Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 197 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 Revolver Rob. ~ ee eS ——— eee ‘You know my temper of old, and if you are wise, you will not get it beyond my control. Let it once break bonds, and the past will be most bitterly avenged!” _. Those black eyes met his threatening gaze un- flinchingly. Fhough white as marble, there was not atrace of fear in the little woman’s face, not the slightest tremor in her voice. ‘*Strike—kill me if you will—life is not so precious that I need lower myself to beg for mercy at your hands,” Again that mocking laugh, harder to bear than a slap in the face. “—T do not doubt your courage, for you showed it plainly snark a those days, but you will please remember that there are still other methods of punishment, and if you try my pa- tience too severely | may be driven to treating you after some such fashion.” Though the threat was somewhat clumsily expressed, Pet Flamsteed had no difficulty in comprehending his meaning. She knew, too, that he was none too good to put his threats into execution, but still not a trace of fear could be read in her marble-like features as her bril- liant eyes gazed steadily at him. He gnawed his lips in silence for a moment, then said: ‘A word to the wise is sufficient. Unless you drive me too far, I’d far rather give you a kiss than a hlow—” “Was it for this that you sought me out here in these wilds, where I hoped to bury myself om ag from all those who knew me in the past ‘Blame yourself for the digression, little one. No; I have something of more impor- tance to say, as you will admit before I am through,” “Say it, then, and have done. I cannot breathe freely in your presence, You poison the air al out you!” More than the words she uttered, her tones stung him to the gre’. despite his thick hide, they were so full of intense loathing and abhor- rence. The great veins swelled out on his tem- ples, and it was only by the utmost exercise of will that he suppressed the anger that almost choked him. ‘You were not always so particular, little lady,” he said, with a sickly smile. ‘‘ Time was when you thought you could flourish onl y in that same atmosphere, when you would lan- guish and droop when the light of my counte- nance was withdrawn from you if only for a dav—” a If so, that time was when I believed you a man, not a serpent of evil as I now know you to “ Are you altogether blameless for the change, if change there be?’ was his swift, almost fierce retort. ‘‘ Let us see; it will do us both no harm to recall a few reminiscences of the dead-and- gone past.” ‘* Of what use—” began Pet, her face growin still more pale, as though she felt that the tri would be more than she could endure. But the villain was merciless. He noted her change of countenance, and, with a malicious cruelty peculiarly his own, resolved to make her drain the cup to the very dregs. With a brutal insolence he cut her protest short. ‘‘ Spare your breath, Florence. I have come too long a journey, have spent too much time and money to lose even a morsel of my revenge. Besides you were a in ignorance of a few of the most.important events of those days, and while you are thus ignorant you could not fully comprehend what an invincible hand I hold in the game we are playing.” Pet Flamsteed knew that there was no use in making any further protest, and she sat in si- lence, cold and pale as a statue of marble, listen- ing to his cruel speech. ‘‘ Long years what I was but a boy and you little more t an infant, I fell in love with you, Florence, and I can still remember the boyish yow I made then to win and wear you for my wife when we should both be wn up. From that day I have never once lost sight of that resolution. At one time it seemed as though my vow was on the point of being ful- filled, and if all had gone well then it would have been better far for both of us. **In good time I openly avowed my love for you, and you sent me into the seventh heaven of delight when you softly whispered that my passion was fully reciprocated—” “‘T was but a child then—only fifteen years old—and did not know myown mind,” was the cold interruption. ‘* Possibly not. You see I am willing to pire you allthe excuse for your treachery which you can possibly claim. Be itright or wrong, you feng! betrothed yourself to me of your own free will, and for a few months we lived in a fool’s paradise. Then your father made the discovery and kicked ap a precious row over it. Not content with threats, he took to bribing my enemies to bring false tales against me—” They were well backed with proof, and when father dared you to take the matter into court, where the whole truth must come out, you shrunk from the test—” . ‘* Because he was rich and I but a poor boy—” “Say rather because you knew that your sheep’s coat would be stripped oc” your back, showing you for the wolf you really were, though you then passed for an honest and up- right member of the Christian church!” asper Quigley showed his teeth, but preferred to drop that part of the subject. “Have your own wa that all was true, I still have cause enough for hating both him and you—though the last has ever been beyond my power. ; ** Enough that your father had his will. Our engagement was broken, and within a month from that time the cunn.ng scoundrel and hypo- crite faced his cards and no longer sought to conceal the double game he had played so adroitly. ‘**One of his most eloquent pleas against our wedding was your extreme youth, but that no longer held good when the intended bridegroom was enormously rich instead of poor. another month had crept around, the fact of your betrothal to Martin Luther Wesley was made public. ** At least there could be nothing said against his age, since that was almost equal to that of your father. He was so wealthy that,it may be doubted whether he could have told the extent of his own riches, He wasga religio-maniac, as nearly all of his people had been before him. He was never known to have committed even the slightest sin or peccadillo, And above all—in the estimation of your worthy father—he was one to be easily influenced, not to say fleeced, by any one who had fairly gained his confidence—” ‘* Which knowledge accounts for the assiduity with which you cultivated his acquaintance!” exclaimed Pet Flamsteed, her red lip curling afresh. ‘‘ Thanks for explaining what has often perplexed me.” ‘““Have patience, little one, and you will see some other and still greater mysteries solved,” laughed the rascal, nothing abashed, ‘I con- fess that I thought to make my dear friend Martin furnish the sinews of war, but that was only the least important of my reasons for cul- tivating him. hat the main ome was you shall soon see.” ‘* Naught creditable to your heart or brain, of that 1 am sure.” was the cutting retort. ‘“*T fear the first article was forgotten when I was created,” laughed Jasper Quigley. ‘* Whether I lacked the other, or failed to make good use of them, I leave you to judge when I he have written jfinis to the story I set out to tell, ‘*'You have not forgotten the last interview which we had, before your marriage with Martin Luther Wesley?’ “No; nor that you professed perfect resigna- tion to the inevitable. We were never fitted for other than friends, you admitted; our dis- positions were so near alike!” ‘*Because I knew that it was inevitable, because I knew that unless I dissembled, you would shun me, and poison the weak mind of Wesley against me, either of which would have proven disastrous to the plans which I had formed.” ** Devil—eunning, treacherous scoundrel!” ‘CIf so, who made me such?’ was the fierce query. ‘‘ You and yours! If those wrongs recoil upon your head now, blame me not, but lay the fault at your own door!” More than ever like those of an enraged wild beast, his eyes glowered at Pet Flamsteed, who made no reply, for she saw that this recital of what he fancied were the wrongs she and hers had heaped upon him, was working him up to a dangerous pitch of fury. Only after a desperate struggle did he succeed in obtaining the mastery over his passions. “You are not wise to rake up those ashes,” he said, in a hoarse, strained voice, seeming to forget that he had forced it all upon her, ‘It is all I can do to keep myself within bounds without your taunting me.’ Still the little woman inade no reply, and he continued his retrospect of the past with a more natural tone. “IT will be perfectly frank with you, little one. WhenI told you that I was seth ae agg to your throwing me over in favor of Wesley, I lied. Never before had I loved you as then, never was I more determined to win and wear you, sooner or later. But I was no fool. Isaw that you had forgotten your short-lived fancy for me, that you were dazzled by the vision of countless wealth and luxury which was promised you as the bride of Wesley. I knew that you loved him no more than you did me, if so well; but I also knew that you would wed him, if you both lived until the ay set for the ceremony, let me say what I might. “ At first I was strongly tempted to kill the whining hypocrite, and even had all my move- ments planned in accordance, but then I fancied I saw a scheme by which I might not only gain my desired ends without danger to my own life, but at the same time fully avenge the bitter wrongs I had oe and so I donned a s mask, and appeared to accept my fate saa oer aith'ree gnation, but even delight, a Stil I eould not bring myself to be present at the wedding, and the better to hide the truth and keep those who knew of our former con- nection from saying that chagrin made me unequal to the task, I contrived that an accident And ere | on that point; granting | } | Jasper Quigley ad -_— - — er. -—_— -.--- _ - ——_— + ——s —_— ___=s — | should” oceur to lay me up until the worst was over. “This part of my plan came near succeeding | too well, for 1 was laid up for several months. and had a narrow escape from the grave.” ‘*If you had only died then!” exclaimed Pet | Flamsteed, her eyes aglow, her fingers tightly interlocked. laughed shortly ere he | resumed: i | ee —-- “It would have been lucky for both you and Martin Luther, no doubt, for all that transpired in the days to come, was carefully elaborated if not concocted while I lay there on what many believed was to be my death-bed. ButI was | not among them, for 1 felt that I could not die until I had sipped deep of revenge—nor did I. i me ‘*'The house of your husband was the first at which I called when I regained strength suffi- cient to leave my room. Your first greeting was timid and cold, for you could not believe that I had forgiven your treachery so earily: but I had studied my part well, and ere long succeeded in banishing your last doubts.” A bitter, gasping groan broke from the paling lips of the little woman, as his words recalled the terrible past. r av You played your traitorous part well! “Did I not?” he laughed, in satanic glee, his eyes burning with an unholy delight, his face transformed into that of a veritable fiend. ‘* But little wonder, considering the enormous stake far which I was playing. ‘**T lost little time in getting to work. I had an easy task where Wesley alone was concerned, for he was suspicious by nature, and not over- well stocked with brains. It was not hard to ull the wool over his eyes, and before I had een at work for asingle month, he was ready to believe aught 1 might tell him in your dis- favor. ‘You helped me amazingly in my work, thanks to your love of gayety, your thirst for flattery and adoration— “As heaven hears me!” cried the tortured woman, her clasped hands uplifted, ‘I never sinned against him, even in thought—not even when you made me believe that he was living a double life—that he was as great a si_ner as he seemed to be saint!” “There is no need of your assuring me of that, though few indeed of your friends even give you so much credit,” the villain said, uickly. ‘‘I kept such a close watch over you that the least misstep on your part must in- stantly have been knewn to me. But all the same, it was my policy to make your husband believe the worst, and I need not say that I succeeded. ‘These terrible suspicions made him morose, and that was another step taken if mp cunning scheme, for it gave color to the hints I breathed in your ears—” “Why recall all this?’ cried the tortured woman, inatone of bitter anguish. ‘“‘ Have I not suffered enough for whatever wrong you fancy I may have committed against you? Have mercy —leave me—” “Ay! such mercy as you showed me when you held my whole future in your hands!” he cried, in a tone of suppressed fury. ‘‘ I love wo see your cheeks turn ea your eyes fill with the hunted loek which I first saw in them when you were confrontea with the cold and ghastly co of your murdered husband.” ith a desperate effort Pet Flamsteed rallied her fainting spirits, and with flashing eyes she said: ‘“Tf murdered, it was your hand that killed him—your base lies that drove him to the grave of a suicide—” “Tt was not suicide—he was murdered, and by your hand!” CHAPTER V., JASPER QUIGLEY FACES HIS CARDS. For a moment or two after Jasper Quigley uttered these words, Pet Flamsteed stared at him as though unable to comprehend his mean- ing. Then, as the devilish smile deepened on his face, and his white teeth gleamed between his parted lips. she turned pale as death, and mana to falter: ‘* Murdered —and by my hand?” “Ay! though I perjured myself to save your poset throat from the rough hands of the angman, when, if I had made known the truth, the silent scorn which was shown you by those who once were proud to be numbered among your dearest friends, would have ehanged to a storm of execration—” A sudden change came over the little woman, and a short, mocking laugh broke from her lips, cutting his speech short. “a { For the moment I forgot that you were a self-confessed perjurer. So this is the mighty weapon which you hold over my head? Really, I expected something less clumsy from one of your boasted accomplishments!” Jasper Quigley winced, though he strove yen ko conceal the fact, but he as quickly rallied. ‘Pray do not judge me too soon. T have not GOMNE cS (E()