Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 778 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

~ a We Se 10 Hanover with the abduction of Kitty Boyne, and would no doubt have suspected him of the attempt on Highland Harry’s life had the stran- er, at the time of the attack, not been seated in the school-house in conversation with half a dozen citizens. A watch was kept upon his movements nevertheless. He seemed restless and uneasy, and finally wandered off alone in the direction of Bill Boyne’s cabin, and was one some time. This movement caused no ittle suspicionin the minds of those who had, hitherto, being well disposed toward the stran- ger who, apparently unconscious of it all, final- ly sought out Captain Dalton and Judge Kin- ney and said: ‘* Captain, I want a private talk with you and the judge.” The three retired to a secluded spot and hay- ing seated themselves, Hanover asked: ‘*Have you gentlemen any suspicion of who the enemy is in your midst?’ ‘* Not the least,” answered Dalton and Kin- ey. > ‘*T believe I can give you a strong clew,” said Hanover. ** Indeed!” exclaimed Dalton. ‘‘ Has it never occurred to you that William Boyne might be the man?’ ** Never!’ exclaimed the judge. *“Tmpossible!” exclaimed the captain, in a tone of refutation. ‘‘1t would bean unnatural father, indeed, that would betray his child into the hands of cut-throats andmurderers. What do you base your suspicicns upon, Mr, Han- over?” ‘* Well, it is evident to you,” said Mr. Hano- ver, ‘‘ that there is, or has been, an outlaw spy in your midst, There can be little doubt but that same person sent that message by the homing pigeon killed by Highland Harry. That message conveyed the intelligence that a certain individual was in the Gallatin headed toward Red Bar, and urged immediate action on the part of one Seguin in abducting Kitty Boyne. Now, gentlemen, from what T have seen and know, 1 am well convinced that Iam the man referred to in the message as approach- ing Red Bar.” ** You, then, are the man Raymond whom the message said was upon Grimm?’s trail?’ ex- claimed Dalton; ‘‘ but/who is Grimm? and what has your appearance here to do with Stony Boyne and the abduction of Kitty?” **T do not believe Kitty is Bovne’s daughter!” declared Hanover, in an emphatic tone, ‘* You talk in riddles, Hanover,” said Dalton, impatiently; ‘‘ you do not give any grounds for your assertions, not a single reason, sir.” ** 11] come to that in due course of time,” re- lied Hanover; ‘‘and will say now that I be- fieve Boyne sent the message intercepted by Harry.” ‘*That’s impossible, sir,” declared Kinney, emphatically. ‘‘ Inthe first place, he had no pigeons—” ‘That you know of,” interrupted Hanover. ** We would surely have known it if he’d had any birds about his place.” ‘* He could have kept them concealed. Those igeons were doubtless bred in the Teton Basin by the outlaws aud conveyed here, and else- where imprisoned, and kept so until it was ne- cessary to send a message to the Basin, Itisa very clever and safe means of communication. But now I want to tell you that a while ago I was secreted near Boyne’s cabin watching movements thereabouts, and, while so doing, I saw no less than three white pigeons fly out of the door of Boyne’s cabin and tak tkair course southward on rapid wing. ‘*Good mercy! is that possible?’ exclaimed the astonished judge. ‘*Tt’s true as Holy Writ,” Hanover went on; **they may have carried messages from Red Bar; but one thing in my mind is certain, and thatis, that Boyne had become uneasy and re- leased the birds through fear of being caught with them in his possession. There may still be other birds there, but whether there are or not, the place of their concealment in the house, or about it, can found. He may have kept them in the loft of his cabin, cr about his stable, or even in the grove, and that, too, un- ' known to Kitty or any one but himself. ‘* Furthermore, it is evident to my mind that if Boyne is an outlaw-confederate here, he isthe very man that endeavored to kill Highland Harry last night. He must have bad his suspi- cions aroused as to Harry’s secret, and creepin to the window under cover of the darkness fire the almost fatal shot. True, Boyne was among the first to fies eter Harry on his escape from death; but then, that was only the blind of aclever villain.” Highland Harry, the Wizard Ri i; ment. Homi <= — der sin» A a > - * ‘4 et - ey. 7 +? X ' =e t , wf ‘ ¢ ” oc ae - 3 iv oe ah > ‘ judge, ‘‘ and if it was not easy of proof I could scarcely credit it. Let us go at once to Boyne’s cabin and investigate matters there. But what puzzles me is as to why Stony Boyne should plot and plan with the Outlaws of Teton Basin for the abduction of his own daughter.” ** As I have said before,” David Hanover ob- served, ‘‘I do not believe she is his child. I have every reason to believe that Kitty Boyne, as you know her, is my own daughter !” CHAPTER XIV. SOME FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS, CAPTAIN DALTON and Judge Kinney were astounded, almost, by David Hanover’s declar- ations; they saw at once that there was some secret connected with his visit to Red Bar—a secret whicb, reaching back through years, had traced the lines of mental] pain upon his face. ‘*Mr. Hanover,” Captain Dalton finally said, ‘*T see now you know more of ‘Stony’ Boyne than you have been willing to confess,”’ ‘*T know little of him, captain—less, perhaps, than you. I never met him until last night; but his allusion to Raymond in that message— that is, if he sentit—leads me to know, almost beyond a doubt, that Kitty is not his daugh- ter.’ “‘Then your name is not Hanover, but Ray- mond,” said the judge. ‘*David Raymond is my true name, gentle- men;and now I’d as well tell you all the rest, which is a bit of a secret. Nearly eighteen years ago my beloved wife died, leaving a baby girl two weeks of age. Having no relatives near I placed the child in the care of one Mrs. Kemp, who had a girl baby of about the same ageasmyown. Business took me from home, and I was away over two years. During my absence the Kemps moved into an adjoining State. I had had no correspondence with them and judge of my bitter disappointment anc grief on reaching home, to learn that my Baby was dead. I visited the Kemps and found the story true, although I remarked to myself at the time that Mrs. Kemp’s baby bore a little re- semblance to my dead wife. I did not, how- ever, mistrust the least deception, for the Kemps had always borne the reputation of upright, Christian people. But the fact of it is, it was the Kemps’ baby that had died, and they hav- ing become so devotedly attached to my child, and fearing I might take her from them, resort- ed to falsehood and deception to keep her. ‘‘A year passed by. The Kemps moved to the Far West, and there Kemp died. A year later Mrs. Kemp married a man named Grimm —a fur-trader. The baby was then less than four years old. ‘¢' Twelve years rolled around. An entomolo- gist, named Simon Plunkett, was wandering in uest of ‘ bugs’ through the valley of the Upper Tcltowitone, One day he ranacross a log cabin in a sequestered spot about five miles from the nearest settlement. As he neared the building he heard groans issuing therefrom and saw a trail of blood crossing the threshold. ‘¢ Advancing to the door, Plunkett looked in. A woman of forty years lay upon a couch bleed- ing to death from a wound in the breast. She was alone. Plunkett entered the cabin and kindly offered his services to the suffering wo- man. From her he soon learned that her hus- band was off hunting in the hills, and her daughter gone to the Agency for some supplies. In attempting to shoot a wolf that had boldly, and in open day, ventured within a few rods of the cabin she had accidentally shot herself, in- flicting a mortal wound. ‘‘ Simon Plunkett offered to go for assistance, but the woman bade him stay by ker, She was sinking fast and knew she had but a short time tolive. She wished to make a dying state- Plunkett seated himself, and taking out his note-book wrote down her confession, word for word as she made it. ‘She confessed that her daughter, Theresa, was not her child, but that of ene David Ray- mond of ——, Ohio—that she had deceived Ray- mond as to the death of his child that she might keep her. She admitted that Ashley Grimm, her husband, knew not but that Theresa was her own child by her first husband, Joel Kemp; and that she and Grimm had both kept from the maiden the fact of her being other than Grimm’s child. So you see the girl was ignor- ant of the fact that she w»s the own child of neither, and Grimm ignorant of the fact that she was not the child of his wife. ‘‘To Plunkett she confessed that Theresa was the daughter of David Raymond. She, also, admit that one other see ate knew that Theresa was not herchild, That person was a ‘* Well, this is astounding news!” declared the | woman whose name Plunkett could not remé ee ns fleman, ber—a sister of Joel Kemp’s.” aie ‘*T thought you said Plunkett wrote down her confession,” Captain Dalton remarked. ‘*He did,’ the narrator went on, ‘‘and Il soon explain that seeming inconsistency. About the time Mrs. Grimm had completed her confes- sion a young manof prepossessing appearance — entered the cabin. He gave his name to Plun- kett as Henry Seguin. He seemed well ac- quainted with Mrs, Grimm, and was deeply moved by her serious condition. Plunkett mis- trusted at once that he was an admirer of the maid, Theresa, by the way he spoke of her, and his apparent sadness over Mrs, Grimm’s suffer- ing. ‘*The situation was briefly explained to Se- guin, and then, by the woman’s request, Plun- kett read over to him her revelation, that he— Seguin—as well as Plunkett, might be a witness toit. She exacteda promise of Plunkett that he would deliver her confession to Raymond, and ask him to forgive her of her crime as he hoped for Heaven’smercy. Seguin she request- ed to break the news to Theresa should she die before the maid returned. She, also, asked him to tell her husband all, and that it was her dy- ing wish that he do allin his power to restore the girl to her rightful father, feeling sure that David Raymond, who was a very wealthy man, would reward him weil. ‘¢ Well, the poor woman died before either husband or daughter returned, and Plunkett, eager to reach a given point by a certain time, took his departure with the confession signed by Mrs. Grimm, and bearing the namesof Simon Plunkett and Henry Seguin as witnesses, ‘* Fourdayslater wien away south in the heart of the mountains Plunkett was suddenly con- fronted by a strange man who demanded of him Mrs, Grimm’s confession. For a mo- ment the bug-hunter was confused, but being a plucky fellow of quick perception, he promptly refused the stranger’s request. The latter attempted to draw his revolver to enforce his demands, but quick as a wink Plunkett struck him in the face a terrific blow, knocking him over a low embankment, Thenthe natur- alist turned and fled. He had gone but a short distance when a pistol rung ouf and a bullet cut uncomfortably close to hisear. Looking in the direction whence the shot came, he saw a man, whom he recognized at a glance as Henry Seguin, standing on the opposite side of a deep chasm, in the act of firing a second shot at him, ‘‘Dodging behind a rock, he escaped the bullet, then he took to his heels and ran for his life: for in an instant it flashed through his brain that the first man was Grimm, and that he not only wanted to recover his wife’s confession, but intended to kill him,that the secret o Theresa's birth, for some reason or other, might be kept a secret. ‘‘ Plunkett had not gone far before he dis- covered that he was being followed by the two men, and not knowing but what he might be killed, he determined they should never have the confession. So from one of the two pouches he carried he took along, wide-mouthed bottle, | eruptied it of its contents of alcohcl and ‘bugs, placed the woman’s confession therein, and, when certain his pursuers were not in sight, concealed it in the crevice of a rock. He marked tke location in his mind as wellas cir- cumstances would admit, expecting, if he escaped, to return and secure it without any difficulty. ‘f Well, he escaped his pursuers, and, eager to get evenwith them, he did not go back to get the bottle ; but trusting to bismemory,he hasten- ed to Ohio, and finding me, revealed all he re- membered of the confession ; and there was only one thing he had forgotten, and that was the name of the woman who knew of the Kemps’ deception regarding the child. ‘‘Korthwith Plunkett and I started for the Yellowstone country, but to our bitter disap- pointment, we found, on our arrival there, that Grimm and his daughter had gone from their secluded home—where, no one knew. Whatto do we scarcely knew. You see Plunkett had seen neither Grimm nor Theresa at thecabin, or elsewhere, and only took it for granted that the masked stranger, who had demanded of him the confession in the hills, was Grimm. So, of course, the man could have vr rane 9 his location and name, and thereby elude detection for a ‘Determined not to be defeated, Plunkett changed his calling to that of a detective, and started out to hunt Grimm down.. A few months ago he visited Red Bar and at once fixed upon ‘Stony ’Boyne as his man Grimm; and - > a J * 7 d rd a - on * oa" _ | a 7 Ran ee emeeel $2 ater ~ > : “ nd _ >i * 7, hs — na OD OC eg OG a i > =