Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 173 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

. — Ae _< ~ ne % = = ae, 4 « ~ ' proaching. She listened for a moment, - nized the steps, and hastening to the door, ad- mitted the Hunchback, She saw by the expression upon his face the moment he entered that he had come Jaden with momentous news. ‘* Well, what is it?’ she asked, seating herself by the table again. ‘‘He has come at last,” he replied, helping himself to a stool. ‘*[ felt sure that he would come—if not to this camp, to some other along this new line. He would not dare to stay in California, for his fears would tell him that, sooner or later, I would be sure to find him, but down in this new country, where a new camp springs up each new day, he would be apt to fancy that he could tind concealment and safety.” ‘* He is here, and yet he is not here.” **What do you mean?’ ‘*He is here, and yet safe from your yven- peance.” ‘No, not safe from my vengeance until the earth hides him!” the woman cried, fiercely. ‘‘He is not under the earth, yet, although safe from your vengeance, or any one else’s, tur that matter.” Tine woman gazed at the Hunchback earnestly for a moment. ‘*T guess what you have to say; Martin Ken- von is dead.” ‘* Yes, stabbed to the heart in the street of the ary 8 a couple of hours ago.” ‘“By whom? What foe tracked him down aod robbed me of my vengeance?’ ‘ff you do not know, I do not know who does,” the Hunchback replied, meaningly. ‘* How should I know?” responded the woman, a look of astonishment in her eyes, ‘* Because the man was killed with a bodkin- like dagger, exactly like the one with the golden handle which you use as an ornament in your hair.” With the quickness of thought, the woman carried her hand to her head to pluck forth the little golden-hilted dagger which she usually wore thrust through the gréat mass of blue- flack hair crowning her superb head. A ery of alarm came from her lips; the orna- ment was not there! ** You see it is gone; you have lost it!” Yes,” and the woman seemed dazed by the fact. ‘Why did you fling it away after you had done the deed?” ‘‘Are you mad to think such a thing?’ she cried, impatiently. “The man was killed with the weapon— stabbed right to the heart, and—”’ ‘*Do you think I could encounter Martin Kenyon and overcome him with such a feeble weapon as my hair-dagger?”" Hiko looked at her thoughtfully for a mo- ment. ‘No,’ he said, after quite a pause; ‘‘ he was in liquor; you surprised him in some way, and thon slew him.” “Have it your own way!” she cried. ‘‘ What did he call himself here?’ The Hunchback’s face seemed to say, ‘‘ Wh ask what you already know?” but he y APES all the same. ** He went by the’ name of Jason Wentworth, end was as full of boasts as ever. A young wairl came with him.” ‘A young girl—did you see her?” ‘* No, her name, or rather the name he gave at the hotel, was Miss J. Romero.” ‘*Romero? Romero? Ido not know any one by that name. What do you think, Hiko, will she be apt to interfere with our purpose?’ ‘“T cannot tell that, of course, until I discover now much she knows of Kenyon’s plans.” ‘* We must give our attention to that at once.” ‘There has been a man accused of the mur- ler of Kenyon, or Wentworth, as the people usre know him.” ‘“ Yes?” ‘He was foolish enough to produce the dag- zer with which the deed was evidently done, -nd which he said he had found.” “ That accounts for it; when I was in the town, this evening, it must have fallen out of ay hair, and he found it. Who is the man?” ‘‘A bold, reckless fellow, careless alike of sither life or death. Ihave heard of him be- fore, although I never methim. He calls him- self California John, here, but on the Pacific coast I am pretty certain that he was known as Jackson Blake, the Fresh of Frisco. The man answers the description which I have heard given of the Fresh, to the letter, and if it is not the man himself, he is near enough like him to be his double.” ‘‘ Hiko, this man must be saved!” the woman exclaimed, decidedly. ‘‘ We need just such a man; we will have use for him.” « As to saving him, that is all right; I am | agreeable; but, to use him is another thing, for trom what I have seen of him I fancy it will not be so easy a job as you imagine.” “Let me my will: we need such a man to oppose to Al- cibiades; for Keno Bill must be pulled down.” Rar« »'ctters this strange pair, as the reader “Wi! -see anon <- < gh ~/ , —— = = - - — ee -_ . ie OP rn. Ss tay ‘ - California John, the Paci one to tind a way to break him to | / - ww a ai P “ aot a ag a ye ' “ ef - = Or 7 a : S . m4 P -2 (ie - : a 2 : < ¥ : ; » eit Sark C Thoroughbred. 5 aN - CHAPTER VII. experience in courts that he was, for an out- : sider, very well posted in regard to the law, Frew men who have had experience in legal | and he managed to make out a pretty strong matters have not chafed and fretted at the | case against the prisoner. law’s delays, but in Judge Lynch’s court the | The first witness wasthe man who had discov- speed of the trial is only equaled by the quick- | ered the body; and a couple more of the citizens, ness of the execution of the sentence. _ who had closely followed the first, testified to So it was in this case. The stranger who had | about the same thing. Then came the doctor signalized his entrée into the town by picking a | of the town, Silas Rice—Doc Si, as he was com- uarrel with the best man in it, was ‘‘put | monly called—the biggest scamp that ever es- ugh ”’ with astonishing rapidity. | ca from a white jail, but a really excellent It was close on midni it when he had been | medical man, for all that, when he was not so accused of the murder of the swaggering sport, drunk as to be utterly incapable of motion, and at six o'clock on the following morning the | which was his normal condition. In fact it was court assembled to try the case. only in the morning, as a rule, that the doctor ‘‘There wasn’t a-going to be any hanging on by | was inastate to attend to business, and from the gills, in this matter,” more than one citizen | supper-time to nine at night. The Doc com- observed. The stranger was going to get | menced drinking in the morning right after justice short and sharp if not sweet. breakfast, by high noon he was chock-full, and It was the first time Judge Lynch had made | all the afternoon was occupied in sleeping it off his appearance in Needle Bar. True, there had | in some retired corner. en he “came up been a few affrays in which pistols and knivés | smiling” for supper, and after the evening had played. prominent parts, and there had | meal was dispatched, immediately proceeded been bloodshed followed by death, but the in- | to “load up,” so that by nine or ten o’clock he habitants, like sensible men, held that if two | Was in that peculiarly blissful state when a man men, with a grudge against each other, choose | is not supposed to be capable of seeing a hole to fight it out, it wasn’t any one’s business as | through a forty-foot ladder. , long as the thing was conducted on the square. But, as it was early in the morning, the doc- If one of the parties was killed, he was quietly tor was sober, and as he had made a careful buried and no fuss made about it. More civil- | examination of the body, he was able to givea very clear account of how the man had come to his death, In the clearest manner he swore that the stranger had been killed by just such a weapon roduced. cross-examine the wit- nessesin a sharpand shrewd way. The defense upon which he relied was an clibi. If he could succeed in showing that he was somewhere els» at the time that the stranger was stricken in the street, why, it would be evidence positive that he could not be the assassin. By the evidence of the witnesses he proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that the stranger had left Keno Bill’s saloon about eleven o’clock, and tried to show that at that time he was in the saloon, which he did not leave until he went into the street to settle the quarrel in which hoe had become entangled with Alcibiades, and therefore it wasclearly impossible that he could | have been the slayer of the stranger. There was one weak point in this defense and that was, California John had come so quietly into The Homeof Alcibiades that not a single soul within the saloon had noticed his entry. The first time his pepemmes had been noticed by any one within the room was when the big mule-driver from Hualpais, Jake Hairpin, had centered public attention upon him by insisting upon his drinking. Quick to put two and two together, unculti- ated as they were, these rough men did nob ail to observe that the prisoner had not Leen able to prove conclusively that he was in the saloon before the stranger quitted it. And Keno Bill tried his best to impress upon the minds of the jury that there was plenty of time | for the Californian to attack and kill the stran- ger; then slip into the saloon so as to be ready to prove an alibi. he es point agpinet the prisoner was that he had produced the weapon with which the man had evidently been s!ain, or a‘ any ized communities reack the same result, ‘in self-defense,” but only after a long trial and a great waste both of time and money. There had been a few cases of robbery and murder, but in allof them the wrong-doer had contrived to cover up his track so well as not even to leave a peg behind on which to hang suspicion, and it was useless to rouse up Judge Lynch to follow on a ‘‘ blind” trail. But on this occasion it really looked as if they had got hold of the man, ‘“‘ red-handed,” as it were. Keno Bill had taken it upon himself to play a prominent part in the proceedings; circum- stances, too, rather forced him forward. From the time he first set eyes upon California John a premonition came to him that the stranger was fated to make him trouble; and, in hi sharp way, he had seized upon the first oppor- tunity to bring matters to a focus. With his good right hand he had intended to sweep the gentleman from the Pacific slope from his path. But, Fate seemed inclined to take a hand in the game, and instead of being a principal in bringing down the man he feared, he was to be but an Instrument. ; The organization of Judge Lynch’s court was the first thing in order, an this, after consider- able discussion, was accomplished. Captain Joe Kerstiuds was nominated for Judge Lynch, and elected without a dissenting vote; but the old frontiersman was not willing to accept the office without a jury to pass upon the case. ‘*[ don’t believe in any one man responsi- bility!” he declared. ‘‘It is contrary to the spirit of our free American institutions.” Soa ng 4 of twelve men were chosen, and Keno Bill, being the accuser, volunteered to act as the prosecuting ——— The court was convened in the open street, since there was no building in the town lar enough to accommodate the crowd, and the sheriff was notified to - ang the prisoner, ent] which he immediately did. rate, one exactly like it. Little responsibility attached itself to the | e tide was setting strongly against the sheriff in this case, for the Californian, per- | Thoroughbred, and bets were freely offered, two fectly conscious of his innocence, did not think | to one, that he would be convicted. he would have the least difficulty in proving it, | : and so rather courted the trial than shrunk | CHAPTER VIII. from it. | QUEER JUSTICE, No time was wasted; the moment the prisoner | THE Jast witness brought forward ws the was produced the trial commenced, oung lady who had accompanied the stranger The appearance of the court was common- to the town, Miss Jennie Romero, as the dead place enough, but arran so that ‘every one | man had registered her upon the hotel book. could get a good view of the proceedings. A _ Universal interest was excited when the beau- wagon had been provided fer the accommoda- | tiful young girl appeared open the scene. She tion of the judge and jury, and although the was a perfect picture, with her pale, statuesque thirteen men in it were rather crowded, yet it | beauty, her hair and eyes bla:k as night, and answered the pu very well. Another | ber features as finely cut as a Grecian model. wagon held the prisoner and the sheriff, and , She told the simple story of her life, or as much still another one Keno Bill and the witnesses | of it as she knew, for it was plain from her who were to testify in regard to the matter, statement that there wasa great deal of mys- The old captain opened the court with a brief | tery : bout her younger; days. ch. He spoke of the violent taking off of From early childhood she had been educated ine serene, and how important it was that | at one of the convents on the Pacific slope, and such a bloody deed should not go unpunished, | all she knew in regard to her relatives was that and wound up by assuring the prisoner that as | she had an uncle living who paid her bills, and far as he, the judge, was concerned, he should | who would one day come and take her away have the fairest and the squarest kind of a | when she was old encugh. In time that uncle trial. came, Jason Wentworth, the man who hai “That is all I ask, judge!” John spoke up, | come to his death in such a fearful manner. never able to keep quiet, for the life of him. Just one year had elapsed since she had quitted ‘‘You shall have it, sir, you can bet your | the convent, and that time had been spent in bottom dollar on it!” the old captain reassured. | traveling from place to place. Her uncle said ‘But you ought to have a lawyer to defend | that he was a speculator, and that, she pre- you,” he added. sumed, accounted for his roaming habits. In ‘No, thank you,” was the Fresh’s answer. | answer to a question from the judge as to ‘‘T reckon I am lawver enough to look out for | whether she had ever seen the prisoner before, myself, and if I can’t I will have to stand the | she replied that she had not, and was quite sure consequences, that’s all.” that if he had ever had any business transaction ‘It's your game, sir; play it amy way you | with ber uncle during the past year she would please.” have known something of it. Then the real business of the day com- The girl was as cold and impassive as a statue, menced. Keno Bill was ‘‘no slouch of a law- | and did not betray the least emotion; but, ons yer,” as more than one of the spectators re- | thing all agreed upon, and that was, no hand- marked, In fact, Alcibiades had had so much somermaid had ever breathed Arizonicn air, as the Californian had John did not neglect TL KR ’ W > ‘ aS ian’. z ea es Fe Py , ao 7 fe» hh re eres, ae . aes o; oe we asp Oa eee. — {> = 65 — _ fo ens SE. ees age lag mr By ., POs ee! <A Rad tie