Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 527 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

A The Jolly Pards to the Rescu - - + ) s ss -—- Oye 1S F “ Pa 4 , " a7) * , - « \ - ' . ’ " 6. And these precious scoundrels, of whom we shall see more presently, rode on, enjoying their triumph, Alas for the victim who fell to their tender mercies!” CHAPTER IIT. A COLD-BLOODED BARGAIN. __ THE insensible girl whom Isaac Salomans had ' borne into the coach in so unusual a manner, had his beauty of feature infinitely refined, so that any one could guess their relationship at a ‘glance. Yet, asa matter of form, Jack Down- ing asked: ‘‘If it isn’t an impertinent question, whom have you hyer?” ‘ My daughter,” replied Salomans. ‘¢ And where have you kept her along back? You never let on to have a daughter.” ‘It’s a long story,” said Salomans, brushing the cold sweat of excitement from his:brow. ‘* Suppose we do something to fetch her round, before ag begin on it—if you’re free to favor me with your confidence.” ‘*T have no objection to that; but I prefer to let her stay as she is for awhile. No harm will come of it. She is only a little overcome.” “‘ Say, lke,” said Downing, with a sudden side-glance, ‘‘ you may reckon me a little fresh this morning, but another personal question bas occurred to me, if you don’t mind.” “Out with it! I’m in the humor for almost tt just now. I may change my mood . ‘*Then I'll take you on the fly. What’s the reason that you sometimes have a marked He- brew accent, and then again from your speech no one could tell you from an old Knicker- bocker?” Isaac Salomans smiled and shrugged his shoulders. ‘* Dot is a matter of taste,” he said, assuming his most marked Jewish accent, by way of jest. ‘“* Ven it serfs may poe: you have it den.” He spoke lightly; yet again he passed his hand over his face as if to calm the excitement that still vibrated through him, after the scene through which he had just passed. Jack Downing’s interest returned to the girl. ** Well, what have you been up to?” he asked. ‘** Getting my daughter back.” ‘* A rather exciting process, I should imagine,” observed the Jack of Hearts, lapsing again into his wonted lazy air. “Yes. I had to outwit a shrewd old scoun- drel—my father-in-law!—and this young deputy marshal.” ‘‘Eh! The deputy marshal turns up again? I’ve just been discussing him with the stage- driver.” ‘*T thought I'd have to discuss him—or rather discuss with him across the barrel of a revolver, before I got through with it.” ‘* In the character of a lover, I'll be bound!” ‘*Of course. The young bantling puts on all the airs of a full-fledged cock o’ the walk.” ‘* But the old man? I suppose he has had pos- session so long that he began to fancy your claim had sort of outlawed.” ‘“ Well, you see, her nother died when she was a kid, ’way back in the States; and the old folks have had her ever since. I was away at the time, and—well, not to put too fine a point on it, they allowed I was a trifle fast for the bringing up of a girl; so they packed up and cut the country.” ‘*Ah! I begin to twig.” ‘I’ve been on the lookout for her ever since, after a fashion. I drop onto them at last, took them into court, an by a little flank move- ment got the girl on my side, and here she is,” ‘* A flank movement?” * They had brought her up to believe that she was their child. They had filled her mind with terror of some secret foe from whom they were compelled to flee, for her safety; and also with fear of the rough fellows out here.” “ Delightful life! She must have had a sweet ae it. But why burden her with all ‘* It furnished an excuse for never letting her o out of doors without wearing a disguise hat made her indistinguishable from old Ab - ham’s wife, Rebecca.” ‘* The deuce you say! But how—” ‘They built a hump on her back, and hid her face under a thick vail. In that hideous rig she rode out every day on a little donkey beside old Abraham, for over a year not a soul in the camp 80 much as suspected even her exist- ence. | a By 2079) That tells like a romance! Is it possible? And nobody dropped to it until you opened up?” . “Oh, yes. The thing was blown severa: months ago. That’s the way this infernal little deputy marshal got his work in.” ‘*To besure! But how did it fall out?” The Jack of Hearts had been roused into an interest unusually wakeful for him. He gazed at the wan beauty of the unconscious girl with keen zest, At his question her father’s face clouded. ‘* There was a couple of scoundrels, it seems, called Cale Burchard and Bowlegged Banty, who took it into their heads to rob the old man. They were bluffed by the Three Jolly Pards; but they discovered the existence of the girl. Then they tried to capture her, for a ransom. The same sharp little rascal—that was before he was made deputy marshal—and his pards balk- ed them again.” ‘*Confound his impudence! some reward for his pluck.” ‘“‘ That’s as you look at it.” ‘‘But the secret was out, I suppose? He wasn’t sharp enough to stand off the rogues, and yet throw dust in the eyes of the discerning citizens of Paddy’s Flat?” ‘No. Cale and Banty are desperate knaves; and they bucked against the whole camp, at the risk of their necks. But the kids succeeded in one thing. Not one got a chance to see the gir]’s face; and, as before, when she rode out, it was impossible to tell whether it was she or the old woman,” ‘‘Good for them! I wish now I had stopped to look them over.” ‘**’‘You may have a chance yet. I’m free to confess that I don’t believe they’ve given the matter up—not by a good deal!” ‘“ Well, goon. The rescuer became a regular visitor, made love to the girl under the old folks’ noses, and all tbat?’ i. I suppose that was pretty much the way of t. ‘*But how did vou drop to the scheme? You didn’t know—” Again the Hebrew’s face darkened. ‘* No,” he said. ‘‘I owe my knowledge of the child’s whereabouts to this same Cale and Banty.” ‘ They fo d all brok ] ey found me roke up, lying in the sun aslee 1 confess, drunk ehetone a saloon.” zs ell, that’s interesting, to say the least of it ‘‘ They recognized me by my resemblance to the girl, and proposed—what do you think?” ‘* Heaven only knows!” ‘“‘That I go in with them, get ssion of her, and marry her to the scoundrel Cale!” The Jack of Hearts sat upright with a start, involuntarily clutched at the pearl handle of a bowie in his belt, and burled a very round ob- eh yb at the head of the would-be candidate or matrimonial honors. ‘*This was the price of their knowledge of where the girl was to be found,” said Salo- mans, ‘““And you made such a bargain as that?” cried Jack, in a fine rage. ‘It was easy to agree to anything.” “Ob! I drop to you. That’s better. Go n. ‘“‘ The first thing needed was money; and we were all dead broke.” ‘*That’s so. There would be no use in coming on such an errand in the character of a beg- gar We got the rocks, by a little But he deserves **T knew that, exercise of our wits. ‘‘For which somebody else had to suffer, of course!” ‘*Of course. You know how it is yourself.” “No recriminations, Ike! We know each other of old.” “Well, I came as a rich man, in search of the child of whom he had been robbed in her in- fancy by his wife’s relations. A free hand at the bar got the judge and the public on my side, I had the pins all up, ready to bowl my respected father-in-law out at a ten-strike, when these beggarly little seamps secured a postpone- ment of the case for three days, and on the night of the second got up a shindy in honor of the first session of the court, at which they floored that whole camp on drugged liquor, threw dust—probably gold dust!—in the eyes of my pee watchers, and even found means to knock Cale and Banty on the head, while they ran the girl out from under our very noses!” ‘‘ Bravo! bravo!” cried the Jack of Hearts, roaring with laughter. ‘‘ Hang me if our young deputy isn’t a ius!” ‘I believe there were older heads in that ee He then gave an account of the renewal of the struggle, and its final triumph. ‘‘And now that you’ve got the girl,” asked Jack, when the narrative was concluded, ‘*‘ what: do you propose to do with her?” ** I don’t know yet. Make my fortune out of her somehow,” The Jack of Hearts did not express the dis- gust he felt at this cool proposition. While lis- tening he had conceived a scheme of his own; and he now saw the way to its accomplishment. ‘* Nothing easier in the world, my dear fel- low!” he cried, with enthusiasm. ** How?” ‘** Will you let me into the thing on the ground floor?” ‘* Certainly.” * Then it’s just this: Make her a queen of the ‘* Faro?” ‘It don’t make any sort of difference what it is. If it was only chuck-a-luck, she’d coin money. I tell you, there ain’t her matchin the State of Californy!” ‘* I don’t have to be told that,” said Salomans.. However, he looked at the child with a new interest. As a matter of fact, he had not fully valued her. He had not considered the exquisite purity of her flowerlike beauty. Her virginal innocence would a charm for hardened men of the world, who would pass by with scarcely a second glance the garish beauty of a woman of their own class, ‘*Tt’s a go?” asked Jack of Hearts. And as readily as he had acceded to Cale Bur- chard’s proposition, Isaac Salomans said: se Done 7 CHAPTER IV. ‘* BLINDING” THE TRAIL. AT this moment the girl showed signs of re- turning consciousness. Instantly her father dropped upon one knee before the seat on which she lay, and put his arms about her, murmuring: ‘** Miriam, my dear child!” She opened her eyes and looked into his face in the vague way common at such a time. Then she gave a sudden start, and raised herself brushing her hand across her forehead, and staring at him and about the coach. - - !’ she gasped. ‘* What is this? Where m I?” “With the father who has lost you for so long. With the memory of your dear mother,” said Salomans, in a voice of infinite soothing. And he placed the photograph of her mother inherhand, — She a at it; and then, as the memory of what she had so recently passed through rushed back upon her mind, she burst into tears, But presently she was seized with an almost, frantic desire to be taken back bome, for a day for an hour, for even a moment! She had left without a word of forgiveness to those who, after all, had always been kind to her. Then 100; all the little mementoes of her life were there. , Salomans, with infinite tact and tenderness, but firmly, overruled every reason for return- ing. He had spoken the word of forgiveness in her behalf. All of her little belongings should be sent for. Could she tell him that she had left her heart: behind? In despair she only gazed at him dumb- ly, and then sunk back in the corner of the stage, and closed her eyes, Slowly a tear began to ooze through her eye- lids. As she felt it glide down her cheek, she hastily hid it in her handkerchief. ‘* It’s that confounded little deputy marshal,” reflected Salomans, divining all that she had left unsaid. ‘ aye bee the day against. even him, I shall have little further trouble with you, my dear.” And he was right. Henceforth she offered no pea to his wishes. ; hen she was calmer, he introduced Jack Downing, as his old-time friend and business partner. Jack acknowledged the introduction in his are style, and wound up by begging he to count him as with her against the world. ‘We have need of astanch friend until we et out of this wretched country,” interposed omans. Then, turning to Miriam, he explained: : “My dear, I do not wish to arouse your ap- prehensions, but I must make one demand on our courage before we shall be in safety. You ow of the enemies who have persecuted you in scheme,” said Salomans, ‘‘ but I can’t just place | the past, Cale Burchard and—” them.” ‘‘ Ah!” gasped Miriam, in sudden terror, Pe 9010) ‘ al ; rs . Les j - . bd ‘ . . = eS 2 4 ’ yy \ \ [~, \ oy ™ ee RY) > = oN y {_ | F’ a gt onl 1 On 2 Ee ST IR