Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 661 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

caught sight of Banner Ben—‘‘ you here, Little Devil?’ ‘*I should say I was,” replied Ben, “and by | jee-whango| I’ve a big notion to bang your old head off,’ ‘* Bang away, brat, for I reckon it’ll have to come sooner or later, and feels as though a sec- tion o’ it war chipped off now.” ‘* You’d never have known you’d a sore head if it hadn’t been for that girl,” said Ben. ‘* Did she save my life?” the villain asked, in | deep surprise. ‘She did, and that, too, after you hounds had | treated her so cruel.” ‘Fes Banner Ben. the Wildfire of the Prairie. ——————eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ES | plied Harry ;*‘ but, my dear old friend, you folks - day she got cotched in a prairie fire and burned so horribly that her nighest friend couldn’t re- cognize her. She was a horrid sight, and came near dyin’, but Doc Gwynn, or Darnley, ’tended her and she got well. And Annette knowed everything, and more too, *bout you and Harry and the wills, and lots o’ your and Harry’s little secrets, for while in your family she’d been very industrious *bout pryin’ into everything that | ‘forded her knowledge and pleasure. She read | all o’ your letters from Harry and a few o’ yours to him, and knowed enough, she thought, totake your place at home and she’s there now playin’ her trump keerds. You see she’s so awfully dis- “15 had a terrible fight I understand and several were killed—among them my friend Burch.” ‘* Yes, Harry, three were killed and not one o’ the hull kit escaped injury, though me and” Benjy Banner are the nighest bein’ left together o’ any. Old Tom Rattler came mortal nigh de- partin’ this life. But that Ben Banner! Ill swear, by the horn o’ Joshua, that he’s a kid- tempest, and wasn’t born to die. To-day I saw him ride up a cliff into the very clouds, where _ the savages on foot could scarcely foller, and at every bound that charmed cat-footed hoss o’ his _ kicked back thunderbolts into the valley at the figgered that no one can dispute her claimsince | savages. Whether the boy rode on up into ; ‘Well, God bless you, gal; that’s more’n I | | . I you hav’n’tputin yourappearance. She tells’em | heaven I know not, but I feel sure that, when | | could have ’spected—more’n I deserved from | you; but since things have turned out so cy- clonish I hope you'll git safe back to yer old | Kaintucky home.” ‘* Dead-Eye, what do you knowabout my Ken- tucky home?” the girl asked. ‘* Lor’, I knows a heap—I knows all bout your e | capture, and that you’re the victim o’ one o’ the that she got burned on the prairie at the time | he descends to earth again, he’ll give a good ac- of the Cheyenne raid. An old scamp named | count o’ the deeds donein the flesh. He told me Rule, and claimin’ to be a hunter, took the dis- | that Dr. Gwynn had struck him a blow in this figgered gal to the commandant at Fort A——, | cave that nothin’ but his life-blood would satis- and told him he’d found the gal nighly burnt | fy, and my 4 is the doctor’s days are ’bout to death next day after the raid, and that he’d numbered. Before the lad soared aloft he told taken her to his dug-out and doctored her up. | me all about you bein’ wounded, the presence of a oe biggest and meanest conspiracy jobs ever hatch- | The gal corroborated his story and gave her | Jessie Hampton here, and the escape of that de- r oa x ed out o’ a wicked brain; and seein’ as what | name as Jessie Hampton, and told all about her | lectable Gwynn with her into the mountains. Cap Blood, and old Jaguar Jim, and Bracelets | visit to the Raymond home, the Ingin raid, and | _ ‘*But, Harry, the fu’st thing to be done now and Dr, Gwynn —the chief conspirators—are | a hull mess o° lies "bout this thing and that. |.is to remove you to some place where you can all dead, and [’'m likely to have engag’ments | Kindly the officer in command escorted her back | get better care, food and sunshine, I have a yA elsewhere, I s’pose I’d jist as well divulge the | to her Kaintucky home and gave her into the | canoe out here, and if you can stand it to be ‘4 hull thing so’s I won’t have to suffer for the sins | keepin’ o’ your guardian who, I still understand, | moved, I will undertake to do it—I will take <i. ' ©’ the others. Doc Gwynn, there, was an awful | believes she’s the true Jessie Hampton. To her | you to our aed ‘ » % 2» 9 mean and sly villain if he was your cousin, | lover, Harry Ashmore, she showed the goldring | ‘‘ All right, Kit; I am much stronger than I s° >) aniss—” he’d given you and some other things taken from | was.”’ ; hes ‘‘ Dr. Gwynn my cousin? Impossible!” ex you at the time o’ your capture. Now,thatold | Bandy, assisted by Singing Bird, removed the claimed the girl. hunter, Rule, was nobody else than Old Dead- | young man down to the water’s edge and placed » i. ‘* You bet he’s your coz., and his real name is | Eye, and Pauline was to’a’ married me for doin’ | him in the canoe, and then both of them, bid- : Calhoun Darnley.” what I did. ding the kind-hearted girl fare well, started off ? ** One-Eye, you are rf . tonished arp aged ) ‘**Nary jest, gal. ‘* Old man,” spoke up Ben, jesting,” declared the as- it Fos it seems Harry Ashmore got cranky, | went back on his sweetheart because she | was disfiggered and her face all drawn and | puckered a He wouldn’t believe it was her, | ale down the river | _it was a dangerous trip, and no one but the’ risky and intrepid Kit Bandy would ever have don’t trifle with undertaken it in broad daylight; but the old MY that girl’s feelings. If youhave anything totell, | and so rambled off and went to huntin’ for the | mountaineer had learned by experience that in -.- why tell it at once.” right gal. He went among the Cheyennes and | the very boldness of some risks lay their safety. ge: ‘Say, kid, you don’t want to crowd on anold | all the other tribes where he thought she might | And this proved to be one of them, for, although * blind beggar like me,” replied One-Bye, ‘‘ and | be a captive, but no Jessie could he find. He | the trip was a tedious one, he finally reached in I'll git long faster. Now, miss, it’s a Bible-fact | hunted for Old Rule, the hunter, but he couldn’t | safety a point on the river Opposite their ren- that that dead scamp there, huggin’ that dead | find him. He fina ly got Old Kit Bandy, that dezvous. ; : coy-yote, Panther Tail, are Dr. Calhoun Darnley | prince 0’ old snook-noses, to huntin’and if seems | Beaching his canoe, he took Harry in his } —the son o’ your mother’s sister, though you | that he was the first to strike a clew, and jist at | strong arms and carried him into camp, where never knew him. He’s the behemoth that hatch- | the moment 0’ his triumph, Harry Ashmore, the | Rattler, Ichabod Flea, and the other two bor- poor devil, Doc told me, was Killed, and now lays— ‘Only he wasn’t killed, though,” interrupted derers, received them with joy. Bandy at once set about dressing Harry’s wounds, and while thus engaged a company of ed out the conspiracy ag’inst you that led to your years 0’ captivity, and why? Simply ’cause _. he knowed you and ore were goin’ , » to git married some time or other. He said | Banner Ben: ‘‘T ‘left him since Gwynn did, and | mounted troops were discovered moving up, a ee ere was somethin’ in your and Harry’sfather’s he’s far from bein’ dead, and when he meets westward, on the opposite side of the river. i willsthatgive you all their wealthif you gotmar- | Miss Jessie he’ll get entirely well.” Running down to the river, Ichabod Flea : ried by a certain time; if ye didn’t, then half o’ ‘* Well, I'll be danged!” exclaimed Dead-Eye, | hailed them. The soldiers drew rein, when | your dad’s wealth, which was half a million or ‘if you’re tellin’ the truth, Bloody Ben, the | Ichabod crossed over in Bandy’s canoe and le « Me more, was to go to Randolph Darnley, and as he thing won't be so bad for Jessie. But, Lor’, it’s | a consultation with Captain Carson, the office * soon died his heirs come in for the lucre. Them | been costive in blood for the boys. Ireckonthe | incommand. The soldiers had come into the — heirs were Dr. Calhoun Darnley and Miss Pau- | hull outfit’s dead ‘cept me and Annette, and I | hills in search of Panther Tail’s band of ma- » | «| line, his sister, and they war detarmined to have | reckon we'll go next, won't we, Miss Jessie?” rauding outlaws, but when informed by Flea of b me. the lucre, and to git it they began to plot against | ‘* You are Banner Ben’s prisoner,” replied Jes- | the almost total destruction of that band by the Roe 4 you and Harry. n you came west to visit | sie. a of Sabina Bandy’s box of cosmetics, , a in Kansas the golden opportunity was offered. ‘“Tllrun you down to camp, Dead-Eye, and | in Moaning Canyon, the night before, the Cap- Doc Darnley and his sister war livin’ then, in the | hold an inquest on your case,” Ben said, face- | tain concluded to go no further and at once Ingin Territory, and so was I, and Captain | tiously; ‘‘ but, really, do you think you deserve | wentinto camp there, on the river. Blood and Jaguar Jim. Doc had great influence | toli e, old sinner?” By the captain’s request Flea and his friends with the Cheyennes, and takin’ advantage of ‘* T never did desarve to live for anything, but | transferred their quarters to the soldiers’ biv- their ill-feelin’s toward the whites, induced them | I lived to desarve somethin’, and I reckon it’l] | ouae and Rattler and Ashmore were placed un- to makethat bloody raid through the Sappa Val- | be the rope if Old Snooksy Bandy has the say- | derthe care of the surgeon of the company. ley, when you were taken Captive and the Ray- | so.” Kit then related the events of the past day monds all yilled. Cap BI and his men are ‘* Well,” said Ben, ‘‘T’ll tie your hands the | and nicht to the captain, and finally prevailed the fellers that captured you and carried you | first thing, and then I’ll help you aboard your | upon him to send a squad of twenty picked men away, and by Gwynn’s request presented you to , horse and we’ll pull out for camp.” to follow Dr. Gwynn, in the Longhorn Canyon. Stoopin’ Bear, whar you’ve n kept ever ead-Eye quietly submitted to be bound, | But the soldiers had not been gone over two 3) since. ‘ which was done most securely by the boy. Des- | hours when they returned, accompanied b 1. ‘* As soon as you war caged in the Sioux | perate villain that he was, he orpeared perfect- | Banner Ben, Jessie Hampton and Old Dead- ‘ camp, Gwynn went there to live, and soon be- 2 submissive and indifferent to his fate, but to | Bye. 3 came the medicine-man 0’ the camp. He want- make sure he had not a method in this, Banner hen, great was the rejoicing in that moun- i _ @d to be where he could watch you and win your | Ben watched him all the closer. tain-camp. The hills rung with the shouts, : ts love, if he could, and ma you hisself. I / Having secured _ the panes horse and | from the mountaineers’ lips,and when Banner _ ie} went there, too, cause his sister promised to | mounted him upon it, the boy tied the old scoun- | Ben told the story of the death of the outlaws, Pe marry me if I'd doa Certain thing, and after | drel’s feet together with a lariat passing under | and the rescue of J essie, the soldiers joined in ia | ee I’d done it, she kept puttin’ me off from time to | the anintal’s belly. Then Ben mounted his own | with Bandy and his friends, and again the hills ns fi | - time and ’bout six months ago she died and— pony, and with Dead-Eye in the lead and Jessie | reverberated with prolonged shouts. i here lam ! at his side the three rode along down the Long-| Banner Ben was the hero of the hour, and y ‘* Another person was taken into the copspir- orn leavi dead outlaws and savages to acy, and that was a gal that eerste wae de vie Pauline had picked | the mercy of the wolves and vultures. up. She was sent to Kaintucky to »ersonate | a and at last accounts “pe fh holdin’ the | ~~ CHAPTER XVII. REUNITED AND—THE CONCLUSION, on’ eae ort as Jessie Hampton to good advantage.” : b | FOLLOWING Singing Bird Old Kit Bandy soon right nobly had he won the honors bestowed ms on him ee i OS aaet The meeting of Jessie Hampton and Harry Ashmore was most affecting, an those who had been instrumental in reuniting them felt amply + ‘‘Dead-Eye, that is impossible!” geclared the repaid for their labor when they saw how su- | ra ni . 66 are telling me q ” : : f Maiden; ‘‘ you § me & falsehood.” reached the cave an ope: his way to where | preme was the joy of the youn le. A Ta a vNary falsehood, J omy Dead-Eye ti Harry Ashmore lay. The wounded man heard | The next day litters sone oan cted between s bP ‘ou remember Annette psa don’t ye?” him approaching and recognizing his voice | two ponies for the two wounded men, Ashmore 4 Bi ; Yes; she wes ee ‘our family up to | knew t deliverance from his dungeon had | and ttler, and the ty began its retreat oat within a few days Of father’s death,” answered come. ’ ee | from the mountains. The journey was a slow “4 ae i) ae Jessie Hampton, a8 we will henceforth know Well, my boy,” the detective said, ‘I’m ] and tedious one, but finally the fort was reach- fF : Vihar, | We glad to find you alive and to waggle your warm | ed and the wounded men were placed inthe are ; a ie ee ee tab igs A. the tat paw re How are you, anyway, op sah where, of course, they received the best _ ae TE. Sessio. Anette: was in the Incin Nation with | _ ‘‘ Getting along well as could be ¢xpected un-| Jessie Hampton was the guest of the Ate» " ‘Be Palio awhile afore you went West, and one | der such trying and painful circumstances,” re- | good wives and daughters, for the. maiden ges. - sy aa MmicvpeoKs,.com 7, . = 7 ’ ts o ’ _ ® . 7 suf Toe - ae. cs ‘ ene” . i as _ : were me. ~~ va? -_