Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 478 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

ie ae al RON, GER TERE TT hr r : > 9 ama : , ot my = 1 ne o> — ‘he 4 ~~ 7 4 - VS 4 ' ° 77 4 , v : Of ase. ee aioe ee - . : - : ; ; ae Ary a7 “Ol fiy ‘ 7 ews TF \) i “7, ’ A . » . ae yg : A : . -, - a y ~ . nas. . ’ - = ee ee ee re — To this arrangement Zulima readily consent- ed, and they turned and started back toward the grove. ‘Oh, why have I got to suffer so much?” the maiden exclaimed, as some new fear seemed to seize npon her mind. “The cussedness of man is at the bottom of it all, Miss Randall,” the boy replied, ‘* but they’ all smoke for 1t, now mind.” ‘* Laramie Joe, it looks to me as though we were the victims of a great conspiracy.” ‘‘'You may be, miss; God only knows.” ** Sybil thinks that preacher, Paul Postle, and the artist that came to Last Lick are at the bot- tom of all.” ** What made her think so?” ‘* Because we were carried away while all the men were at the entertainment given by the artist, and she thinks it was gotten up on pur- pose to draw them there so that we could be carried al ‘* Well, Miss Sybil is mistaken as to Rev. Paul Postle,” said Laramie Joe, ‘Do you know him?’ **' Yes; he was in your camp under false colors —he is not a preacher, but Kit Bandy, the noted old’ detective.” ‘*Indeed? Oh, I am glad to hear it!” ‘Yes, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bandy along this way before long; but here we are, Miss Randall.” They had reached the motte, and, dismount- ing, Joe assisted Zulima from her horse and conducted her into the grove. With his knife he cut some bushes and constructed a little bower for her. Inside of this he then spread his own blankets saying: ** Now, Miss Randall, that’s the best I can do for your comfort, but I’d advise you to lie down, and, if you can, take a good, sound sleep. I will go now in pursuit of Sybil, and will try and get back before morning. If, however, I should not return by that time, you had better mount your horse and get where you can find water and food. Ride straight to- ward the rising BALIN i the sun right before you for three hours’ lively ride, It will take you a little out of your way, but it will be the safest—it will bring you to Deer Creck, down which stream you must follow until you strike Redmon’s cattle-ranch, where you will find friends and protectors,” Zulima repeated his instructions to make sure she understood him aright, then thanked him for his kindness with all the fervency of her grateful woman’s nature. After addressing a few more words of en- couragement to the maiden, the boy. bade her good-night, leaped into his saddle and galloped away northward. Zulima watched him until he had disappeared in the distance, then, as a sense of her Joneli- ness rushed across her mind, she went back and knelt down in her bower, and lifting her face toward heaven, poured out her heart’s emo- tions in prayer to her Heavenly Father, hum- bly supplicating Him for strength and courage to bear her own burden, and for the safe re- turn of her rescuer, the brave and gallant young knight of her girlish dreams. CHAPTER VI, HAIL FELLOWS WELL MET. THe horse from which the outlaw—the victim of Laramie Joe’s revolver—tumbled ‘was a spirited animal, and, taking fright at the sound of the boy’s revolver and the scent of blood that spurted from the man’s wound upon its withers, it frantically dashed away over the lain, Itdid not keep the old Indian trail it ad followed since crossing the Sweetwater, but sped away toward the northeast, the heavy swinging stirrups lashing it in the sides at every bound and goading it on almost to madness. On and on it sped swiftly, wildly. The miles traversed grew rapidly behind it, Now and then a hungry coyote would spring from his concealment with a snappish bark and give it. In this way the terrified beast kept on until the berry and canyons trending away toward the North Fork of the Platte river were’ reach- ed. These breaks were in some places covered with thickets of brush and others with growths of pine timber. The horse entered a patch of low, stunted plum bushes, and there it was sud- denly, brought to a halt by the bridle-rein, that _ had fallen over its head, catching fast on a bush. After one or two ineffectual efforts to re- lease itself, the panting animal gave up and be- vame quiet, and presently it began to crop the bushes within reach. While thus eae there was a rustle in the thicket near. The horse pricked up its ears. © Old Tom Rattler. ‘* Whoa, now, ole boy,” suddenly came a hu- man voice from the bushes hard by; ‘*‘ whoa ”— it went on—‘‘be easy, ole feller—easy, old hossy, and [Pll he’p you out o’ yer preedicamint —ya-att, now, pony.” Then a man rose up and advanced to the side of the horse, and taking the reins unloosened them and began patting the trembling animal on the neck, The man was dressed in the garb of a hunter. He must have been fifty odd years of age, small of stature, with keen gray eyes overhung with shaggy brows, a rather prominent nose and a sharp chin covered with short, stubby whiskers, He carried a Sharpe’s rifle and around his waist was a cartridge-belt, well filled, and to which was suspended a sheathed hunting-knife, After he had quieted the horse, the old man said, as if the animal was an intelligent being: 3 I’guess, old hossy, you’ve been doin’ some lively scratchin’, but then I guess from your build you’re put up for lively work, and as I’m in need o’ a hoss [ll cabbage you— Ah! by the great Rosycrusians! here’s blood on you ole feller, and (ll bet it’s the blood o’ your other master. Been in some kind 0’ a racket, haven’t ye, ole hoss? Snakes! how I do wish you could talk—tell me the story o’ that blood, but, as ye can’t, Pll adopt ye as strayed or stolen, and mount you and ride over to camp,” So saying, the old borderman slung his rifle at his back, placed his foot in the stirrup, and was in the act of raising himself into the sad- dle when, to his surprise and horror, he beheld the head and face of a man who stood peering eo his very eyes from the opposite side of the orse, This stranger had approached unheard or un- seen, and this stealthy action had led the old borderman to the conclusion that he was an enemy, and dropping his foot from the stirrup, he shoved his hand over the saddle quick as a flash of lightning and caught the stranger by the hair of the head, At the same time, how- ever, the a Foe: Me flung a long arm over the horse and seized the borderman by his scanty locks and held him fast. This unnatural proceeding excited the horse so that it made a sudden lunge forward, break- ing the hold of the foes, and flinging them head- long to the earth/a rod apart, Quick almost as they had gone down the two men arose and confronted each other—each fin- gering at his belt for a weapon. ‘* Cuss pour ganglin’ ole carcass!” hissed the little borderman through his set teeth, his eyes blazing with fury, ‘‘come on, and I'll rip you open like a bean pod—l’ll fang you in the liver!” ‘f Ha! you bushy-faced little weasel,” retorted the other, a tall, slim man, dressed in a suit half-savage and half-plainsman, ‘‘advance one step and I'll tunnel yer carcass with lead so’s a coyote can gallop through you. Understand ('m not to be foolished with—I’m a hull regi- ment 0’—-” ‘‘Bushrangers,” interrupted the little bor- derer, ‘‘a confounded bush-louse. [ve killed whole acres 0’ sich things as you,” ‘* You're a holy untamed tempest, ar’n’t you?” ‘** I’m old Tom Rattler—” ‘‘Ther Red River Epidemic?’ broke in the tall man. . ‘** You bet your fuzzy old liver I’m that per- simmon, ripe, too, for anything from a bush-rat to a red-skin.” ‘‘Rattler, lve heard o’ you, now to introduct myself as Ka-ristopher Bandy.” ‘*Do you mean to say you’re Kit Bandy, the old mountain byck-goat detective?” ‘*'The same, str.” **T don’t b’lieve it—I b’lieve you’re lyin’ like Ananias and ep Lita ._Pve been told that Kit Bandy war a handsome man; you're uglier’n a Texas steer with a bob tail.” ‘‘Stranger—Old Rattler ”—began the other but he was eut short by a wild, fiendish yell from behind Old Rattler, and half a score of savages burst from the bushes and rushed to- ward the two disputants. One of them was so close upon Rattler that bis tomahawk was raised to strike, but before he conld deal the deadly blow, the pistol in the hand of Kit Bandy rung out and the red-skin fell. - With a bound Old Rattler reached Bandy’s side, saying: : ‘* You are Kit Bandy, by the great Rosycru- sians!” ‘* Come, or your tresses ’Il be yanked,” was Bandy’s response, as he turned and fled with the speed of a deer. Old Rattler followed close at his heels, no nin doubting the friendship of the man who ha saved his life, ermit me o-lumbus —$——————— $$ LL —— an _ E_ _: E_ e_—O_O_O O_O a ee The savages gave chase yelling hke demons possessed, but the fugitives finally dodged into a thicket of tall bushes and eluded them. Still the two old men did not stop until they had reached a place of safety far from where they had started. Rattler was the first to speak after they had stopped. ‘Yes, you must be old Kit Bandy,” he said, ‘‘put I never s’posed Kit war sich an ornery- lookin’ old rat as you be,” and the old fellow in- dulged in a low, good-natured laugh, ‘*Tll confess, Rattler, that I’m not so pretty as youare, That chaparral o’ whiskers on your face gives you such a mature look like a sun- scrotched brush patch, and that six by ten mouth looks so rosebuddish, and that anchor- fluke nose crooks so as that any one ’d& take you for old Adonis bisself,” ‘*' Thanks fer yer lavish praises, Bandy, but say, ole smokestack, youdid me a good favor by shootin’ that Ingin, and now if you be lost up here on the plateau [ll gladly conduct you out o’ danger.” ‘* Lost nothin’; I can git out and you needn't distress yourself bout it, either. A man that’s. see’d as much domestic war and thunder as I, has a fully-developed faculty for gettin’ out o’ trouble in a hurry.” ‘Then you be a married man, Bandy?” “‘[ was, I am, I am not, jist as you please. I’m a wanderin’ Jew now. Domestic life didn’t jibe well with me and Sabina. We didn’t work well in the harness together. She bung back om the breechin’ and I kicked over the traces. But Sabina had a will o’ her own and when she blowed her horn the walls o’ Jericho had to git. I was that wall and I got—I got out into the moun- ‘ains in the midst o’ Ingins, bears, wolves, snakes and outlaws, and intrenched behind these I lived. happy. But she left her mark on me, Rattler. If it war light, Rattler, I could show you a scar big as the Rattlesnake Mountains runnin’ across my head where ’Bina fetched me one with the poker, and on this cheek is a Devil’s Gorge where she flipped from the tips o’ her rosy fingers a. huntin’-knife. Oh! [’m a total wreck, Rat; I’m the Ruins o’ Babylon, the downfall o’ the Roman Empire, the deestruction o’ Herculan- eum—” ‘* And a hull full Insane Asylum,” interruptea Rattler; ‘‘ oldman, you’rea blushin’ old damsel, a lily-lipped bummer, an ox-eyed daisy; but alk this classical jokin’ aside, Bandy, who does that hoss belong to over which we looked into each other’s majestic countenances?” **T don’t know; but I did know it didn’t b'long to you and I made up my mind you war a hoss-thief and that ’d take youin. But I’m beginnin’ to think now that all’s not as serene as a nest 0’ suckin’ doves on the Laramie Plains. Them Ingins are hereaways stealin’ hosses and cattle, I’. bet, and I persume the outlaws are at work, also, in that business as well as gal- stealin’.” ** Ah! somebody’s gals in trouble, Bandy?” ‘‘Two o' the fairest in the West war carried away from Last Lick camp several days ago. They war fetched off up in this direction and I’m here lookin’ for ’em.” ‘*Rosycrusians! if I can do anything to help count me in, too, Bandy,” said Rattler. ** All right, old man—glad to have your help. I’ve psec ah ta for a young kid named Lara- mie Joe. He’s up on the Plateau somewhars, and if I can only strike him he’ll be worth @ dozen men, for he knows every foot o’ this ken~ try—mountains and all; and besides, he’s a hull nest o’ full-grown wildcats in a fight.” ‘* ve heard o’ him, Bandy, and would like to meet him. For frolicsome fun give .me a good brave boy every pop. I knew a boy once, and we chummed together durin’ a red-hot Ingin war in Minnesota, and [ tell you he war a wall-eyed daisy, Why, bless your ugly old eyes, Bandy, we war.a pair o’ wild sneezers and you’d ought to see’d the ha’r fly. But poor Deerhunter! he’s gone now,” ‘* Dead?” asked Old Kit, ' ** No, married.” ‘‘ Poor Deerhunter, sure enough. If he’s drank to the dregs of domestic infelicity as T have, mebby he’s a wall-eyed lunatic by this time, skulkin’ on the plains or in the moun- tains,” ‘“ No, he’s a happy man, Kit, for he had sense enough to select a wife that had a heart and brain; but not changin’ the subject, I wouldn’t mind a little whirl with the red-skins, It’s been a long time since I war on the trail, and though my hand and arm are not so steady as they once war, my spirit is young and Vinegarish yet, IL jist rambled off up this way to see what the prospect ’d be for game when the peltry seasom | |e yt a ly iy (é 900KS. com