Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 904 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

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The leading citizen of the camp, undoubt- ediy, was Henry Hurston the banker and he stepped up tothe door and demanded ad- mission. ‘* What do you want?” was asked, ‘‘T want this door opened, that’s what, and gvods sold at the usual price. The peo- of Whoop-up demand it.” ‘‘ Well, the people of Whoop-up kin go to blazes, and you along with’em. We are open fer business, and our price is on the door, If you want to buy, say what you want.” And there they were. The two storekeepers held the fort, and a couple of guns through the loopholes proved that they held something else besides. The people of Whoop-up were in.a bad situation, truly. Notonly were they snowed ander, but they were likely to be starved out as weld; two men had their fate in their hands, After some parley, the crowd withdrew and returned to the saloon, where they pro- ceeded to hold. a covncil of war—for war it must be, and now for the first time the Pive- Spot Sport took a hand in the affairs of the camp. Just how it, would ‘terminate remained - fo be seen. CHAPTER X. THE FIVE-SPOT SPORT'S SCHEME, Tue Five-Spot Sport, however, took no part till invited to do so, He had been holding back, to this time, as if not wanting to put iu his voicein the af- fairs of the camp. ** What do you say about it, Deuce-Trey ?” demanded Samuel Bergman. ‘“ You are as silent as if you had no ipterest at stake. You are in the same boat with us. Can’t rou help us out?” ‘* Hardly know whetker my advice would be worth anything or not,” the sport re- sponded, ‘I did not want to chip in until I was consulted, for I thought you might think I was taking too much upon myself. I don't approve of your line of attack, to be- gin with.” ; ‘© You don’t? why not?” ‘* Somebody is bound to get hurt.” ‘Well, won't somebody get burt, any- how? We have got to have food, and this camp can’t afford to buy at that rate,” But, those two fellows hold the fort, as it were, and there is only one point of attack, which is the space they have cleared away in front, They could pick you off at pleas- ure.” “Then what ther doose is ter be done?” cried Buck Williams. ‘‘ Let us first consider what is not to be done. Some one here has suggested burning them out. That will never do, for you would buro up the store of provisions at the same time.” . ‘«That’s so, that’s so!” ‘‘No fire, boys, no fire; ther sport’s head is level!” ‘And then it will not do to besiege them too hard, forif they find they are losing they can spoil their goods in five minutes.” “Then what in ther durnation is goin’ to be done?” cried Fire-eater Flip. LLL ———— ce we, ‘“We must use strategy, my Christian friend,” ‘“That’s easy ter say.” ‘* And it is not impossible to carry it out, provided we go about it in the right man- ner,” ‘‘There is sense in what the sport says, boys,” said Henry Hurston, ‘‘ Let us hear rour plan, Sir Sport, and we’ll lend our aid in carrying it out. If we can outwit the ras- cals, so muck the better.” ‘Well, a small crowd, say a dozen or fif- teen men, must remain in front of the store and keep up a demonstration, to hold the storekeepers to their post of guard, and at the same time let others go and buy, as things are needed, thus keeping their sus- picion from being aroused.” ‘*Good cnough, good enough ‘‘In the mean time, others must bore an other tunnel around to the rear of their store —I suppose there is some way of getting in from that direction?” ‘‘Hooray! That is ther idee! We have got’em now, Deuce-Trey, and you kin bet high on it. If we don’t make ’em sick of this job it will be funny. But, et will be no fool job to go in an’ tackle ’em,” ‘‘T’'ll attend to that part of it,” promised the Five-Spot Sport. ‘‘ You get me into the place and I'll do the rest,” ‘* Allee samee me helpee ’Melican man, he lettee me,” spoke up Chin Shang. ‘ All right, John, if you want to,” agreed the sport. ‘‘ You area pretty clever heathen, and those soft shoes of yours will come right into play.” ‘* You bettee.” So it was arranged. A dozen men were sent, to the store to keep up the appearance of hostilities, others went to make purchases, and at the same time still others commenced work on the new branch tunnel, In the mean time Samuel Bergman was anxious to reach his cottage, and was urging the men to hurry with the tunnel in that di- rection, He put his hand to his pocket to consult his watch. “Thunder!” he ejaculated, my ticker|’! ‘* What’s that?” asked Hurston, ‘My watch is gone,” Hurston felt for his own, and that, too, was missing, ** What does this mean?’ he angrily de- manded, ‘‘] hadmy watch in my pocket last night,” e “ Yes, by thunder, and so had I!” cried George Clancy. ‘‘ Heavens! my money is all gone, too, the little I had left. What has been going on here?” ‘There is a thief among you, I should say,” remarked the Five-Spot Sport, ‘“ Have you lost anything?” ‘No; I slept in the kitchen with the Chinaman, you know, and the door was locked, ‘‘ Well, who is the thief? Let us get hold of him, and 1’ll bet he’ll swing in a hurry!” It was an interesting and exciting mo- ment for those present, | There. was the Five-Spot ep the Chinee, Robert Terrell, Samuel Bergman, Ben Banty, George Clancy, Buck Williams, and several more, and they looked at one an- other in an inquiring way. ‘*T venture ter say et ain’t none o’ us,” said Buck Williams. ‘‘ Unless et was ther Chinee,” one man suggested, looking hard at the supposed Celestial, , ‘‘Chin Shang no stealee,” declared the Chinaman, earnestly. ‘‘Me sleepee in the kitchee, allee same likee Deuce-Tlay Sportee. Chin Shang square-toe Chinaman, evely time!” ‘“ Well, we'll find out who it was, by Harry,”” grated George Clancy. ‘‘ And it won't be hard to do, either,” put ))? ‘** T have lost Jr.’s, Trade-Mark. | - —_- 9 in Terrell. ‘ We can name every man who was here last night.” And forthwith they began naming them, and a list was made up. It was plain that some one of the number had played the thief during the time all the rest were sleeping. But, who was the one? ‘“How are ye goin’ to git at the right man?” questioned the proprietor. ‘ The guilty one has had plenty of time to hide his plunder in the snow, now,” ‘ And most of the men are out, too,” add- ed Hurston. ‘* Well, we'll make an effort to get at the bottom of it. you can bet,” cried Terrell. ‘‘The man mean enough to doa thing like that is too mean to live.” ‘T quite agree with you,” spoke up the Five-Spot Sport. “ Onething at atime, though,” reminded Hurston. ‘' We have got the business of bringing these thieving storekeepors to time, now, or many aman in this camp will go hungry for dinner.” “You areright,” agreed Bergman, ‘ and [ am likely to be one, for I have been cleaned out completely, as you all know.” | ‘* But you have got your prospective son- in-law to lean on,” sneered Clancy, “And he is welcome to lean,” spoke up the sport. ‘‘I know you refer to me, Mr, Clancy.” vt Yes, I refer to you. You may find that your prospects are not so bright after you bhuave seen the fair lady, however, I fancy she’ll have something to say.” ‘Probably; and yet I fancy my chances are as good as yours would have been, had you won the stake. But, no matter, and I prefer to have nothing to say aboutit further than necessary.” The sport turned away. Clancy looked after him in & way that. showed he had: no love for him. In about half an hour a man came in to report that the rear of the store had been successfully reached, ‘‘ Now for business, then,” said the Five- Spot Sport. ‘‘Keep the interest of the two rascals centered to the front,and Ill do my beet to surprise them, Come on, my Chinee a ] a y You bettee, allee samee.”’ They left the saloon and followed the man who had brought the word, others from the saloon going after them, and everybody was eager to see how the Five-Spot Sport’s scheme would work. The man conducted them through a very narrow. tunnel, a mere hole through the snow, to the rear door of the store. ‘‘ Have you tried the door?” the sport ask- ed, ‘* No; didn’t venture to touch et.” ‘That was right. Ill do so now, but of course it’s fast.” And ofcourse it was. ‘*Some of you said something about a cel- lar,” observed the sport. ‘‘ Is there an out- side-door leading into that?” ‘** Yes, yes, an’ et ain’t ten feet away from hyer, either,” ‘* That. is good; we must try it that way. If they have been putting snow in there, it is quite likely the door leading into it is open, from the store.” This was good reasoning, and the men set about finding the outside doors at once, bur- rowing their way into the snow and packing it away with their backs, and in due time the doors had been uncovered, | CHAPTER X11. FORCED TO COME TO TERMS. Here a new difficulty wasencountered. These doors were secured within, the same as the one leading into the rearof the mw —