Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 527 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

‘ap a » tee th ¥ ; “oe Sey ~ ~ ‘ Ooh ie \ ad : r”* : ‘ ish?’ » ey ~.. = il mt % ¥, > * - > ie ~ ¥ ere was the law. He had sworn to uphold it. This was the very first case of its execution under him. What could he do? Was the law to be a respecter of persons? Should he play fast and loose with duty because his heart went out to the boy who suffered from this buffet of fortune? However, he felt the need of still further justi- fication, even to’so insignificant a person as Dick Johnson. “The girl had the right to go with her father if she liked,” he said. ‘‘ He left it to her; and she said go.” ‘** But Harry?” insisted Dick, illogically enough. ** He'll have to grin an’bear it! Life would be a mighty easy game, ef we held all the trumps every hand.” And turning upon his heel, Jim strode into the court-room., ‘*Now it’s betther ye feel!’ said Tom, with bitter irony. He thought that this talk about duty was all very fine—as talk; but when it came to going back on one’s friends at the bidding of a lot of pettifogging lawyers, Tom, like a true son of the West, said ‘‘ Nixy!” Dick gazed after the receding coach in de- spair. ‘““Ef Harry was only hyeah,” he groaned, plaintively, ‘‘ we free would knock de socks off’n all deir law!” But Harry stood at his post, pale and anqious, but little dreaming that the rumbling coach- wheels were already bearing away his love. He supposed that she had been taken into the hotel ndjoining, and that he would at least have one last interview with her before they were sepa- rated forever, if she finally decided to sacrifice him at her father’s bidding, Ile could not even go to the aid of old Abra- hain, who rose painfully to his feet, and put his hand on his wife’s shoulder. ‘*Come! come!” said the old Hebrew, in a tremulous, husky voice. ‘' All is ofer! Come! —come home,” The old woman seemed dazed, The thick black vail she wore hid her face, so that her dumb anguish was sacred from the curious stare of the rude miners. She rose feebly, clinging to the unsteady arm of her husband. So these two forlorn old creatures passed out of the court-room, that hush of.awe which is in- spired by deep grief falling upon the crowd, which opened to let them through. Alone they left the hall; alone they tottered to their desolated home, alone they sat down amid the wreck of their hopes and happiness, Old age and despair! ’ “But the blow fell with scarcely-less severity ‘upon the younger shoulders, When Harry learned of the calamity that had fallen upon him, he stood white and still. He said to himself what Jim Gladden had said to Dick, The girl had chosen, as she had the right to. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and Jim Glad- den’s voice pleaded— ** Kid, ye don’t bear me no malice?” The boy looked up with a long-drawn inhala- ‘oss his forehead. Lhad to do it,” said Jim, sadly. “Of course you did. That's all right, Jim.” ‘You know Td ’a’ stood by you while wood growed an’ water run?” ‘¢- Yes, Jim; yes.” The marshal turned away reluctantly, and went about his duties. In his heart he execrated the man who had raised this cloud between him and the boy whom he loved with the kind of af- fection that binds the heroes of the mountains tion. es No—no,” he answered, passing his hand and plains to one another to the death. With leaden feet Harry walked away, seek- ingsolitude in the first throes of his pain, like a - wild beast when wounded. Later he came back to the camp, and went to old Abraham’s, | The house was dark and desolate. The old people satin the living room, back of the store, sat there alone, in silence, in darkness. arry sat down among them, and no one said a word, \ _, It was worse than if a corpse lay in the ad- joining room. The atmosphere of the room ned thick, heavy, stifling, like the pent air of a tomb! To sit thus amid the ghosts of memory was unendurable, Our herorose and left those whom he was powerless to console—he who so needed consolation himself, On the morrow the store was closed, the shut- ters remained up, iS, Saabs ae The Jolly Pards to the Rescue. < ‘02 : a A Ai it ‘A pl ‘we MeN gs \e Old Rebecca lay in her bed, with her eyes ale tae ts uncomplaining, waiting—for what Abraham sat bowed beside her, with his eyes fixed upon her white face. How deep the seams were! How pathetic the tremor of the thin lips! So Harry found them, ‘**'This will never do!” he declared. And he installed a kind-hearted Irishwoman in the house, to set the home-life going again, and so to win these poor old souls back from the tomb-like chill that had paralyzed them. Meanwhile, the business of the court went on. The boys shook their heads over the sentence of the road-agents to imprisonment for a term of years. After the spicy work of stringing such characters up toa limb of the red cedar that grew before the Terpsichorean Hall, that was rather flat. Then the court resumed its circuit. Jim Gladden was called upon by a_ neighboring marshal to lend his skill to the apprehension of some knights. of the road who were making an adjoining county notorious by their exploits. ae ISeene was left in charge of Paddy’s at. He had enjoyed this distinction but a singie day, when three horsemen rode into the Flat, ns bang for the marshal, and were referred to im, CHAPTER VII. TO THE RESCUER, THE strangers were three Irishmen, of. as many different types of Hibernian manhood. Tim Buckley was in middle life, wore a fringe of beard following the line of his throat, and walked with his hands folded under his coat- tails, in imitation of the ‘‘ gintlemen o’ the owlden toime,” Reddy Scully was a‘ brick-top,” with beauty- spots—invidiously called freckles—in such pro- fusion as to quite obscure his otherwise fine complexion, Pat Mallory, of powerful build, had the bullet head and pugnacious jaw of a prize-fighter. All three of these men agreed in one respect— they were pale with dogged purpose, their eyes glittering with a wolfish thirst for re- venge., ‘ Mallory scanned our young hero with a look that was almost contemptuous. ‘* An’ is this the mairshal?’ he demanded. ‘* The cepn ty marshal,” corrected Harry, coloring slightly, yet also beginning to bristle. ‘‘Be me soal, it’s a bit of a mairshal, or deppity» or what-not, that contints Paddy’s Mallory had made this same objection upon pee + gabe to the deputy, but he had got for is reply: _* Stranger, don’t you throw off on that boy till you size him up. He’s little, but he’s loud !” Now Harry said in his own behalf: ‘“*T believe that I do content the Flat. And don’t forget that Napoleon was but a bit of a corporal.” bs . ** Napoleon, is it? Belike I’ve heard of him before. A Frog~’ater, wasn't he?’ ‘He was known better as the king-eater.” ** Well, that’s Nather heur nor thayer. Ther’s no kings in this counthry fur anny one to ‘ate.” ‘* If you'll give me a whack at you, I'll see if I am deputy marshal enough to satisfy you.” “It’s not at me that yez nade be whackin’ ossoon. Faith, it’s mesilf that has the achin’ in me bones to git a whack at a maraudin’ divil that’s lately been in yer camp, I’m told.” ** Who’s that?” ‘* A thafe of a shaney!” “A what? cried Harry, with a start, ¢§ isaac Salomans, the curse o’ Crummel an ‘um!’ ‘* Tsaac Salomans!” ‘** No less.” ou?” ‘‘ A thrifle! Claned out the crowd of uz!” At which sarcasm Reddy Scully and Tim Buckley broke out in fierce execrations. “What do you mean?” asked our hero, be- ginning to tremble. — ‘‘T m’ane thatthis thafe o’ the worruld and his ‘two pards have robbed us of ivery grain 0’ dust we had to the fore,” * ‘* Robbed you!” ** Robbed us!” Didn’t you never hear tell o’ the pec that, before?” ‘ ut his pards you spoke of,” pale Burchard 7 e divil fly away wid ’um!” burst in Reddy Scully. é os wl * sh & A ie — ae" “But what of him? What has- he done to | é ¢ a? 4. Ay! ay! ll grind his bones to powder wan 0’ these nse) !” added Tim Buckley. ‘‘And Bowlegged Banty?” otied Harry, breathlessly. ‘* No less, curse ’um!” assented Mallory. Harry stood staring, with his mouth open, struck in a a ‘* You know the spalpeaneys asked Mallory. ‘‘Know them? I have reason to! And you are sure that these men are pards of Isaac Salomans?” ‘Well, I know it to the tune of thirty-five thousand dollars!” ‘*‘Ab! That’s where his wealth came from! And Miriam— Gcod heavens!” But it. was no time for idle repining. ‘* Tell me all about it,” he urged, beginning to show his metal in a sudden rigidity of the muscles all over bis body. ‘It’s but a taste to tell. Thayre’s me, an’ Reddy Scully, thayre, an’ Tim Buckley—faith, we came up from the Isthmus in a sea-coffin, along wid a lot more of unlucky divils. Who but Reddy had the shakes an ’um, along o’ the h’athen wather o’ the divil’s own counthry, that he’d not sthand cn his two feet? An’ didn’t Tim have a bout wid Yallah Jack, bod luck til ’um! As fur mesilf, well, I shtud it weil enough. So they fed us on rotten meat an’ wormy beans till the scurvy tuck us, an’ them as we put over- board into the salt-wather ocean had the luck wid *’um,” Scully and Buckley showed by sullen shakes of the head and muttered caths that that sea- voyage had been onecf horrors not pleasant to recall. ‘* Well, we wint to pieces an the rocks a hundhred miles cr so below ’Frisco; an’ divila taste of anny cn toard but me, an’ Reddy Scully, thayre, an’ Tim Buckley, came up out o’ the wather alive. So we futted it to ’Frisco, an’ shook han’s an it toshtand by one another, make or break, ‘‘ It was make wid us from the shtairt, till we see thim maraudhin’ divils—the shaney an’ his two pairds. He wint in pairdners wid us; the two o’ them salteda mine; an’ who but him bought it wid our dust--thirty-tive thousand dollars, or Dm a liar!—an’ made off, the lot o’ them |’? At this climax all three of the victims of this oft-repeated mining-trick fell to swearing sav- egety. ‘*But how came you to let men who were pardners take you in like that?” asked Harry. ‘*Did anny one know that they were paird- ners? Wasn't the wan o’ them our paird, d’ye moind, an’ the other two sthrangers to um?” ‘Ah! I see, They rung in acold deal on you. And now, what do you propose to do about it?” ** We've sworn to folly them to kingdom-come but we'll get the dust back, an’ their blood, too!” ‘*['m with you!” cried our hero, And in a few words he detailed his own cause for revenge against the swindlers, Having set the Irishmen on their track, he hastened off to find his own pards, ‘What's the row now?” asked Tom Murphy, seeing his excited face, ‘** Row enough!” replied Harry. ‘! Pards, are you to stand by me throush thick and thin?” ‘** Dah ain’t no disccunt on dat.” ** Divil a dis?!” ‘*‘ The expenses shall come out of my share of what we made cut of the show biz.” ‘“G’way dah! Don’t you say nuffin’ ‘bout *spenses!” be ‘Ts it pairds we are, till it comes to the spend- ing of a thrifle o’ money?” cried Tom, ‘ Divil weape the loike 0’ thim pairds!” — ithout stopping to argue this point, Harry recounted what he bad learned, | ‘*] tell you what it is, pards,” he concluded ‘it’s Cale ‘Busclard and Banty from the ground up. They have got hold of this Salomans, and have made use of him to get Miriam into their wer. God help us! they have succeeded only 00 well! But what is to become of her? Even if her father is not scoundrel enough to sacrifice her—which I believe he is—Cale and Banty will not make two bites of him, if he stands in r way.” Don’t say anudder word!” cried Dick. ‘*Me an’ Tom is after dem rapscallions, bot-foot; an’ ef you wasn’t tied up hyeah by de leg—” ** Tied!” shouted Harry, ‘ will stay tied?” _ | : But what'll Jim say, ef you shake him ag’in?’ ‘‘It don’t make any difference what he says! Pll manage that. But is it a go, Tom?” ‘A go, is it? Don’t ye insult me, mon!” Harry wrung the hands of his generous pards, Do you suppose I