Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 114 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

The Gentleman —— 4 4 a A ET Aan TEER Nae RS ls Eis CP ee aT eed from Pike. 1 —_-— ing horsemen caught the meaning of the scene, and, yelling, dashed in hot pursuit. In the leader of that party the vailed lady saw a man with the stony face and blazing eyes of an avenger. At sight of him all the blood in her body seomed to rush back upon ber heart. Faint, dizzy, gasping, she murmured: ‘*Oh, heaven! It is he!—it is he!” But the Gentleman from Pike knew nothing of the woman. nor of the emotion his coming stirred in her breast. His stern, implacable eyes were fixed on the flying figure of the Frisco Sharp. Through his brain seethed the one thought:— ‘“Now we are man to man! Ue shall ac- count!’ CHAPTER XVII MAN TO MAN. Even when an ignominious death menaced the Frisco Sharp, the strange lady to whom he appealed had not peed him to flight, nor be- trayed any outward signs of discomposure. But that this was the result of a strong effort of the will was proved by the fact that, the mo- ment he was gone, she sunk back in her seat panting and unnerved. pegain he crosses my path!” she murmured, behind her vail. ‘‘Once he was my evil genius. Will he be so again? No. But for my fickle vanity his treachery would have fallen power- less, Ah! I have suffered since then! IL have drank the bitter dregs of—sin? Well, fashivn- able sin! It was to drown remorse—a futile effort! ‘**To hold the crown of life, and to throw it away! Ah! the recollection has driven me to desperation. I have sought reprisals; but sur- cease of pain is not to be found in inflicting suffering on others. *‘And now this hope! Can the past be re- deemed? Twelve years! Has he ever forgiven me? My constancy must move him, Oh, it must—it must! I will godown on my knees—” But here her soliloquy was cut short. The party in pursuit of the Frisco Sharp swept past, and she cauchtsight of their leader—the Gentle- man from Pike. At sight of him the lady gasped convulsively, and Sina forward from her seat with clasped ands. ‘*Oh, Heaven! It is he!—itis he!” she cried: Then with hands that quivered like aspen leaves she tore her vail aside, and thrust from the coach window a face utterly devoid of color, gazing after the receding horseman with eyes that flashed like black diamonds, *Oh, Will! Will! my darling!” she panted. ‘‘To have found you again, after all these ears!” Then swift-coming tears hid him from sight, though she dashed them away impatiently; and sobs convulsed her until she sunk back into her seat, overcome with excess of emotion. Meanwhile, the Gentleman from Pike, being better mounted, had distanced his comrades und gained upon the flying road-agent. There was a terrible look on his passion dis- torted face. Its white fury and the merciless glitter of his eyes were fairly demoniac. ‘‘ Now we are man to man!” he muttered be- tween his clenched teeth. ‘‘One of us must die! I have not sought him. When fate gave him into my hands [ let him escape. Why did he not stay away? He has courted my vengeance. On his head beit! Bah! he has forfeited his worthless life a score of times. Why need I feel compunctious about executing what the law of any land would sanction? No. [ will not withold my hand. Hedies! Yet he shall have an equalchance. I amnomurderer, I will kill his horse; and then he shall fight me, man to man.” The speaker looked over his shoulder. His companions were not in sight. He listened. He could hear the clang of their horses’ hoofs far down the mountain gorge. “‘T have gained sufficiently upon them. We can have it out before they come up,” he mused, : . . Then he put spurs to his horse, and the animal dashed forward at increased speed, showing that his master had purposely prolonged the chase that, when he overtook the Frisco Sharp, they two might be alone, _Soon he closed the intervening space, until the flying road-agent was within pistol range. Then he deliberately took aim, not at the man, but at the horse, and fired, In the early part of the race the Frisco Bhar had. glanced over his shoulder and discovere who was the only pursuer he had cause to fear. After that he did not look round, but rode erect in the saddle, giving his whole attention to the management of his horse, It was plain that he made the most of the animal’s suped and bottom: but beyond that he seemed to have no concern. . ‘“Tsit come at last?’ he mused, with the spirit _ of fatalism, ‘Itis sure tocome in the end. Well,.I will lose no chance. If my utmost ef- fort fails, it will be because it is decreed. And re is here. What place more unlikely for us hree to meet! I wonder if fate has sent her to Witocee the punishment of my perfidy end berst It looks that way. Else, why is she here? Heigho! life’s a game of poker, after all. If you don’t draw the cards, you can’t bluff for- ever. I’ve always played mine for all they were worth, and never ‘squealed’ when I got beat; and I'll do it to the end, So here goes for the grand match—perhaps the rubber !” He drew a revolver, turned in his saddle, and fired, But, strange to say, if the antagonism between these men was so deadly, he too fired at the horse, and not at the rider. A cry of pain from Carleton’s horse showed that tbe Frisco Sharp was no bungler with the istol. ‘ Then, speeding at break-neck pace along pass and precipice, shot after shot was exchanged by these strange foemen, neither of whom aimed at the other’s life until the horse in advance sunk lifeless in his tracks, and his rider, alight- ing agilely on his feet, stood beside him with folded arms, awaiting his doom! There was no fear in his face as he turned it toward the man who had hunted him down, Even in the last grand defeat he preserved the inscrutable mask of the gambler. Dashing up to him with unabated speed, the Gentleman from Pike drew his borse upon his haunches, and leaped to the ground. The animal stood panes and gazing fear- fully at the dead of his own species, The men presented a strange contrast—the one with drawn revolver so shaken by passion, the other with arms folded across his breast as unmoved as marble. ‘‘ Now we are face to face!” cried the Gentle- man from Pike—‘‘ not by my seeking, but. be- cause, with your wonted perversity, you chose to stay where your life was forfeit after I gave you achance toescape, Then you wasat a dis- advantage. Now we are man toman. If I fall, there stands a horse that will easily carry you beyond pursuit. Come! draw your weapon! e have no time to waste!” The Frisco Sharp smiled icily. “Fire!” he said. ‘Fate has given you the opportunity, and your vengeance is just. As for me, do you think that I could draw a weapon against your mother’s son, even if I had cause, which God knows I have not?” ‘I do not share your nice scruples,” said the Gentleman from Pike, sternly; ‘ and you shall not escape me by auy such jugglery. Draw, if you are not a coward as well as a villain!” , The lip of the road-agent curled with dis- ain. ‘*T can afford not to resent a charge which, as you make it, you know to be without founda- tion,” he said. ‘‘Do you think that I would avoid death at your hands by subterfuge? No, you know better.” ‘‘Draw, I command you again!” said the other, waving his hand as if impatiently brush- ing aside idle subtleties. ‘‘I am no murderer, I ive youan equal chance. But both of us cannot eave this spot alive! Draw, I say, before I shoot you down like a dog!” The Frisco Sharp stood motionless, his great brown eyes fixed upon the face of his enemy, not with fear or anger, but with sadness, await- ing his doom, arleton raised his cocked revolver and train- ed it on a line with the other’s torehead, just between the eyes, ‘* Draw!” he commanded, in a choag voice, Jules St. Auburn moved not a muscle *¢Then die /” Just coming into sight, those who had been under Carleton’s ender att saw this picture— the dead and the living horse; the man with folded arms and him with revolver extended at arm’s length; and, around, the riven rocks, bearing witness to the terrible convulsions of nature, fit setting for the deadly passions of men! A moment of awful suspense followed. Then the hand that was wont to be as firm as rock began to tremble—the eye that could out- look the mountain lion wavered—the man of iron resolve was shaken to his inmost soul! His arm suuk to his side, His head drooped on his breast. His face worked convulsively, His breast labored with a sob. “T cannot!—I cannot!” he almost moaned. “ Go l—go ” No look of surprise, or relief, or gratitude ap- peared in the face of the Frisco Sharp. He ac- cepted the smile of Fortune just as he had re- ceived her frown. Without question or hesitancy he took his late foe at his word, mounted the living horse, and, not OO R back, rode away before the on- coming mountainmen just as he had ridden be- fore their leader, The surprise of the party may better be im- agined than described. A murmur of wonder and discontent was on every lip. But when they came up fo where their leader stood on the verge of the precipice, not heeding them, but gazing into vacancy, his white, set face and the slumbrous fire of his eyes abashed them, a no one durst question his strange con- uct, But one frowned in sullen hatred, and let his mutterings be heard, - 4 The Gentleman from Pike turned his eyes upon lLim--a terrible look. Big. Mose Finley slunk behind his comrades, cowed, The men accepted the pursuit of the road- agent asatanend. No one had the temerity to continue the chase in the face of their leader's tacit decision, O’Connor dismounted and led his horse for- ward with awkward diffidence. ** Will ver honor, Musther Cairleton, accept the loan o’ me poor baste?” he asked. ‘Sure, surr — ‘* No, thank you,” te ea the Gentleman from Pike. ‘* The coach will be along presently.” The men gat their horses apart, eee among themselves, until the stage arrived. The Gentleman from Pike entered and took a seat, too much engrossed in his own gloom thoughts to give a glance at the lady occupant, who a few minutes before had called after him with so passionate an appeal. Now she shrunk trembling in her corner, her vail closely drawn, and no subtle ivstiuct warn- ed him of the vicinity of— CHAPTER XVIII. FACE TO FACE, Waite the Gentleman from Pike sat im- mersed in gloomy thought, the breast of the strange lady was torn by a storm of conflict- ing emotions—hope and fear, love and remorse. It was well that ber thick vail hid her agitated face—the pallid cheeks, the quivering lips, the tear-streaming eyes that scanned every linea- ment of the man’s clouded countenance, with a longing unutterable., ‘That they should meet!” she mused, with a sick quailing of the heart—‘‘ and at this of all times! Oh! it will harden his heart against me, even if I might have won his forgiveness. Did he overtake him? They must have recog- nized each other. Can he have killed him? Oh! how my folly, my weakness, my wicked- ness wrecked all our lives! Will! Will! I loved you, for ali!” Bearing this strangely united yet divided pee the stage-coach rumbled and swayed and unced into Angel’s Find, a more pretentious place than the parent Hard Luck, boasting a pains. weekly coach, a stamp-mill, and last, not least in the pride of some, the Metropolitan Hotel, into which the No-tic had bloomed. Our hero leaped from the coach, end assisted the lady to alight, trom habitual courtesy, not looking at her. : How her hand trembled while it rested for a moment in bis! ‘‘Ohb! if be but knew!” she mused. ‘‘ Would he be as kind?” Then he was gone, and the lady, almost with tottering steps, ontered the hotel. Once in her room, she threw herself face downward on tho bed and gave way to a storm of tears. ‘*Oh! he will nover forgive me! he wil! never forgive me!” she sobbed, in Gespair. ‘* He will spurn me from as a polluted wretch, I know! But he must forgive me! he shall for- give me!” she pursued, sudden passion burning up her tears, as she gh up and began to ace the room, ‘‘I wonder what passed be- ween jbim and Jules, If he stands in my way— She left off, stopping abruptly in the middle of the floor, and her clenched hands, and set teeth, her frown and the flash of her black eyes were not pleasant to see, Evidently her nature was not all softness. Descending to the hotel parlor, she summoned the landlord—Sutler Bob the “ boys” still called him, though his advertisment in the Desert News read:—‘‘ Rost. Hiacins, Prop.” He placed himself at the service of his guest with all the chivalry of Western deference to woman, ‘Will you please to tell me who is the gentle- ord who assisted me from the coach ?” she asked, ‘The Gentleman from Pike you mean, ma’am?” replied Sutler Bob. ‘Waal, I reckon he’s the boss o’ this hyar town. ,He runs the uartz-crusher you see on yonder raise o’ ground. man—’ But the lady interrupted him breathlessly— + “The Gentleman from Pike |” She flushed scarlet, then turned pale. She was thinking of what Moxy had told her of a man called thus, Sutler Bob stared in wonder and curiosity at her emotion. ‘“'That’s the handle he goes by in these parts,” he said, slowly. ' “A strange name,” murmured the lady, per- haps to cover her confusion. ‘“*¢ Thar’s no accountin’ fur tastes,’ as the old woman said when she mistook a piace of pepper fur a snuff-box,” replied Sutler Bob, oracularly. _“ A married man?” asked the lady. Sutler Bob grinned. ‘Waal, ma’am,” he replied, “this hyar ain’t a likely country to speak knowledgeably in sich things consarnin’ ary man. Ye see, when a pilerins shakes the States an’ strikes his pick into the soil o’ this glorious western cou Hand he _ moatly proposes to start in on a clear title, ; MIGDOOKS.G € (E(0)