Beadle's Dime Library No. 199 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

uk She had vowed that Reuben Reynolds, who | open space, was sufficient in bis weak and terri- Would not the young man—so she now feared ] had lured her from home, parents and friends, | fied state to cause him to give utterance toa | —would he not look upon her recent insane - i deceived her by marryivg her when at the | second shriek, in which all sense left him, and proceeding, with a contempt not to be expressed | same time he was legally wedded to another— | the sound of which caused poor Jim Jams to | in words? - 4 who had basely murdered her new-born babe | vamose into the hole between the rocks. In place of meriting his regard and grati- . in a fit of drunken fury, when she had said Thus were left two senseless human beings, | tude for risking her life to save bim, she felt jet, she would return with the infant to her father, | within ten paces of each other, in that desolate | that she had forfeited his friendship; and the ‘af ee we we ee ee Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver. CHAPTER XVIII. A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE. Jim JAMS, although spurring his horse with- out mercy, and belaboring him with his rifle, found it impossible to keep Diamond Dick in view, He therefore soon began to seek conso- Tim had provided bim at starting. In conse- quence of this, he soon found it difficult to re- taia his seat in the saddle, and his horse, left to its guidance, at length turned into a ‘* wash- out” but a short distarce below that into which Dolores had disappeared with her captive. As the shots and yells of the bandits attracted the attention of Jim Jams, he made attemp*s to reach the scene of action, and at length suc- ceeded in urging his horse at great speed up the wash-out.” Not jong, however, did Jim Jams bave the strength or iuclination to use his spurs, for be s00n fell into a half-unconscious state, with his arms locked around the nag’s neck. Soon the animal stopped quickly, with a snort, as if it ecented danger, and the same instant a wild shriek rung out from the darkness, seeming to proceed from a human being, and followed by a fierce, deep growl, and the scratching of huge claws upon the rocks, ) Trembling in every limb, the terrified steed of Jim Jams reared quickly upon its hind legs, and hurled the poor sot into the cacti at the side of the path; at the instant, a monstrous grizzly bear sprung down the path which led from the chasm, and wound its immense paws about the fear-paralyzed horse. Then came a shriek, a horrible crunching of bones, and the | | and the fact that he well deserved such a fate | made him hopeless of being able to change her lation for this in the bottle with which Taos | dead steed sunk in the path, the monster of the | mountains standing upon the carcass, its jaws dripping with gore, and its claws tearing the | warm flesh. pierced by a hundred needle-like points, was ears of privation, spent in the wilds, among awless men, she at last had him in her power. That he was condemned, doomed to a most fearful death at the bands of the one whom he had so basely wronged, the captive weil knew, purpose. As the dastard deeds of his wasted life passed in panoramic array before his mind’s eye, he was forced to admit that he deserved any fate that Dolores could inflict, and he felt that his end was indeed at hand; but the merciless laughter of the girl he had so injured caused the very marrow in the wretch’s bones to seem as ice, though his.flesh was consuming with the fever caused by his wound. ~ ‘*Groan on, Rube Reynolds!” said Dolores, in her exultation; “‘groan on! Your misery is my joy, but you know not yet what pain is. Sweet music in my ears will be your pleadings for death very soon. You will then recail my agonizing prayers; you will hear once more the feeble cries and gasps of my darling child, that you murdered before my eyes! ‘“*Hal ha! ha! Rube Reynolds; my day has come at last, and your night—a long, dark one —is about to begin. I used to think that I would not care to live after I had glutted my vengeance and relieved the world of your presence; but I have met one who fascinates me—do you hear me, Rube Reynolds? I think I love him—that I love the dashing dandy from Denver, whom you have unwittingly assisted in bringing into my clouded life. “Is that fresh torture for you? How liks you the thought that I may enjoy life and love after you have gone to answer for the wrongs you bave done me? But 1 have work to do.” Drawing her knife as she said this, Dolores ; , | slid from her saddle, cut the lariat, and drew Jim Jams, lying among the prickly pearsand | s00n brought back to consciousness, The poor | fellow sat up suddenly, and wou'd have yelled with the intense pain, but the sight which met his eyes made the very bairs upon his head writhe like a mass of entangled serpents. was utterly incapable of movement, and had it been otherwise, the high rocks in the rear of bim would have cut off his retreat. At length the fierce beast clambered awk- wardly over its prey, and grasping the dead horse in its powerful paws, backed down the yath, drawing the carcass into a dense thicket cf dwarf pines. He | Crawling into and up the path toward the | rocky chasm, the affrigited inebriate resolved to climb to a safe position before the monster should have brought its feast to a close. lt was only now and then, by flashes of thought, that the incidents of the night were brought to his mind; and between these gleams of intelligence there was such a confused whirl —— of ideas, faces, forms and objects that poor Jim | Jams was in a most pitiable and deplorable con- dition, for the pains which he suffered from Various causes made him at times wish himself dead—although, as he would have expressed it, he preferred going “‘ over therange” in a ‘ com- A edition,” to being hashed in the terrible aws of the grizzly. By casting his eyes down the path, he had | now an unobstructed view of the trail between himself and the pine motte which concealed the fierce brute; a vista which, in bis present situa- tion, was of more vital importance to him than any other portion of the landscape. Although her miserable captive to the earth, severing, as she did so, the cords that bound his ankles. Woe-begons and helpless, the tortured wretch was now urged by the ruthless female avenger up the narrow path, into which the horse of Jim Jams afterward wand red, to the chasm in the mountain side, where Dolores bound him to a small tree at the left of the entrance. His position was on the edge of the shadow caused _ by the moon, the towering wall of rock being at his back, Rube had thus an unobstructed view of the interior of the huge fissure, and of the path and its approaches below. Filled with hopeless despair, anguish of mind, and suffering great agony from his inflamed wound, the miserable man bent his head to his breast, knowing it would be useless to plead for favor of any kind from his pitiless captor. * Reuben Reyrolds,” said Dolere. ie a strange, ‘unnatural voice, ‘I leave you to aad, ers, but I shall soonreturn. Thereisa fearful doom in store for you; and I have placed you where you can see me when I come to avenge myself and my child. Remember, there is no more merey in my heart than in that of a famished grizzly bear!” When thesuffering bandit spy again looked up, Dashing Dolores was seated in her saddle, her horse standing in the path below, in a listening attitude. As his eyes fell upon her, Rube heard the souod of distant firing; and,*with a startled scream, the girl who had sworn to torture him to the death, drove spurs and disappeared an id the pines toward the south. A slight ray of _ hope darted into Rube’s mind, as he realized the poor wretch taxed every muscle to its ut- most, he made but slow progress, on account of his weak and generally demoralized condition. For an instant he paused, panting for breath, while great beads of cold agony oozed from every pore. saw that the path widened, opening into the chasm above, while on either side the walls were seamed and broken. Once more he made an effort to proceed, but ashe threw one hand forward upon the rocky path, a fearful cry sounded in front of him. im Jams, thinking that another monster beast was coming down upon him, made a super- human bound to his right, climbed over amid the rough rocks, tearing his bands in his terror, and then plunged into a dark ravine between two gigantic bowlders, where he sunk, bleeding and senseless. To explain the shrieks that have been men- tioned we must return to Dashing Dolores and her captive, Reckless Rube, whom we last saw lying bound across her saddle in a torturing position. The horse was overburdened and panting with exertion, but the balf-crazed girl was determined that no one should rob her of her prisoner, or her revenge. - who would avenge her wrongs—she had sworn that this man should one day die by her band, @ death of lingering torture; and now, after The coast was now clear, and he | that the Wild Cats were fighting the citizens of Big Medicine City. How long he was partially forgetful of his sufferings, he knew not; but at length he was aroused by a scratching sound that chilled him to the bone, and turning quick- ly toward the interior of the chasm, bis heart sprung to his throat, his hair stood on end, and Le trembled with horrible dread, for not twenty pacesaway stood a monstrous grizzly bear, eye- ing him with a ravenous look, nameless superstition almost overcame the handit spy, as he recalled the parting words of Dolores. Already he felt the huge claws and fangs tearing his vitals, his eyes were fixed and glassy, and he held his very breath; then as the huge beast stepped toward him, Rube shot outa pierc- ing shriek, and fainted. Vhen he partially recovered his senses, not a living thing was in view, but he well remem- bered the terrible brute that had been so near to him; and when, soon after, he heard the slow crawling and panting of Jim Jams, who came toward bim along the path hidden by the rocks, | Rube felt sure that the dread beast was coming a en to devour him. In consequence of this, the sight of the sadly-demoralized human, with his wild eyes and tangled hair, bobbing about be- tween the rocks in an endeavor to reach the place, while just below them the monster pe td tore a devoured the horse in the dark pine mot ‘ | | 15 CHAPTER XIX. HOPES AND FEARS. THE intention of Dolores was to return to the canyon by the same ‘‘ wash-out” along which she had traveled with ber captive; but, as has been intimated, the sounds of conflict to the west of the point she intended to reconnoiter, changed for the time the carrent of ber thoughts. She now recollected that, in her mad desire to capture Rube Reynolds she had left the miners at the south trail, without a word of explana- tion to them in regard to her intentions. While these men had been crawling to the edge of the canyon bank to shoot down at the Wild Cats, the fact that Rube had been left be- hind by the bandits flashed through ber mind and she instantly resolved to return, and get the miscreant in her power. She left the horse-ot Diamond Dick, while she descended the steep bank at the risk of her life, to the spot where the wounded spy lay groan- ing in agony. n her mad triumph at the success which had crowned her two long years of search, she for- ot for the time those who had ventured their wes in her behalf; but, hearing the fight that was now going on she deshed toward t e head of another ‘* wash-out,” which she knew would lead to a point near the scene of the conflict which was now in progress. Not only was Dolores concerned in regard to - the citizens, but, from the fact that she had left the valuable horse of Diam ynd'Dick where he might be discovered and stolen by the bandits, and the possibility that Dick himeelf, might have recovered, and joined in the search for herself and the trail of the Wild Cats, she felt that her place was with her friends. Since the young girl bad first seen the dandy from Denver dismount at Placer Palace, there had been new and strange feelings at werk witbin her; and from the time that she had dis- covered him lying senseless in the street of Big Medicine City, shot down by the cowardly : Cache Charley, she bed felt an interest in him tor which she could not account. His confession, while in her cabin, that he was and had long been like herself, on a trail of revenge, together with hisnoble bearéng, dash- ing bravery, and attractive face, had changed her first emotions of passing admiration to an infatuation which blueted somewbat even her insane desire for vengeance; although there still were moments when that mad thirst entire- ly ruled her. Down the “ wash-out ” rode Dolores mntil she reached a point where she could, from the dark mouth of the gully, observe without being seen, what was transpiring in the basin. No other tableau could have been arranged that would have maddened poor Dolores more than the one which was before her. In the clear moonlight, directly in front of her, stood Diamond Dick, a revolver in each band: the , weapons leveled at a party of Wild Cate whose rifles were bearing upon him. But this truly terrific scene, this deedly dan- ger which Dick was braving, wrung not the heart of Dolores with one half the anguish that was hers as the ee of scene met ber gaze— when the Woman in Bleck, daringly, her beau- tiful features stamped with taunting scorn, sat her sable steed, with glittering pistols leveled at the horde of outlaws, end protecting at the risk of her own life, the dashing dandy from Denver! The voice, the pose, the form and face, all told Dolores that a woman and a most lovely cne at that, was risking ber life for Dick, Drawing her bowie and pricking her horse, the young girl caused the animal to bound at frantic speed into their very midst and at the same moment the bandsome bleck steed of Dia- mond Dick which she bad left bebind her gal- loped up from the east. etecting quickly that Dick was preparing to spring upon his borse, and also observing the bandit reinforcements coming headlong from the opposite direction, Dolores clutched the rope that was about the neck of Dick’s horse, as the young man sprung upon the animal, and urged both beasts into the dark ‘ wash-out” before the Wild Cats recovered from their amazement at the strange and unaccountable surprises and events of the moment. On dashed Dolores through the darkness, in advance of Dick, who was silent, bewildered, and strangely affected by the wound which he had received; but no sooner had the mind of the young girl become somewhat calm and cleared from the excitement that had been born of the startling scenes and overpowering emo- tions of the past few hours, than sbe began to feel that she had made a terrible mistake in be- traying, as she had to some extent cone, her most sacred feelings, oor girl loosened ber bold upon the rope of ick’s horse, urging her own animal on in a faster gait. ‘Then, as she gained some distance a sendin iiiinemamanndimaiicdinadinnieiateendaentee rah * ie | | | “Eomicbooks.¢co ‘ VT] i | ' ‘ : ’ am S : : \ ? *e a a | >< nena ’ , ~ at ia ne a“ : . , sh . , > ae “A td i ; / . ° ’