Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 105 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

i en ( - ee ee ew ee eee ~ = —- — grown desperate by the prospect of losing his game, he was about closing with them single- handed, when they came to an abrupt halt, seemingly thrown into confusion. New-born hope filled his heart as he saw the black figures rush hurriedly down a narrow side street. That action told him bis fears had been without foundation; that instead of friends, the outlaws recognized fresh enemies in the advanc- ing horsemen. ‘Turn tothe right an’ cut ’em off!” he shout- ed at the top of his voice. “It’s the ie Cap’n Moonshine, ’scapin’ with jail-birds! Ride ‘eu €own—surround an’ capter the p’izen imps 0’ perdition !” In answer came back a hoarse, prolonged cheer. And then the iron-shod hoofs clattered still more rapidly, as the horsemen scattered out to intercept the marauders. The ro d-agents were led by a cool and de- termined man. Ata glance he took in the full peril of their situation, and he saw that their escape es impossible. By the prompt action of the horsemen, their retreat was now cut off in every direction. To retrace their steps was to run against the citizens, who would be doubly dangerous when be saw those who had en- deavored to destroy the town by fire. No quar- ter would they receive. Lucky those who fell fighting; theirs would be the most merciful doom. ‘* Follow me!” he snarled, his stern resolution taken. it.” A few rods before them stood a lone cabin of logs. The door was open, just as it had been left by the owners as they rushed out to the great fire. Ata glance the outlaw leader saw how strong a position this was, and knowing that escape by flight was now out of the ques- tion, he led the way into the building, with bull- dog courage resolving to sell his life as dearly as possible. Enoch Dodge saw them enter, and from the rage blinded man he became the cool, far-sight- ed officer of the law. Himself halting, he shouted aloud a warning to h as yet unknown allies, bidding them take beed— The words were lost even to his own ears. The horsemen formed the party of Vigilantes whom we last saw on the trail of the strangely resurrected Will Wilder, following it by the aid of sure nosed hounds, burning to avenge the as-assination of the two herders. But their hopes were doomed to disappointment. For a number of miles the trail was easily followed, then took to the water where it was lost. After a long delay the hounds found the lost spoor, aud once more led the avengers on. Then came evidence that the assassin was on his guard, and knew that they were trailing him with bloodhounds, for the trail once more led into the water. And two hours later, floating round and round in an eddy, they found the horse the avenger had ridden, dead, its throat cut. Thus vanished the only clew by which the hounds could follow the murderer, yet they scattered and searched the banks for miles on either side. In vain. It was as though the fugitive had sunk to the bottom of the river, or else arisen in the air like a bird. Weary, disheartened, the Vigilantes went into camp as the shades of night overtook them. They were too far to return home that evening. And here they were when the first glow of burning Grenada was observed by their sentinel. The alarm was instantly given. In one minute the horses were unhoppled and equipped for the road. In another, the Vigilantes were speeding toward town, eager to lend their aid to their suffering fellow-men, and arriving just in time to cut off the retreat of the bold road-agents. The rapid report of firearms told them that mischief was in the air, and then the clear shout of Enoch Dodge still further enlightened them. They saw the black-robed figures enter the lone cabin, and heard the warning cry of the city marshal, but there was not one among them all but what had met «ith some loss or injury at the hands of the execrated band of outlaws, and now they charged upon the cabin with loud cheers of vengeance. Suddenly the little cabin seemed encircled by a belt of fire. The outlaws dischar a volley that emptied more than one dle—turned more than one stout heart faint and sick under the relentless gripe of the skeleton fingers of grim old death! Still on the survivors charged with a bravery that deserved a better ending. On until their horses fairly touched the weather-heaten logs, and several of the party leaped to the ground, hurling their brawny shoulders against the stout door of puncheons, while others bent over in the saddle and strove to enter at the small win- dows out of which they dashed both glass and sash. But the stout door resisted the assault, and those at the windows were either shot dead or else driven back in confusion by the rapid firing from within. It was a bold, a glorious eharge—but none the less foolish. “The jig is up, but we’ll go under fight- | ing! They must earn my scalp before they wear ; Dan Brown of Denver. 19 EE tsp PSR ET — A SRT ES SOS FR DSS ES OTN ST EI ni te Af ee ee En Stern old Noah Crabtree realized this, and | pistol balls into the ranks of ther enemies whom shouted forth the signal of retreat. Sullenly | the sight bad drawn from cover. he was obeyed, the Vigilantes rattling their ‘There goes the fire!” muttered Dan Brown, leaden hail against the cabin as they fell back, | as a bright, curling flame shot out from beneath leaving horses and comrades lying upon the | one of the wagons. ‘‘ Half an hour at the out- blood-besprinkled ground, dead or moaning in | side will end it aJl! Luckily the wind did not death-agony. blow from the sides where the door is, or our Enoch Dodge saw all this, and his bronzed | chances of gleaning any information from those face grew white with a deadly rage. Truly | inside would be mighty slim! the outlaw leader had said that they could only ‘*They’ll make a rush when the shell grows sell their lives dearly. Naught else remained | red-hot. Be ready to close in. If possible w» for them now. A thousand times over had they | must take at least one of the gang alive. Cap - sealed their death-warrants! tain Moonshine may not be among them, an: The fire was lost sight of by all save those | while he is at liberty, our work is not half done. more immediately concerned. It was fortunate | Gather what trusty men you can, old man!” that a breach had been made before pistols be- | Enoch Dodge did what he could, but he found gan king, or Grenada might bave been re- | that was but little. The crowd was terribly ex- duced to ashes. The excited citizens came rush- | cited and would be nearly as dangerous to cross ing to the spot, eager to join in the “circus.” | in the moment of vengeance as a wounded lion Had Enoch Dodge but raised his hand, but ut- | ess while fighting for its cubs. Still he selected tered one word of command, the mob would | half a dozen men on whom he felt he could have rushed upon and carried the cabin by | thoroughly depend, and held himself in readi- storm. But that word was not uttered. He | ness for the supreme moment. knew that the outlaws would die hard, and he Having fairly started the fire, the adventur- was no spendthrift of other people’s lives. On | ers, knowing that the strong wind would accon:- the contrary, he strove to keep the crowd back | plish the rest, ran swiftly away from the poi. out of danger until some plausible pian could of danger, keeping the blazing barrier between be devised, but only with partial success. themselves and the enemy so well that they aii The notorious band under Captain Moonshine | reached cover in safety. had been a festering thorn in the side of the As they turned to view the work their hancs community, and when the mob learned what | had begun, they yelled aloud with a fierce joy had occurred, when they knew who were in- | as they saw the rotten roof already catcbin:; closed within that cabin, they pressed nearer | fire as the wind swept the roaring flames ov 1 with wild yells and fierce execrations. And | it. knowing that they could not render their situa- All was silent now within the burning buil.- tion any worse, the nee Sears road-agents pour- | ing, but it was the stillness that precedes the ed a destructive volley into the sicunipvercended hurricane, and the storm would be all the more ranks, with that mad thirst for blood which | furious when it sbould finally break forth. Al! such men feel who are fighting with a halter | present realized this, and with bated breath and around their necks. ready weapons they watched and waited for the Several men fell, dead or dying; and more | crisis. would have shared their fate had not the mar- | This could not be long delayed. The prevail- shal and his men, seconded by the Vigilantes, | ing drouth had rendered the pine | ripe for formed a line and forced the excited mob back the ome, and the flames were rapidly doing their work. to cover. Suddenly the outburst came. The door was At this juncture Dan Brown of Denver came up, his bands and face scorched and blackened, | flung open and the road-agente leaped forth, separating as though each man was resolved ‘0 his elothes charred and burnt. He had been delayed by an exploit which was yet to lead to | depend wholly upon himself. But before they could take more than a second leap the yelli:~ strange events, but now he added his efforts to mob broke cover and closed in around them, fi: - those of his friend, and when the crowd was driven back, he and Dodge, with Noah Crab- | ing as rapidly as they could revolve the cylind:r of their pistols. tree and Jack Gill, on behalf of the Vigilantes, drew apart from the rest and consulted to- | The doomed road-agents melted away befor: that fearful fusilade like snowflakes before ti « gether. ‘““* Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth!” said | breath of a glowing furnace. A few scatteri: Noah btree, sternly, pointing to the dead | shots were all they had time to fire, and thou,’ bodies that cumbered the ground. ‘‘ They have | Dan Brown of Denver, with Enoch Dodge an:! shed the blood of honest men—by men shall | the posse the marshal had selected, dashed foi their blood be shed!” | ward at top the moment the enemy brok “That is understood,” dryly interposed the | cover, they were too late. Before they race: Rocky Mountain detective, ‘‘ but the question | fifty yards the last one of the outlaws reel before the court just now is how ”” _and fell to the ground, his revolver sending : ‘They burned niy house, and in the flames | bullet high up among the storm-clouds as thous). BS my wife and poor, sick baby,” inter- | in dying defiance. rupted a policeman—the same who had first left | ‘‘ Pitch ’em into the fire!” screamed the neer- his post of duty at the prison. ‘‘ Let them see | ly crazed policeman who had lost his dear ones how their own medicine tastes—fire! roast the | in the fire those wretches had kindled. ‘ Giv« bloodthirsty hell-hounds alive!” _’em a foretaste of—” ‘* Fire—burn them alive in their den!” yelled | With a swift, dexterous stroke, the marsha! the excited mob, catching up the cry and re- | felled him to the ground, senseless, then range:: peating it until the distant hills ech again. | his men around the motionless, bleeding form: , The cooped-up outlaws heard the terrible cry, | crying aloud: and silently interchanged glances, somber yet ‘* They’re dead—that’s enough! Ill blow the defiant. ey knew that their doom had been | brains out o’ the first critter as lays a finger on- spoken, and now they thought only of how they | to ’em? Vigilantes—you an’ all honest meu could exact the highest possible price for their forma line around us. Keep back the mob un- lives. Since die they must, it should not be | til we kin see what our game looks like.” alone, Eager as a bloodhound on the scent, Dan The detective shrugged his shoulders signifi- | Brown was already or PEng the black cow!]s cantly as his eyes met those of the city marshal, | from the heads of the fallen men, grating his ‘*They have taken the bit between their | white teeth angrily at each failure to find the teeth, and we can do nothing. If Captain | object of his search—Captain Moonshine. Moonshine is in yonder, he will never shed his e reached the man who had fallen last, anc light upon the highway again!” _ tore away the sable covering, to find, not the The marshal saw that not even his t | longed-for on, but the bloated anda bristly popularity with the masses would save him from | face of the bummer, Billy Cooper. injury should he attempt to balk them now, The bloodshot eyes opened and the snaygyv and he only strove to direct their efforts so | teeth grated fiercely as the wretch recognize that as little blood might be shed as possible. the face bending over him. By his directions a couple of wagons were ‘It’s your turn now, you two-legged blood- procured and loaded high with hay, mingled | hound!” he gasped, his voice husky and feeh'c with pine boards and knots in order to make | in all save bitter hatred. ‘‘ But the time’l! the flame powerful as well as fierce. come—there’s those free and afoot that will Many hands make speedy work, and in half | manage to throw you off the trail forever! an hour from the time when the maddened | Curse you! I could die happy if I only had my policeman uttered his frantic appeal for ven- | teeth in your throat!” ‘ geance, the wagons were loaded and slowly _ “ Close around and keep back the mob,” cried moving toward the doomed cabin under the im- | Brown, as the crowd surged forward on learn- ulse of twenty stout arms. | ing that one of the road-agents still lived. Though the fire beyond was beginning to die | ‘‘ Come, old fellow, you are not bad hurt. Con- away for lack of fuel to feed its fury, there was | fess all as you promised, and I will save your still sufficient light for the outlaws to see and | life.” realive the extremity of their danger, and the A fierce, husky laugh came from the cravkcd at once opened fire upon the wagons. But Enoch lips. Dodge had neglec no possible precautions. “Bah! I spitin your face! I don’t ask mer- Several mattresses had been fastened to the back | ecy—I don’t want to live. I am riddled with end of each wagon in such a manner that the | bullets. Evenif I could recover, it would be men who impelled the vehicles were thorough- | only asa helpless cripple. But before I die— ly protected from shot as they backed their | go ahead, and tell the devil I’m coming !” loads toward the building, aiming for the end | As he uttered these words, Cooper raised a of the cabin which faced the wind. pistol and thrust it almost against the breast of A wild, united yell rent the night air as the | the detective. Only a supernatural quickness wagons, side by side, thumped heavily against saved the man from instant death. A swift the fated enbin, a yell that was defiantly eehoed | leap aside evaded the bullet, which erashed back by the outlaws as they sent a yolley of through the brain of the nearest Vigilante, Eomilchbooks:. co