Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 527 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

* 4 Car . , _. - n- ~<" ‘ ‘ ey . hy , ? “ he VA ~ j in VRC - Bia, etl * ‘. va P ‘ ‘2 “s — “a :. - ‘y ° ¢ oad ‘< “he es ~~. . , va f ~ ete A, i ** Waal, they’ve got the dust, fur one thing.” ‘*Hum! That’s supposed tomake most things rush, [ believe. Anything else?’ ‘* They do low as, hyer an’ yon, ye kin pick up at the Flat a galoot as has a slight with the pasteboards,” “Oh, no! Ye can’t strike me on that lay, Johnny. I’m going straight through.” ‘* Maybe you’re a mite that way yerself?” The stage-driver looked out of the corner of his eye at the chatty passenger who rode beside him on the box. Suppose we follow suit, taking advantage of the pause that succeeded this ‘ leader,” the stranger quietly ignoring the effort to draw him out ut, That he was a *‘sport,” the whole style and get-up of the man declared, From his soft felt hat, with its gracefully curve brim, to his high-heeled patent-leathers, all was elegance and scrupulous neatness, His hands were so white and soft as to suggest the use of cosmetics. Every movement of his long, taper fingers evinced the suppleness which accompanies manipulative skill. He might be a pianist. In that country, it was more likely that he had turned his talents toward the card-table. Not tomake a mystery of what he had no thought of hiding from the world—certainly not from simple Dave Pritchard, the stage-driver— this was none other than the famous Jack Down- ing, of ’Frisco—the Jack of Hearts, as his friends affectionately called him, in token of his almost universal conquest over the frivolous fair, ‘* They’ve struck a new kink lately,” pursued Dave, accepting with a good grace the Liighice of the other, asahint that be had been a little ‘* fresh,” ‘“Ah?’ responded Jack, absently, scanning through lazy, half-shut ‘eyes the mining-camp they were approaching, “Judge Owney Maglochlin has taken the Flat into his circuit, an’ the boys is havin’ jest one rustlin’ time over the new broom, you bet.” ‘*Yes,” yawned the Jack of Hearts, indiffer- ently. ‘* The place looks as if it had been struck by a New England Sunday.” **Reckon\ the Court’s a-settin’ on some on- lucky devil, an’ the boys is all in the Terpsi- chor’.”’ | ‘*Terpsi—what did you say?” ‘*The Terpsichorean Hall.” ‘* Ah! fine name. Is the proprietor a college professor, or only—” ‘* What!—Dinny McGee?” **Then it wasn’t his idea.” ‘* His idee! I ‘low he ain’t troubled that way.” ‘IT suppose, then, they’re holding the court in the dance-hall,” ‘* That’s the size of it, pard.” ‘Seems to me I’ve heard something else about the place. What is it? Some gaff about a boy running the camp.” ‘‘ That’s the deputy marshal,” ‘* ‘You don’t mean to tell me that it’s so?” “Don’t you throw off on the boy, pard, tell ye size him up. He’s a rustler, I tell you /” ‘*He must be. And he has a lot more of rustlers under him, like himself, in short jackets and knee-pants, so I was told. A healthy marshal’s posse ‘* Thar we out ag’in’, boss, It’s his pards— the Three Jolly Pards.” ‘Yes, that’s it, They must make it jolly for the grown men who knuckle down when they crack the whip.” -“* Hold on!—ho-o-o-ld on, says you! The pards—Tom Murphy an’ Dick J paral: the which the last is a coon what ye don’t often ketch a-nappin’—they hain't got nothin’ to do with the marshal biz. Harry Keene sports a lone jhand thar, only playin’ to Jim Gladden’s ead, ‘Gladden? That’s his principal?” “Yes, the marshal. But, pard, ef you’d seen } the way the deputy waltzed ina couple o’ road- agents a month ago, you’d "low as he wasn’t so slow, bein’s as he’s a mite under age,” ge I should judge that there was nothing par- ticularly slow about him,” laughed Jack. ‘‘If I remember rightly, there was some gossip about a row with a pretty Jewess, in which he cut a prominent figure,” ‘Oh, that’s all right,” was Dave’s assurance. ‘* She’s the daughter of an old fraud that skins the boys out 0’ their eye-teeth. A chap happen- ed along when the court first sot in the Flat, an’ tried to git heraway from theole man. But the Three Jolly Parts s out.o’ the camp.” ““Well, do you pull up here for a bit? I wouldn't mind stretching my legs, and—well, * t - wy > vey , $ of f SLATES 2 ex, as Pe ae eal eed ii) oe | SR 3 > ~ = , OLS ey ha ARIES. Cs Hund dy The Joliy Pards to the tood him off, an’ run him: oe dds yes—getting asight at this wonderful deputy marshal.” » ‘*Sorry, boss. We only stop long enough to water the stock an’ take in passengers, ef thar is any. That blasted brace breakin’ right in the middle o’ that infernal wallow, put me haif an hour behindbhand, as itis; an’it’ll be dark before we pull into the Ford. Worst bit o’ road in the State, that last mile; an’, excuse me ef you please!—I don’t want tostrike it much after sundown.” ‘‘ Then I reckon I can’t do any better than to go inside, and double up. It will be a change; and [ll have the whole place to myself—that’s one comfort.” As Jack finished speaking, the coach drew up before the Golden Gate Hotel, which flanked the dance-hall, and indeed was under the same pro- prietorsbip. For the first time perhaps in the history of stage-coaching in that section of country, there was not a soul to receive the time-honored vehi- cle, save the stable-boys, who came with buckets and sponges, and an abundance of profane chaff. Jack Downing stepped upon the wheel, and dropped lightly to the ground. He cast‘a glance of half-awakened interest at the door of the Terpsichorean Hall, from which proceeded a great hubbub. But Jack had seen border courts in abundance —to his credit be it said, not from the stand- point of ‘* the prisoner at the bar!”—and, really, the novelty of a boy deputy marshal was scarcely sufficient to make it worth the while of this lazy gentleman to take the few extra steps necessary, | 13 the uncertain chance of getting a glimpse of | im. So, with a yawn, Jack Downing turned on his heel, gou into the coach, and tried to conform his elegant figure to the ang'es of the back seat, soas to get intoa comfortable position fora snooze. At this moment mine host of the.Golden Gate eDpCarsy quite red in the face with excitement, and puffing and blowing with haste. ‘* Be me sowl!” he eried, ‘‘ but yezcame that near stealing a mairch an me!” ‘*A full house, Dinny,” said Dave, with the off-hand airiness of a stage-driver the world over. ** A full house, is it? Faith, if it might be the house alone that was full; butit’s ivery wan in it that’s in the same fix!” ‘* Waal, ye don’t have courtin’ every day in the year.” ‘* Whist, man! it’s not the court that ’m com- plainin’ of.” **Oh, no! you’d not besoungrateful. It brings st to your mill,” ** An’, be the same token, you’ve brought noth- along wid i ‘And Pl e nothin’ away—eb, Dinny? That’s even all round.” j ‘* Sor’ a sowl ye’ll be getting heur, this day!” ‘‘They’re havin’ jest one sweet time in thar, by the sound.” ‘* The divil’s own! Sure, it’s nothing but Av it plase the honorable coort! aw The learned counsel fur the defince !” ‘‘ Air they talkin’ hemp?— Hi thar, Sam! What the deuce air you up to?” ‘* You can’t tell me nothin’ about my business!” muttered the hostler so sharply reproved. ‘‘T kin send this whip-cracker huntin’a tender spot in your hide; an’ hang me ef I don’t do it, ef you don’t let that thar hoss alone!” “Thay’ve not come to the hemp yet,” said Dinny, this little exchange of civilities between the stage-driver and the delinquent hostler being of too little importance to divert the conversa- tion. ‘ It’sa matther out o’ the ordhinary that’s im Lying them,” ‘ at’s that?” ‘Well, yez see—” — But,at this point Dinny broke off abruptly, with an astonished ejaculation under his breath. ‘* Waal, | sw’ar!” exclaimed Dave Pritchard, following the direction of Dinny’s glance. The hubbub in the court-room had increased, until it sounded as if a free fight were imminent. While it was at its hight, the door of the dance- hall was thrown eigr and from it issued a man carrying the slight figure of a young girl in his arms. She hung limp. Dave Pritchard’s first idea was that she had been hurt; and bis immediate impulse was to leap from his seat and rush into the crowd, to wreak vergeance on the man who had dared to lift his hand against her. A second glance revealed the fact that she was unconscious, ‘Who is it? It can’t be old Abraham’s daughter?” he exclaimed. Rescue. ‘‘Owld Abraham? To the divil wid ’um!” | cried Dinny, indignantly. ‘‘That’s her father, man,” ** Her what?” | ‘‘ Whist! He’s comin’ this wayt” CHAPTER II. SALOMANS CARRIES THE DAY. Ir was not without reason that all of Paddy’s Flat was assembled in Terpsichorean Hall, even to the neglect of the glories of the incoming stage. For over a year, an old Jew merchant, wham nobody suspected of anything more romantic than a life-long study of how to palm off shoddy oods from Connecticut as ** imbordations from aris,” had seereted a beautiful young girl in his house. Then, with the first sitting of a legally consti- tuted court, had come a stranger, who claimed her as his child, summoning the old Hebrew to the bar of justice, toanswer to the charge of abduction and unlawful detention. But the girl was spirited off by the Three Jolly Pards, and the stranger fairly drummed out of the camp. Relying upon the public sentiment thus ex- pressed, the friends of the beautiful Jewess had returned her to her home immediately upon the adjournment of the court. ut enough time had not been allowed for the disposal of all the pending cases, so Judge Magiochlin had determined upon a second sit- ting, on his return that way, only two weeks later. And now it appeared that Isaac Salomans had not accepted his defeat as final. The writ was again placed in the hands of the marshal. As the first case under a regular tribunal of justice, and his first official act, Jim Gladden had sworn that it should go through ‘‘on the square,” and had almost come into deadly colli- sion with his subordinate, when he stood in his yvath and prevented him from being the first law- reaker under the new order of things. And now, when the boys showed a disposition to lynch Isaac Salomans for his persistence. 1n the face of the popular verdict, Jim stood firm, ‘“ The girl has a right to hear what her father has to say. When he’s done, ef she says go, then goitis. Ef she says stay—” But here the marshal pulled up. It was not quite consistent with his office to declare his readiness even to defy the law, if necessary, in leaving the girl freedom of choice, But the boys understood this, and yielded so much, Fair play was all they asked. So now the case was up again, and no One, save the Three Jolly Pards, paving thus far so much as caught a glimpse of her face, all were on the qui vive to see her stand unvailed in court. Abraham and his wife, Rebecca, were pros-— trated with S44 ee Harry, who loved the girl, felt that he was now about to lose her. His pards, Tom Murphy and Dick Johnson, wildly counseled open warfare. | ‘‘ What ef the hull camp am ag?in’ us,” cried Dick, passionately. ‘‘ We got away wid ’em onee, an’ we kin do it ag’in!’ ina But Harry knew better. Nothing could be done. The case must now rest with Miriam herself. So Judge Owney Maglochlin, as merry an Irishman as ever crooked leg at a shindy, sat serealy on the bench—a veritable bench of good honest pine—while the counsels for the prosecu- tion and defense respectively—Colonel Blood, a fiery little whiffet, and the Honorable Mr. Midge, a bland giant, and both as precious scamps as ever fanned the passions of their clients to increase their fees—sat as placidly in their places. Isaac Salomans, at the colonel’s elbow, was pale, but resolute, In all the dense crowd that packed the dance hall, not a friendly glance rested uponhim. In- stead, the boys glowered at him resentfully. Then the door opened, and Jim Gladden— himself this time—at the head of his posse, escorted in the bowed figure of old Abraham and two deeply-vailed women. One was round- shoulder:d and tottering; the other, as supEae as a willow wand, walled timidly between those who were now so powerless to protect her. At the former trial, the young Copa had $% 4 ow he beside his principal, . _ been intrusted with ae mR walked with bowed he feeling that he was in disgrace. e ok As they entered, the crowd burst into a Babel | of ejaculations, of admiration andsympathyfor | | i ck va >. 4 d a> P , e om