Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 948 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

? 4 re ert - ny ae ye et -—?> + oh Nie =, A = - = ' 7 ot ~ = . -_ ° e - * ee ar Ree ye, . a . - : - ae eS all about here, I am only Wild Kid, ‘Terror, - at horns, I’m so bad. friend, for he likes astty, though they had you in a close place?’ ‘Indeed I was! man drop dead by But when I saw the my side, from your shot, and recognized you, I forgot my fear. See, 1 have their three lariats,’”’ and She poiuted to the trio of ropes, one about herself, the other two around the mare’s neck. i Well, this fellow will not need a rope again, and the other two will get theirs yet—around their necks, for 1 think I know them, though I will wrong no man by accusing him until I am sure, Lady Beauty.” “I have seen that man before, Said Marie, gazing down turned face. “He is coyote food now, Lady Beauty, but he was El Monte Ed, who was one of the worst toughs about FE] Monte, and that is saying a great deal.” “Yes, I have heard of him, and seen him, too. But, what do you think was their motive in seizing me, Bud?’ “To make your father pay big to get you back, maybe; or, perhaps, to kidnap you for one of your many lovers, Lady Beauty,’ and the last words were uttered half in earnest, half in a joking tone. “These are not the days, Bud Poisal, when a man wins a lady’s love by force, but rather by deeds of nobleness and dar- ing. But now, let me thank you for your gallant rescue of me, Bud, and at the risk of your own life, for you took no count of the odds against you. \“ Would I be half a man if I didn’ t do so, When you needed my aid, Miss Marie?’ ‘he said, with an earnestness that caused Marie to quickly remark: | “Do you know where I was going when they halted me?’ “For a run over the prairies?” “T was going to see you.” “To see me?’ “Yes. Half Breed Joe came to the ranch early this morning and hung about until he saw me, when he told me that you bad been dangerously wounded at Il Monte, but had been taken to your cabin and begged that I would come to see vou. ‘7 could not refuse, Bud, owing you my life, as I did; and knowing my father would be angry if he found out where 1 was going, I slipped away from home and was on my way to your cabin when those three men held me up, so RoW 1 know Bud,” into the up- it was a plot to kidnap me.’ “You bet it was, Lady Beauty! And don’t you mind any more such calls, for L don’t intend to hand in my chips for many a long day, for something in my heart and brain tells me I will not. “ T']l trail this plot to the end, and I only wish I had some good pard I could rely upon to help me, to be my friend, for, "he the as you understand, and many think I ought to have cloven hoofs and But I don’t care what they think,” and he laughed recklessly. re know that you are not what you are ainted, Bud Poisal, though I do not doubt t you are wild and something of a ter- “ror jin your way. “Why not trust Doctor Delmar as your you and always. speaks well of you?” The face of the youth flushed, and he said earnestly: “No, indeed, Lady Beauty. Not Duke i, Delmar! I hate him; he is no friend of mine, But you had better ride back home, as your father will be angry with . oe for going out alone, and as I have no ea where those two men are, Ill go Ms a ; with you a short distance. “The major will send out, I guess, and ry what's left of El Monte here.” "Oh, yes; father will see to that,” and ‘y to the Indian country, SEES up the pte searching the body, and telling Marie that he would meet her at the end of the cut, Wild Kid clambered up the steep bank, got his pony, waiting a short distance away, and, mounting, dashed on, to find that the young girl had come upon the herse of E] Monte, the others having left him behind in their flight. CHAPTER IV. THE OLD MISSION. Wild Kid accompanied Marie Brasher within sight of Idlerest Ranch, and then left her, declining her urgent invitation to go on with her and let her father and mother know that he had again served her so well. “No, Lady Beauty; your father and mother don’t like me, for they believe I am all bad, and I won't go where I’m not wanted, “ Why, the major wouldn't let me join his company of Texas Rangers, and when I warned them of danger one night he said I knew more of the Comanches than an honest man ought to, and only went to the camp and told them of the Coman- ches lying in ambush for them to keep from being run out of the country. ‘Yes, Lady, he even offered to pay me for saving you that time from the Indians, and that made me mad ¢lean through.” “T know that my father distrusts you, Wild Kid, as many others do; but I have faith in your good intentions, and hope some day you will show your enemies how wrong they were. “Remember, I am your friend, and ever will be. Good-by.” She held out her hand, which the youth grasped, and as he rode on his way, mur- mured to himself: ‘Now I’ve got more sense than to fall in love with a girl older than I am, and so far above me—she, beautiful, accom- plished, and an heiress, and I a waif of the prairie, an outcast; but, something draws me to her in a way I cannot under- stand, and I just vow she shall not be sac- rificed to any one of half a dozen fellows I know her father would marry her to. . “No, indeed! She can’t marry a dead man, and it will come to that if oue of those I have in mind is selected by the major, for she does not love any of ‘em I have reason to think, from what I saw one night. ‘Now V’'ll take the trail of those two men from where they ran off, and ascer- tain just where it leads, and so learn what this raid means.” With this he rode back to the scene of the tragedy, took up the trail of the two masked fugitives, and followed it at a canter over the prairie. In half a dozen places efforts had been made by the two to cover up their tracks, but the young trailer lost no time in searching for the trace where he lost it, for he seemed to know just where to go to pick it up again, and did so, skipping at times the distance of & mile. “T thought so,” he had to say. “They wish to give the idea. that they are going but they are noi, for, as they came this way, they are bound for old Carlos Trego’s Hacienda; so I'll go right there, for it’s getting too dark to see the trail. now.” With this he urged his horse into a can- ter, and mile after mile kept the pace up across the great green plain. He seemed to know the country per- fectly, and to have directed his co ,un- erringly, for, after an hour’s ride, there loomed up before him a long, low sent ure, spreading over several acres of land. There was one building rising higher than the rest, and this proved to be a chapel. Comanches and bad characters in eral. > > f= 3 es Once the place had been an old Spanish mission, strongly built of stone and adobe, where the padres of a century before had had their home. But now the old mission was but a ruin, and only one wing of _it was occupied by a Spaniard, his wife, and son, who owned a few eattle, tilled a score of acres of land, with the aid of several peon sery- ants, aud dwelt there seemingly satisfied with their humble sot. Some said that old Carlos Trego was a Spanish noble, exiled for reasons which he kept to himself; but, whether true or not, he lived in the old mission, and was never seen in the settlements, his son, Juan, going after supplies when needed. Travelers visiting at the mission were always most hospitably treated, andthe rangers, on their marches, found a wel- come whenever they camped there. Wild Kid did not approach the mission from the two trails leading to it, but to- ward a light that shone in one wing. He passed through the old burying- ground of the padres, and, as he rounded the wing, drew rein just beneath the window from which shone the light, Rising to his feet in his saddle, he peered cautiously into the narrow, open window, and as he did so, he heard a voice say sternly: “T tell you that your guest is Buffalo Bill, the great scout, Senor Trego, and he has come to this country on a secret mis- sion, of which I have been informed by letter, and you must do as I say—never allow him to leave this old ruin alive! Yes, this night he must die!” ee —_ = - CHAPTER YV. FOREWARNED. | Standing upright in his saddle, Wild Kid was able to see all that was in the room into which he looked through the narrow window. Above him loom the dark walls of the mission, and ound him were the gravestones marking the resting place of many who had passed away generations before, The window looked out upon this grew- some abode of the dead, which was sur- rounded by a wall half crumbled down in places, and which Wild Kid’s pony had leaped, as his rider was determined to see in that window, and had an idea he would be high enough by standing up in his saddle to do so. Wild Kid thought he would like to see just who was at the mission before he asked for shelter, for if there were two strangers there he did not doubt but that they were the intended kidnappers 3,08 Marie Brasher. As they were masked he could not see their faces, but he had noticed their gen-.~ eral outline before he had fired upon their leader, and he had studied well the tracks of their horses, Which he had also seen, before he sought his position of attack. — If those horses were in the corral, and two men answering the description of those he had seen at the kidnapping were — there, then he would not seek shelter in the mission that night, but lie in wait for them the next morning and try and them up single handed and taking them: back to the ranches, turn them ore to the band of Texas Rang gers, wh Ete was to protect the scattering Niiictnent from raiders across the Rio Grande, — = n- But Wild Kid saw more than he had : ticipated when he looked through — at open window in the mission. » : He had heard more than he had ex. pected to, when he listened cars the threat 33 to kill Buffalo eh, 9 a man of Bescas he: pore oe i fe C | comic eer j *Y * ae “an ore. wd on : - ae . 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