Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 768 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

eg ee a eet ee are ) | invited tosleep under The Count’s roof, and from that day he was to be considered as a part of Jack Jargo’s household. This household consisted of a woman named Selina and Jack himself, Selina was one of those willowy Mexican women with keen black eyes, and by many was called The Count’s sis- ter. They looked very much alike, their voices were strangely similar, their faces cast in the same mold, and on several occasions Jack had not denied that they were brother and sister. Selina took illy to the boy in the house; she looked askance at Doodles as the youth was called, and on several occasions was seen to eye him like a hawk, Selina had the tread of a cat and the strength of a tigress, She was always doing something for dack, and Doodles saw her polishing a dagger before he was three hours in the house, ** How would you like this in your heart?” laughed the woman, suddenly holding up the blade to the boy as he passed through the room where she sat at work, Doodles laughed, *“‘l’ve seen men with such a knife in their hearts,” he said. ‘It killed them.” ‘*] should say so, boy,” cried Selina. ‘* You say you have lived amongthe Comanches. Was it near the border?” Selina meant the Mexican border, ‘It was near the border,” and Doodles drew nearer and looked at the glittering blade which the dark-eyed creature was polishing, though it seemed bright enough without any such labor. **You’re half-Indian, eh? You are really nothing. You may be a spy for all we know,” Doodles drew back and gave Selina a quick fook, like a person insulted, ‘*Ob, you needn’t look that way at me!” cried the nabob’s sister. ‘*I don’t like ‘ mixes’—that is, L don’t like people with two kinds of blood in their veins. If I catch you playing spy here your life won’t be worth a pinch of dirt,” There was a nameless terror in the very eyes of this beautiful woman, for Selina was beauti- ful, Doodles turned and looked toward the win- dow to escape them for a moment, ‘** Did you hear me?” and a hand fell upon his arm and closed there likea vise, ‘* You don’t want to be caught playing spy against us. If I see you at such work, I'll let you know how this dagger feelain your own heart. See?’ and tbe blade was held before the youth’s face, and he jooked from it into the gleaming tigress orbs of the speaker. ‘*] play spy? What do you mean? Don’t I know who my friends are?” and breaking from uier grip the half-breed boy ran from the cham- ber and shut the door in Selina’s face, CHAPTER V. A DECLARATION OF LOVE, THE mystery of Eagle Ned’s vanishment troubled Phocion not a little. The man with tbe red beard could not think what had become of his protege. ‘Tis true he had the message which had been left on his pillow, but that was not enough. He wanted to know what had be- «ome of Ned, and the fact that he had seen the Devil’s Tunnel walled up was almust proof enough that the sister-hunter was somewhere within it, a prisoner, if not dead from the foul xases of the disgusting place, Captain Jack, as be was sometimes called in- stead of The Count, ruled Ragged Robin with a heavy band, Nearly everytbing earned by the miners went into his coffers, and he it was who was making all the movey in the long run, It was the fifth evening after E:gle Ned’s dis- appearance, and Alta was standing in the door of the cabin which she called home, when sbe caught sight of a dark figure approaching her. At once she knew it to be The Count, and to her surprise she saw bim nearing her, He was clad in new garments which bad arrived by the last stage, and Icoked bhandsomer than ever before, for, in spite of his face, which wore the Mexi- can’s cast and color, there was not a bandsomer man in Arizona than this same Jack Jargo, Alta watched the tell fellow for awhile and then shut the door, but in a moment her heart seemed to stand still as raps sounded in her ears, Incame The Count doffing bis bat with its laced band, and Alta, dlusbing, confronted him, lenge why she had been visited at that our, There was a light in the man’s eyes that seem- ed to bode her no good, and when he spoke she was almost sure of it, “IT have come, Alta, to make a proposition to you,” said Jack, rising on his heels as if to lend dignity to his utterance, ‘ The fact is that there is uo use of your living alone among the toughs of a. eee Eagle Ned, the Boy on Guard. Ragged Robin. You have lived here long enough to know something about them. They are, tor the most part, a tough lot and you are too nice a girl tobe here unprotected, Now,I have a house that discounts all the rest in camp, and my housekeeper is willing to take you in with us, Of cours» I don’t want you to go to the palace unwillingly, of course not,” he repeated. ‘I have thought a good deal of you for a long time, and I want to see you happy with lots of wealth around you,” This was a plain declaration of love in asingu- lar way; but it was just like the man who had spoken if, Alta felt the red mounting to the temples, and as it was impossible to avoid the searching eyes of the man in the house, she resolved to give him as plain an answer and take the consequences. **] don’t want to quit the old cabin, I bave been happy here and your palace could not in- crease my happiness,” ‘* But see what you would gain by being the bride of the nabob of the Black Mesa,” put in The Count. ‘** You don’t know what you are missing girl.” Alta thought she would be willing to miss a great deal not to be the wife of Jack Jargo, the man of mystery and some crime. She was will- ing to miss all the happiness he prophesied to remain single, or to become Stirrup Steve’s wife instead of his, and it wason her tongue to tell bim so if be insisted, ‘You won’t, eh? You don’t like me, hey?” cried the man, his face changing color all at once and his eyes getting a new light which they had not known before, ‘*T will be plain, Captain Jargo, said Alta, ‘‘T don’t want to marry now and I cannot give you any encouragement.” He fell back his eyes riveted upon her and his hands glued together, the long, yellow fingers twined one about the other, ‘* You mean that you won’t; I understand you. Then, look here, You don’t know what you have rejected. You don’t know what you bave missed, You may not have a kome always,” “ Thatis true. I am willing to tak: things as they come in life,” Her calmness seemed to irritate bim the more. ‘*T am master here, I run thiscamp, I am Tbe Count.” ‘*Tne Count of what?” was on Alta’s tongue, but she did not speak the words. She looked at him and saw that he was turn- ing white again, a way he bad when unduly excited. The tall figure of Jack Jargo strode to the door and looked back at Altain the light of her little lamp. She felt that trouble had come, that her re- jection of the man’s suit was the beginning of the dark days, and when she saw bim move to the door and lay his hand on the latch, she felt ber heart rise in ber throat, but only for a mo- ment, He paused there a moment and then said: ‘“ We'll see about this, You may think otherwise of The Count before you are much older,” ; That wasall, The next minute the form of the man was out on the Plaza and he was moy- ing toward his palace, ‘What have [ done?’ cried Alta, throwing her bands to her bead in the agovy of the mo- ment, ‘I bave brought about more trouble, [Tam now marke’, By the Camp Spiders? Does he belong to them? Is he at the Lead of the band that killed Lazarus, for Phocion is me ks man was murdered by a band of ruf- 1ans ‘* Don’t be alarmed, Alta; keep a stout heart in your bosom,” The girl turned like a flash to the window from whence the sound seemed to come, but she saw DO One, She went to the door ant tbrew if open, but saw nothing outside but the shadows of night, and these showed her nothing. She fell back and saw the lamp flicker on the table and all at once it went out as if the breath of a demon of darkness had extinguish- ed it. With a cry, Alta sprung to the table and seized the lamp, carried it to the window and looked at it in the moonlight. What did this mean? Were there demons at work? Presently footsteps came tothe door snd she grasped a revolver and placed herself on the de- fensive, The portal opened and the form of Phocion gree her. ‘*T am glad you have come,” cried the waif of Ragged Robin. ‘*I don’t know what made me afraid, but I am all in a tremble.” 5 ‘‘The Count was here?” said Phocion, as he came in, ‘* He was here,” ‘* What did he want, Alta?” Should she tell this man? He was a true friend; there was nothing really bad about Phocion, and so, after a moment’s thought, she told all about the man’s visit and was listened to with great attention by the miner. ‘* You’ve made an enemy, but you’ve strength- ened friendship,” was the answer. ‘‘ The Count runs the camp, but you run your own beart and that is worth all the camps in Arizony, He wanted you to marry bim, did be? He offer- ed you a home in toe palace with that tiger sister of his? A nice nest, truly. yes I would sooner be walled up in the Devil’s Tun- nel where there is no escape at all, as to live in the shadow of the band of Selina.” Then Alta thought of the voice she had heard and while Phocion listened to her narra- tion of it, a queer expression stole over his face and he seemed to lose bis thoughts, ‘You heard it at the window, did you?” said he at last, ‘‘ 1 remember now meeting Doodles, the half-breed boy on the Plaza, but of course he had nothing to do with it.” ‘* Tt was not the voice of Doodles, Iam already familiar with that. It seemed to be a voice I have heard somewhere, yet, at the same time, it had a strange, almost supernatural sound.” Phocion shook his head, ‘““It puzzles me, but lam going to get to the bottom of it if it takes a lifetime,” he remarked, ** But you don’t want to incur the enmity of I'he Count,” ‘Ho, | bave that already, I reckon he hasn’t forgiven me for catching him by the throst. in the mine when I was looking for Eagle Ned. His enmity? that’s better to have than bis love,” and witb this the figure of the red-beard Jeft the bouse and Alta was alone once more, Phocion crossed the Pleza toward the house inhabited by Tbe Count and Selina, The building rose tall and buge before bim and as he was nearing it a form crept from tbe shadows and darted off. It was the form ofa boy and the keen eyes of Phocion recognized Doodles, the balf-breed, ‘‘That’s a queer game for the adopted to play,” said the man. ‘‘ He seems to have been watching the house and yet he sleeps there, Mebbe be doesn’t like Selina.” At this minute the door opened and Phocion had time to step back and out of sight when Selina herself made her appearance and passed him. He saw that the woman was clothed in close-fitting garments that made no unnecessary spread and when she went away he fvllowed her. Selina led Phocion a long chase, but entered the mine where the tunnel was and after seeing oe once beyond the threshold he entered it him- self, The red-beard was creeping down a narrow corridor which he knew would take him to the closed moutb of the tunnel and was near it when he beard a sound like the dropping of something soft-footed from a considerable height, In an instant Phocion backed against the stone wa!l and drew bis knife. He heard something run away in the dark and after awhile the same footsteps cume back, Presently the man heard a laugh and then felt something brush his band, Half a minnte later be caught the glimmer of a match and by its light saw a form moving down the narrow passage. ** Doodles, by Jove!” cried Phocion under bis breath, ‘* What in the name of common sense is that yellow boy doing bere?” _ Doodles moved on, now and then drawing his little torch along the walls, until at last he stooped at the mouth of the tunnel and looked at the solid masonry which told Phocion that be- yond it lay the moldering body of Eagle Ned. ‘That boy is onto the same thing,” muttered the red-beard, ‘‘ He seems to know that tke boy is dead in the web of the Camp Spiders.” CHAPTER VI. : PHOCION AND DOODLES, It was a strange sight for Phocion to see Doodles kneeling at the mouth of tbe Devil’s Tunnel, looking at the solid masonry as if he wished be was strong enough to tearit down and crawl into the bidden corridor. He rose suddenly, threw bis match to the ground, and vanished in the dark. ‘* So!” laugbed the man with the red beard, ** Doodles is already a nyerery as great as that which envelops the death of Lazarus, What brought bim to Ragged Robin?” | As there was no answer to this, Phocion went ? r ~ [ ; Bb Oele) ne Pa