Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 852 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

. - ~ * ‘ 4 . ‘J . : 7) tee %y p } % . " ,, ¥ "« + . U - ' a ‘+ "¢ Fe a? oF. ‘ 6 om ; . ‘ . (i. =? = > ; : + ; 4 “« s - : if : 7 / ' wp rm yy. - a 7 :] * “4 * ‘ , | ae ¥..\ | _ sheep, cows, goats, pigs, |). say: what ate we goin’ to do pocket ae rn that I brought with me from | " e , vs 4 Wea s : he does} he orter be hung, himself. Aw + a* ’ Ly. . oe a. wg ‘ AS °*4y- “s’Wellf you can bet he’s off to get his ork in) ahead of us!” assured Pete, ‘‘ Ef Sam Parrot is my game, ef any one’s, considerin’ that he ‘has had heaps of fun at the expense of my neck, besides robbin’ me of my for- tune. I say I orter to have first show, eh? What d’ye say, Moses?” ‘* Well, I don’t know but you're right,” assented Mose. ‘‘ Great hump-Lacked hornets, don’t I know I am right? Even Poll kin swear to that. Neow, ef that feller goes and kills Sam, without givin’ me a show, I call et darned mean. Don’t you, Poll?” ‘‘Darned mean!” echoed Poll, struggling to her feet, and shaking the rain from her feathers. Not long after the rain set in, moving twinkling lights were seen in the direction of the ore-breakers, appearing like stars, through the rain. ‘‘ Ah! the miners are coming from work,” said Mose. ‘‘ We will soon be able to make a move on the enemy, providing he is in the mine, which I begin to doubt.” ‘‘What is the cause of your doubts?” in- quired Bradford, | ‘The prolonged absence of Hill,” ‘You don’t’‘suspect him?’ , ‘Sorry to say 1 am beginning to get sus- picious,” » ' _ Why so? Hasn’t Hill accompanied us all the way here?” “True; but, mi Might not this whole trip been a scheme to throw us off the track, to give the Honorable Samuel a chance to evade pur- Aid Especially the trip here, from Virginia ity.” Well, such a thing is possible.” ‘* Quite so. I wouldn’t be much afraid to bet they didn’t come this way at all.” | ‘Waal, we won't find ’em by stayin’ heer, ou bet. So let’s get a move on us,” said ete Parrot, A start was then mude. The rain continued to pour down; it was al- most impossible to fight against it. _ It seemed as if the eave-spouts of heaven must have opened to create another flood. The distance from where the party had been stopping to the ore-breaker, was about a thousand yards, : To reach the mill, the party had to pass directly through the camp, or else make a wide detour which, in this pelting rain, was eut of the question. So, as stealthily as possible, through the camp. There were lights ‘in all the windows, and sounds indicated that Burke’s saloon was do- ing rattling business, | spy they stole ut, there was no one out of doors to play | on Mose or his companions, so they reached the mill without discovery. | The mill, or breaker, was a huge barn of a building. When built the projector of the enterprise must have had sanguine expecta- tions for the future of the p.ace or else had been demented, for the building was ten times too large. «“‘Thet aire a-ruther gruesome lookin’ she- bang!” observed Pete, as the party paused before it. ‘‘ Looks to me as ef et might bea : purty lively place for supernatteral human -bein’s.” | } ‘‘That’s a new species, ain't it?” asked Magic Mose, — “No, not much, I saw ’em when I had 4 -—sthe jims,—women with white nightgowns, i —s an’ men what was grinnin’ skeletons, an’ |} Satan with his pitebfork.” ims “ Sure’you didn’t see any anacondas, or - boa constrictors?” | : 3 _. **Nary one! \ But, I saw dogs, cats, rats, horses, and—but, for a light?” _ JT have one,” said Bradford—‘‘a small h ~ ~ "3, i. tea SP “ - ght not it be a put-up job? | fate. —_—_Ce.S.-. eee eee ~ : Deadwood Dick, Jr., at Devil's Gulch. —_—--_o ** Good! light it!” ‘‘Somehow or other Roxly had got wind This was done, and the party entered the | thet Harris war upon the Bozeman trail, huge building. All was silence. on a box. whar his young wife war keepin’ toll-gate— A watchman sat dozing | an’a right purty piece she ar’, too, ef I do say et, though I don’t often brag o’ female To pounce upon and secure him, was the | beauty, fer, ye see, I’ve got one of the ugliest. matter of but a few seconds. ‘‘Now,my man,” said Mose, after the man was a prisoner, *‘ ef you know when your | hedn’t no idea which one skull is safe, tell us where we will find Sage. It is the only thing that will save it.” ‘‘PDown there,” answered the miner, and he pointed to the shaft. ‘ Are he and his family down there?” ‘68. ‘* No, they are not!” critters fer a wife this side of Egypt. **So we made fer the toll-gate, though we Irs. Deadwood Dick lived in, ’ca’se, you see, thar ar’ nigh about a score atwixt Deadwood an’ Boze- man—or, ruther, ’twixt Crook City an’ Dead- wood, fer Crook ar’ this side o' Bozeman. So nothin’ war left but ter visit ’em all, till we come to the right one. ‘“‘Their fu’st one waren’t the one we It was 2 woman’s voice that spoke, and | wanted, neither was the second nor the third, wheeling, the party beheld Hazel Hood! ‘*'They’re all dead!” she said. ‘‘ My own father came to me, andtold the whole dread- ful story. but the fourth smelt suspiciously 0’ game, and we concluded it war the residence o’ Mrs, Dicky. We didn't ride inside o’ the The man named Hill had been | gate—oh! no; we just halted back behind a killed shortly before. Pa than got into an | curve in the road, an’ held a war-confab, ter altercation with Sage, and a fight followed. My step-mother fled, but I staid, and when decide w’at war best to do, ‘Ther gate stood facin’ the trail—that. I saw that the two men had fought tq the | ar’, the shanty o’ the keeper did, while a death I climbed up the the shaft rope, here now, Burt, I am!” There is but little to add, to complete this story, Bradford, of course, married Hazel. The bodies of Hood, Hill and his wife were buried near the spot where they met their As for Magic Mose, and Pete and Poll, they struck out into New Mexico where we may see them again. THE END. a Up a Tree: Deadwood Dick’s Leap for Life. BY EDWARD L. WHEELER, Bozeman ex-constable, who came in with us on the stage to Deadwood. o’ falsehoods, Deadwood Dick, beats ’em all. It’s wonder- ful, sir-rh, how the young galoot can do et, how tight a place he gits cornered, or how free. “About a month ago, I war down this way, lookin’ up a claim fer a Bozeman party, when who should I fall in wi’ but old “Why, sir-rh, | made, uv, when he that feller ar’ one 0’ the scaliest galoots as | holds life of as leetle value as Deadwood Dick, ever breathed atmosphere, or I’m an author | he’s apt to git sumwhat flustered an’ shaky, xly, | Lordy! I'll bet this hyer plu So | pair o’ bars constitued the gate in question, an’ it war ruleable ter fork over ‘two bits,” in order ter git a passage through; though thar’s sum galoots as will ride over top o’ the mountains ruther’n to pay the toll, On each side o’ the trail, at this point, the moun-. tains rolled up toa great height, and were covered frum the base half-way up, wi’ pine wood, After that et war all rocks and bushes, ) ***T'm durned positive Deadwood Dick’s in thet shanty!’ old Rox sed, peering around the curve toward the gate, ‘an’ ef he be, we're a-goin’ to have him, bet yer chips.’ pa | told him that et war my opinion as he were correct; then we decided upon, ® course o’ action. I war to ride on alone, pass through the gate, an’ use my optics to the best possible advantage. Ef I sce'd ennything o’ road-agent Richard. I shed fire off my revolver, w’ich would fetch the boys to my assistance, “IT didn’t keer so much about goin’ as sum might, fer onc’t before I hed seen Harris put a lead pellet inter a feller’s cranium for ‘‘Ou! yes, Ican give ye a few p’ints aoout | meddlin’ wi’ his bizness; but I ain’t no Deadwood Dick, the modern Claude Duval | coward to be bluffed off, so I sot out, feelin’. of the Black Hills, ef that’s what you're | a little narvous, though I tried hard ter look a-hankerin’ arter!” said old Kit Feltus, the | as brave's a lion. **T don’t keer how stiff stuff a feller’s oes before a man as Howsumever, I rid straight up to ther bars, “Ye see, I’ve had a right smart good bit | an’ sung out lustily fer a pass. Out came 0’ expeeryence in thes ’ere part o’ the foot- | the keeper, an’—oh! Orimminy! warn’t she stool, an’ hev had transactions wi’ sum o’ the } a snorter? Jes’’s purty as ary sunflower ye worst ye can skeer up, but young Harris, or | ever sot eyes on, an’ she hed a sassy tongue, too, fer she said, said she: ‘“* Ye needn’t yell so, you old t: I but et ar’ morally sart’in thet no matter in | heard ye comin’ atc : oa ore ye gotin sight.’ ‘**Dry up,’ sez I; ‘Pll yell as muchas I many times he’s captured, he’s bound to git | please, cf this hyer court knows herself, an® it ar’ morally an’ religiously sart’in she do.” “Then [ give a squint inter ther shanty, wkile she was countin’ out the change, frum the eity. He ar’ chief o’ the Regulators | Ready, pilgrim, thet my heart umped cl’ar thar, now, an’ he had a passel o’ his gang | to my tinpanem at wha along with him—fine fightin’-cocks they war, too, Isee’d., — “Thar, sittin’ in thet ar’ shanty, tipped back on a chair, wi’ a cigar in his mouth an” ‘Of course, bein’’s Roxly an’ I war old | his heels onter top 0’ the bureau, war ther pards, we stopped fer a chat, and. he said as | very identical black mask, black suit an’ he war after Deadwood Dick—war right sure j all. 0’ his game, an’ all he had to do war bag it, “ Heavings! it made my very veins tingle which, I allow, war a purty confydent asser- | to gaze at the chap, an’ realize that he were ‘tion, bein’ ’s Richard warn’t the bird to be |‘so near, an’ yit so fur. | easily caughtina net. I sed I war afraid ‘Nothin’ sez I, but arter I got my change, they'd get their own necks inter a sippin I galloped on thru’ the gate as ef nuthen’” noose afore they got his’n thar, an’ wara accompany ’ein, an’ share = f % g,.* : wT. es: ‘ - . . iA rs. rk 5 ’ 7 4’ - ’ . : P 4 a J 7 - , ‘ 6s S i 5S . : ". ~~ . : ' m .. ayy dhe. - hi, ; m > } —? a » F Qles; ee . ¢ . by ty nae (ot i Sa +)? me - A _ sew Ld = out | hed happened. — ; | to ride off, when Rox prpened thet I shed | further on, I drew my pill-box an’ let blaze _ e reward-money, | away at a lively rate. : ter which I war agreeable, fer ’twould be a | swerin’ report frum Roxly, an’ so I rid ba heap more’n I war to git from the Bozeman | fer ther gate, bound tersee the fun, chaps. ideas 3, a | . |. “But, stranger, as I remarked once before, _ ‘*So I sot out along wi’ the Regulators, [| mo matter how tight a place ye git him cor~_ - ¥ 4 * we! P a) 7 : - wa a ae ¥* at baat ate Ree Pe ae > sry’ When about half-a-mile hen I heerd an x a . ’ _ hy 1 A ; 1 » te tS ; 7 ° + a ~~ 5 "Bed \ * : » | ‘1s o 6 Ru my) ’ i . te ‘ . pe ee :