Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 59 — page 1: what you’re looking at

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

——- —— aa, — ~~ = af : TS _ = Hi Va) : = = . in = ral = | 53 =>, oem 1) Seoomnd i itive i eee oe ee —_ i BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUBLISHERS, Number. Old Hickory; PANDY ELLIS’S SCALP. BY HARRY ST. GEORGE, AUTHOR OF ‘“‘RATTLING RUBE,” ‘‘ ROARING RALPH ROCKWOOD,” ETC., ETC. CHAPTER LI. THE FOREST CHASE, “"TARNEL snakes and bufflers! This here are jest the worst event of my life. Time was when Blue Beans could hold his own with any man living, and chaw up a stove just aS easy as not, but on that venison I own I’m dead beat, chief. Why, bless me, Powder Flash, if I would- n’t like to swear that this buck is the identical one that entered the Ark with Father Noah, thou he re ou don’t know a t oat ut it. Hang itall, chief, Ill light up my are here, and have the satisfaction of seeing you chaw away.” “Better than nothing; Powder Flash have strong teeth; chaw, chaw, chaw. Blue Beans smoke, chief eat up whole deer.” ““T’d give a heap to wee ye do it. No use tryin’ to de- ceive me, chief; ye can’t make black white. That venison is tough as Injy rub- ber. I ’member the time Ralph Rockwood and this chicken got lost up among the snow-covered hills near Red river. Game was awful scarce, and we came so near going under that we had to cook our old moccasins. I tell ye, chief, they was a luxury beside that venison. You can chaw away, but I know ye’re just doing it for spite, so the old buck won’t quite get the best of ye. It’s mighty plain to me, how- ever, that he’s having his revenge for your shootin’ him. Thar ye chaw, chaw, chaw. Well, Injins are ob- stinate as mules, every day,” with which Blue Beans lapsed into silence. . His companion smiled a trifle, but kept up his con- tinual miinohinie upon the large piece of tough venison that he held between his teeth. He was a full-blooded Indian, a chief among the Comanches, whose intimate relations with Blue Beans existed for several years. _The hunter had done hima signal service, for which the chief swore eternal friend- ship, and together they had roamed the prairies since that day. i\\ My \\\ ~ ! =) |) | | | | ‘ COA > |i a \ Lo St WS W © » {hme no . Te el TEE “|S Tr li : i. Asani Copyrighted in 1878, by BEADLE AND ADAMS. No. 988 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK. Blue Beans sat and watched the chief with an amused smile upon his face, but nothing could disturb the serenity of Powder Flash, who munched away with the equanimity of a quartz mill, although it was extremely doubtful wheth- er he extracted any satisfaction from the leath- ery substance. Around them stretched the great forest, which ended only at the base of the mountains behind which they had seen the glorious sun sink when evening came on. The silence of the night was unbroken save by the distant howl of some prowling wolf on the be 22 ag for plunder, or ee the shrill laugh of the cowardly coyote that kept in the darkest spots of the wood. Occasionally a lonely owl that had perched itself upon some neighboring dead tree, gave vent to a dismal hoot, that rung out with start- ling distinctness through the stilly darkness of the night. \ YA YY | \te2eze DIDS ; Me LA ie ur i; PANY: ; NO SOONER HAD THE MOUNTAINEER READ IT THROUGH THAN HE BURST WiTO A HEARTY LAUGH, —— = = << ———— . = ; i r ii NK ) | HN Hi | I nit Niky an \ ‘a mm I AN Ctr WN Aa MAN “A. DAB— Go Zasiwiy : a 5 Cents. No. 59. To all appearances these two strangely-as- sorted chums were alone in the heart of this western wilderness, but the thought seemed in no way to bother them. Blue Beans was a man somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty years of age, but who still retained the vigor of youth. His good-humored face was partly covered by a grizzly beard that gave him rather a rough appearance; but one needed only to glance into his merry blue eyes to be convinced of his honesty. Powder Flash was garbed more like a white hunter than a Comanche chief, but in any habiliments his noble form would have rendered him a striking personage, A small fire had been started, for there was ; but little fear of detection, as they had pitched their camp ina sort of depression or hollow, which would prevent any possibility of the blaze being seen at a distance. The deer Powder Flash had brought down ~ at evening; it proved to the toughest piece of meat that human jaws ever wres- tled with, and Rube’s ached as if he had just come from the dentist’s. It did him a world of good to sit there and watch his iron-jawed and determined comrade make way with the old buck. Suddenly Blue Beans gave a perceptible start, although he continued smoking calmly. ‘* Hist!” said he, in a whis- per. ‘‘Blue Beans, spit um out. Powder Flash hear um even if chaw, chaw, chaw.” The chief did not even look toward his companion while uttering these words in a low tone, and any one ten feet away would have been igno- rant of what was passing. ‘““Thar’s enemies up in the trees over yonder, old man; heap of ’em, too. I seen their pesune bodies a-glistenin’ in he fire-light justnow. They ’re watchin’ us, chief; their eyes are fixed on ye like as if they knowed who ye were and had a spite to work out. Shouldn’t be a bit surprised if they were some of Buf- falo Hoxa’s critters, and ye know he’d give a wheen to lay hands on you an’ e. b> | “What Blue Beans mean to do?” asked the chief. with his face still turned away from his companion, and his jaws working like a modern sausage-chopper. Evidently there was not much scare to either of them, ‘“Thar’s no mistake about the matter; we must make a run for it, old boy. When you hear me yell out, ‘ Now /’ do you get behind that tree like a streak of greascd . ¢ht- ning, or else there wont be enough of ye left to fill a ecomicbooks ‘LU ae (E()