Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 916 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

~os ~ joining him. TOE Sepmaeeien em eee YRS, fe 2 os we or — 7 * y oS + ew £ f ee te OR word along that line, old sorrel. is legal, here, whether you know it or not, and we have just the same rights as the man next door has to sell flour and salt.” ‘*And nothing that I can say will in- duce—” ‘* You have said too much already.” ‘* You still persist—” ‘*See here! Get away from here, will ou?” By this time every eye in the room was fixed in tbat direction, and a great crowd stood around the faro-table. As he uttered the words last quoted, Lacy Mulvern shoved back his chair with his legs and leaped up, and he pointed at the strange-looking man, face stern and eyes flashing. ‘“‘Then it is no use for me to try fur- ther—” | ‘Will you go?” ‘Persuasion will have no effect—” ‘*‘ Hang it! must I use force with you, af- ter all?” ‘*No, no!” cried the old fellow, holding up botb his hands, palms outward; ‘‘it is not necessary, not necessary at all. Since I cannot persuade you, since you will not heed admonition, since force of logic would evidently be lost upon you—give me a hun- dred dollars’ worth of chips!” The laugh that broke from the crowd was hearty. As he said this, the old fellow reached for a chair and drew it up and sat down. And not only sat he down, but he pro- duced some money and counted out the sum he had named and shoved it across ihe board, The saloon of the Lullaby Roost seemed to be having its full share of excitement this evening, if not indeed ap unusual supply. What would be next on the tapis? Center-fire, the sport, laughed as heartily as any one at the old man’s sudden and strange change of tactics. ‘* What can’t be cured must be eudured, eh, old man?” he remarked. ‘‘ Where argument availeth nothing, force must be brought to bear,” was the sober re- sponse, ‘* Force?” - “*7 can think of no better word, off-hand.” ‘« And still I fail to understand you, sir.” ‘“What I mean is, where persuasion can- not accomplish its object, other means must be used.” et am still in the dark, sir.” ‘* What I mean is this, then: Since I could not prevail upon this misguided young man to close his game from choice, 1 must com- pel him to close it of necessity. I will break his bank!” “Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Mulvern, the crowd ** That is about the richest I ever heard, old man!” **T hope your bank is the same, sir.” *‘T think you will find it too rich for your ‘* We'll see about toat, later on. Let the j oy 9g roll along.” he said this, the old fellow put his whole quantum of chips upon a single card, iakarlockitag his fingers across his breast while he awaited the result of the play. His eard presently came out, and—he had won! Again he played, putting the whole amount upon another card, and again he ‘won! The dealer iooked concerned, and Center- fire eyed the stranger with interest, He had considered himself scmething of a player at this game, Some of the players who had not been meeting with success, now placed their stakes with those of the ‘‘Old Saint,” as some one had dubbed the man. “That is right,” the old fellow welcomed this move. ‘The bigger we make it the wooner will my object be accomplished. <n - ee, a}: ’ Pa a Deadwood Dick, Jr.’s, Double-Decker. = . _ - - <4 O™ Ty . Oat a 1 ae - : eee ———___—_—_ — — Cr Gambling | Well may you look concerned, Mr. Dealer; you are bucking against fate—and Jacob Mundy.” Whether the man would have succeeded in his expressed object or not, cannot be told, for about that time another excitement arose, and one so great that all playing for that night, in the saloon of.the Lullaby Roost at any rate, came to an abrupt termination. A murder had been committed, by some person unknown, and the victim was no other than Joseph Mainard! CHAPTER IV. COMPLICATIONS CREEPING IN. THE discoverer. of the crime was one Dudley McGluken., Dudley was a jovial, good-looking young Irishman, with a splendid mustache of which he was proud, and curly red-bair, He was popularly known as ‘‘ Birdie.” With a weakness for the girls and danc- ing, he had just finished a set on the floor and was escorting his partner to a seat, when he saw that something was wrong with Mainard., He sprung to his side, and immediately a cry of alarm drew all attention in that direc- tion. ‘* What is it, Birdie?” was eagerly asked. ‘*Phwat is it, indade!’” was the cry. ‘* Misther Mainard has been murthered!” Men sprung to the spot immediately, and it took but a glance to confirm the terrible report. The proprietor of the hotel was sitting in a chair, in an accustomed place a little in the shadow out of the glare of the electric lights, a look of horror on his face and his eyes fixed in death. McGluken had torn open the man’s vest, and the front of his shirt was red with his life’s blood. The whole company stood appalled. ‘Who can have done it?” cried one Char- lie Bachert, ‘““D’ye moind dhe shadow-coffin!” exclaim- ed McGluken, with accent of terror. ‘That was no trick, Birdie, sure as you are born.” ‘*Dhat same it was not, dben. Oi was shure it was some koind av a banshee, dhe minute O1 saw it, so Oi was.” ‘*And you remember the words the man in the coffin said?” queried ‘‘ Posey ” Glover, the girl with whom McGluken had just been dancing, who had been one of the few wo- men not to run away from the sight. The attention of the whole room was now centered there, Mayor Pitts, Center-fire, a sport named Joba Klein who had sat next to Center-fire at the faro-table, and others, had pushed their way to the front, With them was the queer-looking stranger who had given his name as Jacob Mundy, and who had been dubbed ‘‘ Old Saint.” ‘* What's that?” eagerly inquired the Self- cocker Sport, picking up the remark of, Posey Glover. ‘‘ That was something I did not hear, that the figure in the coffin said something,” ‘‘Didn’t Mainard tell ye?" asked the mayor. sé No.” ‘That was queer; must have been some- thin’ in et, after all.” ‘Well, I should say so, by the looks of this,” agreed the Self-cocker Sport, grimly. ‘But, what was said?” ‘‘Hang me ef I kin remember the words exact—”’ ‘I can, Mr. Pitts,” interrupted Posey. “Then you tell et, gal.” ‘What the man in tbe coffin said was this: ‘It was my merited doom. Behold, the wages of sin!’” The Self-cocker whistle. Sport gave a low — —— i ch ct. ctl, “tt Ct tt tT CE LLL LL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL CC LL CC lt i tt at ee ——— ‘*T did not hear that part of it,” he said. | ‘What did Mainard tell ye, then?” asked © the mayor. ‘‘ Everything else, I imagine,” ‘‘ And what did he want you to do?’ ‘“He desired me to find out who it was had played him the trick—for such he con- sidered it.” ‘* Well, ef et was, this is a worse one, that’s a sure thing.” ‘* No discounting that fact, sir.” Others had taken up the body and laid it on a table, and a doctor was making an examination. ‘“‘Is he sure-enough dead Anthony. ‘*Couldn’t be any deader,” was the reply. “The knife went straight to the spot, and death was instantaneous.” ‘* And who can ha’ done et? This byer is somethin’ that has got ter be looked into, | ruther opine. Men o’ Roarin’ River,” rais- ing his voice, ‘‘did any one see this hyer deed done?” No one answered. ‘Did anybody see any one near ther land- lord ’fore he was found dead?” It seemed that no one had, since there was still no response, and the mayor proceeded to question still further. ‘Wal, who was ther last man that seen ther landlord alive?” he demanded. Still no response. ‘* Come, we have got ter git at this thing,’ Mad Anthony urged. ‘‘ Somebody was ther last man that talked with him, an’ we must get a startin’ p’int.” ‘‘T saw him come this way, when he left the office there with me some little time ago,” spoke up the Self-cocker Sport. ‘‘T spoke t’ him myself, just »fter that,” said the mayor. , ‘*And Oi know he was aloive when dhat last set wint on dhe flure,” declared McGluken. ‘* How do you know it, Birdie?” ‘* Because, he spoke to me.” ** What did he say?” “ He sez, sez he, ‘ Ye are still at it, are ye, Birdie?) And Oi sez, sez Oi, ‘ Dhat same Oi am, Misther Mainard; Oi woud dance dhe two legs aff me fur dhe sake av dancin’ wid Posey Glover.’” ‘That bas no bearing on the case, further than to show the one fact that the murder 6?) t inquired Mad * nt a eee ~ »" was committed after that time,” remarked the Center fire Sport. ‘And how are we goin’ to get any closter to et?’ demanded the mayor. ‘* Did any one see him alive after that?” asked the sport. } No one responded. ‘*Don’t be afraid to speak out,” the stranger urged. ‘‘ We must get the truth out of this if we can,” ‘‘That’s what’s the matter,” said John Klein, the other sport mentioned. ‘‘If you will take hold of it, Center-fire, I will help all I can.” ‘lt isevery man’s duty to take hold of it,” declared the new-comer. ‘‘“You may count me in, for all I’m worth,” spoke up Jacob Mundy, or ‘Old Saint ” so-called. “* Look hyer,” cried the mayor, turning suddenly full upon him, struck with a Lew thought, and forcibly: ‘‘Had you any- thing to do with this crime?” ‘" Me!” in greatest amaze. ‘Yes, you! That jest kem to me, when you spoke.” ‘‘Why, my good sir, was I not at that card table when the thing happened ?” ‘ Yes, I know ye was, and that’s jest the pint. Mebby you got up that excitement a-purpose to draw ‘tention—” ‘My good, sir, I must protest. This is rank injustice. By what stretch of the im- agination you can make such a charge, is & uzzle to me. My mission is one of re- orm—’ f ¥s ~ aa ¥ ty oe’ ‘w*e at . we! oo + 2/04 ia . : a 2. SS... 3 Ss.com oar, aet 2h 4 . | tt : ,f ae ie - f 2 i “Pa 2 MRE: 4 qf 7: » « Aw f = Fi & ys a +, Mind Z me ie