Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 702 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

es Blue Jacket Bill. 5 with him to his store, for the landlord kept a store as well asa hotel, gambling hall, and drinking saloon. ** Well, Miner St. John, shall my clerk put you up your regular two week’s supplies?” said Senor Du Val as he entered the store with the one whom he addressed as Miner St. John, ** Make it a month’s supplies this time, please, as [ shall hardly return before that time,” was the answer. The stores consisting of sugar, coffee, flour, meal, bacon, crackers, and other things were put up and placed in a large pair of canvas saddle-bags, after which the miber paid for them and went in with the landlord to dinner, and a good dinner it was too. ‘‘Is your mine panning out well, Miner St. John?” asked the landlord. ** Yes, better by far than I anticipated.” “That is good: but you must keep a very close watch then, for you have no neighbor within many miles, and there are plenty of men who might kill you.” ‘‘T have no enemy that I know of—at least ere,” he added after some besitation. “It would make no difference to many whether abe were an enemy or not, so they got your gold, ‘** Be careful, I beg of you, for Redfern, our mutual friend, bade me keep an eye to your safety.” ‘** He is very kind, and a noble fellow.” ‘** Yes, he is indeed.” **Do you knew where he is now?” ‘* He went down into Mexico, after he resigned his place as scont at Fort Blanco, and I believe has gone to visit that mysterious Vailed Lady who visited us here at one time, and but for Redfern would have taken the life of Trent Baxter the Sharp from Texas,” ‘* Yes, I beard of the affair; but that youth is a mystery to me, Landlord Du Val.” ‘ As he is to all of us, miner; but you are not going?” ‘* Yes, I have a very long ride, as you know, and then I have a desire to see aud talk with Parson Freeze.” ‘* Ab! not going to let him convert you are you?” ‘“No, but I have a desire to see and talk with him, so can you tell me where I can find him?” **Out on the piazza I guess.” The miner did find the parson there, and in shaking hands with him left a slip of paper in bis palm, Then he went to the stable, mounted his horse and rode away. CHAPTER VIII. THE PARSON AND HIS PARD, PARSON FREEZE had greeted the miner like one unknown to him, He had spoken of his pleasure in meeting a “** stranger and a brother,” and asked him to re- main to evening service, when he was going to run opposition to gambling and carousing by a sermon, But Miner St, John said that he only desired to meet the parson, of whom the miners spoke so highly, and telling him that he had a long ride before bim so could not remain for tke ser- mon had ridden away, As soon as he could do 80, after the miner’s de- parture, Parson Freeze slipped away to himself and read the slip of paper left in his hand: It was as follows: “IT must see you to-day. * Follow me and I will await you in Rocky Glen. ** As it is Sunday all the miners are in their camps so no one will see our meeting. ** Don’t fail me. “Sr, Jonn.”’ The parson frowned, but somehow he did not seem to wish to disobey the demand, and going out to the stablehe gota horse belonging to Senor Du Val and rode away. After he left what was known as ‘ Social Avenue” in the town, he turned upon a trail Which would lead him into the one which the Miner had taken. The camps a along for a couple of miles from the New Mexico, and the miners who were “fat home,” greeted him as he rode by, rae aaked : b 0’s turned up his toes, parson?” Another inquired: és: ae ther’ been a row, parson, and somebody * Yer hain’t a-goin’ ter see some one who hev qied a natural death, be yer, Bible Pard?” To all queries the parson had bis answer, and after leaving the last cabin be quickened his pace, and a mile further on beheld Miner St. John awaiting bim, As the miner saw him coming he turned ont of the trail into a rocky glen, and after riding a couple of hundred yards balted, ‘** Well, Pard St. John, bere I am, ‘** Nothing important, I hope,” said the parson, dismounting as the miner bad done, ‘* Yes, Pard Baxter, I think so,” ‘“* Well, out with it, for I do not like suspense,” ‘You may not like what I bave to say, my friend, but I deem it my duty.” ‘**T will listen, pard.” “You know that ever since you kept that Mexican, Juan the Fox, from killing me I have been your firm friend,” ‘*T well know that, pard.” ‘*T told you that half my earnings were yours, that my cabin was your home, and you became as it were my partner. ‘*Then followed your arrest by Redfern as Blue Jacket Bill, and your escape from being shot when if was proven the young scout was mistaken, and that Juan the Fox had informed him, accusing you from revenge. ‘* You disappeared for some time and came back in the guise you are now in.” ‘* Did [ not know all this as well as you, Pard St. John q”? ‘* Yes, but [ recall it to suow that when Red- fern the Scout returned from Colorado and re- ported seeing you hanged there, I mourned you sincerely, ‘* Then you 4 poe in your present disguise, roving that Redfern bad seen the wrong man anged, and you told me that you had come back to help me work in the mine, after you had tried to run down the Blue Jacket band of outlaws by going to Devil’s Ranch and finding out who they were.” ‘And so I am, pard.” ‘*True; but do you consider it right for you to appear in false colors, preaehing the Gospel as you do, under pretense of being a minister, praying a3 you do, where as a gambler known as the Sharp from Texas you have taken the lives of your fellow beings? ‘* Is not this blasphemy, friend Baxter, and is it vot right that I should tell you, as a Christian man myself, it must cease?” ** Must ?” ** Yes, so I said, and so I mean. ““T have believed your stores against all proofs seemingly brought by others against you, and Lalone know that you are not now what you pretend to be, a preacher of the Gospel. ‘Your old comrades, even that keen-eyed landlord of the New Mexico, do not recognize you with your clean-sbaven face, your long hair cut close, your spectacles and general disguise,” ‘* Well, to what does all this tend, miner?” ‘**To urge you to stop your sacrilege, to come here and work with me, and when I have done all I anticipate, go from here with me and lead a different life, for I am rich enough for us both, thanks to my valuable mine,” ‘*T am not ready to go yet.” ‘*Tben you must stop this false life you lead as a preacher,” “You know that I bave to remain in hiding until [can prove thatI am not the man they accuse me of being, ** Colonel Rockwood at Fort Blanco would place that young Revolver Sharp and bis sol- diers at once upon my trail, did they know I was back here again, and as this disguise is be- yond all recognition [ shall stick to it, for Iam anxious to find the real criminal to prove my in- nocence, and | do not see bow you are interested in me to the extent of wisl ing to have me do what is against my judgment.” * Well, Baxter, lam no hypocrite, but I re- spect my religion, and you are making a mock- ery of it, “IT bave told you what I wish, and unless you give up your false preaching and praying, I will, on my next visit to Devil’s Ranch, make known to Landlord Du Val that you are not what you represent yourself to be. ‘* Be warned and do as I beg you, pard.” ‘‘ All right, old fellow, give me a week and I will, for, nO matter what the instrument, I have done some good among the miners.” ‘*{n one week’s time you will come back to the cabin then, Baxter, and work with me to the end I bave in view?” ‘‘ Here is my hand on it, pard. ‘* Expect me, **Now [ must return, for,” and he laughed lightly, you knov I have an appointment to preach to-night,” hus they parted, the one trusting and hoping, the otber muttering: **’Yes, in one week’s time, for he will do what he says, and I must act. ‘* It is time now, and delays are dangerous,” CHAPTER IX, THE SHOT FROM THE DARKNESS, MORE than the week passed by, and Trent Baxter, alius Parson Freeze, as the reader now ° knows him, did not appear at the cabin in Yel- low Canyon, where had dwelt Gray St, John for a long while, digging the earth for the precious metal known as gold. The miner went on with his. work steadily, however, for he had the hope of soon turning bis mine over to another to work for bim, while he sought those be loved, and for whom he had toiled so long and earnestly, His thoughts went back to his youthful days, when a rival for the band of the girl he loved, forced him to fight a duel with him, in her presence, and left him nearly dying, while he fled, believing he had given bim a fatal wound, He married the sweet young girl afterward, and their sweet daughter, Ethel, was now with her brother in Maryland, longing for bis return, He had left them in poverty, and for a while fortune bad been against him; but at last he ‘struck it rich,” and since then he had steadily grown rich. And saving him, as he believed, from the bul- let of an assassin, Trent Baxter bad become his friend, been made his partner, That friend he bad been told was secretly Blue Jacket Bill, the leader of a band of road- agents, and he had also been told that he had been hanged in Colorado, But back he came, disguised as a preacher, and he bad believed him as of jyore an honest man, But he would not tolerate in kim bis blas- phemy, his mockery of the Gospel, and had -: gone and told him so frankly. Now as he sat in his cabin this Sabbath night, the thoughts of Gray St. John took a gloomy turn. He had heard of the man with whom he had fought a duel in his boyhood having been lost at sea; but somehow the presentiment would force itself upon him that Hugh Hammond, for such was his name, would some day take his life, He dreamed at nightof death-struggles with his old foe, and the dread of such an end gave bim the deepest concern. It was the custom of Miner St, John never to work 1n his mine on the Sabbath Day. He was wont to dress up in his best and spend the day in writing home, or in going to the store at Devil’s Ranch for stores, for there was no Sunday in that place. He had written his letter on that day, and was seated in deep thought in bis cabin, his mind full of that same old fear that bis boyhood rival would one cay bunt bim to his death. His horse was cropping grass in the canyon below the cabin, the falling of a rivulet over the rocks near made pleasant music, and Miner St, Jobn did not feel the near presence of danger, Had be felt a peril near, he would have been prepared for it, for he was a fearless mau. But he did not know that a horseman rode up to the barrier across the canyon, dismounted hitched bis horse, and scaling the fence walked in toward the cabin, As though knowing the land well, be crept near the canyon’s side, keeping in the sbadew, The miner's faithful horse feeding near seemed to know the intruder, for he gave nO warning neigh, as he would have done bad a stranger ap- peared in the darkness of the night. Up the steep trail to the cabin, perched upon the rocks in a grove of pines, Moved the form. He saw the light shining from the open door, and from a positicn near beheld Miner Gray St, Jobn, seated | in his rustic easy-chair, lost im thought. The lamp burned upon the table near, sending a radiance over the form of the miner, and for some time the intruder stood regarding bim. Then he slowly raised a rifle to his shoulder and his eye ran along the sights. Was no guardian angel near to warn the miner of bis danger? It seemed not, for he sat perfectly motionless, his head resting upon one band. But be was not asleep, For some reason the rifle was lowered, end the man hesitated, Again he raised the weapon, and the motive whicb caused him to once more Jower it, who can tell? Was it a pricking of conscience? No one knows; but a third time the rifle was te eee * ] ‘ This time the intended assassin seemed to have (Ei 0)