Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 905 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

4}, "Poa - —<_—s - . 4 P *. It’s a partnership plain and simple, and it’s against us.” Captain Mascot, very red in the face, nodded, ‘‘What about the woman?” asked Red- flint. Mascot turned instantly to the speaker. ‘The girl, you mean?” ** No, the woman—Boulder Belle. here—the same creature who interfered with our game in Camp Norway last summer. You had a difficulty with her, as you remem- ber, cap’n.”’ “Oh, that woman! She is here, as you say, Redflint.. I have seen her.” sé Yes. ) ‘You know where she is now, don’t you?” ‘“T know,” answered Hawk. ‘‘She’s taken up her abode with Vinon.” There was a quick start on Captain Mas- cot’s part, and he twisted sharply in his chair. Boulder Belle already with Rosy Vinon? Then she had carried out her threat; she was where he did not care to have her, and it would not have been so bad if she had joined Dandy Nugget at the Black Eagle. For a moment the man of ‘fate was silent, ‘then he seemed to throw himself across the table as he looked up at his minions. ‘At Vinon’s, eh?” he hissed. ‘‘ She threatened to go there, but I hardly thought she’d go. Yet, why not? That creature will do anything.” ‘‘Just so. She showed that last sum- mer.” | ‘* At Vinon’s?” repeated Captain Mascot. ‘* When did you see her there, Hank?” ‘* Less than an hour ago.” ‘*Closeted with the girl, eh?” ‘é Yes.” a ' “The young detective first; 1 guess that would be the right thing. " You know where he js.”’ ‘“* At the hotel.” ‘‘Yes, in the room over the porch. Wait till midnight. It needn’t be much of a tus. sle. You can get up the stairs with little noise, or one of you can get across the roof,” The listening men did not gf ‘You will find the horse in the stable. You can take Dark Dick, or, if vou like, you may try Natchie.” ; ‘* Why the horse at all?’ queried Redflint. ‘*He might run across Gold Golliday.” ‘‘ That is true,” reflected Captain Mascot. ‘**T don’& want him to do that.” *“T thought not, The mine would be bet- ter—not the boy’s mine, but yours, Hank.” ‘‘Mine? the old trap without a loop-hole of any kind and its foul air?’ | ‘** The fouler the better!” “The cap’n’s right, Hank,” grinned Red- flint. ‘‘ At midnight you say, cap’n?’ ‘* Any time between that hour and morn- ing There must be no waiting till Golliday comes back. Now or never. The boy ferret first, then the others.” P .-Both men bowed and were quitting the room when Captain Mascot called them back, i vied 2 ‘This boy bas been ‘on the trail for months, 1 know that. He knowsabout the bends and the signs. Heis working up the death of Paul. Don’t let this escape you for a moment.” pa Sey *€ Tt shall not.” . BY ete ie “*That’s right. The mine will do better than the horse. Men have untied them- selves, but. they have never recovered from the gases of a trap like yours, Hank.” That was all; the two men were permitted to depart and Captain Mascot was alone in the little room. | ak _ oun arose and walked the floor like a raging tiger. | . Jonsh oe ‘““To think that I’ve got to fight for it at this stage of the game,” he growled. *‘ To hink that I’ve; got to battle for my very ex- stence just at this time! It is the last fight, She is: fa) pms... a -——s = ae “ eee It is the last struggle for more than ten mil- lions.” . : He went back to the table and sat down. Dandy Nugget, the Boy Shadow. hts = the middle of the room helpless and in the ¥ hands of merciless men. He asked no questions? Why should he? Meantime Hank Hawk and Redflint had | He knew. left the hotse. They walked together through the shadows of No-Luck, and turned into a shanty near the end of the straggling | street. There Redflint struck a lightand looked at his companion. They stood face to face a moment in si- lence, and the candle, flickering on the stand, cast their rough shadows on the wall. ‘‘ It's the captain’s last fight and he knows it,” remarked Hank Hawk. ‘: It is the death- blow to one or both of them.” ‘‘It is nothing less, Hawk. this: if he loses we all lose.” ‘That is true. This crusade about which Golliday talks so much—you know what it is. Dandy Nugget first. For my part if Golliday was here 1 would say him first.” ‘‘But the boy now and Golliday when he comes back.” ‘Then comes the woman,” ‘* Boulder Belle comes back at the wrong stage of the game for'us. You remember the night she appeared to us in Shasta City and pronounced that curse which was, in substance, that when she met us again the play should end? 1 see her now as’ she ap- peared then—cool and collected with Cap- tain Mascot wounded on the ground and the Vigilantes of Shasta preparing to finish all of usin the canyon. I don’t like this woman with the cool nerves and the piercing eye. It is like the coming back of a cyclone that has passed.” The night wore on; No-Luck grew more and more quiet as the hours waned and at last there slipped from Hawk’s cabin the angels of destruction. t was not the first mission of death. They had carried out Captain Mascot’s behests be- fore; they had never faltered when summon- ed to kill, and this time they never question- ed their perfect right to strike. As if some hand had paved the way the porch of the Black Eagle was deserted. The last loafer had deserted it and the light in the hotel was dim and uncertain, Hank Hawk and Redflint glided toward the building and halted within its shadow. From the nearest mountain came a long dismal howling where the wolves were con- gregating in the weird passes, but that was all the sound they heard. Headed by Hawk whose broad shoulders looked Atlantean in the light, the pair crept across the floor to the stair door, It had no lock and opened readily, Up the steps went the desperadoes one after the other, stopping now and then to listen in the gloom. | They reached the door and Hank looked back at Redflint. The Black Beads were near their victim. The hand of Hawk More than found the latch; he pressed it sharply and the next moment they sprung across the threshold to rush toward a figure that rose’on @ couch across theroom, CHAPTER VIII. | THE RETURN OF THE CRUSADER. - Iv was !ike the rush of a storm. : Detective Dandy might have dropped the foremost man whom he saw between him and the window, but he did not. © | Both men fell upon him at once and he was in the grasp of the Black Beads. ** So Figs have caught the young hawk?’ laughed Redflint, as he beld the boy down and looked into his surprised face. ‘*That's what we've done, but don’t wait. You know what the: orders were?”: . Redflint nodded. | A Dandy Nugget was bound in atrice; the big hands that performed the operation were not vice about it, and in a moment, as it seemed, the Boy Shadow of Idaho stood in : -—_—_—_—— Ce sees Hank Hawk went down-stairs first as if to see that the soast was clear, ' When a low whistle came up, Redflint turned to the boy and escorted him across the roem., Down through the Black Eagle to the street aud across it to the denser shadows that lav all the way to the mines at the edge of No-Luck Camp! During all this trip no questions and no lies. The boy prisoner communed with himself, but looked at the men who had him in charge. ‘‘This way,” said Hank Hawk, to his companion at a tree and they filed to the left. For the first time Dandy Nugget seemed to draw back in protest. It appeared to dawn upon him whither he was being taken, for he gave his captors a sharp, inquisitive look and then looked down the narrow path. . ‘* You'll see in a little while,” said Hank, at the boy's ear. ‘‘ You needn’t ask any question, I guess.” No, he would not, and keeping silent, he was taken over the trail deeper than ever among the shadows until they came to the mouth of an old mine. The mountains were honeycombed with failures. Old mines yawned everywhere with their deserted flumes, their ghostly shafts and their foul chambers. ; Men had worked them awhile to look else- where for the new Eldorado, and not a few had been abandoned because their owners had added to the silent numbersin the moun- tain cemetery, This mine was Hank’s “‘ trap.” It had been right.y called by Captain Mas- cot ‘‘a death-trap under ground,” 3 Hank had gained it at the gaming-table, and it had cost him nothing beyond a false~ play with marked cards. A failure when he won it, it was no better now, He had never mined an ounce of gold in it, and never would. It was a foul place where human life could not be sustained a ‘moment, so it was said, and where darkness ruled supreme and silence held sway. The Black Beads halted at the mouth of. the mine. The hand of Redflint rested heavily on Dandy Nugget’s shoulder, and fora moment he looked down into the up-turned face with a show of pity. ‘* You know Where you are, boy?” he said. os: | ‘*T am at the mouth of a mine,” ‘‘ You are at Hank’s trap. This is the old Haunted Placer where Captain Tebbs died.” There was no reply. “Come,” cried the impatient Hawk. ‘‘ What’s the use of waiting here? It’s ag’in’ orders, Redflint, Take him down!” There was no drawing back now. Dandy Nugget merely looked at the stern faces and ~ seemed to take new resolution. ‘You're never coming out of this place, poy. This is theend of your spying.” ‘It is the beginning of the end for you.” ‘‘What’s that—the beginnin’ of the end for us, eh?” cried Hawk. ‘‘I can’t see i that way.” he | of ‘* Wait and see!” “Take him in! Redflint. ‘* Here goes. long as possible.’’ ‘* You have the ropes?” * Redflint produced a lasso from beneath his coat and proceeded to fasten it beneath De- tective Dandy’s arms, after which he was blindfolded and led on. eR ha It’s all bun¢ombe,” cried ‘I will hold him as Withont the handkerchief the: darkness would have been intensé; with it it was more s0,and thus the daring Boy Shadow went ‘ * ; « - . oa a te a2 é ° ~ - ae: . a rs , * ae A. 4 ee © 5 x : aa (heal eteisy 4 7 ‘1 s* ’ a od el - eet Need Dae ty " ~ wae Ue stores ad ¥ . an aa. a => - : . a te ea ee 5 Sa) = My - 7 ~~ - " x fe ae - — =, Oe en aa gree. . ~ 4 ~ a ae | >», ae “ é — —w~ —— oe i* il ys pet BE ov > : : i 2 a, « | ~ wD 7 PI ef. 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