Beadle's Dime Library No. 199 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

| | ew — —_—_— ee a _ - 4 present predicament than by tak.ng advantage of it. Dick knew that they had not proceeded more than a mile from the place where he bad been blindfolded, when the horses were brought to a walk over rocky ground. He detected, also, from the sound of the hoofs, that the bandits were riding singly, and, therefore, that they must be in a narrow passage. In a little time, however, they began te walk over soft sward, and soon after halted, when our hero was cut loose from the saddle. He knew, by the change of air and from the fact that he was being led over stone floors, that he was in a cavern. Soon a ponderous door was opened and the bonds that secured his hands behind being cut, he was roughly pushed forward and the door closed with a loud clang. He heard the turning ef the key and the snap of the bolt, aud with an effort he tore the scarf from his eyes. When he had done so, however, he stood for 2 | ——— a eee ———— 5 - ms .- -——— — + = ——$—_— —— Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver. Ss a = > - on > = —- detested him! Never, until this night, have I | These thoughts now pressed themselves upon known what love really is; and now my whole being is wrapped up in this mere boy, who bas | brought me to feel degradation and despair. | But will he bring me to the last? Is he destined | | Rushing frantically from the pines to the ' | | / | ‘ | ’ | | But for the moment unable to see, being blinded by | the brilliant light of the apartment. more accustomed to the glare, Dick found that he was in an extensive cave-chamber, some sixty feet in length, and forty wide, with a high arched roof. number of large wax candles were burn- ing in tin sconces around the walls, and others Becoming | | would soon have been followed by love. — ——_——$—$__—_—__— — stood ‘upon a large table, the lights being re- | flected in twice ten thousand scales of ‘mica | that flecked the rock on every side. To his left was a large wooden platform, car- | peted with handsome robes; and a huge lounge, upon which was a pillow and several panther- skins, with several chairs, made up the furni- ture of the immense apartment. Upon the table was 4 bountiful supply of eatables, besides several bottles and glasses, indicating that the hungry and thirsty need not go further to satisfy themselves. Deciding at once to make the best of every- thing, Dick helped himself freely, and_ then, finding that the inviting couch could no longer be resisted, he rolled himself in a panther-skin, lay down, and soon fell into a deep sleep. Soatos an hour had passed, when the ke grated in the lock and the Woman in Black stepped into the chamber. Darting a quick glance on each side of the room, her face be- came drawn in a fiendish scowl of mingled surprise and anger. She evidently thought that her orders had been disobeyed; that her fol- lowers, instead of confining the captive, had secretly murdered him, in revenge for the death of their comrades. Closing and locking the door, Lucile advanced over the stone floor with quick, nervous pace, but with a tread as soft as that of a ereeping assassin. Her eyes were filled with fire and fury, that boded ill to those who had disobeyed her commands; but glancing toward the pile of robes, her whole manner changed, the expres- sion of ber face softened, the fierce light in ber eyes died out, and she warped lightly upon the edge of the platform, her hands clasped and a look of the most intense relief stamped upon ber strangely fascinating countenance. Kneeling upon one knee and gazing into the face of the sleeper, the whole form of the woman tremble Then she arose quickly, clasped her hands over her eyes for an instant; and then hastened beyond the table into the middle of the apartment, where she walked back and forth, her face showing the marks of conflicting passions, and her arms at times tossed wildly in the air, as if warding off some shapes of evil. ' At last she gave vent to her feelings in words —strangely spoken words, that sounded un- natural in such a place. Deep regret and re- morse, desperate defiance and murderous mad- ness, were shown alternately in every tone and expression. The voice, which at times had a sound that was clear and silvery, at others came in hoarse and ing utterances like the last words of the dying. ** Despair, degradation and death!” she cried out, as she the rocky floor like a ¢ tigress. “‘He”—pointing to the lounge—*‘ las sworn to make me suffer all this, and I have often laughed, asI repeated the words since that letter of his to the Mayor of Taos fell into my hands in $0 strange a manner. Until to- night, those words of his have had no effect upon me, except to excite mirth. The threats of a Quixotic youth who, having read some romantic tale, fancies he has cause, swears revenge upon those who he thinks have injured him or his! "Tis but a — that of his, for there was no proof of what he alleges but Hol- brook’s desertion of his family. Despair, degra- dation and death! Never until to-night did I kuow the real meaning of such words. I begin to feel already to the deptbs the first two, It was d ir, when I opened that door, and not perceiving him, fancied that I had been dis- obeyed and that they had murdered him. Deg- radation! Yegods! Did any human ever feel more degraded than I when I witnessed this youth’s undaunted bravery, and felt that I had sold myself to that thing, that craven George Holbrook? I never cared for the fool, but I needed money, and he was the first fish that came into my net. Oh, how I have loathed and « —— Nee a to carry out his oath, and be my death? ‘* There seem to be mysterious influences at work, and all pointing to favor this George McClellan. Puebla Pete tells strange stories— strange, but I believe, true. Cache Charley, a fair marksman, attempts his death, and loses his own life. Reckless Rube runs the gantlet in Big Medicine City, only to be shot by a woman, after he has joined Halfband and is skulking behind his comrades. girl is known as Dashing Dolores. ‘*One thing L know: if this Dolores falls into my power, I'll torture her. Uli make her beg for a drop of water and a crumb of bread. Only the fiends know how I hate her for coming between me and young McClellan to-night. her interference, I would have brought him through without a scratch, and won his gratitude and friendship, which All, everything, everybody has favored him toward bringing about his work of vengeance. But his luck has turned, and he is now in my power. His race isrun. He must be mine, or he dies! But he shall not die—he shall be mine! He must be mine! ‘‘Why did I ever degrade myself with that itiful cur, Holbrookl? He would never have Pete says this | eo een in command of the Wild Cats but for me. | Now Irulesupreme. But how is it? I never before dreamed that I had a conscience. But now the pale, patient face of Katharine Hol- brook, and the innocent eyes of her little ones, seem to haunt me. ‘Back, Isay! Back! "Twas not I that mur- dered you. Lam not guilty. I did not even love your husband, you poor, innocent Katha- rine. Take bim from you, indeed! NotI. He dared to love me, the weak villain. | | He had the | courage even to leave his family and fly with | me. He left for Canada, to be gone two weeks, and in that little space of time his wife became insane, his children died, and a warrant was made out for bis arrest on a charge of forgery. Yes; the children were ill when Holbrook went away. They died one, by one, and be would | have been mobbed had he returned. ‘* People said it was all a put-up job, that visit to Canada—a blind—and so it was. Ha! ha! it was I who played that game. He would never have been equal to it by himself. Money I wanted, and I was bound to accomplish my purpose, even were I to be hanged for it. To the West then it was. We had gold in plenty, and I was free! Yes! I, Lucile Luzerne, am not to be balked in my purposes. I win, or die!” During the latter part of this soliloquy of the Queen of the Wild Cats, she stood perfectly still, and, with her eyes fixed on a gloomy corner of the immense room, as if some scenes from her past life were there pictured before her. Turn- ing about she glanced toward the couch. Then, seeing that her words had not aroused the sleeper, she continued: ‘I could almost believe that Iam going mad! I never before felt so strangely. What bas come over me? Iam full of horrible fancies to- night; flitting visions from the past float before me, and I have not the power to drive them away. Can it be that this youth’s oath is to be carried out? Am I to taste the bitterness of that last word of his—death ? Ha! ha! I am ashamed of you, Lucile Luzerne. You are better fitted for a gentle shepberdess than for a bandit queen. I must keep the run of the cards to the last. Ill prove to rge McClellan, if he does not surrender bis heart and soul to me, that ‘Hell has no fury like a woman scorned.’ ” Then, walking up to the table with a firm step, the Woman in Black poured out a goblet of wine with a band that still trembled in spite of her effort at self-control, and drank it, never withdrawing for a moment her gaze from the cell ream that hid from view the sleeping orm of Diamond Dick. CHAPTER XXII, ONE DROP OF WATER. For at least ten minutes after Bowlder Bill had left the motte, Dolores reclined motionless apes the ground, her eyes fixed upon tke form of the bandit chief, who seemed to be returning to consciousness. But she was soon brought to her feet by an aaeey shriek, in which were blended agony and deathly terror. She trem- bled in every limb, while her eyes stared in borror toward the range, at the point from whence the dismal sounds proceeded. Dolores had heard the same fearful cry be- fore, it having been given, as she sup , by Reckless Rube as the huge grizzly attacked him, and once again, probably when bis life was be- ing crushed out. hat could it mean? Surely the doomed wretch had been devoured by the mountain monster long ere this. But had she really heard it? All was still now—si- lent as the grave. Could it.be the lost spirit of the man whom she had left to such a terrible fate that was now haunting her with its cry of hopeless despair? — | i the disordered brain of the poor girl. he pressed her palms to her throbbing temples, and began to realize that there could be no peace of mind for her until she had visited the chasm. ‘‘ wash-out,” she mounted her horse, and urged him at full speed toward the range, without a thought in regard to the bandi. chief. As Dolores neared the chasm, and the motte hid it from her view, she with difficulty forced her horse onward, her eyes, meanwhile, being tixed upon the green shades into which the griz- ziv bad disa@ppeared. Reaching at length the trail on the east side of the motte, she glanced upward toward the huge cleft in the mountain side; but, at the same moment, she jerked her horse to his haunches, and uttered a shrill cry of amazement and horror. There was Reuben Reynolds, or his ghost, still bound to the tree as she had left bim! Had her life depended upon it, Dolores could not have told whether the shriek she had heard was real or imaginary; neither could she tell whether the sight which now met her gaze was a reality, or some trick of her frenzied brain. All doubt, however, was soon laid at rest; for the head of the sufferer was upraised from bis breast, his eyes opened, and he stared wildly at the poor girl whom he had wronged. _A hoarse, pleading cry burst from his parched ips. ‘*Water! Water!” ** Ha! ha! ha!” The laugh of Dolores was full of insane joy. ‘*Ha! he! ba! I thought you were in Hades by this time, Rube Reynolds. I feared that the bear bad sent you there before your time, and had thus stolen my revenge. What you suffer now is nothing to what is in store for you. Many a time in the dreary past have I pondered in what way I could most torture you when I got you in my power. You have now suggest- ed your own fate. You shall die of thirst and hunger. Your lips shall parch and crack. Your tongue shall blacken and swell until you choke. Your eyes shall be like coals of fire, . and your brain echo with the crackling and hissing of flames, before your vile spirit leaves its worldly tenement, in which shape it has dis- honored and degraded the very name of man!” A shriek of intense anguish, physical and mental, answered the terrible sentence which the girl pronounced. Too well did Reckless Rube know that his dastard deeds bad driven all mercy, all pity, from the nature of the once trusting, loving girl; that the torture he had inflicted upon ber in her helplessdespair, had crazed her, and filled her with a longing desire for revenge, which we less than what now awaited bim could satisfy. He had been deaf to her pleadings when she had prayed him to spare her innocent infant; and he was now forced to believe that all her dreadful threats would be carried out to the letter. His present almost unendurable agonies were multiplied by the thoughts of those which were to come: and when Dolores urged her horse up tbe difficult path, the spirit of her Indian ancestors ruling her whole nature, he gave another cry of hopeless terror, and again sunk into a merciful state of insensibility. Riding up to her captive, the girl proceeded to cut the thongs which bound bim, and then dragged bim over the rock to its edge. Forc- ing her steed against the bowlder, and with a strength born of intense passion and excitement, she drew the senseless man across the saddle in front of her, where he hung limp, bis limbs and head on either side. Having thus again secured . her prisoner, with an exultant cry she urged her steed down the path and into the head of the ‘* wash-out,” down which she went, cross- ing the basin, and out from it on the southern side to the open prairie, which stretched south and west to the far-off borizon. On, over the prairie, staggered the weary, overburdened steed, with its strange load, the hot sun now darting down upon them, and Dolores shouting in her madness, and laughing and crying alternately. A long ribbon of scraggy pines and cedars lined the south side of the canyon and screened the plain from the view of any who might be lurking among the rocks at the foot of the range. The air was hazy and smoky, as if a prairie fire was raging, and the line of verdure was of a dull bluish bue. Here and there, the poor fagged animal wandered aimlessly, without guidance, until at length, when some two miles from the canyon, an idea seemed suddenly to change the thoughts of Dolores, and she halted and sprung totheearth, — Grasping Reckless Rube by the collar of his jaqueta, she allowed him to slide down upon the sward with a shock tbat caused him to utter a moan of agony, which she answered with a peal of laughter. Detacbing a canteen from her saddle, Dolores drank some of its contents, and then began pouring the water into the mouth of her borse, Her wretched captive opened his eyes at this moment, eyes which now protruded from their | ‘com omicbooks. (E(o)