Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 773 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

_—_ They immediately hegan a surreptitious search for it, but could discover it nowhere, nor learn what had become of it. The fact filled them with apprehension. But the belief grew in their minds that Craigen had regained sufficient etrength to walk, and bad insanely wendered into the hills where he bad perished, Tiere seemed no other natural conclusion, and they took courage. The development of tbe mine was at once commenced. The cover of bushes was removed from the entrance, the opening enlarged, and a roadway built to the town. The active work of mining was to begin now, and in honor of that event the ball was given. It ig scarcely necessary to say that the room above the Moss Agate was thronged almost to the point of suffocation. It was not a large room, and could barely accommodate those who desired to participate in or witness the dancing. The fact that it was a masquerade greatly added to its attractiveness, Inso smalla place every man knew his neighbor, and there was much curiosity manifested as to who the various maskers might be, There were so few women in Lucky Ledge that the presence of a representative of the gentler sex provoked much notice and comment, She was habited as a shepherd maid, and a crim- son mask concealed her features, She had danced frequently with an athletic Mepbisto- pheles, and was now conversing with bim in low tones, The surmise that she inight be Red Fee’s daughter was dissipated by the actions and words of Red Fee himself. “She ain’t my daughter, ner she ain’t my cook,” he said, speaking to a crowd of cronies, an’ I’m hangedif [know who sheis! I’m goin’ to ask her to dance with me after a little, and then [ll try to find out,” Red Fee was got up ip a most gorgeous man- ner for a man of bis customary negligence, ' He even wore a white shirt and a Prince Albert coat, justifying this lavishness by the observa- tion that the opening of the Grizzly Bear Mine was an event of no ordinary moment, He had had his beard trimmed, too, and thus meta- morphosed was not a bad-looking man. Curt Thomas was similarly arrayed, but Curt was uneasy and awkward in this new gear, Mephistopheles was still talking to the shepherd maid when Red Fee crossed the room, and bow- ing low before her, requested the privilege and honor of the next dance. The girl laughed lightly behind tke mask, bringing an unwonted flush to Red Fee’s swart cheeks, There was something in the laugh that seemed to indicate that the girl was sneering at bim, But her words reassured him and caused bis heart to bound, for he had feared a refusal. The voice was low and pleasapt; in truth, al- most too low, Apparently there’ was an effort at repression. Red Fee listened intently to the tones, hoping to thereby discover the girl’s identity. The voice was astrangeone. He was sure he had not heard it in Lucky Ledge, If that were true, where had this charming crea- ture come from? She had not dropped from the clouds, and women were not so plentiful that ahe could have entered the town without notice, She had appeared in the room above the Moss Agate, coming from no one knew where, Red Fee turned his gaze on Mephistopheles, wondering whose was the face and form there hidden. Did be know who this man was, he might know who was the shepherd maid, It was like questioning the sphinx. Though mask- ed, Red Fee was known to every one in the room, as was Thomas and a number of others. They could not lose themselves in a fancied character. But these two—Mephistopheles and the girl—had so acted their parts that guesses were wild and useless, “I'd like to git a look behind that,” Fee ob- served, as ke led her forth. ‘‘VYou shall, by and by!” was the murmured answer, ‘* When the time for unmasking comes! Just now, I am the Shepherd Maid; nothing more, nothing less,” Red Fee bent over her to catch every word, He was inclined to be gallant to ladies, and the circumstances surrounding this woman in- creased this natural tendency. He could not but fancy that the face hidden behind the crimson cloth was beautiful. Yes, and young! There was a willowy grace in the girl’s movements that could suggest no other conclusion, It had been a long time since Fee bad danced thus with @ young and handsome woman and because of this—and possibly because of the mystery—his admiration assumed proportions to threaten his peace of mind. Fee was not an easy dancer, though be wasa The Rustler of Rolling Stone. PE A OO 2 TS ROM EL AE A TERE Chesterfield compared with Curt Thomas; and in his boisterons bouncings, a large wallet slipped from his hip-pocket and fell unnoticed by him to the floor, A man standing near glanced quickly around to make sure that he was unobserved, then drew the wallet toward him with his foot and secured it, He felt cer- tain there was money in it, Three times did Red Fee crave the hand of the shepherd maid in a dance, and three times did be whirl through the giddy mazes, Gradually the behef was growing on him that this was not a girl at all, but a man disguised as such, possi- bly one of his intimate associates, A feeling of shame-facedness came with this, for he had al- lowed himself to utter certain foolish and mean- ingless nothings which, in that event, would cause bim to become the laughing-stock of the camp. Thinking of this, he became so uncom- fortably hot that the Prince Albert seemed to incase him like a band of heated metal; and he grew doubly anxious for the denouement, The unmasking came at last; and he saw be- fore bim, not the associate he feared, neither the beauty his first fancies had pictured; but a healthy, rosy face, rather coarsely lined and somewhbat,unsymmetrical, but a pleasant face for alithat. ‘6 was an unknown face, too. It had never been seen in Lucky Ledge, ‘Your name?” he questioned, unmasking at the same time, and fumbling for his wallet to get the card be had prepared for the occasion. He stopped as if petrified, and as if in a dream heard the girl give her name as Rose Latham, The wallet was not there, and the swift suspi- cion came to him that this woman had stolen it. Sbe had had ample chance todo so, He grew white and red by turns, hesitating what to do. Should he accuse her openly? She who had played so upor his heartstrings? Before be could decide, she bad bowed laugh- ingly to him and retreated through the swirling throng. A sudden jam kept him from following ber; and when he did, he could not find her. Mephistopheles, too, was gone! ‘* Curse the minx!” he ruefully muttered, ‘I wouldn’t have had her to git that pocketbook fer a good deal, There’s more than money in it to me!” CHAPTER ITI, IN THE ASSAYER’S WORKSHOP. THE glow of a low fire of an assayer’s furnace shone dimly on the facesof twomen, The scene was an assayer’s sbop on the outskirts of Lucky Ledge. Over the door of theshop was the name, QUINTIUS QUARTZ, painted in big letters: which were now, however, almostindistinguish- able by reason of the gloom of night, The taller of the two men was the assayer. He had an earnest, manly face, It was beard- less, and seemed uncommonly pale, looking al- most, ghastly white at times beneath the light of tbe fire. They were conversing in low tones, Could Red Fee have peered into the shop at that moment, he would have been treated to a genuine surprise, for the face of the younger man bore a striking resemblance to that ofthe mysterious shepherd maid! he assayer was holding in his handa tiny button” of gold ore, and this he exhibited as he talked, ‘Just look at that, Tom,” and he passed the ‘““butten” to the other, ‘ There’s richness for you! There isn’t a mine in the country that will go as much of the pure stuff to the ton as will this Grizzly Bear Mine, as they call it.” ‘* And to think, Phil, that you have lost it!” ‘* Lost it!’ with an impatient gesture. ‘*There’s where you are mistaken, brother mine! I haven’t lost it: nor do I intend to! They hold the winning hand now, but the game hasn’t been played out, by a long shot!” The tones were intensely earaest and bitter, “T suppose you know what they are accusing you of?” pocketing the ‘‘ button” and drawing forth the wallet which Red Fee had lost at the masquerade, ‘They say you stole this from Fee the other night when you were dancing with him. Of course tkat isa mistake. Idon’t know who took it, but I found it this morning in some sage-brush near tne Moss Agate, It had been rifled and thrown there. But, there was a very interesting bit of paper in it. Interesting to me, any way,” He opened the wallet and produced a folded sheet, which, when he had spread out, proved to be the notice that Red Fee and Curt Thomas had found in the cave, and which they had re- placed with their own, The younger man’s curiosity seemed greatly aroused at sight of this, | ‘* And they accuse me of taking his wallet?” he questioned, ‘* Not me ?” ‘* No; the bewitching creature who danced so frequently with this claimant of the mine, What was the name? Oh, yes: Rose Latham!” He laughed significantly as he bent over the paper. ‘** Strange how this notice should get back into my hands in so singular a manner!’ ‘*The wrong might have been righted at that time, if I had only known!” tbe young man mournfully asserted, To make clear the meaning of this fragment of conversation, it will be necessary to return to Philip Craigen, who was left by the river-side in a supposed dying condition by Red Fee and Thomas, His injuries, while ssvere, were not so serious as they hoped and believed. Still, they might have proved fatal, had not help arrived. It came, a few hours later, in the person of the young man who was now conversing with him, and whom he had called Tom. This was Tom Craigen, his brother. Both had leit Sunset City two days before, Tom some hours after Philip. Philip was a professional assayer, and some- thing of a Western boomer. He believed there might be abundant work, as well as abundant money at the new diggings of Lucky Ledge. At any rate, he could obtain employment as an assayer of the new ores being there brought to the surface, The trail into the cave had attracted bis notice, and being of a venturesome disposition, he bad prepared a torch and gone in to see what he might discover. His eyes had quickly re- vealed the value of the ore seams in the walls of rock, It was plain they were yet unclaimed, It wasarich and almost unequaled find. He could not but marvel at his good fortune in thus stumbhngon it. It heralded wealth and ‘all that the term implies, With trembling fingers, fearful lest he should be seen and thwarted before the deed was done, he wrote the notice and set it up in a split stick, “hen, almost dazed by the riches surrounding him, he’ continued his explorations, bis mind filled with wonderful fancies. This preoccupation had a serious result, He stumbled unwittingly on the grizzly that had been peacefully sleeping in one of the side pass- ages, The brute was angered by the intrusion, and charged him viciously. He attempted to beat a retreat, tripped and fell near the notice, and was stricken senseless and clawed by the bear, He knew nothing until hoursafterward, Then he found himself by the river, with bis brotber bending over him and dashing water into his face. His brother was not alone. Accompany- ing him was a man of hunter-like mien, a stran- ger to Philip Craigen, and, until a few moments before, equally a stranger to Tom Craigen. The bunter had been endeavoring to restore Philip Craigen to consciousness, when Tom ar- rived on the scene, Of his good intentions there could be no doubt, and young Craigen was truly grateful to him for his services, ** Keeled over by a bear!” was the sententious comment, pointing to the marks of the grizzly’s blow, ‘‘Come nigh doin’ him up, too, but he’s wu'th a dozen dead men yit. IfI had him to my cabin, I could nuss him up an’ make him as good as new, in a little while.” Philip Craigen looked up, recognized his brother, even in the faint moonlight, smiled, en- deavored to speak, and then relapsed into un- consciousness, As for Tom Craigen, it is doubtful if he would have known his brother, bad it not been for the familiar garments, So blood-covered was the face of the wounded man that it was wholly un- recognizable, After some discussion, if was agreed that the best thing that could be done was to convey Philip to the hunter’s cabin, a couple of miles distant in the hills. The Craigens had no ac- quaintances in Lucky Ledge, and this offer of the bunter was a godsend, The old man’s skill in treating injuries of this character was considerable, and within less than two weeks, be had Philip on his feet; and though the latter was still weak, his wounds had healed, and he felt himself again able to battle with the world. Long before that time, however, news bad come to them of the claiming of the mine by Red Fee and Curt Thomas. Philip had acquaint- ed his brother and the hunter with his discov- ery, and a visit made by the hunter to the town had revealed the true status of the case, An investigation set on foot by the old man had brought to light the truth concerning the nature co 900