘* Youre right, e! where is the one?” »‘‘Its name is nary,” was the answer, accom- panied by a malicious chuckle that sounded like the chatter of wolfish teeth. ‘‘ But, Cap’n Dave, you can’t hear the song now.” ‘* No; it grew still suddenly, just as if Cap- tain gee, had put his hand over the singer’s mouth. The train is just ahead of us now.’ “Sartain, cap’n?’ “ Certain] , a.” Then the ta speaker turned to the dark fig- ures behind him. ‘Get ready!” he said, in a tone of command. ‘‘ A rich prize is jogging slowly over the trail, and we'll strike it near the place where we struck Collyer’s pare 4 ‘* Great r! cap’n, I wish you hedn’t said a word about that fracas,” said the man called Rafe as his hand fell on Captain Dave’s arm. ‘‘Pshaw! you'll get out of your ghosty no- tions before you die, old boy,” the brigand said, with a sneer. “I never think of that little brush, and I never trouble myself about the things that frighten you. Let me tell P tat Rafe, and I say it in a low tone, for l on’t want the rest of the boys to hear.”’ The bandit lowered his voice as he leaned toward the dark-faced man. ‘Well, out with it, cap’n!” ‘‘Tam ashamed of you; indeed, I am, Rafe. I don’t want to tell you so before the boys. I tell you that nobody escaped from Collyer’s train!’ ‘“Nobody, cap’n?’ ejaculated the bandit opening his eyes with incredulity. “ What about the gal? ‘*Oh, there wasn’t a girl in the train!” said the leader, with a forced smile. ‘‘ Are you goin to harp about it all your life? I was there, anc when I say there was no girl in the train, why, there wasn’t. That settles it.” ‘* Mebbe it does and mebbe it doesn’t,” blurt- ed the unconvinced Vulture; ‘‘ mebbe I wasn’t there that night, or p’raps I went into the muss with my eyes shut, an’ didn’t open ’em until it was over.” The captain of the forest scourges bit his lip. ‘Tt is no use!” he said straightening up in a pet of chagrin. ‘‘ Yow’re bound to have your own way, and have it and be hanged.” ‘“‘ Not so fast, Cap’n Dave?” and the speaker's eyes shot a malicious gleam at hisleader, “I’ve been your right bower fur five years right in these woods, and when I say thet there was a gal with Collyer’s train when we struck it, why there was—that’s all!” There was no reply to this, and the next moment the freebooter’s hand gathered up the reins as he turned to the main body of his force. ‘““Ready!” he said. ‘‘ Now let us be off. It is a richer prize than Collyer’s train was, It must be ours before morning.” There was a quick gathering of reins, and the y aa where the outlaws had halted was soon eserted. The two brigands who were exchanging some igh words when the strange forest song reach- their captain’s ears separated without a word; but their looks told that they would resume the quarrel at the first opportunity. It was evident to the man who rode at the head of the party that the train was not far away. Let us look at him as he appeared in the twilight of that eventful day. . He was a very frontier Apollo, Though in the neighborhood of his thirtieth year, he looked like a man of twenty-three or four. A proud and shapely head sat y on br and massive shoulders. The k eye-brows over- arched a pair of deep, gleaming orbs, which could ap as soft as the eyes of the gazelle, at their possessor’s em A His hair, black as the lustrous eyes, was Closely cropped, and the lips, at. once sensual and firm, were more half hidden by a heavy yet silken mustache. The bod: sm by the close-fitting suit of gray with no ornament save a Mexican-like capote was faultless from chin to boots, and the hand that held the rein seemed fitted for the count- EGOMIrecDOOKS