Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 1003 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

of the shanty was banked up to keep out the cold, it would be an easy matter for any one to climb onto the roof and speak down the chimney. ““ What was it?’ Dan murmured, striving to recall the words of the warning. ‘‘‘A madman, wild with despair,’ or something of that sort; hang me! if I can make head or tail of this affair, anyhow!’ . And as the plainsman was thus irresolutely puzzling over the subject, and debating the matter in his mind, suddenly to his ears came the sound of a horse’s hoofs—neither before nox behind him, but on his left hand from amid the thicket which fringed the trail. Attracted by the sound, and wondering from whence the horse- man was riding, for it did not seem possible that one could ride through the tangled recesses of the wood, composed as it was of scrubby oaks, dwarf pines, and other low-growing trees—the keen eyes of the borderer searching for a clew to explain this mystery, discovered that about a hundred yards further on there was a break in the forest wall, and instantly he came to the con- clusion that a trail from the eastward led into the main road at that point. So the puzzle of the horse’s hoofs was easily explained. A traveler coming up the side trail was about to enter upon the main road, Of course the new-comer had no idea that there was another person near at hand, for Dan was now sitting motionless upon his halted steed. “T wonder if it will be worth while to ask this stranger if he has seen anything of aman on a gray horse?’ the plainsman murmured, as he waited for the new-comer to make :his ap- pearance. The man was riding quite rapidly, as could be easily told from the quick succession of hoof-strokes. Soon into the main trail came the horseman—a man of medium size, dressed roughly after the fashion of the frontier; well-armed, too, for the moonbeams played carelessly upon the bright blade of a keen, broad-bladed knife, thrust sheathless through the strap-belt which girded in his waist, and danced gleefully upon the polished butts of the revolvers belted to his side, and in his hand also the horseman carried another revolver, as though he feared that a struggle for life or death might be forced upon him at any moment. The moment the eyes of the plainsman fell upon the horseman a thrill passed through his stalwart frame. The man was no stranger to him! He was sure of it, for he had recognized the figure, although the broad-brimmed felt hat which the rider wore low down over his brows completely concealed the faca. Though the plainsman felt certain that he knev’ this man, yet he could not for the life of him tell who he was or where he had encountered him. : | The stranger was well mounted—the steed a chestnut in color and an excellent goer. Dan, now determined to clear up the mystery, put spurs to his horse and galloped onward to overtake the other. Instantly the stranger turned in the saddle. ‘Hallo, mister!” cried Dan, as he galloped onward, “‘have you met a man on a gray horse to-night?’ A yell of agony came from the rider’s lips; he reeled in the saddle as though stricken to the heart by a mortal dart. ‘Oh, saints in heaven, will nothing kill this man?” he cried; “oris this his spirit freah from hell and doomed evermore to follow in my track?” : And then, without warning, he let fly his revolver full at the breast of the astonished plainsman, who now comprehended that before him was the man he had been seeking—the assassin who had fled from Corinne, mounted upon a gray horse! _ That the fellow had a lair in the thicket hard by, somewheres, and that he had stopped to change horses, Dan guessed, for to that circumstance was due the fact that he had been enabled to come up with his enemy. Crack, crack, crack! rung out the quick sharp bark of the revolver, a self-cocking tool, and the discharges so close together that they seemed almost like one report. . And under the deadly fire down went both horse and rider. Luck wes against the unprepared and unsuspecting Dan. CHAPTER XXXVI. A MILD TALE. | Tae elder was down, mortally hurt. Just a single moan of agony, and then all was over; the ball had struck him square in the temple, just above the nose. For a moment the Danite chief stared, astonished at the fearful aight—the dreadful work of an unknown foe, for the shot had come from the window, fired by some one concealed in the grounds without. The secret slayer had spared the dark Danite chief and selected the elder as a victim, that was evident. "And yet, without the house, there was not a sign to denote the presence of a living creature, bird, beast, or human. ’ The Danite turned to the casemenf and surveyed the grounds without. Twenty paces away was the open stockade gate, left Ap by the Danite himself on his hurried entrance. Through 1is the unknown foe had fired the fatal shot, and then had fled. friend, why did he not wait that I might know whom to thank for the service, for, in truth, this brutal dog meant to kill me, if Linterfered in his schemes.” | «Thus contemptuously did the agent of Mormon vengeance refer to the man now weltering in po ot! who, living, had of the church of Zion.” © gazed upon the ghastly face of the dead > 1 * > « es range fecling of terror came stealing over his heart of iron, There was no mistaking the mark of the bullet. The self-same hand which had laid the burly Googer low, in the street of Corinne, had given his brother Mormon his death-wound! ‘Phe mark of the big derringer bul'et proved that, and then iustantly to his mind flashed thoughts of Gold Dan; but if Dan had dealt this blow, why had he not spared the Mormon and taken him, the ~ one he had most to fear? “ets The Danite glared around him, apparently seeking an anawer to the question, and then, out upon the stillness of the nights, rung the sounds of a horse’s hoofs, urged to topmost speed. Was the new-comer friend or foe? A horseman came dashing through the gate, reined up his steed so abruptly that the brute came trembling back upon his haunches, and then threw himself to the ground. It was the Texan! . And so white—so full of excitement that he seemed like a maniac. He darted into the house, and, pistol in hand, stood trembling at the door, eagerly listening as if he had been pursued by a score of fiends, , ‘What's the matter?’ asked Clark in his deeptoned voice, so quiet and yet so full of command, advancing as he spoke and laying his broad palm upon the shoulder of the other. ‘‘This man! he is a devil! I cannot kill him!” the breathless, gasping horseman exclaimed, shivering with nervous excitement, and yet evidently feeling the soothing restraint of Clark's power- ful will, _ . ; “You speak of Gold Dan?’ sc Yes. ” ‘‘ You have not killed him, then?’ “Yes, I have killed him twice,” the man answered, incohs rently, the nervous excitement beginning to subside, and with it the frantic strength which had sustained him so well during the wild scenes of the night. His breath came heavily, and he leaned for support against the door-casement. ‘Killed him twice, eh?’ the Danite repeated; ‘‘why he must have as many lives as a cat.” ‘Through a trick, I lured him from his house, and then the instant his head apj:eared without the door, I drove a bullet into his skull at a foot’s distance,” ‘‘ Well, that ought to have settled any ordinary man,” Clark observed, in his quiet way, still keeping a close watch with his keen eyes upon the agitated face of the other. ‘‘ And then when he fell prostrate at my feet—fell like a log, hewed down by the ax of the chopper—to make my vengeance more certain, I emptied my revolvers into his body.” ‘And yet he escaped?’ Clark exclaimed, jumping to a quick conclusion, ‘*T tell you I saw him dead at my feet!” the man cried, vehe- mentiy, ‘‘ with no more life in him than is in the raw-hidoe fastened to yonder saddle, blood gushing from him from a half- dozen wounds, each one big enough to let out a life.” ‘‘Oh, then he is dead?’ Clark began to believe that the man was either drunk or crazy. © ; ‘‘No, he is not dead, or else if he is dead his spirit haunts me!” the Texan cried, trembling with excitement and his fierce, black eyes rolling in such frenzy that they seemed likely to pop out of Clark laughed grimly; neither man nor devil could daunt his soul; the first he despised, the second he doubted. He hat seen many a stout fellow go down in fierce and bloody fire, fated never to rise again in life, but never a one of them all had ever come back to revisit the glimpses of the moon, to bis knowledge. ‘¢ After I had slain him,” the Texan contiftued, ‘‘after I had given him wounds enough to let out the lives of six men, I flung myself upon my horse, and fled. I rode straight to your den, just as you directed. I found the horse there, as you told me f should. I mounted, and rode straight for this point, according to the instructions fastened to the saddle; but an hour ago, when I turned into the main trail, who ehould I come face to face with, but this man!” ‘“ With Gold Dan?’ | ‘Yes; unhurt—unharmed!” ‘You are sure?” ‘Yes; either he it was, or the devil in his likeness,” ‘‘ And what did you do?” ‘‘ Fired six more shots, straight at his heart!” ée Yes {” | ‘** And he fell, all bloody as before.”’ “‘ And you fled again?” cc Yes.” : “ Without waiting to see whether your shots had really taken effeet or not?’ “I waited for nothing,” the man answered, wildly. ‘I fled; that is all. Wait! you will see his spirit come riding up soon!” From the wildness of the man’s manner, the idea occurred to the Danite that all his story was but the fancy of a disordered ~ brain, and so he resolved to act accordingly. ‘“‘T have changed my plans,” he said, abruptly. “‘ Instead of going to Salt-Lake I want you to return to my den in the moun- tains, and keep close there till I come to you.” moa “TI will, but I will not return the way I came,” the man replied, with a shudder; “his spirit bars the path!” And then, without more words, he flung himself into the saddle and rode off in the direction of Salt-Lake. : ss ‘Poor devil! he’s mad!” the Danite exclaimed.