Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 939 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

the tall man he saw was Bandy. He did not know friend from foe, In fact, he did not know but what all the combatants, Kit and Desert | Dan excepted, were his enemies fighting among themselves over the spoils of Paradise Vale, Kit Bandy’s “Star” Engagement. $$ _—$—____ ee ee a ee —_iO—-$_—___—____ --__—_—_ - | and laid him upon a couch and proceeded to | ’round thar beautifully? Isn’t be a velvet- dress his wounds. Suddenly, a wild, hysterical cry from the lips of Old Shady, the negress, called the old detect- ive into an adjoining room, and there he | throated, lully-lipped hummer, though?” ‘*He is a brave, jolly and eccentric man,” Dan responded; ‘ but, Tom, I am glad to know Black Robber is near, although I may have lost my 2laim upon him, ‘* Wherefore is that whyfore, boy?” queried Old Tom; ‘the hoss is just as much yours as ever. You'll need him before you git outen— Ah, harkee! harkee, lad!” The sound of galloping hoofs was heard com- ing up from the direction of the hacienda, Desert Dan cocked his rifle. ** Be careful, Dan’l!” cautioned Old Tom; “‘ it may be a friend!” A horseman soon came galloping into sight, Anxious to know the truth, and tend a help- | ing hand if needed in expelling the invader from his door, the recluse went out upon the porch, [le saw the villain, Captain Sangre, standing at the extreme left of the hacienda, found Lucille lying in a swoon, and but a few | feet away lay the body of a dead outlaw. But Zulita was not there ! Old Kit quickly gave the alarm, Zulita was | searched for in every nook and corner of the swinging his hat and revolver and urging on | place, and Old Shady, weeping in distress, loud- his followers in the fierce combat. | ly called her name, but all in vain. With drawn sword the old man advanced up- | © Meanwhile Lucille was restored to conscious- on the outlaw. The latter saw him we ness, and from her lips it was finally learned and leveling his revoiver upon him, fired. | that during the battle two men had entered the With a groan Jean Ballé sunk heavily to the | room, that Zulita had shot one of them, but the ~<_—<——- - — a - floor. But scarcely had the old man fallen when Desert Dan rushed upon the outlaw chief and dealt him a furious blow upon the head with an Indian hatchet he had picked up on the und, and laid the villain prostrate at the very feet of his own victim. The conflict was in reality between Jaguar Head’s little band of Apaches, and about one- half the force Captein Sangre had at Spring Basin, The odds were against Old Kit’s follow- ers, but it was a life or death struggle, and the Mescaleros fought like demons, In the midst of the conflict Old Kit Bandy saw three men emerge from the shadows of the western bluif and come running toward the scene of battle. He heard a peculiar yell issue from the lips of one of them, and recognized it as the battle-cry of Old Rosycrusian—Tom Rat- tler, the Red River Epidemic! Like a whirlwind the old hero of many a hand-to-hand conflict, and his two young com- panions, Mead and Warfield, rushed into the fight, and in a few minutes’ time turned the%tide of victory in favor of Jaguar Head’s party. The outlaw band were routed, and leaving their dead and wounded—two-thirds of the number that had gone into battle—in the hands of the victors. It had, however, been a dearly-bought vic- tory. But three of J gna Head’s Apaches had come out of the struggle unharmed. Ben Mead had received a painful wound, and Frank War- field had been stricken senseless by a flying tom- abawk, and for a whiie his life was de- spaired of, Desert Dan had received a slight flesh wound in the arm that bled ie array & but gave him very little pain. As for Kit Bandy and Tom Rattler, the same Hand that had shielded them from all the perils of their adventuresome lives again carried them through this last conflict unharmed, On the Plaza, in the very midst of the dead and dying, Old Kit and Tom clasped hands, ‘* Thomas,” said Bandy, in deep and solemn earnestness, ‘‘ your comin’ was just in time to dt SP us ey Parte A ‘Ay, Kitsie!” Tom replied, ‘‘ I’m nning to realize that I be the farmer 0’ ie Boe day School Story—alers handy in the field to rescue the boy from the brook.” Wholly ignorant of the presence of J aguar Head and his band, that had been driven out of Spring Basin, in Paradise Vale, Captain San- gre, with some twenty men, had marched upon the home of Jean Ballé, determined to enforce his demands for the surrender of the secret he believed Balié possessed. But never was a villain more neatly thwart- ed, and that, too, by what seemed a providen- tial combination of circumstances, By mere accident had Bandy and his red friends, Tom Rattler and his friends, and San- gre and his gang struck Paradise Vale at the same time, Old Tom, #s soon as he had spoken with Kit, hastened to the assistance of his young friends, He found Ben Mead kneeling by the unconscious form of Frank Warfield, bimself wounded, and at once assisted in removing Frank to the porch of the hacienda, where bis wounds were Jean Ballé was found where he had fallen— not dead, but creeately wounded. Near him, in a dazed condition, reclined Captain Sangre, bleeding at the nose and mouth and to all ap- pearances unconscious of his condition or sur- roundings, Most of the combatants had been killed out- right in the hand-to-hand fight, but what few wounded there were Old Kit saw were cared for without regard to friends or foes, Juan, the Scout, who had arrived on the battle-field about thetime Rattler and his friends did, and Desert Dan took charge of the notori- ous Captain Sangre, Kit Bandy assisted Jean Ballé into the house other had seized{the plucky girl and borne her away—leaving by the back door, Despite their victory, Zulita had been spirited away a captive! CHAPTER XXII, DESERT DAN AGAIN IN HIS ELEMENT. ‘Save Zulita! save my child!” was the im- ploring appeal of Jean Ballé to the old mountain detective. The news of Zulita’s disappearance seemed to turn the victory over the Desert Pirates into de- feat, especially to the inmates of Jean Ballé’s home, None, however, felt more keenly the blow than Desert Dan. He held a short consultation with Tom Rattler, ** Lad,” said the old hunter, ‘‘ the gal’s captor may still be in the valley yit. If so, we may head him off by hurryin’ up to the entrance to the basin, ’specially if he is afoot. But once outside o’ here and the pursuit will be a long one, for the murderous gang must have hosses near, Without further delay they hastened down the valley to the entrance. They examined the sandy ground, They found horse-tracks com- ng SAS the valley but none going out. esert Dan’s hopes revived. There was a possibility of Zulita’s rescue, The captor had not escaped from the valley unless he had gone out afoot by scaling the euvironing bluffs, The two secreted themselves in the shadows to wait and watch, ** Those horses that have gone in here quite recently will be very apt to go out, and soon,” said Desert Dan, ‘““Not unless we take ’em out, Dan’l,” re- sponded Tom. ‘‘ The boys and I brought four hosses in here within the last two hours, and one 0’ them is your Black Robber.” ‘“*Great gingrickys! you don’t say so!” ex- claimed Dan, elated by the news, ‘* Yes,” Tom said; “‘ arter you war captered, and me and the boys rushed out into the sage- brush last night over in the desert, we became wanderin’ pilgrims. We drifted here and there like a rudderless ship, and finally pulled up at Spring Basin whar the Desert Pirates war en- camped. A little reconnoiterin’ disclosed the fact that the varmints war havin’ some trouble among themselves, and we three took advantage o’ the fact to recover our hosses from the ban- dits’ corral. ‘*Mountin’ we flew to the desert again. As we war wanderin’ ’round we heard a hoss whinnyin’ off to our right, We rode that way and found Black Robber a prisoner. His drag- in’ Jariat had caught on the root of a e- aad and he had walked around and aroundin a circle, windin’ hisself up so’s he had but three feet o’ free rope. ‘*T put my hoss’s bits in his mouth, and oh! Rosycrusians! how he did snort and rip the eres but he had to give in finally, and then Benja Mead backed the booger and rode him, I tell you, Black Robber are a lilly-lip hummer, boy, and I'll bet be can fling sand in the eyes o’ anything on the desert.” ‘* But how came you here, Tom?” Dan asked. **By accident, pees & we war not disposed to leave the vicinity o’ Spring Basin until we knew the fate of Kit Bandy and yourself, So we a about daylight in a deep ‘blowout,’ and there under the broilin’ sun we lay all day without food or water. At dusk this evenin’ we mounted and struck out with the intention of circlin’ round to Spring Basin and gettin’ to the upper spring, and somethin’ to eat, if we had to killa hoss, On our swing we struck this valley, and findin’ the entrance, rode in, watered ourselves and hosses at the spring right over there, then tied the critters whar they could graze a bit and went down the valley to investi- gate the light we saw. We got thar jist in time to hit that hornet-nest fight. Judas! boy, wasn’t that a hummer? Didn't things fair] ‘sizz’? Didn’t Old Kit Bandy warp hisse and as he drew nearer, the watchers saw le was mounted upon a swift black horse, and held in his arms a burden. ‘It’s Zulita’s captor! he has the girl!” ex- claimed Old Tom. Desert Dan made no reply, but bounded from his concealment and endeavored to seize the flying horse by the reins; but he was the merest fraction of an instant too late, and the horse tore past him so close that the rider’s foot touched him, ** Escaped, by the great Rosycrusians!” burst from Old Tom’s lips, as he saw the man dash out upon the desert with the struggling form of Zulita in his arms. ‘“*“And he was either on Black Robber or Jean Ballé’s pig which is Robber’s counter- part!” respon an, ‘**'We can soon see,” declared Tom, leading , the way to where they had left their borses. But they found Black Robber and the other horses where they had left them, “We will follow, Tom—what say you?” ex- claimed the boy. ‘It’s a go!” They untied the horses. Tom’s bits were still in [Black Robber’s mouth, and in a moment Dan was on the back of the stallion. Old Rattler mounted the fleetest of the other three horses, and together the two rode out into the moonlight. Refreshed by rest, water and an hour’s graz- ing, Black Robber seemed as mettlesome as the day Desert Dan first mounted him in the canyon south of the Rio Hondo. Up out of the emerald valley into, the desert rung the black with the Prince of the Sad- dle, and away lke an arrow he shot, regard- less of the iron bits—leaving Old Tom standing motionless on the plain. ‘*By the t Rosycrusians! Jack, we're not in it,” said the old hunter, addressing his horse, Then he gazed around him, A filmy line of dust hanging in the yellow moonlight marked the course the outlaw had taken, and along un. der this aérial trail Desert Dan was following swift and furious, Once more was the Prince of the Saddlein his element—once more did the desert resound to the flying hoofs of Black Robber. CHAPTER XXIII. JEAN BALLE’S STORY. THe abduction of Zulita gave her father more pain than bis wounds, which Kit Bandy had pronounced, in his judgment, mortal, The thought of dying before ne could see her was a@ bitter one in , and in spite of Old Kit’s as- surances that Desert Dan and Tom Rattler would be sure to bring her safely back, he wor- ried and fretted himself intoa burning fever. and as the night passed on, it became painfully evident that life with Jean Ballé would not ex- tend far into another day. And this fact was clearer to none than to the old recluse himself, But Old Kit Bandy, assisted by the noble roa Ben Mead, himself wounded, attended y his bedside, and endeavored to cheer him up and prevent despondency from adding too greatly to his see oe Frank Warfield had recovered consciousness, and was resting quite well in an eerie aires attended by Juan, the Scout, and ol ubal. Captain Sa lay on a cot on the porch securely bound, and watched over by an Apache—one of the four survivors of Old Kit’s followers. 3 Along about midnight, Jean Ballé grew nee, and as Old Kit sat bathing his brow, he : ‘“* It’s no use, Kit Bandy, my kind old friend, I have had a presentiment of this for some time. I expected it; but it’s God’s will, and He doeth all things right. [ shall not com- plain, I have long been favored. But, poor com cbooks.com