Beadle's Dime Library No. 199 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

- —————— ee ee ee ae ~ Diamond Dick, the Dandy from Denver. eater number of them cringed beneath her threatening gaze, dreading a volley of bullets from her revolvers. ‘*We’uns hain’t see’d thercuss. © ter cut his wizen, but couldn’t find him.” So said one of the outlaws, and the intona- tion of his voice and expression of his face car- ried conviction with them; in fact, he was too drunk to deny a truth, without betraying bis Comed hyer | —— } falsehood, either by his looks or his manner of | speaking. ‘ “Trot him out, an’ we’ll string him up!” ‘* Whar’s ther captain?” ‘‘ No more petticut rule!” These yells now smote the ear of Lucile Lu- zerne, and the last speaker fell on the instant, with a ball through his brain. Two others, who attempted to draw their weapons, also sunk to the floor. The Woman in Black saw that the moment of moments in her life had arrived; and, without the slightest show of fear or weakness, she acted upon it. ‘* Back!” she called out. ‘‘Up with your hands! hand, dies! Lam Queen of.the Wild Cats still, and I’ll show you | can hold my own!” With revolvers leveled, and her fingers on the triggers, she followed the cowed horde from the apartment along the passage until they came to a strong door. When they had en- tered, the Woman in Black followed them, and locked. it. ‘‘ Now listen to me!” she said. ‘‘If there is any more disturbance, orif I find that you have disobeyed my orders in regard to the captive, I'll fire the magazine and blow you all to per- dition. You know me by this time, I hope!” A murmur of surprise and dread ran through the crowd of outlaws, now partially sobered, as they saw their Queen leave the cave and lock them within it. Securing the heavy oaken door by bars of iron, Lucile Luzerne now re- turned to the chamber in which Dick had been confined, Throwing some skins over the corpses of the bandits she had shot in the mutiny, she began to pace the floor with quick, nervous steps, striving to account for the mysterious disappearance of Dick. | The first man who halts, or lowers a | —_— = - —E - = x —_ However, she went on to the terminus of the tunnel, and then returning, was brought to a | | halt by the faint glimmer of the lantern which | had been left burning 2 Captain Halfhand, and which Big Medicine had neglected to ex- tinguish. The light was stationary; but con- necting its presence with the person for whom she was in search, Lucille called aloud in eager tones: ‘George McClellan! Diamond Dick! If you are within hearing, speak to me and end my terrible suspens -. I am deserted by all, but care not, if you will be.my friend!” Her voice sounded strangely iu the dreary passage, and caused her to be filled with a tim- orous aera before uuknown to her. Did the awful shadow of a coming fate fall upon her, and chill her blood? Who can say? No answer came, either from the light ahead, or the Egyptian darkness beyond. The strength of wiil and desperate daring of the woman seemed to be slowly, but surely leaving her. Bracing herself to renewed action, she went on toward the lantern, but as she neared it, her foot came in contact with a long reed. Filled witb surprise, Lucile lowered her candle, when } ' | | | | | a sight met her view that caused her to tremble; | for beneath and around her were small piles of gunpowder, and the presence of numerous reeds proved that a train had been laid to blow up the cavern. With a. half-stifled cry of horror, she sprung onward, losing all command of her- self, as the thought flashed upon her that the train would be fired at the opposite end as soon as she was discovered. Quaking with dread, she rushed forward, but her foot struck against a rough projection. of. rock, and. she fell, the candle fiying from her hand. Instinctively she closed her eyes. Then came a piercing shriek, followed by a series of blinding flashes, and a hissing, as of a thousand serpents. With loud cries of agony, Lucile Luzerne crept on hands and knees along the passage, bruising herself in her mad haste; her hair scorched from her head, and her ae blistered and blackened beyond recog- nition a SEE upon the lashless eyes and blackened face cf her captive. n less time than it bas taken to relate it, Lucile Luzerne, overcome with bopeless herror, was bound upon the saddle, and Dolores, spring- ing up behind her, lashed the animal at full speed away from the range, and along the bed of a ‘‘ wash-out,” the exultant laughter and vengeful cries of the demented girl of Big Medi- cive City filling the ears of her horrified cap- tive. In and out, among branching “ wash outs” in an aimless manuer, rode Dashing Dolores; alternately patting the scorched and blackened head of Lucile, and whispering soft words to her, as though she fancied it was her murdered babe that was with her; and anon, with foam- ing lips and flashing eyes, raising her knife aloft, feigning to drive the glittering steel into the heart of her belpless prisoner—an act which would have been considered a stroke of mercy by the wretched, hopeless Woman in Black! CHAPTER XXVIL THE REUNION. Wir his candle firmly grasped in his hand, Dia- mond Dick made his way to the point where Big Medicine and himself had seen, through the fissure in the wall, the form of. the bandit chief, as he counted his gold. There was no light now within the chamber, and Dick, although he examined the wall for some distance, could not find the place of observation. r He decided, however, to proceed,and inspect the passage; but, as he turned around a curve in the rocky tunnel, he perceived the glimmer of a lantern some distance in front. The light was stationary, but our hero was suspicious, and to avoid exposing himself, he extinguished his own candle. The lantern now threw a dim, uncertain light, but suffi- cient to guide him, although rev g no besides, en, at length, he reached it, he foun himself near the entrance to the shaft, and, a moment or two after, he stood in the shade of the eedars, the cool breeze panning his fevered brow ope he once more free to breathe the pure air of eaven, . Looking cautiously around, his + gt hted upon the rg of gold that had been left by Halfhand, Not having observed the branch pereege that led to AN chamber in which he had seen. the outlaw utt : into this shape, he supposed There was no outlet that she knew of, except On, on, in a frenzy of agony she went, guided | } his. treasure , P by the door and down the well; and she shud- by a faint glimmer of daylight that. owed ash Se ee dered at the thought of the latter. through the smoke, until she reached the open | Believing that the man he had sworn to kill was He might possibly, Lucile thought, have heard the approach of those who came to murder him, and standing by the door as they rushed ‘in, have slipped out unobserved by them. As this thought occurred to her, she darted out and along the passages, Calling aloud to George Mc- Clellan. Every pou place in which a man could air. Then she rolled in agony among the cedars in the motte, burying her blistered face in the cool and giving utterance to deep moans of agony, and hopeless despair. bere, amid s of gold and jewels she writhed, until the cords that bound them be- came loosened, and the yellow coins for which blood had been shed, and for which she had a eee still within some of the numerous chambers of the cavern, Dick resolved, although without -fire-arm to make his way down the canyon to the basin, an there meet the citizens; for he was positive that the latter were by this time on the march to attack the Wild Cats. On he went until he gained a narrow ravine, which was bordered on either side by pines. eneneens down this for a short distance, he found that he was near a large number of pore: conceal and some that were impossible, | bartered all that is womanly, and steeped her | the noise of their hoofs showing that they were 4 she searched, but in vain. Once more the ban- | soul in untold crime, were scattered over the | beyond the fringe of pines. Climbing up the bank, { : he crawled through the underbrush, an the dit Queen fell into a violent fury. Had she | earth. ; ‘ branches before him, when he discovered the horses known that she was now the only living occu- She caught at the wiry grass, tearing the | of the bandits, lariated to stakes, and guarded from ant of the caverns—that the Wild Cats, terri- | skin and flesh of her burned bands as she did 80, | the danger of a stampede by canyon and steep fied by her threats to blow them up, had hasten- | and hurled hundreds of the golden coins right | mountain side. ed to a pine-sheltered opening at the base of the | and left among the rocks, cursing the yellow | Not a human being was in sight, and as the youn range, and there encamped—she would have | dross for which she had bartered everything to hi waned eround tbe opening, aaah ne = been doubly enraged. Had she known that | that was worth possessing here and hereafter. Ae I Ginsobk Suaate’ kek thc. whined eke Diamond Dick, at the moment she started to Such was her agony, as she comprehended guanted and that the enterprise would be a danger- quell the disturbance, was under the lounge; | that her beauty was now gone forever, that she | 6us one. Dick resolved to regain his horse at any and that the bandit’s question as to where Cap- | could not reason in regard to the mystery of | cost. Nevertheless, he feared not the result, and ina tain Halfhand was, had reminded the byw | their treasures being in such a place. She | short time he had reached the stake, cut the lariat, man of his oath of vengeance, and that he had | thought of nothing, except to be able, in a | 20d led the horse to the cover of the pines. As he then glided away to explore caverns in search | measure, to mitigate her terrible sufferings, by oe oe Pees Patt gully, he — a series. of of the bandit chief, Lucile would have been gee. the cool grass to her scorched flesh. je ikae gained rh punpene ne and bo Peete 2 | driven to fury indeed. But she knew nothing | She knew that she could hope for no relief, for | that the drunken bandits had heen driven from the of this; and so, for hours, she paced the apart- | no human aid; especially now that she had be- | cave by their imperious Queen. If this was the case, ment, unable to arrive at any reasonable con- | come a hideous, repulsive object; and in her | he knew that they could be easily cut off from their clusion as to her future movements. anguish she cursed the world, its people and | stronghold, and killed or captured without great loss All at once it flashed upon her that as a Queen | herself—cursed with insane fury, regardless of | tO the citizens; especially now that they pci Or of bandits, her day was over; and that she had | the fact that she might be heard by those who re gh " it po oe as be ge ox ioe better collect what valuables she had accumu- | would profit by her helpless condition! vias, Sota Was tea attempt to contend against the : lated, secrete them, and then set out to seek | It so happened that Dashing Dolores, after | men of Big Medicine City. George McClellan, who might possibly have | having disposed in her own way of Reckless Leading his horse down the gully, it did not take escaped to the outside world. Rube had galloped toward the range with the | Dick long to reach the point of the recent fight, and She could not believe that he had perished. | object of seeking for any sign of Diamond Dick; | Just as he neared the spot where he had been He was too young, and too brave to die. His | but human nature could no longer endure the ae ey oy be warren 2 oe of a human life had been miraculously preserved so far, | extreme fatigue which she felt, after privation | “°\S\o¢cone all ther cats in New Mex’! Hit's Di’- and she could not but believe that the same | from food and rest, and from long-continued mon’ Dick, er I'm a Greaser!”’ fortune would continue to follow him. exertion and excitement. So poor Dolores was | He immediately recognized Bowlder Bill, and a Suddenly her eyes rested on the lounge, and | forced to grasp the horn of the saddle for sup- | moment after the faithful miner came boun ay she discovered that it was not placed closely | port, allowing her horse to go at will; the ani- | down the wash-out” into the basin, crying ou nf agaiust the wall as before. She went forward mal following a ‘“‘ wash-out” to the vicinity of elgetuly Tl chaw ff, ef I ain't jist f and looked behind it. Only a narrow space | the secret opening to the caverns of the Wild | yin" over with he solid clad. ten dod-blasted showed that the bulky piece of furniture had | Cats. tickled ter see yer one’t paling Where in thundera- been disturbed. . Widening the space a little by | Arriving there, the poor girl had just fore- | tion hes yer bin?” main strength, she discovered that a dark cavity | thought sufficient to secure her steed'in such a | _ “I've been in the cave of the Wild Cats, Bill,’ was we beyond. noes she host nomena ~ — | no - oe him to feed upon he rah the repiy. “How happens it that you are here cClellan was alive, an esca this | grass; then she sunk to the ground, andf to o nm hitherto unknown passage. By taxing her a deathlike slumber which lasted until the | ..,>inip thar cavet” exclaimed Bill, in the utmost strength to the uttermost, Lucile su in | shades of evening fell upon the earth, when she “Easy enough. They y ein. But I walked removing the lounge suflic ay to allow her to | was aroused by the cries and groans of Lucile | out without saying good-by. ‘Have you seen Big a pass into the dark opening. en catching up | Luzerne. ‘| Medicine?” Mae ® candle from the table, she crawled into the Relieved by sleep although she was, Dolores | “ Nary a Big Med’, since arter thet Snehiie, wees <p eartaber | it onward, she soon per- | was so filled with the old mad exultation, when | they comed so dang’d near. corralin’ yer. | This air | ceived a lightahead. This, however, she found, | she witnessed the fearful condition of the ner ae ge d-up Se Halfhand “ory felk on. 2 roved to proceed from her own apartment. | woman who had come between her and Dia. him a’gin’ atweke eo ee rinifest Nex'I diskive fol She now recollected, that, after leaving Dick, | mond Dick, that her weak mind again lost its Dolores, an’ got her ter fasten her peepers onter -| she had repaired to her room, and there in her | balance. : | cuss while Tskuted up ther range fer find out what am rages LOGeany indulged in a wild soliloquy. With a cry of vengeful triumph, Dolores, as | Big Mod. SB: an’ see ef I couldn't strike sqme sige R Po ow the thought came bome to her, that pos- | she dashed among the cedars and recognized by | 0’ ther Wild Cats. gs a I comed back, pane | ! sibly Diamond Dick might even then have been | the unseorched portions of her black velvet oh ae hed partes Ee oe eg » | | | watching her exhibition of insane rage, and | costume who it was that was in her power, she | chuck full fresh grizzly sien. Ef ther b’ar made = ; heard the fatal admissions she had made. The | bound the wretched sufferer band and foot, and clean, fer thar ain't a rag er a button acateerel ree oe il mere possibility of such a thing baving been | then, with fearful threats d ed her out from | ‘roun’ nowhar. Howsomever, Dolores skuted, in the case, was absolutely maddening. the motte, while she looked with insane delight ' ther fust place, up the ‘wash-out,’ with thet cuss, ae ebooks.com ‘ intl : , —S \ Rie Geom / , ; — a 4 e . : , as ‘ * a ‘ 72 bid f —_ =" * * i‘ . © o «) / 2 & pas