Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 1003 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

, Gold Dan. 17 — ———— to have my hands full of business. First comes my own quest, which is likely to lead mo into no end of danger, and then ‘i’m mixed up in this Mormon quarrel and shall probably have to fight about a dozen of these Danites before I get through with them: now comes my mysterious notification that a madman is after me; and then, how many more quarrels in the future am llikely to have sprung upon me for what Gold Dan has done in the past? Altogether the outlook is an extremely brilliant ene for business, I shou'dn’t mind selling out my share in it cheap to any active mam who wasn’t over-and-above anxious to live.” At this point of the plainsman’s meditations he was rudely aroused by a violent shock, which seemed almost to burst the door from its hinges, followed by the fall of a heavy body and the shrill laughter of the drunken Mr. Billy Butman. “You won’t lemme in, eh!” he cried, hoarsely; ‘‘ well, I reckon that this byer rock will lemme in arter I’ve heaved it at the door sight or ten times!” Again Gold Dan sat bolt uprightin his bunk. There is a point where ‘patience ceases to be a virtue,” and the plainsman felt that that point was pretty near at band. Mr. Butman had gone and hunted up a good-sized stone and in- tended to beat in the door with it, and from the violence of the first attempt it was tolerably certain that in time he would suc- ceed in doing it. “ Are you gwine to lemme in?’ cried the assailant, evidently preparing for another assault, “Go ’way, you drunken fool, or I'll come out there and warm you within an inch of your life!” Dan cried in evident rage. “Oh, you will, will you?’ responded Billy with true drunken gravity. ‘‘ Yes, I think I see you a-doin’ of it, so down comes your house!” And then, bang! again came the stone against the door, Gold Dan swung his feet out of the bunk and rested them on the fioor; it was quite evident that two or three more such shocks would play the mischief with the door. At first the plainsman was inclined to send half-a-dozen revol- ver-shots through the door, but then he reflected that a stray bullet might hit the drunken fool. “Pd better give the fellow a gentle pounding and then let him go!” Dan exclaimed, thrusting the revolvers back in his belt and approaching the door. Again the familiar cry pealed forth: ‘(Lemme in! air you gwine to lemme in?” “Tm going to come out and warm you!” the plainsman cried, pugnaciously, undoing the fastenings of the door as he spoke. “Tm yer meat! come out!” yelled the sranger. Dan threw open the door, stepped across the threshold, then there wasa bright flash, a quick report, the flame singeing the borderer’s hair, and down he went headlong to the earth, The trap had succeeded! CHATPER XXI. THE ELDER UNMASKS, Au the way from the hut of old Cripples to the Mormon ranch down by the Great Salt Lake, the elder beguiled the way with cheerful conversation, chiefly laudatory of the Latter-day Saints and derogatory of the Gentiles. Polly listened almost in silence, only putting a shrewd question now and then—questions which puzzled the elder to answer, ‘But you Mormons do have more than one wife, don’t you?” she asked, after the elder had finished a long tirade in regard to the Gentile lies about the elect who dwelt in the Mormon land. ‘Well, yes,” admitted the elder, cautiously, ‘some of us do bave more than one wife, but never unless we are specially com- manded by the Lord, through his Prophet, sainted brother Brig- ham Yung, to take another helpmate, You must remember, my dear, how many more women there are in this world than men, and in the usual course of things, as they are arranged in the Gentile world, just see what a host of unfortunate women there are who are never able to get married atall, simply because there are not men enough to go round.” ‘“ But, for my part, l should prefer to have no husband at all to sharing him with three or four other wives,” Polly said, decid- edly. Ah, but we never take a seoond wife unless the first one is perfectly willing; that would be entirely against our principles. Therefore, Polly, *f you make up your mind to have me one of these days, you needn’t let that trouble you. You will be my first wife, and of course if you should object, [ would never take another.”’ ; ‘‘ But ain’t you already married?” “Qh, no, my dear; whet put that idea in your head?” ‘Why, I heard that you had five or six wives!” ‘(A Gentile lie, my dear!’ cried the elder, warmly. ‘You really must not believe all you hear about us Mormons; the Gentiles lie about us all they possibly can. It makes them feel sore, my dear, when they come to Utah and behold the holy sity that we, the chosen people of the Lord, have built up in the wilderness. They sneer at us, scoff at our religion, and cry out that our gravity and solemn bearing is but a cloak to conceal wicked hearts and evil purposes; but it is no wonder that we are grave—no wonder that we are solemn, for the shadow of Nauvoo is on our souls—Nauvoo, where our first Prophet, the inspired Joseph Smith, was brutally murdered, and that crime has not been avenged, but it will soon be; the North and South are now cutting each other’s throats as fast as they can, and on taeir ruins we will rise a glorious people and possess theland. They drove us forth into the wilderness, but we will return with flaming swords, and the Lord will smite our enemies hip and thigh, ‘glorious fuzure thus provided for you by the “But it was not a Gentile who speke abont your wives,” Pally said, shrewdly. *“Not a Gentile!” exclaimed the elder, rather taken aback at this statement. ‘‘ Whe wasit, then? Surely uot a Mormon?” “Yea, if was a Mormon!” “‘Ah, well, of course there’s some evil-minded men among us; there are biack-sheepin every flock, vou know; hut it’s a lis, for alithat. il refer to tbe report that I had five or six wives.” And the elder spoke truth here, for he bad only four. ‘' Whe was it that told von about my wives?” anc the heavy jaws shut together vicious!y «s he asked the question. **T don’t know as I remember,” was the evasive roply. “Will you allow me to help your memory a little, my dear?” said the Mormon. his voice caim and pleasant, but an ugly look shining in his little eyes. ‘‘It was John Clark, wasn’t it?” “T don’t remember—exactly,” stammered Polly, astonished and confused, for the elder had hit the mark at the first trial. “Oh, I guess it was! I heard, some time ago, that he was after you and I can understand his lying about me!” the Mormon exclaimed, angrily. Polly was astonished st this declaration, for blae’s-bt»wed, Long John Clark, the notorious Duke of Corinne, was wht iast man in the world whom she could believe had taken a fancy to her. “ve had my eye upon him, for some time!” the elder con- tinned, ‘‘and I'll fetch him up with a round turn, one of these days, when he least expects it.” The girl would not have felt the Jeast anxiety in regard to Clark on account of this threat, even if she bad been interested in him, which she was not, for the stern, cold man, although he frequently passed her house and generally stopped to speak a few words, seemed to be as far removed from her as the Mormon prophet, great Brigham Young himself. In truth, she thought that in the event of a quarrel between the Mormon elder and the Duke of Corinne, the burly Sait- Laker would have a hard time of it. ‘** And this fellow isn’t a Mormon, either,” the elder continued, finding that the girl kept silence. ‘‘He’s only a hanger-on, a tool that, in years gone by, we have used to do our dirty work among the Indians; but we’ll cut him off pretty soon; he’s been talking too freely lately, He thinks, mebbe, that because this railroad is coming we and our religion are played-out; but brother Brigham knows what is what, and he says that it must be a mighty poor religion if one railroad can bu’st it up!” The girl had heard this Mormon talk before about ‘cutting off” this or that obnoxious member. In the old days when the vulgar, ignorant, mountebank Prophet ruled Utah as no living civilized ruler dares to rule his people, a man was cut off from the fiock, for ever so small an offense; at order the Danites made short work of him. Few escaped to tell how they had grown tired of the Mormon yoke, and had sought freedom in flight, abandoning all that they had brought into Utab, glad tae escape with life alone. But the approach of the iron-horse had made a serious inroad upon the Prophet's power; the Mormon leaders no longer dared to carry matters with so high a hand as in the old days. ‘Yes, yes,” continued the elder, ‘soon we’ll cast him out; it’s a shame that such a villain should dare to lie about such a man as I am,” and as he spoke the elder swelled with conscious \pride, The girl replied not, but in her opinion one John Clark was worth a dozen of the Mormon elder. At last the two drew rein at the Mormon’s ranch. It wasa well-constructed wooden house, square in shape and surrounded with a stout stockade fence. Being one of the first ranches established outside of the main settlement, it had been constructed for defense as well as shelter, or in the early days the Mormon greatly dreaded trouble with the surrounding Indians. The elder conducted Polly up-stairs to a room on the second floor, in the rear of the house. It was quite dark by the time the two reached the ramch, and the girl never suspected anything wrong when the elder conducted her into the apartment, gave her some matches, told her to light the candle upon the table, while he went to prepare tue patient. Polly lit the candle and took a survey of theroom. It wes a plainly-furnished bed-chamber, and she noticed that the windows were barred by heavy shutters. A letter, lying upon the table, attracted her attention. Glanc- ing at it she saw that it was addressed to her and signed by the elder’s sprawling signature. Horror-stricken, she read of the fate to which she was doomed. CHAPTER XXII, A SPITFIRE. “My Drar PoL_y,”’ the letterran; ‘there has been a divine revelatiog vouchsafad to our Prophet, brother Brigham, commanding me to take you to wife and thus seal you to salvation forever. Knowing that you are exposed to Gentile temptation I have taken the liberty of using a simple device to remove you from beyond the reach of the scoffers who mock and revile us Mormons. I trust that you will percsive the of the Lord, and that with a cheerful heart you will be prepared to submit yourself unto the fate that Heaven has marked out for you. ‘Yours in the bonds and trammels of love “ (Signed) Gipron Brppeman.”’ With a contemptuous gesture the girl crumpled up this peculiar epistle and cast it down upon the floor. “The great, ugly, fat brute!” she cried, rage sparkling in her pretty eyes, ‘‘he’s got me here but if be thinks he is going to marry me whether I am willing or not, he'll find toat he is very much mistaken. I’m not a Mormon atid 1 won’t submit to any of their nonsense!” And with this spirited declaration the girl advanced to the door, She had made up ber mind to walk boldly out of the LA, — ET a es _comicbool _m . ee ee ™ ‘ 5] : *