Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 67 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

10 “This thought was instilled into my mind b Andrew Ashurst; and I consented to fly wit him if he would show me my husband in the company of the woman of whom I was so bit- terly jealous. ‘* He showed me the two together. I thought my husband guilty, though I now believe him to have been the victim of a plot. ‘How I got home I know not. But I was left for a few minutes. Then he came back to hurry me into the carriage that was to bear me away from husband, home, honor—everything but my revenge and my children. I had my boy in my arms. I would have parted with life sooner than give him voluntarily up. ‘*I noticed that my tempter was wild with ex- citement, but I asked him no questions. ‘““At the carriage we were met by a spectacle which froze my blood. My brother approached, bearing my husband on his back. ‘“My Frederick was wild-eyed, and as pale as a corpse, with blood streaming over his face and clothes. He cried out to me: ** * Agatha! Agatha! in God’s name, what are you about to do? “Then the man who had made me forget all that is womanly deliberately shot before my eyes the man I had sworn at the altar to love, honor and obey! ‘When I awoke from the deadly swoon in which I fell at the spectacle and the delirium that followed it, you was born and m boy was not with me! That was Andrew Ashurst’s one act of cruelty tome. He said that the boy looked so much like his father that he could not bear the sight of him. ‘The loss of my child together with the shock I had received induced the melancholy in- sanity under whose cloud you have always known me. Itwas a blessing in that it saved me from further criminality with the man who had wrecked my life.” p breathless. ew Ashurst?” gasped Ber- enice. ‘‘Whois he? Do I know him? “ You call him Walt !” The girl rose to her feet with a look of horror on her face. At that instant there was the sound of a foot- step. The curtain was put aside, and Patent- leather Joe stood in the room. ‘“Come!” he said. ‘‘I have brought people who will attend to these two. They are just without, and will enter the cave as soon as we leave. I have got horses. We will be miles away from here before daylight, and you will have fullfilled your contract. Come!’ The girl lifted the tallow dip and held it so that its light fell full upon her face, that he might see its terrible expression—its deathlike pallor, its blazing eyes, its quivering nostrils! These words fell from her white lips: “ Andrew Ashurst |—betrayer of my mother ! —murderer of my father!” For an instant Patent-leather Joe stood like one turned to stone. Then he cried: ‘‘ Hah! has she told you? Well, that shall not interfere with my purpose! The insanity of the mother thwarted me after I had braved all the world to gain possession of her! Now that I ited day by day 1 year after year, | mg ¢ : have waited day by day and year : ys of the one, a plausibility which would lull the seeing the daughter grow into the image of what I loved once and forever—now, Heaven nor hell shall deny me!” And with a stride forward he clutched the girl’s wrist. Aunt Sue uttered a shrill rose on her elbow; but the blood welled into her mouth and she sunk back unconscious, Before Berenice could make an effort to free herself, a voice was heard crying: “Cheese it, cully! ve brought your death- warrant!” Patent-leather Joe turned his head, glaring defiance. Arthur Hamilton had arisen and entered the room, still held in the thrall of delirium. Just’ before him was an old man bearing a younger one on his back. The face of the latter was ghastly with pallor and stained with blood. Patent-leather Joe let go his hold on Ber- enice’s arm, and shrunk away with a cry of agonized terror. CHAPTER XV. OLD RATTLESNAKE’S STORY—FACE TO FACE!— PATENT-LEATHER JOE ESCAPES. WHEN the torch dropped from Old Rattle- snake’s hand and he heard Aunt Sue fall to the ground, he stood for perhaps a minute perfoctly motionless. Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. Then trembling from head to foot, and mut- tering incoherently to himself, he groped his way out of the cave, and continued under the spur of the excitement to which the sight of Aunt Sue had given rise, until he reached his own home and Flash Lightning’s bedside. ‘Hallo, Nunky!” cried the youth. ‘‘ What’s in the wind? Did you find him? What’s the matter?” ‘‘Boy!” cried Old Rattlesnake, seizing the wrist of his nephew, ‘‘ thou hast no time for ill- ness; thou must be up and doing., In the first shock of discovery I ran away; but now I am come again to the possession of my senses; and it behooveth us all greatly that I return without delay, not unaccompanied by thee. Know that thy mother liveth!—she whom I have long con- sidered as one dead!” ‘‘My mother!” cried Flash Lightning, rising on his elbow in amazemeut. ‘‘ Hitherto I have denied thy importunity, and told thee naught of her,” said Old Rattlesnake sadly; ‘‘but now is the fullness of time, and mistake me greatly, if much floweth not from this day’s doings.” ‘‘My mother!” repeated Flash Lightning, with a far-away look in his eyes. ‘ Take me to her at once!” ‘*Canst sit thy horse?’ asked Old Rattlesnake, anxiously. “Tecan do any thing that takes me to her!” cried the youth. And rising to a sitting posture, in spite of the pain, he let his feet slip to the floor. That he might mount with the least difficulty, Old Rattlesnake brought the horse into the but, and exerting that great strength to which his aged appearance was as a mask, lifted him up- on the animal’s back. In spite of the caution with which they picked their way, his horse’s every step caused Flash Lightning a throe of pain. et he sat with ee ms tag lips, permitting no moan to escape ‘*‘And now, while we are going to her,” he said, ‘‘ tell me about my mother.” “hat I have so long denied thee,” replied Old Rattlesnake, ‘‘ arose not from unkindness, but rather that thou mightest reach man’s estate before thy life was clouded with the story of man’s “gime So in the ripeness of thy reason mightst thou judge fairly and mercifully, nor do aught of injustice to one who loved much, and who hath suffered much.” With this introduction, he told Flash Light- ning the story of woman’s love and jealousy and man’s treachery, the substance of which the reader has already received from the lips of one of the principal actors. ** Thy father was a just man,” he added, ‘loving her whom he had taken to heart wit a love so perfect that, as he was incapable o doubting her, so he took no thought that any act of his might be viewed with distrust. ‘‘Andrew Ashurst knew the human heart well—both thy father’s unquestioning trust in all men with a fair seeming, and thy mother’s strong love that might easily be fanned to jeal- ousy. And the creature utterly vile, suborned to the iniquitous office of the siren, joined to that beauty which might well fire the jealousy | distrust of the other. ‘It was no task to her craft to lure the sim- le, chivalrous man to her house; for though er acts were abominable in the sight of God, scream and half | yet had she done nothing but what society views _leniently in one ssessed of wealth and posi- tion; and when she told her tale of sorrow with tears and distress, such as lendeth to beauty its greatest charm, and clung to thy father’s hand, craving such help from him as would be no dis- honor to him who granted or her who received, he had no suspicion of her treacherous purpose. ‘So by the evil machinations of Arthur Ash- urst thy mother saw them, and questioning nothing of what the deceiver whispered in her ear, fled, making no sign. ; “T alone doubted Andrew Ashurst, and on the eve of the tragedy which overwhelmed thy father’s house sought my sister. Her manner and that of the false friend confirmed my fears that there was collusion between them. So I sought thy father and told him that his own hearthstone demanded his watchfulness. ‘** Doubting his wife in nothing, thy father’s wrath against the friend who had courted him only to betray, knew no bounds. They met and thy father fell before Andrew Ashurst’s bullet. ‘* Then the traitor fled, and thy father caused me to bear him on my back in pursuit. ““At the door of the carriage which was to bear thy mother to undying regrets and vain remorse we overtook them; and once more the murderer’s hand was raised. ‘‘Thy mother swooned, and would have fal- len but for the arm of her betrayer. As it was, her baby—thou—slipped from her lifeless arms to the ground; and hee she was lifted into the carriage and borne away ye were separated. ‘Thy father lived long enough to consign thee to my care, and to commission me with full forgiveness for the wife who had forsaken WH conjuring me to spare no effort to save ier. ‘Thou knowest how throughout the years of thy life I have fulfilled my duty to thee. I have now found her, and may yet return to bear to her sore heart her husband’s forgiveness and blessing. ‘‘As for thee, 1 adjure thee, judge her not harshly. She is thy mother, and in the happy day her love for thee filled the measure to over- flowing. Of her purty of heart, I, who have watched her, holding her as the apple of my eye, do assure thee. ‘‘ When the wreck of what was once my beau- tiful sister gazed into my eyes, and shrieking, recoiled, I saw that the burden of her sorrows had bereft her of reason. In dismay I fled, thinking only to get thee. ‘Now, canst receive her, looking only to that which would move thee to love and pity? Speak!” Flash Lightning was greatly moved by this narrative. Looking straight before him, he clutched the pommel of his saddle with unconscious tenacity. _ “And where is Andrew Ashurst?’ he asked, in a hoarse voice. ‘*Of him I know nothing,” replied Old Rattle- snake. ‘‘Since the dread day that stained his hands in thy father’s blood I have never seen or heard aught of him. To-day I found thy mother in solitude.” : Flash Lightning remained silent. After re up at him anxiously several times, and noting the settled expression of his face, Old Rattlesnake again broke the silence. “Canst receive her, boy, in all forgiveness and love?” A wave of color appeared faintly in the youth’s pale face, and a tender humor glistened in his eyes. ‘Is she not my mother?’ he asked, ina low tremulous voice whose cadences could have but one significance. The old naturalist laid his hand on that of his nephew. P ‘1 am not disappointed in thee. Thou hast thy father’s magnanimity,” he said. ‘‘ As God hath restored ye one to another after all these intervening years, let us accept it as a sign that it is His will that as she nursed thy infancy, so nay shalt thou not deny succor to her infir- mity. They entered the gulch and approached the wire curtain, where Flash Lightning was taken on his uncle’s back, to be carried into the cave. They were just about to enter when they heard some one approaching. ‘‘ Let him precede us,” whispered Flash: and Old Rattlesnake shrunk with his burden into the deep shadow. The moon which had risen since Patent- leather Joe had ‘eft the cave enabled Flash Lightning to recognize him on his return; and when the gambler had disappeared beyond the vine curtain, Flash drew his revolver and said: ‘‘ Ah! if that gentleman is in the case I shaJ] have need of unanswerable arguments!” As for Old Rattlesnake, at sight of Patent- leather Joe he was so shocked that it seemed as if he would sink beneath his burden. ‘‘ Ah!” be reflected, sadly, “it is as I feared. All these years hath she given herself to the destroyer. Yet can I never doubt that m mother’s daughter was true and pure of heart. For she budded and bloomed by my side. Like as an open book hath her soul lain before my vision. But the shock of believing that her great love was betrayed hath left her dis- traught. Agatha, my sister, bitterly hast thou been sinned against. May the merciful God write this over against thy fault! | “\It is plain that the boy recognizeth not the destroyer in this man, Then will I not quicken his understanding, lest in the moment of wrath, seeing the strait to which bis mother hath been reduced, he be moved to mete violence to him who hath caused her suffering.” With this thought Old Rattlesnake refrained from identifying FPatent-leather Joe with Andrew Ashurst; and Flash Lightning, expect- ing to. see a much older person in his mother’s early suitor, saw in the gambler only one at enmity with him and his partner, Arthur Ham com | °. VOOKS GoM