Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 1102 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

28 The Stranger Sharp. ‘“ He knows that you wasn’t behind the door | me of acting in that way,” the Fresh replied, when brains were given out, and I s’pose he | thoughtful’y. reckons that you kin ‘savey’ "bout this hyer | | myself to the front as I might have done, affair as well as any "man w’ot kin be scared up! ‘t Jimsonweed, your one great favltis taat you are inclined to slop over!” the sport exclaimed, with a grave shake of the head, “Nary slop!” the saloon-keeper responded, emphatically, ‘‘Ilam a-shootin’ right straight at the mark, every time! | ‘You are a man who kin be depended upon when thar is a.tangle ’round w’ot wants to be straightened out! ‘* | know what I am talkin’ bout, and I stand ready to put up my ducats on you, you bet! and don’t you forget it!” ‘*' Your confidence, my noble Jimsonweed, does me honor!” the Fresh declared, with a polite bow. ‘* But I must rise to remark that I think you are laying it on with a white-wash brush, all the same,’ *‘Nary time!” Jimsonweed replied. ‘“ You are the kind of man that itis always safe to tio to, sir; as I said afore, ’ve got ducats to back up that assertion!” ‘*] am glad that you have so good an opinion of me,” tne sport observed, with another bow, Then he turned to the chief of police, said he was ready to accompany him, and the two de- There was no conversation between the two on the way—in fact not much could have been said as it was only a few steps from the saloon to the alcalde’s office. Old Bullion received the sport with a cere- monious bow, and requested him to be seated, The Fresh took a chair, and the chief of police also seated himself. ° ‘*T sent for you, Mr, Blake, in order to get your opinion in regard to this outrage,” the al- calde began, “* So far we bave not. been able to get ons clew to the rascals, and it appears as thoug they have covered up their tracks so completely that it will not be possible to trail them,” “Tt was a good bit of work,” the Fresh re- marked, ‘And from the fact that the job was done so well I shonid imagine that men who had a great deal of experience in prairie craft planned the affair,” “Oh, yes, no doubt about that,” the alcalde assented. ‘¢ Under the circumstances of the case if I had had the direction of matters I would have call- ed in some of these red bucks who had the name of being extra skillful at that sort of thing,” the Fresh observed. ‘* Tt seems to me that you did suggest some- thing of that sort at the meeting on the Plaza,” O!d Bullion remarked, ‘‘ Well, I kind of started in that way but as I saw right at the beginning that the crowd didn’t cotton to the thing at alll drew in my horns,” Blake explained. ‘* The idea was that when there were plent of good white men in the town, who were able to attend to the business, it wasn’t of any use mf Bot any.of the Indians,” Old Bullion re- 1 7 ** Oh, I understand all about that, of course, but the troubletis'that in all cases of this kind it is a mighty difficult matter to get the right kind of men to take hold of tue job,” the Fresh said, shrewdly, ‘* Phe man who knows his business isn’t apt to be the one to push himself forward, but the blunderhead who thinks he knows, when he doesn’t, is always sure to come to the front and make a botch of it.” “Well, I believe you are about right,” the alcalde responded, in a thoughtful way. “I think myself that some of the men who made the loudest boasts in regard to their abilities in the scouting line, were perfect frauds.” “ Oh, yes, not a doubt of it!” the sport de- clared. ‘‘And when those fellows shoved themselves to the front, they disgusted the few ood men who might have been able to have one something if they had bad a fair show.” ‘The citizens were very much excited over the matter, naturally, and everybody wanted to take a hand,” Old Bullion observed. ‘‘Tt was a case where the old saying about ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’ fits in uti- fully,” the Fresh replied. ‘*T presume there isa good deal of truth in =e you say,” the alealde obseryed, in gravs nes, And then be continued, abruptly: “ Blake, Iam a plain, straight-forward kind of man—one of the sort who does not believe in beating about the bush, and I have sent for you in order to puta few questions.” ‘Go ahead! I am ready to answer to the best of my ability,” the sport responded, ap- parently not at all affected by the odd manner of the alcalde. * What I was going to say is that your. con- duct in this matter has excited my surprise,” Old Batlion Yawn 80 ‘6 You seem to be lukewarm—not to take the interest which you should take.” cee ea tt LALA LD LLL LLL LL LL LLL LLL! LA LAL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LAR LL i ene Ee ee cr cr em: ‘There is no doubt, though, that I didn’t pase ‘o use the old joke, Iam seldom backward in com- ing forward, but on this occasion you and the chief here”—and he wnodded to Santilla— “seemed to want to run the thing, and then there were four or five loud-mouthed citizens whbo were crammed so full of knowledge of bow the thing ought to be run, that I really reck- oned they might burst, if they didn’t get a chance to tell, what they thought, so I calcu- lated I better lay low.” ‘* But you have made quite a reputation since coming to the town, and if you had spoken your words would surely have been heeded,” the alcalde urged. “T am not so sure about that,” Blake an- swered, ‘*My suggestion in regard to employ- ing some Indian trackers was not well. re- ceived, and sol thought 1 had better hold my tongue, ‘* That was the game, though, and you can bet high on it too,” the Fresh continued in his de- cided way. ** According to all the signs as far as I could see, the red-men had a hand in this affair; you yourself stated that two of the party who at- tacked the coach were either Indians or white men disguised as red-skins,” ** Yes, that is true,” the alcalde admitted. *In my mind there isn’t much doubt that they were genuine red-men; all the signs point that way, and these red bucks, experts in all mountain and prairie tricks, went in to blind the trailso that it would not be possible to follow them, and they did the work beautifully too, there isn’t any doubt about that, for they fixed the trail so that after it entered the river all trace of it was lost, ‘*That is an old trick, you know, alcalde, and when it is carefully worked it will baffle the best tracker who ever hit off a trail.” ‘“‘Yes,I am awareof that fact, although I cannot boast of a great deal of knowledge in that line,” Old Bullion remarked. ** Now, my idea would have been to gelect a few skillful trackers, old mountain men, and get some red bucks who had good reputations as trailers,” ‘Yes, but you see everybody was anxious to take a band!” the alcalde exclaimed. ‘* Exactly, and the less a man knew about this prairie business the more anxious be was to go ahead so as to show the crowd what a great scout he was, and the result was that everybody got in everybody else’s way; there was no leadership to the affair; people were rect up and down the river, and if the fellows had left a faint trail bebind them, these blunderers not only would not have been able to find it, but they covered the track up by their prancing up and down s9 ie nobody else would be able to get on the trail. ‘“‘I was clean disgusted with the way things were going, and that was the reason why I did not come prominently to the front,” ** Ah, yes, I see,” said Old Bullien, slowly. ‘* Well, I don’t know but what you are right nbout the matter,” the alealde added, efter a ause. ** But it you had argued the matter out in this way, right in the beginuing, I bave no doubt your words would have been listened to, and your counsel might have been followed,” ‘Oh, no, I don’t think there was any chance of that at all!” the sport declared. ‘I wasea stranger in the town, and though I flatter my- self I have succeeded in proving that I arn able to keep my end up under ordinary circum- stances, yet if I had attempted to take the di- rection of a matter like this, the chances are big that I would have found myself in hot water right away. ‘¢ | claim to bea good man, alcalde, but I am not anxious to stack up against a whole town.” ‘‘ Well, I don’t know about that,” Old Bullion replied, ‘‘From what I have seen of you I should not imagine that it would make much difference to you how many were on the wt pes site side so long as you took it into your head to interfere in any particular matter,” The Fresh laughed, , ‘* Tsuppose you think you have sized me up pretty well?” he exclaimed, “Yes, I think I have got you down pretty fine,” the alcalde remarked in a grim way. ‘*On the occasion of our first meeting you were facing pretty big odds,” he continued. ** And I must say that it required considerable sand for a man-to stand up against so big'a crowd for the sake of an Indian girl.” “Oh, well, that was one of the occasions when a big bluff worked to perfection,” the sport replied, in his careless, off-band way. ‘* Besides, although there was a heap of people in the crowd, yet they dido’t mean business: they were only following a couple of leaders like a flock of sheep, and when I took the starch out of the king-pins the gang were as ready to throw ap their hats and yell for me as they had been for the other fellows, so the job was not such « difficult one; butin this case of yours I should have bad to set myself up in opposition to all the solid men of the town, and though I _ “ Well, it isn’t often that anybody‘can accuse ' may be a reckless dare-devil yet when it comes to bucking against odds of that kind J would rather be excusad.” ‘‘ Your explanation is a reasonable one,” the alealde remarked. ‘‘ And I am: glad to discover that you were as anxious as anybody to do what you could in this matter,” *“Oh, yes, | was ready and willing, but, as I explained, to my notion there were too many of us, and too little system to be able to accomplish anything.” ‘* Well, I don’t know but what you are right; under the circumstances though we couldn’t very well go ahead in any other. way. ‘But there isn’t any use.of eae ed the matter now,” Old Bullion continued, a little im- patiently. ‘‘We made a bungle of it—came back no wiser than when we started, and now the question is, what had we best do?” “Ah, that is a mighty difficult matter to decide,” the Fresh replied with a dubious sbake of the head, ‘‘ As far as I can see there is not the slight- est clew by means of which we might be able to track the scoundrels,” ‘“No, it is a blind trail, as these mountain men say.” ‘“Of course, I can recover my daughter by yielding to the demands of the rascals,” the aleaide said, ‘‘And pay the twenty thousand dollars, eh?” tho sport remarked, shaking his head as though he did not approve of the idea, ‘Yes, certainly I should bave to pay.” ‘‘ Mighty rough though to have to do it!” the Fresh declared. “It isnot pleasant,” the chief of police ob- served, for tbe first time joining in the conver- sation. ‘Still, under the circumstances what can be done? ““T would be the last man in the world to counsel yielding to the scoundrels if I saw any way to get out of it,” be continued. ‘But I must frankly admit that I don’t. As you re- marked, the scoundrels have left a blind trail and it does not seem possible to follow them, That is your opinion, Mr. Blake, is it not?” And Sautilla looked searchingly at the sport as he spoke, a Well, yes, it really looks that way now,” the Fresh replied, slowly. ‘‘ But as I said before if the crowd had been kept back and only a few experienced men gone abead, I think there is a chance that the trail might have been found,” * You can’t suggest anything now?” the chief of police asked. ‘“Ob, no, it is too late,” the sport answered, “The search might be kept UP» of course, and hy accident some clew gained in regard to the road-agents’ hiding-place. ‘You know these Bloodsuckers, as they call themselves, must have a headquarters some- where, but it may be miles and miles away for all that anybody knows,” ‘‘ Your idea is that it would be wise for me to make terms with the fellows and pay the twenty thousand dollars?” the alcalde said. ‘‘ Well, I don’t really see just now what else you can do,” Blake replied. ** Of course you could keep on sending out scout- ing parties, but I think the chances are big that they would not be able to discover anything.” * And tuen too there is the danger that if the ruffians get the idea you do not intend to accede to their wishes they may harm your daughter,” Santilla urged. ‘‘That is so!” Blake declared. ‘t That isa point which certainly must be considered. ‘¢T would not be willing to have harm come to my girl for twice twenty thousand dollars!” the father declared, ‘‘ Certainly not!” the Fresh asserted, ‘‘ Even if you were a poor man you would gladly give all that you could raise rather than she should suffer, but as it is, you are rich, and even so large a sum as twenty thousand dollars is a mere trifle to you.” ‘“ Oh, yes, I can spare it!” the alcalde replied, ‘fT hate like thunder to yield to the rascals bot it is one of those cases where 8 man must put his pride in bis pocket,” “ Let me see,” said the chief of police in a re- flective way. ‘“ You were to send word to the point where Mud Creek flows into the big river?” ‘*Yes; the road-agents will have a man in waiting there, I suppose,” the alcalde replied. ‘‘ How would it do to pretend to be willing to come toan agreement with them—send a mes- senger to this point, and at the same time have some trackers in readiness to trail the man who. comes on behalf of the rascals? In that way it might be possible to find out just where the band have their headquarters,” Santilla mare ‘‘ Yes, the game might be worked in that way,” Old Bullion observed in a thoughtful way, “« How does it strike you, Blake?” ‘Well, really, I don’t want to set my judg- ment up against the chief here, who ought to be well posted in regard to such matters, but if I was going to run the thing, I wouldn’t try any game of the kind,” , ‘‘ What is the objection?” Santilla asked in a surprised way. ae ‘Why, I don’t think you are giving the fel- lows credit for possessing any shrewdness,” the | co micnoo