Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 195 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

The Lone Star Gambler. — —— Se ee For an instant, young Adler stood, pale as death; trembling in the attempt to battle with and control bis pission, while the hot blood rusbed like melted lava through bis veins, “‘ Draw and defend yourself!” Tbus yelled Cerbury, as in a staggering could not, he judged, be dangerous. open his vest and shirt, found tbat a bullet bad pierced the young man’s heart, bullet which had glanced, and therefore it | Charles then returned to the side of the - prostrate form of James Carbury, and, tearing , parted in silence, Gumbo, meanwhile, haviag manner be began pacing off the ground, and ‘Tam lost! Lost! Lest!’ he cried in the then took his position ai ten of his irregular | bitterness of his heart. ‘‘Father in -heaven, paces from his unwilling op;onent. Charles pity me! 1am lost, indeed. The. -gibbet, the | Adler wus now calm. “1 do not wi-b, ner do Lintend tofght you, | innocent of any crime. Whv can bave Gone James,” be said, but-in a vice that, steady | this dastardly decd? It is not possible that. I though it was, sounded strargely hoarse and | could have inadvertently lowered my weapon unnatural, ‘ You are intoxicated to-night. {| at the last moment, Is there no way of. ex- will reason with you when youare in a fit | plaining this fearful mystery? God help me! state of mind to understand me. You have | I shall go mad, insane, and my gibbering lips grossly insulted me, but I can make some | shall mutter nothing but blood)” Joom of a murderer awaits me, although I ym | 7 oe a ghastly forms and feayful demons, conjured up by the boding words of old Aunt Huldy, A moment more and the negroes had de- insisted upon baving a chambermaid to attemd him through the dark passages of the rambling old mansion, . Presently Colonel Carhury rushed out from the door at the head of the landing, and demanced; \ ‘What does all this mean, Aunt Huldy? Why did you have me cisturbed? What has occurred to call for all this noise and confusion _ at this hour of the night?” allowances, and will pass that over. You are not responsible for your base and cowardly act; and, as for the young lady whose name you have dragged into this unseemly dispute, I respect her too much to think of forfeiting her regard by raising @ weapon against her brother.” These words seemed only to incense James Carbury the more. Doubly maddened now, he swung his revolver in the air, and cried out in a voice of tury: ** Knough of such bosh, Charles Adler! You and I are not babies, I suppose. Draw, or I will shoot you in your tracks, as I would a dog whom I caught trespassing!” “I understand you, James Carbury. You are bent on killing me. Be it so, then. I only draw my weapon to save you from the doom of a deliberate murderer, I shall not barm you. Ishail shoot in the air—remember that! Never at you, James Carbury! I shall shoot in the air.” A stifled ery from the direction of the man- sion came upon the soit cveuing breeze, but aiid the war of human passions it floated past | them unheard. A flutter of white garments, in another instant, might have been seen approacbing thrvugh the shrubbery. Crezed and intoxicatel, James Carbury raised his pistol, and thea yelled at bis antagonist; ** Shoot at the word, Adler!” “I shall sboot into the magnolias over your head,” wa¢q the firm reply; ‘aud God forgive you, if you take my lite!” As he said these words, Charles Adler pointed his weapon skyward, at the same time closing bis eyes, and breathing an earnest prayer, in which the words ‘“ Mother” and “Cora” were alone audible, ** One—two—three!”’ As the last word died on James Carbury’s lips, a shriek of horror, the most intense, close followed by a loud report of pistols, simul- taneously discharged, and James Carbury and his sister Cora, who at that moment had come rushing through the shrubbery, both fell to the earth. ‘James Carbury had heard the shriek of his sister at the very instant that the word ‘** Three ”—the very last he was to utter this side of eternity—sounded on the air; and his finger touched the trigger, as lightuing-like his thoughts were now centered upon Cora, whose vuice he recognized in that agonizing scream, Through the heart of Charles Adler the wild pleading ery cut like a stab of cold steel, At the same moment, he felt a stinging sens.tion in his shoulder, and opening his eyes quickly, he bebeld a sight that caused the blood to con- geal in his veins, and the very marrow in his bones to seem turned into ice, There, in front of bim, and but ten paces away, stretched at full length upon the green sward, was James Carbury, the antagonist, at whom he had not shot; and, at but a iew paces to the west, and above them, lay Cora, the angel of his waking dreams, — ‘ihe faces of both sister and brother were upturned to the moon, pale as if chiseled from blocks of Parian oe eeeeE———EEEE—————— While the unhappy young man thus raved in | agony of mind, sounds of confusion were. issu- ing from the mansion, and soon there came to “Gol a’mighty, marse curnil! didn’t yer hear dat shootin’?’ ** Shooting? No, usual, 1 bave been asleep, however. was it? I bave heard nothing un- Where Did the reports sound as if fired in the grounds bere, near at hand? Where is your young master?” his ears, along the shell strewn yeth, the pat- | ‘‘ Hit done sounded, pears to dis chile, rigbt tering of feet. With a convuisiye shudder, clos’t, Marse Jemes, did yer say, marse cur- Charles Adler pressed a hurried kiss upon the | nil? I basn’t sot dese gle eyes on him sence brow, and then upon the lips of his senseless | breckfus.” darling, and then darted off, as if the fiends | “Run out tlrovugh the garden, will you? were on his trail, through the magnolios, and | Call some of the boys, and then +end Phillis gp in the direction of his home—the home that he | to Miss Cora’s rocm and see if she is asleep. had left scarce more than one bour before with | Ha! Joe, you are there, I see, Go and find high bopes and happiest anticipations, out if your Marse James bes retired,” Wildly, from time to time, as he. ran, he Slowly and reluctantly two cf the affrighktad clinched his hands and rai-ed them toward the | negroes ;rcceeded through the garden, both of tright clear heavens, as he cried out in a voice | them tren. bling with fear and imagining roms that was choked with despair aid desperation; | hcrrible shape abcut to emerge from each ‘She said it! My mother said it! Blood | flowering shrub, The two slaves who had will come of this. I should think—so she said | Leen dispatched to the chambers soon returned —that your father would rise from his quiet | witb scared faces, and reported that neither giave, when you walk past it with aCarbury | ‘ Marse Jemes” nor Miss Cora were in their Ly your side! It has come! It is tliat, and | rooms, and tbat their beds had not Leen dis- ncthing less, The curse of my injured father | tu: bed. has scorched my brain. My lips are parched, With a very «mpbatic ejaculation, and one and blood-——nothing but blood from beuceforth | which expressed his surprise and concern, Cole can quench my thirst, Blood, blood on my | onel Cartury sprung from the veranda to the trail; my every footprint is indelibly marked, | graveled walk, tut at the seme instant a pierce Biood is in the sky, and in the very air that I | ing cry of terror burst cn the night air. ard Lbrcatbe, But no, I can not breathe it! the two slaves who bad been sent to «xploie “Gh, horror of horrors! What bave I done, | the garders came Lounding over the fluwer- Almighty God, tbat this terrible wrong, this | beds trom the di) ecticn of the magnolia giove, most damning wrong shouid be hurled down | as if a legion of cemons was in pursuit, upon my innocent head?, The profs are too ““Hold:” yelled the colonel, ‘Step this } lain—too strong against me. Even she, Cora, | crazy nousense. Do ycu heart What have my own heart’s idvul, will see, and edmit it, and | you seen, you co\vardly vagabonds?” iuise her voice against me. She will detest me **Marse Jemes!” exclaimed one, with ¢:cm- in her inmost sou), and willingly will speak | bling lips, as he glanced in honor «wy hig (he words that will bring me to the scaf- | shoulder, and then feil flat on his face inv lay fold. Oh, God! this is more, far more than | groveling at bis master’s feet, Ican bear. There is nota single glimmer of “‘ Missy Cora,’ hoarsely whispered the « ber, light in the short and gloomy path that lies be- | while his eyes rolled about in tenor ar Lis fore me, Will I, will time ever—even when I | strong frame qui ered asif in an acuc-fit, shall have lain long in a felon’s graye—clear up Colovel Cailury waited to kcar no n ore, this great, this horrible mystery? He sprung crashing through shrubs and flowers, ‘‘Why, oh, why did my jealous feeling cause | directly toward ibe grove, darting down a di- me to arm myself, this night of all others, | rect path as soon as one was reached, with against that vile miscreant? Stay! Thank | such preternatuial speed that when he saw Heaven, there is one gleam of light before me! | upon the grounc before bim an outstretched A clew seems born at the very thought that | human form witl the pallid seal of death uj cn brings his detested image before my face!” its face, he could oot stop himself, but gather- ing bis strength as at a single glance the fex- tures of the son whom he had indulged and idolized were pho’ ograpbed upon his brain, Le leaped into the ai. high over the blood-stained body, and one wid, agonizing, despairing cry CHAPIER VIII, MY SON! MY SON! THE simultaneous discharge of three revol- vers had made a far-sounding report, and it rung through the open windows of the Mag- nolia Mansion, caus:‘ng much surprise to its iu- | with a beavy thud, as though euddenly de- mates at that hour of the evening. The male prived of life, upon the green turf Ly tlhe sica slaves of the household, who had not retired | of his murdered boy. 3 for the night, rushed ovt upon the front | When the bevy of cowering, terror-strickea veranda, followed in short order by the female | slaves heard the yell of their old master, aud se v servants, and, all filled with wonder, they | bim leapinto tbe air and then fall sensele:s, stood in a confused mass gezipg out over the | their superstitious terrors took complete pus- garden to the north-east, in the direction of | session of them. Rushing toward the house, the thickly-grouped magnolias. But the night | they scyambled, screaming at the top of their was now silent as the tomb itself. Even the | lungs, into the ballway, ithe two men in thy broad Gulf had the appearance of a sea of sil- | garden-path crawling upcen their hands axl ver, as the full moon shone out steadily from a | knees, with wild and disconnected prayers cloudless sky upon its smooth and motionless | upon their lips, up to the verarda and into tls waters. dwelling. of utter horror burst trom his lips as_he fell. ‘‘Bress de Lo’d, chilluns!” broke at length from the lips of the aged cook, ‘“‘I’s feared sumfin drefful’s done happened. Whar de curnil? Whar my ole marster! Young Marse Jemes hain’t been see’d hyerabouts sence mo’nin’, I doesn’t like dis tur’ble kine ob still- ness. ‘‘’Pears like death ter dis ole chile, an’ I's feared dat we-uns done got weepin’ an’ mou’nin’ afore us, I feels hit inter my bones. Gumbo, yer good fer nuffin’, lazy young nigger, go an’ call yer marse curnil!” The siaves huddled together and stood whis- pering, while they gazed with wide-open, bulg- ing eyes out into the darkness which hung over the grove like a heavy pall, and which, to their superstitious imaginations, was peopled with marble; while, down the side of the white forehead of his darling, and mingling with a ie golden hair, ran a tiny stream of 0 “Great Father in Heaven! this fearful mystery?” As he spoke, Charles Adler staggered for- ward, his strong frame trembling like an aspen, and knelt beside the form of Cora, his eyes glassy with unspeakable horror and sickening grief and despair. He felt ber delivate wrist, but. could detect no pulsation. He placed his hand upon her head, and touched the wound, which, to his great relief, he found had been caused by a | What means Not so, however, with Aunt Huldy, the ven- erable cook of the Carbury family. Falling to her rheumatic knees, anil praying for a mo- ment or two most fervently, she arose and ran to the room of her mistress, whom she found already up and hurriedly dressin, ‘Don’t yer go ter bother yerself ’bout de fuss what dem good fer-nuffin’ niggers done make, missus,” said old Huldy, in an assumed tone of unconcern, Then, «ithout waiting to explain or to answer the questions of Mrs, Cur- bury, the cook quickly descended the stairs, ran out upon the veri nda and into the garden, and from thence, walking slowly, she proceeded toward the magnolias, muttering to herse}f ea she went: . CONMIEOOOKS (E(0)