Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 964 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

. = “i —_ tr NN ee ee ON ee eae ae ees eee ee . sé Well 1 *“You see I am to start out in the world again to make my fortune. *“‘T cannot stay in this country, for I'd hang. “T must make my way to another land. I have a profession that will support me, and I am tired of this life of crime. “To go away from here, I wish to have money to live on until I can get a support by my practice, “ Therefore, with what I have told you I wish, and which is no loss to you, I must have a couple of good horses and a complete outfit, and be allowed to light out at dark some night when you are sure that I have kept faith with you.” *“ All right, granted!” “ But now to my price.” * You have named it.” ‘*Not the money for my secret.” “Then go ahead,” ‘‘As I said, my seeret is valuable. It is of a gold mine, and I want for it just five thousand dollars.” “You'll never get it.’’ “Then you'll have to hang me, for I'd as soon die as go from here without money to dodge about these Western camps. “] tell you that by my capture you have destroyed me, and ruined my pros- pects on the very eve of success, as it were, and I will die before I tell what I know unless I get my terms. “T ask for a paltry five thousand dollars and you refuse, “So be it. I can die, for I'd be worse off than dead if I lived.’ There was that about the man that Buf- falo Bill read aright. ' He was desperate, driven to despair, and would do just as he had said. So the seout said, for he felt. certain that the man must have some valuable secret: “Do you avow that your secret is worth five thousand dollars?’ ‘Yes, many, many times over. “ ane so convinced of it that I will take your promise to send me the sum named, when you discover that I tell the truth.” “That is square certainly; but I neither have the money nor can I get it.” “T have it, and will hand you the amount to send him, Mr. Cody, if he tells the truth,’ said the boy sport, speak- ing for the first time, while Bunco added: - “¥ can also raise the money, pard Bill.” CHAPTER XXIV. THE PLEDGE. “T guess I’ve struck a nest of million- aires,” said Buffalo Bill, in his dry, hu- -morous way, when both the sport and Bunco offered to put up the five thousand dollars demanded by Doc Stone. > “Well, I happen to have the money, and I will risk it on what Doe Stone says, upon your pledge to pay him if his secret | is worth it,” said the sport. | “Me, too, pards; or I’) go in halves with you, boy sport,” Bunco replied. This was satisfactory to the scout, if so to those who Were to take the risk, and Doe Stone said all that he asked was Buf- falo Bill’s pledge to Send it to him in a cer- tain way if all was as he Said it was. “T'll give the pledge,” said the scout. “Then it’s settled, Pards, ang pl talk. “Now, let me tell YOU When [I decides on a thing I goes through With it—» “You talk good English, Stone, yor ct said Buffalo Bill, “A right, T will. Be “ What do you wish to know? “You are a Silent Slayer?” ‘“ Yes.” he = Re ; “ He is.” diay os 3. , (tea “And ‘¢ tWo men Killed 3 the Saloon, so drop — | camp the two lying dead there and Pete Dunn were all members of the band?” : “ How many members were there?” “ Before this late epidemic of death struck them, there were thirteen:” “If that was the original number, be sides the five dead, yourself and Red Sam, it leaves six more to account for?” sé Yes.”’ ‘Where are they?’ “In the camp.” ‘“ Bunco, you and sport eall out the ones you suspect and let him answer as you hame them,” * Bill Wirt,” called out Bunco. sé Yes.” “Jerry, the saloon man,” suggested the sport, | “No, though Dunn, his pard; was one of the band.” * Buck Adams.,’’ * Yes, sport.” “Tom Hazel.’ “Yes, sport.” * Dan Drake?’ “Yes, Bunco.”’ “'Lanky Bob.” “Yes, Bunco.’”’ “That is the last one I suspect, Mr. Cody,” remarked the sport. “TI can name no one else for a certainty, pard Bill, though there are a hundred men I know in the camp bad enough to belong to the band,” Buneco assumed. “Then I'll name one more, and it’s Wal- lace, the storekeeper.” Both the young sport and Bunco seemed surprised at this assertion of the desperado, for the man spoken of Was supposed to be one of the “good citizens.” “You are not giving the name of Wal- lace because you have a grudge against him, Doe Stone?’ _“ No, Buneo, Iam not: I could add half a dozen if I wanted to, on that score, but I’m on a square trail now. Wallace is one of the leaders, and the worst devil of all.” “All right; we'll put him down, and then consider the whole band all present or accounted for,” said Buffalo Bill. “Well, you wish to hear more?’ “Yes, tell what you know. for, as the sport here and Bunco knew the men named we can readily get them when wanted. ‘“ Now, what was the motive of your band in committing the murders which you have perpetrated?’ asked Buffalo Bill. * Gold.” * Explain.” “You see, Wallace, the storekeeper, was one of the first men in this part of the country; but when he came, there was one man here before him, and one who had struck it rich. “Just where this man’s gold was, Wal- lace could not find out, so the miner was safe until the storekeeper, then a gold hunter himself, could discover his secret. “IT next came along with a gang of miners; then others followed, until the S Were established in Devil’s Canyon. till Wallace made no headway with the solitary miner whose secret he wanted to ascertain, but who lived far away from here—that is, some dozen miles or more. Wallace opened his store, miners went to work, and some gold was found: a few went down the valley to raise cattle, and thus a settlement grew up. “ Wallace got seared at last, for he did not wish too many here, so he decided that all, except those to go in with him in his plot, must be scared off. | uk “There was but one way to do it, and } that was to try and convinee all there was no gold here in paying quantity, and to make Devil’s Canyon. so bad men would — get out of it. / | “ He tried both ways, and finally decided upon a secret band of men-killers, — ‘4 ‘ Ke 9 fee ASC a * 7 : -__ . ~ ‘The result was the forming of the band of twelve Silent Slayers, for Wallace was to be a silent partner, as it were, known to the captain and his lieutenant only. In that way he could aid those who got into _trouble, for no one ever suspected him of being a villain. “ But he was the real leader, and we be- gan the work of the Silent Slayers to scare men out of the camp and leave the field for ourselvesSalone.”’ CHAPTER XXV. THD LIVING VICTIM OF THB BAND. Buffalo Bill and his two comrades lis- tened most attentively to the story of Doe Stone, aud when he came to a pause, as though he had said all that he intended to, the scout asked: “ Who was the real leader of this band of murderers ?”’ * Red Sam,’’ “ And his lieutenant?’ “I was. I could say some one else, but I will tell the truth, “I can, however, truthfully avow that I never killed one of the twenty-one men the band put out of the way, for Pete Dunn, as you now know, was the victim of some one else,” “ Yes, I killed him, for he came here . to take my life,” added the sport. “He was ordered to do so, and these two men lying there, and myself, were sent here to-night to kill you; but this is the first time I was detailed for the work, being an officer of the band, “ Excepting Wallace, however, all the living ones have taken life under orders, and were killers on their own account, too, in a number of cases outside of the band,” “Well, we will have to see to them “and to this fellow Wallace as well; but, Where is the man whose secret mine Wal- lace wished to find?’ “Oh, I'll tell, now I have started in on it, “He is a prisoner fn his cabin up in the mountains, and ironed hand and foot. - He seldom left his cabin, only to get provisions, but we went there and made a prisoner of him, “His mine we could not find, search as We might, but Wallace thought he’d give in some day, and only five of the band know where his cabin is—Wallace, Red Sam and myself, now the other two are dead, Jt was the plan of one of us who did know to visit him every other » _ with food, and to see that he was safe. “Till tell you, too, that it was my in- tention to let him know the next time I went that I would set him free and escape with him, if he’d share with me the gold he had hidden away, and when I hinted as much to him the last time I was there, he said we'd talk it over next time, ‘But you’ve got me, and that is why I sold out my secret to you for what T could get, while you will have the money back for rescuing the man, and more, too, if you will demand it, I am pretty sure.” “ Do you know anything about this man whose gold find has caused him to meet with such treatment at the hands of Wallace and the members of the band of Silent Slayers?’ ~y “I only know that he is a striking-looking man in appearance, th gray hair and beard, with the step and bearing of a soldier—a very handsome man indeed, and with courtly manners.” “Do you know his name?’ asked Buffa- lo Bill, with more interest than he had yet betrayed. | ; “No, I do not know his name, but I do know that I saw, on a handsome sad- dle which he had a name which I sup- Ye oak: : ’ ss _ - ' - R, eee: ComicopoodoKk >s" SS » ea > ,