Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 518 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

stood, and Johnny Legs h ‘‘Have you a pistol to spare for me?” Spader asked. ‘*The infernal detectives went through me after they snapped the bracelets upon my wrists and took every tool I had, even to my pen- | ties the knife.” **T reckon I kin fix you out,” responded the other, ** as I happen to have a spare ‘ barker’ in my coat pocket. It isn’t quite so big a we’pon as these hyer onesin my belt, but it is a good tool for all that. It’s an English bulldog.” ‘* But first let me see if 1 can get them orna- ments off your wrists.” He took from his pocket a bunch of keys, and after several trials, found one with which he succeeded in unlocking the handcuffs. Then producing the weapon he gave it to Spader. ‘‘ Putty wet, ain’t yer,” Dublin Mike observed his hand happening to come in contact with the wet sleeve of the other, ‘*Oh, yes, I had a long swim of it, but I don’t rind a little thing like that,” Old Nick observed, with a laugh. ‘* Lemme see, we must be getting putty near to our game,” Dublin Mike said at this point peering ahoad through the darkness, ‘*T say, old man, you are going ahead in this business like an old hand at it,” Spader remark- ‘*Now you hit me whar I live!” Dublin Mike exclaimed with a grin. ‘* This hyer water business is an old holt of mine, as it was of my father before me. Why, i was a river rat and used to scoop in plunder afore I was fifteen years old, and it was through citting inter trouble on the river that made me skip to the West, so you see, it comes jest as nat’ral tometo do a trick of this kind as to come any of our Western hanky-panky busi- ness.’ ‘‘T see, that explains the mystery.” ‘Take it easy, boys, I think I see our craft ahead,” Dublin Mike warned in a cautious tone. The boat was provided with a rudder, and Dublin Mike, with his hand upon the tiller, steered the craft. The men rowed with increased caution, and thanks to the oarlocks being muffled, the boat glided through the water like a phantom craft. The marauders gazed eagerly forward, strain- ing their eyes to pierce the darkness. blin Mike was naturally keen-sighted, and then long experience at this night business had trained his eyes, so he caught sight of the lights which indicated the position of the vessel of which they were in seurch before any of the . west. Slowly and with the utmost caution the boat approached the vessel, which was a large brig. After sighting the craft, Dublin Mike steered so as to bring his hoat up under the bow-chains, which he effected without any evidence that his approach had been discovered. hort Bill ‘Serre d fastened the boat’s ‘‘ pain- ter” to one of the chains, and then, revolver in hand, commenced to clamber on board. Johnny Legs, also with his weapon ready, followed directly behind bim. Both of these men were bloodthirsty ruffians, who would not hesitate to take life if any one inte between them and a rich booty. When the two were well up in the chains, Spader and Dublin Mike proceeded to follow their example. _ ‘‘T recken that it looks now as if we were go- ing to do this trick as easy as rolling off a log!” Dublin Mike observed with a chuckle to Spader as they prepared to climb up .by the aid of the chains. ‘Yes, it looks like a soft thing!” _ But appearances in this uncertain world are often not to be trusted, as the river rats soon discovered to their consternation. The English captain was an old seaman, a man of vast experience, and one not to be usual- ly caught napping. He was on the watch for just such an attempt as this, fur he had lain in New York Harbor be- fore, and knew that in none of the large mari- time cities of the world were there to be founda more desperate set of river rats. ‘ He was fully armed, and had grimly deter- mined to give the marauders a lesson which would be apt to strike terror into the hearts of all the river thieves. _ So he gave no sign of his presence until Short Bill had ned the bowsprit, upon which he his head and shoul- ders above it; then he spoke: ** Hello, what do you want?” he cried sternly, “ae advancing toward them through the gloom, a ee cocked revolver in each hand ready for action. Cool Colorado in New York. — Pe nee ~" So _—— = o at * “ ‘ 4 | , rage iy 5 * 4 . te | at ae . 7 . .> a : . E> Met OME er F's . ‘stp! ‘** Your money, you son of a gun!” cried Short Bill defiantly, prepared for war the moment he discovered that the captain was on the alert. But quick as was the ruffian to begin hostili- English captain was still quicker, and he fired two shots, one from each revolver, before Short Bill could raise his pistol to the level. The seaman was a good marksman and being only some ten feet distant, despite the gloom, his first bullet went true to its aim, cutting the very heart of the ruffian in twain. With a single gasp of anguish Short Bill threw out his arms, clutching convulsively with his hands at the air, and then pitched headlong into the dark tide below. And the second shot, the one discharged from the revolver in the left hand of the English captain, although fired almost at random, was equally fatal as the first, for the bullet struck Johnny Legs in the head, and passed through the brain producing instant death. Down came the ruffian on the heads of the pair below, preparing to ascend, knocking them into the bottom of the boat, and then the body rebounded into the water, striking the rope with which the craft was tied to the chains in its way, and as the painter had not been secured in antici- pation of any such strain as this, it gave way and the boat floated off with the current. The English captain had rushed to the bul- warks after the disappearance of the two ruftians for the purpose of seeing if there were any more of the gang, but the two men being huddled in the bottom of the boat escaped his vision, and so he refrained from firing, believing that the pair whom he had shot composed the gang. Dublin Mike and Nick Spader hardly dared to breathed until they got well out of sight of the vessel where they bad encountered so warm a reception. ‘* Blazes! I don’t want no more of this in mine,” Dublin Mike observed as he proceeded to adjust the oars in the locks. ‘* No, nor I; I prefer the West.” “By gum! [ve gota big scheme and it will take us to the West too. The idee jest flashed onto me. Are you game for it?” ‘*Game for anything to make a dollar and to get away from this country!” Spader replied. CHAPTER III. A CUNNING SCHEME. ‘“Y will explain my leetle scheme in a my ead few words,” Dublin Mike observed as he bent to the oars. ‘* The idee jest came to me and it is a hummer now, I tell yer!” ‘* Well, Mike, you were always noted for hav- ing a head on your shoulders,’’ Nick Spader remarked. ‘*Yes, I reckon that is so. Have you been long in the East?” ‘* No, not a great while.” ‘* Long enuff to know what is going on, I s’pose?” “Oh, yes, I am tolerably well posted.” ‘* Have you ever run across Buffalo Bill?” ‘Yes, | met him up along the Platte some twenty years ago, just about the close of the war. ‘‘ That’s kind of curious, fur it war "bout that time I fu’st run across him. ‘Well, I — ou know that Buffalo has a show byer in New York now” “Yes, the Wild West, as he calls it.” ‘“‘ Tt’s a big thing and don’t you forget it!” the other declared. “I took it in when it first opened up, ’cos I had an idee that among the cowboys and he bucks I might see some old acquaintances.” “ And did you?” “Oh, yes, a heap of ‘em, and some of the galoots would undoubtedly have given a pile of money if they could have known that I was ae on at their monkey shines, for there’s about a dozen in the show, red, white and yaller, who would be glad to raise my hair; you see, Nick, in my time I have been obliged to buck a’gin, {njuns, white men and Mexicans.” ‘IT havn't the least’ doubt about that!” Nick Spader exclaimed with a laugh. . ‘‘ All war fish that came to your net.” “T walked around among the gang and took a squint into their tents, as bold as brass, before the show opened, for I wasn’t in the least afeard of being reco y any of them, for since I shaved off my long beard and cut my hair short I don’t look much like the man who used to’ make it lively for them on the border.” | ‘* You don’t, for a fact,” the other admitted. Pf But I recognized you the moment I set eyes on you.”” ‘Oh, well, an old side pardner like you would aed «1 by ws Je "“Ka 4 , ve ” , * ; a o + > ss nl 4 ‘ —* * 4 ~ 4 i a» ty ‘ Ane e } P get () ) | ) | | a ™ > V 7 ie + h ie % 7 au f a's ’ } ) : sal ve : $ “it os ‘ ‘ ; i. / | | be apt to, but when it comes toa man who is only slightly acquainted with me, this hyar | get-up would be apt to puzzle him. But to come back to my mutton; I went early in the afternoon, a good hour before t»e show begun, so as to have a chance to see the gang in their tents, and, as I expected, there was a beap of ’em there that I knowed; I kinder chuckled to myself asI stared at’em with the rest of the tenderfoots to think that thar was plenty on ’em who’s fingers would just have itched to get at my top-knot, if they had any idee that Dublin Mike was squinting at ’em. ‘*One cuss in particular would have given a heap to have got at me, a cowboy named Sioux Sam,” ‘* Ah, yes, | know the man, and a bold blade he is too.” ‘You bet! Me and my gang surprised and went through the galoot one night—got away with all the wealth he had saved up during the season, and he swore he would kill me on sight if he ever cornered me,” ‘*But you took care that he never got you dead to rights!” ‘** You bet I did!” Dublin Mike exclaimed. ‘** In the fu’st place he warn’t well enuff ac- quainted with me to be able to recognize me in any disguise, and in the second, I took precious good care to Seep out of his way. “ This hyar thing happened ’bout five years ago, so [ felt safe "bout his spotting me now. ‘“Of course I expected to run across cha like bim whom I knowed when I went to the show, but thar was one party thar whom I didn't look to see. ‘‘Did you ever hear tell of the Ute princess, Snow White Dove?” “Yes, the daughter of the greatest chief that the Utes ever had, Three Big Bears, by a white woman who was fool enough to fall in love with oe red-skin and deserted her people to marry m. ‘‘That’s the gal! Well, she was in Buffalo’s camp with the other squaws, although her name wasn’t in the show-bills, and she had dyed her skin so she looked like a reg’lar Injun. ‘* The gal, you know, takes after her mother aud is about as white as any white woman, and that is whar she gets her name from,” ‘* Yes, I know, I have seen her.” ** Well, when 1 spied her I was bothered to understand what she was doing in the camp under a false name and painted up like a reg’lar squaw. . ‘* By accident I got onto it though; I ran across one of the hostlers, a shiftless sort of cuss, fond of liquor, and when he gets a cargo on board if the trick is worked right, the galoot will tell i is name, but used to call all he knows; Ben Stevens is most ever’body out in Colorado him Bow-legged Ben.” ‘Yes, I know the man, but I never knew he ever h’isted much poison.” | “That is because he kin stand a heap of benzine, and even when he is as full asa tick it takesa man like myself who knows how to handle the man to doanything with him. ‘* Now I knew that Ben Stevens was well ac- quainted with the Snow White Dove as I was myself, and I felt sart’in he must know she was in the camp, so, having an idee thar was some- thing queer ’bout the matter, I set out to get at the rights of the business.” ‘* That was natural.” ‘*T wasn’t much afeard of Bow-legged Ben gitting onto who I really was, for he wasn’t well acquainted with me, and so I jest rung my- self in on him as having met him out at Red Bluffs, and pretended to be awful glad to run across him ee ‘“‘T told the galoot that I had madea rich strike in the mines and had come Hast with a pocketful of rocks to enjoy myself.” ‘* He swallowed the bait, of course.” ‘Oh, you bet he did, hook and all! I made an appointment to meet him at a quiet shebang —on the queer, you know, but run mighty keer- ful for fear of the police, and then, when I got him full enuff I put the pumps in operation. I told him right out that I had recognized the Snow White Dove, and wanted to know what in thunder she was doing hyer in New York with Buffalo Bill’s show, painted so as to look like a reg’lar squaw anc with a false name.” “That was coming right to the point.” ‘Yes, but I had got him so mellow that I knew [ wasn’t risking anything, Vi; ‘‘ He owned right. up that it was just as I said, and he admitted he was getting hush money from the gal to hold his tongue about her being with the outfit, as he was the only man in the gang who had discovered she was thar... .. ““Of course the buck and the squaw, under 1¢ pet ¥