Beadle's Dime Library No. 1 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

tT ' ; ' | home Nebraska «¢ 24. - ee ee oe — a eee ee —_ dered almost unmanageable, and the fight turned into a mad chase about the glen—a run- ning massacre! Only one of the robbers ae on the offen- sive. It was Poker Tom. e Stranger saw him spur like the wind toward Nebraska Larry, asif toride him down. The traitor horse-thief fired at his assailant, bringing his horse all in a heap to the und. But Poker Tom slipped from the saddle, alighting upon his feet, and aiming across the body of his writhing animal, rry’s breast. Boundin orward, he drew a knife, and the next instan swung aloft the reeking scalp of his fallen foe, with a wild Camanche war-whoop. But it was his last. The Stranger had now spurred his horse within range; and his uner- ring aim laid the gambler a quivering mass upon the ground, Later, Dauntless Jerry was chasing a robber De litter on which lay the helpless chief. e Red Hand raised upon his right elbow, de- spite the excruciating pain that darted from his shattered hand, and aimed at the youth. But The Stranger was upon him, a hand clutch- ing his throat, and a pistol at his ear. Then there was a piercing shriek: “Stop! Stop! Jt is your father!” A woman with streaming hair, rushing from the direction of the huts, threw herself upon The Stranger’s arm, breaking his hold upon the throat of The Red Hand, and forcing the latter upon his back. The Stranger recoiled, not fully comprehend- ing the import of that cry. He saw the woman sink across the body of the robber chief. He saw the latter recover himself, and with an oath place his pistol at the head of the woman. He sprung forward and prevented the murder, him- self receiving a slight wound before he disarmed the ruffian. The woman raised her face up ap- pealingly and said: “Don’t kill him! He is your father!” Then a of blood streamed from mouth = nostrils, her head dropped, and she was ! In the struggle for the possession of the pistol The Stranger had set his knee upon the heckeaa leg of The Hand, and the latter had fainted from the pain. Leaving him thus, The Stranger raised the woman in his arms and bore her back to the huts. Laying her upon a couch, he saw that she was already d From her bosom had slip a miniature, suspended to her neck by aribbon. As he caught sight of the setting | his heart gave a great bound. It wasa counter- part to the one he had worn from infancy! | Turning it over, he saw that it was the picture ' ofa young boy. Then he drew forth his own, and compared it with the face of thedead. A moment’s scrutiny, and he fell sobbing upon his pan ating. the unresponsive face with tears gses. " = ! mother! mother! found only to be lost : CHAPTER XXIII. THE WRONG MADE RIGHT. ‘Is he dead?” ‘* Dead as a nit; an’ it’s a doggauned shame; fur he was as peart a kid as ever handled shoot- in’ irons, an’ would ’a’ madea boss sharp in “ t do you say? Dead?—Dauntless Jerry The Strange brushed by the last speaker, and e r ed by the speaker, an knelt beside the prostrate form. Dauntless Jerry lay upon his side, his lips apart, his ex- pressionless eyes just visible between the half- shut lids. There was dust in his hair, on his cheek, and on his clothes. With a regretful look, thinking how the blow would fall upon Iola, The Stranger knelt beside him. He took the cold, nerveless hand in his; then thrust his other hand beneath the serape-like blanket, which Jerry always wore huddled about his shoulders, to feel if the heart yet beat. Instantly a quick cry of surprise escaped his lips, and he turned his face to the crowd as if to k. But eager himself, while a purple ush mounted to his brow and receded again, he bent over the youth and gazed into his face with an oo ena age of wonder and mystification. ‘* What is the matter?” asked one of the crowd, puzzled by his strange emotions. ** Not ,” replied The Stranger, absently. Then he lifted the youth in his arms and car- ried him to one of the huts, followed by the cu- rious crowd. Having laid him on a bed, he turn- po the men who had entered the hut and said: ‘“*Gentlemen, mney nearly a stranger, I am more deeply interested in the boy than any one else, in the absence of his sister. Will yonleave me alone with him?” The ruder spirits yielded to his commanding air, and he was left alone, as he desired, though his strange behavior provoked much speculation. But other duties called them away, and soon a@rove the subject from their minds, First the wounded had to be cared for. Then two of the robbers who had éurvived, though wounded, were tried before J udge Lynch and ha before their own doors. At the urgent peti on of Dr, Chillingworth the robber chief The New = <cceciltmmt t CLL — —— — ee — a was reprieved, until the secret of Iola’s confine- ment could be extorted from him. Next came the burial of friend and foe. When Nebraska La signs of life by a faint groan. were immediately applied; and when he became conscious, he asked: ‘‘ Have you hanged The Red Hand?” ‘“No,” replied one of the men. “He'll get worse, if he don’t tell the doctor what he has | done with his daughter.” ‘Where is Dr. Chillingworth? Fetch him here,” said Nebraska Larry, scarcely above a w r. The doctor was brought. ‘Hang that devil without delay,” said Larry. ‘Your daughter is safe.” ‘‘Safe!” repeated the father, grasping the hand of the dying man. ‘‘In Heaven’s name, where is she?” ‘* You will find her at home. I tracked her with a hound. Bring The Red Hand before me, and I will make him acknowledge all.” The Red Hand was hurried into the room, as Nebraska Larry’s excitement was fast wong | his life away. . At sight of the man who h knocked him down, Larry raised upon his elbow about tospeak; but the robber chief anticipated him with a laugh. “Ha! Ha! Ha! ge Poker Tom kept his pledge; and I hereby proclaim him lieutenant, as are Pardner, your head would make a fine-looking wig-block. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!” ‘** They laugh best who laugh last,” said | ‘* How does it please you to balked at every point? ‘Your life-long enemies are uninjured and triumphant, through my instrumentality ; for I put your neck in the noose yesterday, just S I entrapped you and your cut-throats to- ay!’ “You pitiful fool,” retorted The Red Hand, “these dead dogs, who have snapped at my bid- ding so long, are nothing tome. As for the tri- umph of my enemies, why don’t they hang me? Ha! Ha! Ha! They dare not! They know that the girl would starve. I shall make my terms with them, while I hold her as hostage.” ** You lie!” cried Nebraska Larry, exultantly. ‘*T have balked you there; and in two minutes I shall see your worthless neck stretched on yon- der tree, just before the window. Did it not oc- cur to you that the hound could track you, no matter how carefully your trail was congealed ? I followed you to that secret cave; drew the vines from the entrance; pried away the bowl- der; and found the girl in terror, just aroused from a nightmare in which she thought herself in your loathsome embrace. Ha! Ha! Ha! Who laughs now? Gentlemen, away with him! And hang him from yonder limb, where I can see him!” The truth of Nebraska Larry’s statement was manifest. The Red Hand was struck dumb. With a wild hurrah the men seized him, and bore him beneath the fatal limb. The rope was hastily adjusted, and ready hands waited to give the death tug. Then Dr. Chillingworth weppes before the doomed man. ** Horace Clifton,” he said, his face twitching nervously, ‘‘the enmity between us has been bitter and of long duration. Before you die, I wish to disclaim any hostility tow ou, ex- cept such as has grown out of the great wron ou have done me. Here, in the presence o hat God before whom you are so shortly to go, I forgive you for that wrong! Have you any- thing to say?” **'Yes,” replied The Red Hand. ‘ ‘“* Let me see my wife—the woman who entered your house as Mrs, Henderson, and whom they now call Mad Kate.” ‘‘ She is dead,” replied the doctor, solemnly. ** Dead!” repea the robber chief, with the first manifestation v1 tender emotion. ‘She died upon your breast,” said Dr. Chill- ingworth. “ en The Stranger lifted her, she was gone,” “There is a golden cross upon her neck. Bring it to me.” It was brought. - The Red Hand touched it to his lips, and azed upon it for a long time in deep thought. hen he raised his eyes and said: ‘“She l6ved me as woman never loved man before; I wronged her as man never before wronged the woman of his love! That she has foreren mo all, I know, even though the Al- mighty has turned away. ‘Say to the man whom you call The Stranger that his name is Horace Clifton. He will bear it, although it has been sullied by so base a wretch as I, because it was given to him by a mother who loved him better even than she loved me; and I believe that placed me be- fore her God. Tell him, also, that he did not kill the woman whom he knew as Donna Pepita. She lies yonder, under the name of Nebraska Larry, waiting to witness my death. I do not blame her. have been a hard master to her ve your son bro to you asked the doctor. s ‘ “No; I do not wish to see him. And now I have but one word to say to you. You cannot be ignorant of the motive which has induced my hatred of you and yours, York Library. | es a a i _ pretend was raised, he gave | Restoratives | ————EEE ore you mar . EF LS ee ried her, Maud Belknap deliberately won my heart only to cast it beneath her feet. I do not say how far the sanction of society affects the morality of such an action; but at her door lies the responsibility of ing @ man, with the ordinary mixture of and a ~——— oe --— —- | bad in his nature, into a fiend! You may think _me already sufficiently bad, having deprived my wife of her child, and courted another woman while she was yet alive. But I took the boy away from her because I thought her unfit to have him—but here I acknowledge my error; for I now believe her as pure a woman as ever lived—and when I sought Maud Belknap I sup- d my wife was dead. I say again, then hat she is responsible for what I am. She paid her life for it; and I presume we are quits. In so far as my revenge has extended to others, it is Ne right that it should be frustrated. ‘And now, gentlemen, all I ask of you is to make quick work of me!” Sick at heart, Dr. Chillingworth, or, more properly, George Kingslake ed away. It was the signal for a tug on the rope, and the next instant Horace Clifton, The Red Hand, was writhing in the air. Nebraska Larry, or, to use a name indicative of her sex, the Countess Pepita started upright in bed, at the sound of the ‘‘ Heave-ho!” that signaled the execution of the robber chief. ‘Die, you devil! die!” she cried, vengefully, and then sunk back dead. But scarcely was The Red Hand in the air when ries. jo Kingslake, as we shall now him, turned and cried: “Let him down! For God’s sake let him down one moment!” Startled by his excitement, the men let go the rope and the robber chief fell to the ground. ‘Oh, curse you! have you brought me back?” he cried, when he recovered consciousness, ‘*T could not let you die before you had set- tled one doubt,” said George Kingslake. ‘If this is really my daughter, who is the man she calls her brother? course she can have no. Pr ag and yet they look most wonderfully alike.” ‘I do not know,” replied The Red Hand. ‘I am as much in the dark as you. But I think the girl herself can tell you.” “Are you telling me the truth?’ asked the agonized nt. ‘“‘ Before God, it is the truth!” “The boy is dead; but I have the assurance of the woman you call Pepita that my daughter is at home. Do you believe that she spoke the truth?” ‘*She has certainly been at the cave where your daughter was confined; and she has no motive for deceiving you. And now have not you tortured me enough? Take this accursed eo from my neck, and let me die by the bul- et!” ‘‘Gentlemen,” said George Kingslake, ‘“‘in mercy let us comply with this request. The same end will be reached, no matter by what means his death is accomplished. 4 With one accord the men threw down the rope. Ten were then selected, who chose pre- ared pistols at random, five of which were oaded with blank cartridges; and The Red Hand died with four bullets in his brain and a wound on the side of the head, so accurate were the shots. The interrupted burial of the dead was now resumed; and when the sun had beneath the horizon, only The Red Hand, Mad Kate and Dauntless Kingslake had sug that The Stranger, or Horace Clifton, the younger, would wish to provide sepulture for his parents. All this time The Stranger had remained in the hut with the body of Dauntless Jerry. He now came forth with a strange expression on his face. ‘‘Gentlemen,” he said, “I desire to have m young friend buried apart from the rest. W you inguige me by digging his grave in yonder ve o He indicated a secluded spot, and the men set to work. When the message of The Red-Hand was de- livered, The Stranger was much affected, and gave directions that litters should be pre on which his parents might be borne the city. ; Mien he lifted Dauntless Jerry in his arms and proceeded cage iy ae sadly to the ve. George Kingslake betrayed little interes the boy. He felt a sort of jeal of him. Who was he? What had he been his daughter? a — that strange resemblance be em > Beside the open ace The § er laid down his burden, and drawing from the still white face a fold of the serape-like blanket which he bad thrown over it, he asked: ‘Would any one like to take a last look?” One or two stepped up out of curiosity; but the rest felt little interest in a comparative stranger. But Horace Clifton (to give him his proper name) seemed noeey ected, and said: ** Gentlemen, if you will leave me with him a few minutes, I fill in the grave, and be ready to start with you soon,” He placed the body tenderly tn the shellew Eomicboo erry remained unburied. George | “S7Gom |