Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 5 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

— ———- oe — . constable. 28 as though a dog had been trying to gnaw your arm off. Do you remember what made them?” “No,” nded Joe, ‘* I reckon I was a little shaver when them scars were basted on there.” ‘*Have you any recollection of your mother or father, Joe?” ‘“T guess not, Mr. Sampson. As far back as I can remember is of bein’ ’mong the Sioux In- gins; and then one day the Sacs and Fox legions come along and licked the nto out of the Sioux, and took me to their village. I staid there a year or two, then I run away and join- ed the hunters over on the Neutral Grounds where neither Sioux nor Sac and Fox would come. ‘T presume, then, you have no recollection of having ever seen this cabin before?” ‘““Well, as to that, I was just thinkin’, Mr. Sampson. I’ve either been in a cabin just like this one, or else I dreamed it.” ** Joe, would you believe me if I should tell ou that this is your father’s house?” said Mr, ‘*T don’t know; it’s owin’ to whether you tell it as a joke or the truth.” ‘T tell it as the truth, Joe; this is your fath- er’s house, aoe your parents are both dead.” “Ts that a fact, Mr. Sampson?” exclaimed Joe; “‘ what did you find in that other room?” “Evidence sufficient to convince me that your name is Richard Kenelm, and that you are the nephew of Je Grimes, and cousin of Miss Grace Manville there.” ‘“What? Miss Graceful my cousin? Great paar fo > said Sam t to Miss M * Gerace pson, an- ville, ‘I have found the cbereeheuie of your aunt Margery; but both she and her husband are dead. Vagabond Joe is their child!” A little ery of mingled joy and surprise burst from Grace’s lips, and advancing to Joe’s bed- side, she exclaimed: ‘“Oh, Joe! my brave little fellow, Lhave felt all along that you were more than a friend to me! [ k that I have found a relative > one so brave, so noble, so manly as Vagabond oe!” CHAPTER XXVIL. RIGHT versus WRONG. Henry SAMPSON made known the secrets of the hidden cabin, during the night, to Grace Manville and Vagabond Joe; and her the a people mourned the fate of their rela- ves. On the morrow the remains of John and Mar- ry Kenelm were consigned to a grave under fhe floor of the cabin, where they remained un- til the following summer, when they were re- moved to the cemetery at the Fort Dodge set- tlement. On the third day after Joe had been wounded, a pesty of aeeeet men arrived from the village wee : me See for “ little Fan un party. ong them was Myrtle Gray’s father, and the joy of their meeting was one that movedevery heart with rejoicing, and filled every eye witb tears of joy. The next day all returned to Fort Dodges and the very first thing that Henry Sampson id was to procure warrants for the arrest of Isaiah Newbold and his fellow-conspirators, and place them im the hands of the constable. is officer at once marched down to the land-agents’ office, followed by a posse of armed men; but to his surprise, he found, on arriving there, that the office was shut up, and its owners gone. Upon inquiry, tt was found that Newbold and five other persons had left the office a few minutes previous in a four-horse sleigh, and had gone down the Des Moines. “By heavens! they’ve got wind of our move- ments, and have escaped!” exclaimed Sampson. “Yes, but by the everlasting, they must be overtaken and brought back!” responded the ‘Bring out your horses and guns all of you, and let’s away in pursuit!” a few minutes twenty men, mounted and equipped, were off like the wind. They could easily follow the track of the fugitives’ sleigh. It went down the road, then turned off and took to the river, where they could travel upon the ice with great ros for the snow was but a few inches deep there. 4¢ Come on, boys!” shouted the constable, and away they all went flying down the river. They rode hard. They went like the wind. For several hours they kept up their pace, and were finally rewarded by coming in sight of the tives. is gave them encouragement, and they comet oe all the harder until within hailing distance, when the constable shouted: Halt, there! halt, or we will fire!” Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. The only attention paid to his demand was a discharge of revolvers at the pursuers; and the whistling bullets, one of which killed a horse warned the officer and his men that they must e +t trouble. Fire, men!” yelled the constable, in no little excitement; and a moment later a volley of rifle and pistol-shots was hurled at the fugitives, Nor was it done without effect. Twoof the oc- cupants of the sleigh were seen to throw u their arms, and one of them fell from the sleig before the others could prevent it. The team came to a stand and an exchange of shots took place, but the fugitives’ horses be- coming unmanageable, they dashed away at a furious pace. The constable rode on in pursuit. Two of the pursuers sto and dismounted to look at the fallen fugitive; and great was their surprise and sorrow when they looked down into the youthful and handsome face of the girl we have known as Irene Lamar. She was dressed in male attire, and wounded unto death. ““My gracious Lord! what does this mean Miss mar?’ asked Mr, Gray, the father of e. f It means the wages of sin have been d,” replied the unfortunate woman, the or of death settling upon her face. ‘* Where are you hurt, Miss Lamar? Can’t I help you?” the settler asked kindly. ‘*No, no; I am dying—I do not want to live— death is preferable to diagtace.” “Have you sinned against Uncle Jerry, Irene?” asked the settler. ‘“*T have—we all have—and I pray God’s for- giveness,” she replied. ‘It was a wicked con- spiracy, conceived by the brain of wicked men and partially executed by skillful, practiced hands. Isaiah Newbold was the leader in the plot, and in the very hour of our triumph news came that our victims were safe. But for that hunting-party which went West under Neutral Bill and Vagabond Joe, we would have suc- ceeded, and I would have been heir to im- mense wealth. This, however, was to have been divided among a dozen conspirators.” " Young woman, this is dreadful, dreadful, in- ’ ‘*T know it is; but then I was not so much to blame as some others,” the dying woman con- tinued; ‘*‘ you see, we were aware that the true Irene Lamar was to be at Fort Dodge upon a certain time; and so Newbold and his party way- laid the stage, and, capturing her and her es- cort, Henry pson, carried them away, while I, being in readiness, stepped into the stage and was en to the village, and from there to Glendale, as Irene Lamar, niece of Jerry Grimes. The stage-driver was one of rE and so that is the reason you heard nothing of the at- tack upon the stage from him. In order to act the of Irene Lamar, I had been posted in all the affairs of her life by one Dr. Cudmore, a bad man who died a few days from the ef- fects of a bullet-wound. He had lived in Ten- nessee near Irene—he had, in fact, sought her hand in marriage, but in vain. He knew well the whole history of her life. After I was duly installed at Glendale as the heiress of Jerry Grimes, I was to hasten the consummation of our e by ning Uncle Jerry.” ‘*Oh, Lord!” groaned Mr. pr “Tt was awful,” continued the dying peni- tent, ‘‘and I can see it now. I was to take his life 'b poisoning the air of his bedroom with vola arsenic; and in this I should have been successful but for the skill of Dr. Wright. To-day, however, news came from one of Dr. Cudmore’s men that all of our intended victims had escaped, and admonishing us to fly. This word was sent to Newbold, and by the time he got over to Glendale and told Mave Conrille and myself, and then got back and ready to leave, it ‘was late—alas! too late.” She spoke with difficulty, her eyes staring wildly into the bearded face of him who sup- ported her, The two settlers, touched with pity for the oe thing, endeavored to the flow of bl from her wound; but their efforts were in vain. She soon breathed her last in the arms of Mr. Gray. With trembling hand the settler closed the erring girl’s eyes, and laid the body down u the snow. , It was more than two hours before the con- stable and his party returned; and when they did they came empty-handed. The fugitives had met with a horrible fate— the vengeance of an inscrutable God. Unable to restrain the mad fury of their team, they were carried rapidly forward, and, suddenly, team, sleigh and all disappeared in an air-ho in the -ice where the water was very deep, and the current strong. Both animals and men were sucked down under the ice beyond the reach of human aid; and, having no weapon with which to cut the ice, the constable could do nothing toward recovering the bodies until implements for the purpose could be obtained. ong those that perished were Newbold and Carew, land-agents, Mave Conrille, the stage-driver, who was a party to the conspir- acy, and one other who had been with Dr. - more, and had come to warn the conspirators of their danger. Thus the fell Destroyer had ended the most vile conspiracy in the history of the State; and Right had triumphed over Wrong. CHAPTER XXVIII. GOOD-BY! THERE was rejoicing at the settlement when Myrtle Gray was returned safely to her friends. hare was rejoicing at Glendale over the es- anville, Uncle Jerry’s true heir. here when it be- Joe was a nephew me of Grace ere was rejoicing eve came known that Vagabo of the master of Glendale. Uncle Jerry had always liked Joe, and now the mutual attachment, which had hitherto ex- isted between them, ripened into the devotion of old friends. And in the handsome, womanly face of his niece, Grace Manville, the old man beheld the living image of his dead sister, Ruth. Despite all his late troubles, Uncle Jerry had no doubt that these two young people were his rightful heirs; and the void in his heart, which the presence of the false heirs could not fill, was now filled to overflowing, and a new life to the old man began. Mr. Henry Sampson remained a highly hon- ored guest at Glendale during the rest of the winter; and when he left in the spring, he left— a wealthyman. He received one-third of Uncle Jerry’s foreign inheritance, by permission and desire of all parties concerned, for the time he had spent, and the rs he had incurred in hunting up the heirs of Jerry Grimes. Vagabond Joe, or Richard Kenelm, recovered from his wounds after long weeks of patient nursing; and as soon as he was able to be out, Bildad Meeks, president of the school-board, sent a written apology to him one day, in which he acknowledged that the board was wrong, and that he—Joe—was right. He also stated that, ‘“‘by these presents, the order expelling him from school is hereby revoked, and you are re- ully 2 a to return to your books in e village school.” Joe, eager to educate himself, availed himself of the president’s polite request, and returned to sci00]l, where his pierrive was hailed with joy and delight by both teacher and scholars. At time passed on, and Joe and Myrtle grew to man and womanhood, it was noticed that the regard which they had always entertained for each other, deepened into love; and this was rege sealed upon the altar of married Captain Ralph Howard returned home after his adventure in the West, and in the course of time, claimed the hand of Irene Lamar in mar- iy gr But, before this event came off, Irene had it distinctly understood that Uncle Jerry should make his home with them during the re- mainder of his days. -It was a provision ve acceptable to the captain, for he loved Uncle J erry as a father. e have only to add that peace and quietude had scarcely been restored after the Newbold conspiracy, ere the settlers of Fort were ed by the horrible intelligence ef the mas- sacre of whites at Okibogi and Spirit Lakes by the minions of Ishtahaba. But of this bloody deed, the pen of the historian has long since spoken. THE END, HUNDRED EYES. BY LAUNCE POYNTZ. Frew, perhaps none of our readers, ever heard of Bayam Chingsan,“Lord of the Hundred Eyes, and yet he was a general who in his day com- manded armies larger than any Napoleon ever handled, half a million men in one army. He was just as real and true a personage as ral Grant, Sheridan or Von Moltke, and conquered, in his time, countries as large as France, Ger- many, Spain and Italy, all put together, with more population than they have y, and three times as many rich, cultivated cities as th all possessed when Bayam was alive. True, GHOOKS Goim —————— ek