Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 114 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

26 The Gentleman from Pike, | ‘the guardians we provide for it will have no | arm or yours the stronger? See! while you are way of distinguishing it from any ordin case, if wedo not tell them the difference.” ae “Oh! pe ED replied the Gentleman from Pike, with a lcok of comprehension. ‘It will be a difficult and delicate task for two men so far away from a suitable place of confinement. But it must be done! We shall succeed!” Tnto‘his face and voice came the iron deter- mination of his nature, and Captain Gunnison knew that. he had found a valuable coadjutor. After that there was a new tenderness in the deference of the Gentleman from Pike toward Mrs. Amberleigh; but to her, as to the rest, the secrets of that conference were sealed. But a few minutes later the speculation of the miners was.lost ina new excitement. It was a man lying on his face on the rocks, unconscious, with a bloody trail showing where he had crept on hands and knees! The Gentleman from Pike was about to turn his face to view, when heshrunk back with a shudder of instinctive repulsion. Captain Gunnison turned the man over. _From more than one lip sprung the exclama- ion: “ The Frisco eg al The Gentleman from Pike was suddenly shaken by a terrible fear. ‘This may have a sinister significance,” he said, breathlessly, to Captain Gunnison—“ and, ipbly, a hopeful one for us! No man is miss- ng from the camp but Mose ing and he lies dead, we know. May not—she have been in collusion with this—man—in the plot of abduc- tion? Revive him—if he is not dead—you! I cannot bring myself totouchhim! Make haste! He may confess—” The Gentleman from Pike spoke disjointedly, his sentences broken by shudderinzs, as he struggled with emotions that rent his soul. Raw brandy, poured down the throat of the unconscious man, did its work. He opene | his eyes and gized about. Capt. Gunnison bent over him and demanded, stern wh: ““Where is Lilian Amberleigh? What have you done with her? ” The mother was on her knees, with c’asped hands, and wide tearless eyes. Breathlessly she hung upon the e ted answer. The Gentleman from Pike, unable to look up- _ on this man who had wronged him so deeply, had turned his back and so stood, quivering from head to foot. The Frisco Sharp glanced at his interrogator, unmoved by his strange appearance; then, look- ing away, let his eyes rest on the passion-shaken form of the Gentléman from Pike, while he an- swered: ‘““There!—in yonder cave! My blood will Jead you!” The moment he comprehended those words, the Gentleman from Pike set out on that san- guinary trail with great bounds, His darling was at the other end! That was enough for him to know! “Fetch this man along, two of you!” com- manded Capt. Gunnison; and then followed the ( ye ci from Pike, with scarcely less ardor tian his, But the mother! Ah! she would have sped with the wings. of abird! No one that saw it ever hr the look on her face, as she ran for- ward! The murmuring cry that issued from her lips came back to them, years after, in dreams. But at the mouth of the cave all stopped in sudden dismay. From the bowels of the earth came those terrible, well-known cries. ‘* The Ghost of the Canyon!” uttered the min- ers, in quivering tones, and with white-lipped fear they stopped short. But with a cry of agony and d ir, the Gentleman from Pike sprung forward into the black mouth of the cavern, groping his way with his bands. No terror could dismay him! He was going to tle rescue of her he loved! Mrs. Amberleigh, with a mother’s blind devo- tion and recklessness of danger to self when called upon to succor her offspring, would have dashed after him, but Cuptain Gunnison seized and detained her. ** Not in there! not in there!” he cried, with a horror that was not born of fear of the Ghost of the Canyon, as his subsequent acts proved. “What! what! Keep me from my child? And she threatened by thet awful peril! Let me go! Let me go, | say!” cried the woman, stru ling frantically to release herself. ** Madoline! Madolins!” cried Captain Gun- nison, with a despair in his face that constrained the attention of the excited woman, ‘‘I implore you, by all our past association, to yield an in- stant, an unquestioning obedience to me in this! Would I ask it of you if there were not an ample reason?” “Do you think I fear the danger?” cried the t mother with a wild, scornful laugh. ‘“ Let me CT PE a ay lost darling is cailing to. m e ‘“‘Tt is not the danger, Madoline!” ““ What reason, then, that can keep a mother from her child?’ Oh! relax your cruel grasp!” ‘“*T cannot tell you! But, listen! HB he per- tint, I'swene that] will not enter there! Is'ny detaining me, what may not happen which I might prevent?” That consideration conquered her, ' **Go! go! I will remain!” she cried, pashing him forward, in her eagerness. ‘See! I wi not move a step nearer! Go! only go!’ And she sunk on her knees, raising her clasp- ed hands and streaming eyes to heaven, end eats aloud upon God to protect her heart’s arling! Thus freed from her importunity, Captain Gunnison turned to the men. “Light torches!” he commanded; ‘‘but do not enter bere! I will kill with my own hand the man who dares to disobey mein this!” Then the black mouth of the cave seemed to swallow him up. Small need was there of his last command. Paralyzed with superstitious dread, the men drew near together while they listened to the strange sounds that issued from the hollow earth, Would either of those bold adventurers who | had braved the terrors of the Ghost of the Can- yon ever come forth again alive? CHAPTER XXXVIZ. THE MYSTERY! For minutes that seemed ages the watchers at the mouth of the cave waited and listened to the muffled sounds made scarcely intelligible by the hollow echoes. The terrible cries of the Ghost of the Canyon had died away into low moanings before the Gentleman from Pike disappeared from view. These continued a little while after Captain Guonison entered. Then there were scunds of another voice seemingly rais‘d in lamentation. A moment later Captain Gunnison appeared at the mouth of the cave, demanding a torch. There was a look of awful horror on his face which be could not disguise. The mother seized his arm. ‘My child! My child!” she panted. “Hush! Remain where you are!” he enjoin- ed, putting her away with infinite tenderness, and turning at once to re-enter the cave. The mother uttered a wild cry. **O-o ch! She is dead! She is dead! See! there is blood on your hands!” And with a shriek, she fell senseless. . Captein Gunnison shuddered with horror. There was blood on bis hands. “Take care of her, scme one!” he pleaded. **T cannot touch her! I would stain her with her child’s blood! My God! after all these years, to find her thus!’ * Boss, is the Angel dead?” asked Moxy, with awe and regret in his face and voice. “Oh! I don’t know! I don’t know! Do not detain me! See to her, some of you!” cried Capt. Gunnison, distractedly. “Don’t worry, yer honor,” srid Tom O’Con- nor. ‘Sure it’s the best attintion we'll be givin’ her, poor thing!” And without waiting longer, Capt. Gunnison tore his agonized geze from the woman whose pain pierced his heart, and dashed into the cave, As he gained the inner chamber and _ held the torch above bis head, the lurid flames in a mea- sure dispelled the gloom, disclosing the Gentle- man from Pike bending over the senseless, per- ne lifeless, body of a woman. h po e agony in his face was terrible to look upon. His iron soul was wrung as no weaker one could be. But as the light fell upon the face of the wo- man, he started back with a sharp cry. ‘* Why—Great Heaven!—” The man gasped; then struck his hands to- gether. ‘* Thank God !—thank God! —” But at that he ibd gt shuddering, In a changed voice, he went on: ‘*My God! What am I saying?” Capt. Gunnison gazed at the woman. She was terribly lacerated, and apparently dead. But she bore no resemblance to Mrs. Amberleigh. Her hair was black. Lilian’s, he knew, was blonde, ““Not her daugh- ‘*Who is this?’ he asked, ter, surely?” ‘* No—no,” said the Gentleman from Pike. “Tt is a Mrs. Seaford.” “The woman whom you suspect of having eS eal abduction?” * Yes ** She has been overtaken by a tcrrible fate!” said Capt. Gunnison, solemnly. , He turned and looked into the shadows ata little distance, There, faintly discernible in the uncertain light, Jay an object at which even now he shuddered. Jtlay motionless; but about it still coiled those hissing pat Lhe Upon closer examination Capt. Gunnison became greatly agitated.. “Tt is dead” he said, at last. ‘Her dagger did the work. It must have been a terrible struggle!” Then he stood motionless, with his eyes fixed On aS and his features working spasmodi- rr pa SN I Ce He was called from his abstraction by the voice of the Gentleman from Pike. “‘But where is the poor child whom we ex- cted to find here? e must look further for ier, Butwhere? Ah! Lhaveit! We will force him to confess!” He avoided the name of Jules St. Anburn. Capt. Gunnison seemed suddenly’ possessed of - a feverish restlessness. : “* Let us search the cave first,” he said, rapidly. ‘*Sbe may be here.” Even as he 2 bg walking forward, the. Gentleman from Pike uttered a cry and sprung across the cavern. In an instant he had Lilian Amberleigh in his arms. A hurried examination showed that she was only in a swoon. **Mine! mine, at last! No earthly power can separate us now! Thank God! thank God!” And the man who loved with a strong man’s love covered that unconscious face with tears - and kisses. Capt. Gunnison shared to the full in this trans- port of delight, Ah! what a glorious surprise he ~ would have for the long-tried mother when she ' awoke from ker swoon! **Come on!’ cried the Gentleman from Pike, rising with the woman of his love clasped close over his heart; and he would instantly have borne her from the cave. , Pe Fut Capt. Gunnison detained him. “Stop! Her mother lies in a swoon, thinking - her dead! Let us revive her here, to that she - can appear alive and well.” In a moment they had brought her to, Her first act, on cpening her eyes, filled the soul of » the Gentleman from Pike with a strain of thanksgiving that from that moment wever ceased its blessed vibration! She clesped him about the neck with a cry that told Lim all that he hurgered to know! After a moment’s selfish revel in her love, he told her who bis strangely-attired con panion was; and then gertly troketolcr the news of her mother’s restoration to them. Atthat she was tiansported with a frenzy of ' Celight, She ran forwerd, clinging to his Land, however. So they emerged from the cave. What a shout went pat é‘ Tt must have startled Mrs. Amberleigh’s slug- srish sensibilities into renewed ectivity. Her’ first ccnscicusness wes cf clinging arms, rap-" turous kisses, and a voico thet sounded like an angel’s, erving: “Mamma! mamma! mamma! My own dar- ling!—derling!—darling!—darling namma!”’ © en her arms closed about her long-lost treasure! of Pe Enough! The pen falters! Mrs. Amberleigh and her daughter were - : ried away under the escort of Captain Gun son. . Then the Gentleman from Pike entered the cavcrn and bore forth the cead body of Seaford. A stretcher was made, and the body placed bo oti it. Tom O Ccnnor was then asked to stand guard oe the mouth of the cave, and allow no one to enter. of guarding that unkown 7hing alone, but was at last reassured by the Gentleman from Pike, pers tock him apart and talked to him in a low one, . When the rest of the party were ready to set out. for the mining-camp, Moxy said, referring to the Frisco eee ‘*Look a-hyar, boss, what shall we do with this cuss? Can’t we hang bim here, to yonder pine, as well as certin’ him into camp?” Then in icy tones the Gentleman from Pike said: * Let him go!” The miners stood agog. : re ‘*T am the aggrieved party,” said the Gentle’ man from Pike, sternly, ‘‘ Again, I say, let him go! This bcrse isat his disposal.” = Moxy’s hand fell away from the prisoner, The Frisco Skarp stood a mcment, irreso] oor atthe men whose magnanimity had re nA peate i given Lim his life, whose eyes had’ never looked at him when avoicable. “T have wrenge?l you mrch—” So far he got. But the Gentl.man from cut him short, with a furious stamp of the foo and a muffled cry of euch scavare hatred that . every man within sound of bis voice, save only the Frisco Sharp bimsclf, quailcd wi'h dread. Without a word ferther, Jules St. Auburn turned, mounted the horse with difficulty, and’ rode slowly away, ' Everybody locked after him but the Gentle- man from Pike, who was already walking in the direction of the camp, s. Seaford was decently buried. In the darkness of night a man came and Al for several hours, watering. the new-made mound with his tears. It was the Frisco Sharp. That night Tom O’Connor was relieved from his guard by two shadowy forms. The three® entered the cave; bore forth a Something to se-- cret burial in the mountain fastnesses; then fit” ted like phantcms back to camp. | Eomicbookse He turned a little pale at the thought’ Hal(El) LAL Ty