Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 1092 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

14 —_———- men, that showed me he warn’t nocoward. [ know a man when I see bim, and the boys says a how he showed the white feather with Limpy | an and Deaf Smith, but when J come to size it up, I find it’s only what Limpy and Deaffy says theirselves. I bha’n’t b’en iu Texas this ten vear, Cap, not to know that one story’s good till the other’s told, Tbar was one man in their crowd asi know wouldn’t lie, and only one.” *“ And who was this peragon of truth?” ‘‘ Hank the Nailer. He’s the only man in the caounty I'd give in to on shootin’ and he kin jest | muss with ¢ beat the bull hide off any man I ever see’d at | bleedin’ again. I | that. He were with Deaf Smith that day I | know; but it might. If hear, @nd he don’t say the young feller showed | of the boys with me, the white feather at all.” Berkeley smiled as he asked: , ** What does he say?’ Texan born, Tomlinson; but I think I know a thing or two, and I can get on without you, or body else.” omlinson bit bis lips; for be did not like the rebuke that was implied, when he had really meant to be good-natured in what he said. “Waal, Cap, whenever ye want me to go, say the word, and I’m ready, if you let it go till to- morrer. I must have one of the boys with me, though, in case I fall off on the road. I ain’t, so to say, ae yet, Cap, and I might get into a e broncho, that would start the reckon it would, ye e’d let me have one Dd like it, sir.” ‘“You ean take any one you wish, Tomlin- son,” said the English overseer, kindly. * You are an exception to all the Texans | ever met. “ He says the’young feller was unarmed, and | You have the true pluck that stays when it’s in they had their pistols; so there warn’t no credit | a tight fur them in pickin’ on him.” Berkeley scowled as he observed: “It’s a confounded mean way you Texans have of bullying unarmed met, as if the coun- | the try was in a state of war all the time. I don’t think there is a really plucky man among your whole crowd,” Tomlinson flushed slightly, as he asked: “What d’ye mean by that, Cap? I didn’t think ye had much cause to say that, arter the way we stuck by ye in yer musses.” Berkeley explained: ‘“T don’t mean anything personal against you or the rest of the boys; but I do mean this, that you Texans don’t seem to have the pluck that stands up against any odds, for uhe sake of the fight. As long as you have things your own way it’s all right; but as soon as ihe boot’s on the other foot, then you are all ready to run, if | you bave a chance.” Tomlinson smiled slightly. ‘‘Reckon ye ain’t fur wrong, Cap. We ain’t like the Britishers, that come up to the works at Buoker Hill and New Orleans, and got slaughtered fur their pains, like a passel of darned fools. If we git inter a corner, where there’s no runnin’, then you'll see the Texans fight like a streak; but if there ain’t no use in fightin’, we'll run every time, till we do see a chance, That’s so, Cap.” . ‘And now the question arises, if we have to fight the whole county, how many men we can count on for our side?’ asked Berkeley, thougbt- fully. ‘‘Tbis Field; can he be got at, do you think?’ ‘‘Reckon so. The Collingsworth men knows him.” “Then the sooner we get him the better, if you think him a good man.” ' Berkeley called to one of the men who was kept in attendance on the office all the time — to ride any distance with messages, an pee him if hé knew a man of the name of eld. ‘* Used ter be a cowboy on the jedge’s ranch,” added Tomlinson, as he lay back in his chair. ‘If you don’t know where he is, ax the Col- lingsworth mep.” The cowboy addressed did not know the name; had ever heard it; but the Colling: worth Ranch men were not far away from the line or the cattle company’s fence, and he went off to find one of them and report. He came back in half an hour, with the news that ‘‘the man had left the Collingsworth Ranch, and the boys thought he bad gone up to Old Cross-Eye’s ranch.” ‘‘And who the-deuce is Old Cross-Eye?”’ asked Berkeley testily. ‘‘ You have the queer- est ways in Texas. You "pe every one some confounded nasty name. suppose you've got something of the sort for me by this time.” Toplinson smiled as he lay back in his chair, ‘““Reckon we have, Cap. Heerd the boys talkin’ of Captain Jinks the otherday. No idea . who they méant, of course; but you kin put two and two together. But about this Old Cross-Eye. I’ve neérd of him afore, though I never seen him. They say he’s a Maverick- Hunter” “What's that?’ “A man as hunts. Mavericks fur a livin’, Cap. He has a ranch somewhere up by the fnjan oo maa 4 and they hate him like p’izen down hyar, If this Field has j’ined him, there’s two we kin Count on, if wetreat ’em right. The ranchers hate ’em both, and we kin make friends of ’em, if we work the racket right.” Berkeley looked at his late chief constable, thougbtfully, saying: i ‘It’s a pity you can’t go there, and see them yourself, You could tell what was the pros- pect.” Tomlinson rose to his feet from the chair in which he had been reclining, and said: “If ye'd wait a day or two, and let me go easy, so as not to git tired aout, I could do if, I reckon, Cap. I ain’t fit fur much byar, now, and out thar I mou't get better quick, Doctors is all very well; but give me the Injuns, if a man’s sick. They b’lieve in fresh air and lots of it, and they’re right. I’m ready to go to- morrow, Cap, if so be thar’s fio chance of there bein’ a muss in the mean time.” “If there is, 2 can take care of it,” said Berkeley, rather stiffly, ‘“‘I may not be a . * Fo “tee ; gre and pever shows the white feather. depend on you more than you are aware.” Tomlinson flushed with pleasure as he heard words of praise, for Berkeley was very 6f them, and they were all the more chary when he did give utterance to appreciated, them. “Dll do the best I kin, cap’n,” he said; and with that be went up to his room, walkin steadily and looking like anytbing in the wor! but a man who had been shot through the lungs, a month before, The dry climate and open air life of Texas does wonders in the way of curing gunshot wounds, as the desperado had experienced more than Once before, for be bad had wounds—nearly asserious, too—at different times in his wild career, when he had fallen the victim to ean enemy’s bullet. ee a The very next morning, accompanied by a friend of bis own persuasiov, who rejoiced in the name of *‘ Long Charley ” Seymour, from his stature, he rode away from the cattle com- pany’s ranch, and took his way toward the borders of the Indian Territory, where Old Cross-Eye was supposed to lives The time was coming when every man that could be mustered on either side would be need- ed, and Tomlinson bad an idea that he would be able to get the two strangers, who lived so far away and in such a dangerous country, that they must necessarily be men who would prove useful in a free fight. He and Long Charley rode slowly all day,and went into camp in the evening; for Tomlinson was not yet up to a Jong and rapid ride, If he had been in his usual health, he could have done the eighty miles that were supposed to divide thé cattle company’s ranch from that of the Maverick-Hunters, in one day; for the broncho was capable of the feat; but, as it was, a bare thirty was all he could compass, and it was not till noon of the third day after he had left the ranch that he came intoa wild country, and said to Charley: “Reckon we must be gittin’ nigh the place, now, Charley. The boys said it war by a crick that flows inter the Blue Fork, and yonner’s a line of timmer that looks mighty like it.” He had, in fact, come very close to the place, and had almost entered tbe domain where roamed the cattle of the Maverick Hunters, which were all in the corral for safety. As they came near the place they heard the sound of shots in rapid succession, and Charley began to look to his pistols, while Tomlinson checked his horse, for be felt weak and nervous; but as the shots did not increase in number, but kept at about the same pitch, they rode on, curious to find what the trouble was all about. CHAPTER XVL WILDERNESS WELCOME, As the two desperadoes advanced, the sound of shots stopped at intervals, and were renéwed again till Charley said: ‘Sounds as if some feller was a-practicin’; don’t it? Nice quiet place to practice, too.” Tomlinson made no answer, and the two pressed on, till they came to the edge of the motte of timber, which formed one side of Old Cross-Eye’s fortification, when they saw, from the way in which the path bad been cut, that they had come to the entrance of tbe place and would be able to find out the cause of the shoot- ing. ti was not without a little quickening of the pulse that the two men, desperndoes as they were, entered the path and advanced toward the jacal of the old Maverick-Hunter. They bad never been there before, and did not know what was going on behind the screen of woods that surrounded them, except that there was a good deal of firing, and that they had better be careful, | At last they came to the hut, where the two friends lived, and saw that it was empty, while the sound of the shots continued, from some place beyond them. They pushed along the path till they came to the rustic gate, constructed by the ingenuity of Old Cross-Eye, in the side of the wattle-work that made the edge of the motte impervious to ie ra of the cattle, and saw into the corral tself, They were surprised at the number of cattle ee ee ns — — _ a i Old Cross-Eye, the Maverick-Hunter. that were feeding about, and Tomlinson told his companion: ‘By Jiminy, these fellers have a stake hyar, and no mistake. This ain’t no Maverick-Hun- ter’s place, Thar must be more’n two thousand head in byar. Look how thar crowded.” Ia fact, the cattle were very much crowded for the simple reason that Old Cross-Eye ha kept in all tbe wilder ones and allowed haan to eat up the pasture in the corral, on purpose to get them tamed by the hunger that must come, sooner or later, His success as a Maverick-Hunter had arisen pot so much from bis getting the animals as from bis tact and skill in taming them after he had got them, He had a herd of tame cattle in with them from the first, so tame that they would al- low him and his partner to go among them freely, The wild cattle, whom nothing escaped in the field of their vision, saw this and noted it. Day after day, as the herbage grew less and less plentiful, the cattle that were always there were fed with grass, cut from the wild prairie outside the corral; and tbe only reason the others did not get the same was that they were too wild and timid to come for if. But, day by day, as they grew more hungry and used to the confinement of the corral, they grew tamer; and by the time that Tomlinson and bis friend came to see them, they were al- most ready.to be turned «ut on the range. Tbe wild herd of Mavericks, that bad shaken their horns so fiercely at the cowboys when the first burst out of the motte atthe Slings earth round-up, had been changed toa herd of cattle that grazed peacefully within sight of the two men, to whose presence they were accustomed, and actually let them come among them on foot, where half the cattle in Texas would have stampeded at the mere sight of a man on foot, in the most settled parts of the country. Bat Tomlinson and his friend saw that these cattle were not only tame, but that they were all of very fine breeds. They were not the usual ‘“‘ long-horn,” with his scraggy carcass and long legs, bis rough hide and weapons of offense the principal part of his make-up. These were cattle who seemed as if they had some very good blood in them of the imported stock: More than one looked as if he had come of the genuine Durham strain, especially the bulls; and the cows had calves with them, and grazed quietly about, ‘“That’s good stock,” sajd Long Charley, vely, as he looked at the herd. ‘* Hope it ain’t all stole.” Tomlinson did not raswer him; for, at that moment, the sound of the shots was heard again, and it came from so close by that they knew tbe marksman was within a hundred yards at the most. There were six shots in rapid succession, and then came a pause of balf a second or so, when the next six came, just as rapidly as before, followed by the voice of a man crying out: ‘‘Well done, Tom! Ef you kin do that, o the time, you’re fit to shoot fur a man’s e! ‘“‘T think I can,” replied a second voice, ** But I’m out of cartridges now, Jake, Let’s go back to the house.” And a few minutes later a young man came in sight, round the edge of the path, dressed in the buckskin suit of a plainsman, and carrying dangling in his hands a pair ef-long navy re- volvers. He was whistling as he came, and did not see the two visitors till he was almost on them, when be started slightly, but a moment later came forward to them, saying: ‘Gentlemen, you are welcome, I hope you have not ridden far to-day, for we have noth- ing but grass to offer your horses. For your- selves, the best we can do is venison; but that is good, I can assure you.” - Tomlinson glanced at bim, and his tone was that of a very polite man, as he said: ‘‘T belieyeeyou are Doctor Field: are you not? You took care of me, a little time ago, wben I was nigh gove.” Tom Field glanced back at him, and recognized him at once. His own tone was rather cold as he said: “ Very glad to see you sir, | am sure. Pray walk into the cabin,’ He led the way into the jacal, and the two travelers dismounted and turned their horses into the prairie, outside the motte, with their trail-ropes dangling, so that they could be caught easily. Then they walked into the jacal, avd found their young host bad set outa dinner fit for a king, as far as game was corcerned; for he had not only venison, but wild ducks and birds of several different sorts, some of them made into a pie of huge dimensions, the rest cold-roasted. A little fire bad be n lighted in the jacal, and an old man was squatting over it, attending to the coffee, which was simmering away at a great rate, its savory fumes filling the jacal with its aroma, As the guests came in, the old man looked | 5 per we ttene