Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 173 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

a i , . ‘ << * * aw ee ee 5 | ~who, when they get a tumble, land always on ' their feet, jest like a cat, you know. Of course : I don’t know exactly how the man that was cmon up the other night put up for you, but bt this I kin say, I kin do jest as well by you. i You are jest as handsome a woman as ever I laid eyes on, and you have got grit, too, and BA that suits me; but you want silks and satins, . and finery and jewels to light you up, and that ‘ «is what [ kin give you. Jest you jine your fortunes with me, and I will give you my word that thar sha’n’t be a better dressed woman west of the Mississippi.” The girl had listened to this proposal with a liar expression upon her face. (+ “*T regret that Iam unable to bring myself to accept your offer,” she responded, “ but it is so sudden, so unexpected—” **Thar ain’t much time for ceremony in this hyer case,” Bill interposed. ‘‘ What has to be done has got to be done mighty quick. It’s life that Iam offering you, miss, and I s’pose you » ‘wnderstand, too, that I am risking my own in trying to make the riffle, for I tell you the boys | would be mighty apt to make short work of me if they thought I was trying to play any gum- - game on ’em.” ‘It cannot be, no matter what fate is in store for me,” and Miss Romero spoke so decidedly that even bull-headed Bill knew further argu- ment would be useless. i. f ” ' “Well, I am so i ‘range it, somehow,” he remarked, rising to de- . part. ‘‘Of course I will do all I kin for you in i @ fair way, but, if you had taken my offer, I hcsss would have had you out of this by a trick afore --—ss- you was a week older or I would have been a dead man.” Hardly had the words left his lips when there ‘was a strange interruption to the scene. The window, which looked out upon the rear Of the hotel, was open at the bottom, though the curtain was down so that no one without __ eould look into the apartment, and through this ppening a small white parcel came flying into ® room. CHAPTER XXXV. ON THE SCENT. Tue parcel fell directly at Alcibiades’s feet, and he at once stooped and possessed himself of it, for he comprehended immediately that it _ Was a communication intended for the captive. As he had surmised, the parcel consisted of a sheet of note-paper wrapped carefully around a stone and tied with a string. ** You will really have to excuse me for look- dng into this hyer thing,” he said, as he slipped the string from the stone, and unfolded the é A ee i ‘amy * . . ; » Pi -—X o ' J ~., a - on a paper. : | cn ill was puzzled by this strange affair, and puzzled still more by the fact that the girl ap- peared to be as astonished as he was by the un- _ «xpected messenger, for, unless she was a most ‘ jae? expert actress indeed, she was entirely taken mY rise. And then, too, she did not mani- Fe, omer the least objection to his proposed exami- mation, Aa In amavement ho read aloud: ~~ -*Do not despair; a friend is near, and aid will iy ener Sp when you least expect it. Keep up & stout os raf heart for the ghost of California John is watching over you, ,can these weak mortals do when ip _ opposed to a spirit from the other world?" A There was. ne signature, nothing but these few words, and it would have been a difficult matter to have decided which was the most annoyed—the condemned gir], or the keen- wit- > Sed, ne age Keno Bill. At first sight the letter seemed like a hoax, © ‘but who would want to play such a trick upon the girl? And then, too, how had it been pos- sible for any one to have flung the missile ‘through the window without being detected by _ the armed guards, a line of whom completely _. surrounded the house! “ZT reckon that this hyer is a joke, miss,” Bill observed, ‘‘and for the present I will keep it myself until I look into matter a bit. Cali- fornia John was hanged, and I never knew ie fhe men to take much interest in the affairs | Of this hyer world arter the execution was over, «80 I wouldn’t advise you to build much bope on | what this sorap of paper says, but I will look into the affair right away, and if it isa joke I | pity the man that put up the job if I get my _ hands on him.” | Then Keno Bill withdrew from the room, _ teaving the captive to reflections which were far more pleasant than she would have cared to acknowledge, for to her there was more in the f } 7 — = 2 i ome —s ‘ a - | fl i . * ‘ 4 ante — ae. to eee < —_ 2 *. d PEM teats BE THY Es afi 7 — eee - je é me i } a ; : cibiades went down-stairs and briefly re- ported to the assembled citizens the unsatisfac- i _ tory results of his interview, and then, when + they fell into a hot discussion over the matter, att _ he withdrew from the room, bent upon solving _ the riddle of the mysterious communication. DR _ He walked around to the back of the house, _ Erury one of the guards seemed to be keeping vigilant watch, and as the person who threw _ the stone in through the window must have ap- i " dithtite- than the mere words implied ” proached quite close to the house, it was a mys- wy eal _ tery to Bill how it could have been done with- i =~ @8b ertmee, the attention of the guard. _ . Alcibiades determined to question the senti- get e 0 |e aes eee een A é ig 7 . iy * 7 . oe Pas oN ; ia . 7 2? ° on , ; Steere wre ew eee a | | , miss, that we can’t ar- | composure; in fact the Doc was not vwasily dis- , . % a ey é o . es ee ee hh “4 eet PP Me - — - "It iS e , ny et A A , 7" * ... 4 ’ on nel, and upon approaching him discovered that it was the Doctor. ‘ ‘The durned cuss?’ Bill muttered, the mo- ment he made this discovery ; ‘‘I don’t take any more stock in that — than in a broken- winded mule. He’d be willing to sell his own andmother for a five-dollar bill. Vll bet a undred dollars to a cent that he’s the man who chucked that stone into the window; but what is his little game, anyway? The gal didn’t seem to understand the note any moré than I did, and who in thunder is it cavorting around the town pretending to be the ghost of California John? I reckon thar is a mighty big rat in the meal-tub somewhar if I kin only git holt on it.” The Doctor, who, with a pipe between his teeth, from which he was puffing great clouds | of smoke, and a breech-loading rifle on his | } ing shoulder, was ‘pacing up and down, apparent! much more occupied in enjoying himself than in watching the prisoner, was for a moment | startled when Alcibiades advanced upon him suddenly from the gloom. The.light from the , the Pacific Thoroughbred. > # ‘ wf \. I] oly ay operation for nearly four hours, so that the pay- master not only had an opportunity for rest ont for relaxation as well, and this he got by going into Charley Yampas’s place and attempting to cut the claws of the ‘‘ tiger.” This was no easy task as others had proved, but the paymaster was a high-tone sport, if such a one had ever struck the town, and having | plenty of money at his back he succeeded in do- ing what had never been done before—he broke the bank! Five thousand was Yampas’s limit, and the stranger got away with it, and the faro game in the Silver Hell shut up for repairs. Just after this momentous event, one of the most astounding that had occurred in the his- tory of the town, while the crowd were ‘‘h’ist- ing p’ison” at the op berg expense and envy- im his g fortune, old is tens in with the intelligence that the coach was all ready for a start, Gracefully then the stranger withdrew from his new-found friends, and with his plunder de- hotel windows illuminated the circumscribed | parted; more than one man in the crowd ge- beat of the guard so that the two thus abruptl brought face to face could easily distinguish each other’s features. ‘‘Say, what do you mean by this little game?” cried Alcibiades, angrily, scowling upon the Doctor. But that gentleman had quickly recovered his concerted ; if was a common sa ying in the town that the medicine sharp couldn’t be abashed by pag short of a brick house falling on i. ‘*Why, I am on guard here, watching to see that the gal don’t hop out of her window u there, you know,” and the Doctor jerked his thumb significantly upward toward the illu- minated window of the prisoner’s apartment. ‘‘Gammon! You know what I mean, well enough. You didn’t reckon, I guess, that I was in the room up yonder A obese you chucked this stone with the letter Wrapped around it into the window,” and Bill produced the articles. A slight shade passed over the Doctor’s face, but he covered up his confusion—if confusion it A ' i A rr cretly wishing that he had pluck enough to turn road-agent, and relieve the visitor of the spoils which he bad g0 easily won. The driver, having some little fear that some such trick might be attempted, had taken the trouble to warn his passenger; it was something rare for the old man to interfere in anything not exactly in the line of his duties, but he ha taken an interest in the passenger and had made up his mind to “ put him through” all right if he could All went well until after midnight, and the moon was up full and clear; then, in passing over @ rolling prairie, broken here and there with little clumps of timber, a horseman rode out suddenly from behind a small cluster of trees right into the trail. « He was weil-mounted and well-armed, for two good-sized revolvers glistened in his hands. The driver bt up his steeds at once and came to a dead halt, for he understood that tue presence of the unknown in the trail boded ne | good. | **Ware hawk!” heeried, “‘ what do you want was—very adroitly by a vacant sort of stare up | thar?” at the curtained window and then down upon the articles in the hand of Alcibiades. ‘* You see you are caught, and the only thing not asleep as Si had feared, and instantly for you to do is to make a clean breast of it!” Bill exclaimed, roughly. ‘* What on earth are you talking about, re- spected William?’ the Doctor asked, a look of This was done to warn the paymaster that there was danger ahead The passenger was b- bing his revolvers, thrust his head out of tho window . ** Hallo, what’s up?” At the same moment the stage-driver recog- rofound astonishment upon his round, fat | nized the beast upon which the stranger was ace. Alcibiades was terribly amazed at this pre- tended ignorance. “Oh, you can’t get out of it! I have got you foul this time. * You wrote this hyer note to the thinking that I war thar and that it would fall into my clutches. Is’pose, by the same token, that you are the man who has been playing ghost all over the town and I reckon that you will get your neck stretched for that.” ** ook a-here, Bill, are you drunk or crazy?” the Doctor demanded, with a great deal of dig- nity. ‘‘Whatdo you mean charging such things upun me? hat have 1 got to do with the girl? And, as for this note that you talk about, [reckon that it will be an easy matter to prove whether it is in my handwriting or not. And then the ghost business, if you can get over the fact that I can prove where I was when the ghost a Speaphee you are welcome to _—s me; and I look a heap like the ghost that t high and the Californian was five feet eight or anybody for him !” he Doctor’s defense was so strong that Bill | was puzzled. It wasclear that even if he had written the note he could not possibl eg Me the ghost; both the captain and said that they had distinctly recognized the features of the hanged man in the face of their assailant. **Oh, you are cunning enough, but I will tri tn up yet, smart as you think you are!” Bill lurted out, as he turned aver sullen rage, leaving the Doctor to continue his talk. “I wili have to poison that big brute,” the Doctor remarked, as he watched the burly figure of the Keno King melt into the gloom. ‘I will have to do it the first chance I get.” CHAPTER XXXVI A STRANGE ENCOUNTER. THE westward-bound coach had been unusu- ally late in leaving Needie Bar that day. The eastern coach with which it connected had not arrived until after dark, and, as it happened, | had only brought a single passenger, an army ee ae en route to Fort Yuma; he had been or two days shut up in the eastern stage, the roads being bad, and so had begged the driver | ef the western hack “for Heaven’s sake!” to | — describe, too, don’t 1? [ am about five feet | him and the face was covered with a ten! Oh, yes, I could easily play myself off on | mask. have | ohnson | | his leetle five thousand then,” the gal and then flung it through the window, little | remarked. the compliment. mounted. ‘*Blow me tight! he cried, ‘‘if it ain’t Charley Yampas’s mar’!’’ ‘The master of the Silver Hell has come after paymaster ‘‘He is not satisfied ‘to give it up so, Mr. Brown.’ What he has lost through lack of skill and want of luck, he calculates to make up by force, but we will try te give him a Roland for his Oliver!” ‘‘Be not alarmed, my gentle friend,” quoth the horseman, in deep-toned accents, such as never had come from thé lips of Yampas. *‘ No mischief is intended although the moonbeams dance and play upon the shining steel of my weapons. ey are displayed merely as a hint for you to halt your fiery steeds in their wild career. Llonly wish to inquire if you have on board oF OnE hearse my esteemed friend, Pay- master McCook, of the United States Army.”’ The passenger stuck his head still further out of the window in order to see if he could recog- - nize the speaker, but the voice was strange to black **My name is McCook,” the paymaster said, ‘but as far as I know I have never had the pleasure of your acquaintance. If you will take off your mask, though, I may be able to rec ze you.” “You will realy have to excuse me from complying with your very reascnable request; I have made a vow to keep my face covered un- til a certain time elapses,” the horseman re- lied “Besides, to see my face would not efit you in the least, as, to the best ef my knowledge, this is the first time we have ever ”? McCook began to be interested in this mys- terious personage, so different from the erdimary road-agent, for this was not the first time that the paymaster had been waylaid in this wild Western land. ‘To what may I ascribe the pleasure of this meeting then?’ asked the passenger, determined not to be outdone in civility. ‘*My business is easily explained. Although I have never met you, yet your fame has reached my ears. I have been told that you are one of the best shert-card players that ever - Struck the Pacific slope.” The paymaster bowed in acknowledgment of In reality he did rather pride ere him time te stretch his legs around town a | himself upon his skill at poker and kindred it. A five-dollar gold piece deftly insinuated | games. into the horny palm of the veteran, Si Holcomb, | about the oldest driver on the line, induced that | worthy to pretend that his team needed new ‘‘T too flip the papers once in a while for a consideration, more or less,” the horseman ¢on- tinued, ‘‘and ever since I heard that you were shoes, and he contrived to dilly-dally about this ‘in this part of the country I have just been : +. > ~ 5 ~*~ ‘ fy , . Met - ‘ . sah on ten Oe ne Je Bei ee ee aid ? m G a wet <> ange 2 <> +] ——e ;