Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 229 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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a 14 but you are more than a thief. Give him back to me, and. we will make our own way, un- aided.” “Ska’ssly, me luvly demon. my sheer. E out neow.” He looked at the woman with aleering, impu- dent gaze, seemingly intent on rousing her an- ger rather than calming it. He succeeded, too. I went in fur Jim Canley’s pile, an’ I don’t step out ontil I git yew kin fork it over Pll draw Captain Cutsleeve. longer might have been too late. Tell me how Hart Blaine is, say that he lives, that he is not in danger, and that you have a hidden him away to save him possible trouble, and I will forget all my doubts. We will take possession of the Slap Jack to-morrow morning. The girl will only be a feather in my bands,” “I thort yew would kim ter sense. I kin | fetch Blaine threw O. K., an’ yew hev s’uthin’ else ter dew than moonin’ reound his bed, Thet’s a good girl, Git tew work. I hev ther On the instant, with a readiness that the | gang tew plant in the Slap Jack, an’ ef Jim eatest chief in Glory Gulch might have en- | Canley’s ghost er darter kin git ’em out they’ll wied, she whipped out two small revolvers, and held them leveled at his head, “Will you play with a cyclone?” she hissed. “So be it! [tis one life or theother! Give me Wartford Blaine’s life, or I will have yours.” No one could doubt the doctor’s courage after gecing him then, His elbows were resting on the edge of the little table behind which he sat, and his chin beat me,” ** And can they protect me? Was not the as- | Sault made on me to-night part of your scheme, | of which you are viet letting me see the shiny y side? If you were on be trusted!” *“Ther’s a pair on us, Which assault air those?” Ia a few words she recounted the sudden at- not too great a villain to was resting in his hands, and his eyes met hers | tack made when she was spying upon Colonel steadily—though there was a twinkle in them | that said he was more amused than alarmed. ‘Wall, Isweow! I allers know’d ahornit war a fool; but I didn’t think you war so much of either.” **You'll find me hornet enough to leave my sting, without muca fooling either, Ill give ou three minutes by yonder clock to tell the th. Your draw] cannot deceive ma, either. I know you, now, for a desperate man, who has more than once held his life in his hands; and who would murder me without hesitation or remorse. I shall protect myself, and the mo- ment you move you die.” “Ha, ba! An’ ef I should whar would yew be the better? Ef [I hev Hart Blaine corraled yew kin bet it’s whar no one kin ever find bim onless I show ther way. Yew kin blaze away —an’ kill tew birds with one shot.” * “T do not care. I can see that you have doomed him, He will die under your hands - anyway, and itis better to know that at least I have rid the world of you.” “Oh, go on—when the threa minutes air up. Mebbe yew’ll tell me what’s tew become ov the other Ellen? Ther’ air tew Ellen Canleys in the field, an’ by the time she takes her sharo | out where will the rest of us kim in?” The woman gave a start. Though the barrels of her pistols still remained in deadly line, she was more disturbed than would have seemed ssible, | ‘*Another Ellen Canley? Villain, you lie. here is no other such woman living; and well you know it.” — ** Ther’ may be tew er three; butI can’t sw’ar tew more ner one. She air enough. She kim with the last stage; an’ ef she ain’t Kunnel Jim Canley’s darter, an’ can’t prove it, I aira bigger liar then I give mvself credit fur.” : “Tt is false! James Canley has no living daughter. Jshouldknow, The child died long before Ellen—” ‘‘Thet willdo, I onderstand. But mebbe it won't be so easy ter prove. It don’t make ser much difference where ov tew sisters one kicks ther bucket. it mout be hard, jist in Glory Gulch, ter tell which one it was. But when a likely young gal kims ter jine her father, ef he’s - gatisfied, ther rest ov ther world ginnerally knocks under. An’ this happens tew be ther darter ov another wife.” ‘But it cannot be. How could he have hid- den her away for all these years? His daugh- ter—my daughter, then. Ha, ha!” “T reckon yer will give me three minnits more grace. Yew hevn’t half got tew ther bot- tom ov my budgit.” **Yes, | see—unless you are telling a most monstrous lie—that I cannot do without you.” She put away her pistols, and sat down on the rude stool upon the other side of the table. ‘““What do you mean to do about it? I be- lieve your story, for I have seen the girl her- rani 3 Strange that I did not recognize her e. _- “Who knows? Mebbe ef I c’u’d fascinate her, an’ make her Missus Coffin it would be the best way out fur me. Then, when I was a dash- ; ae Qrouns widower—who knows?” ce more he leered at the woman in a most provoking way, but she did not see it, She was studying her own chances, * And if everything else fails?” - She put the question deliberately, and waited coldly for her answer. By it might, perhaps, be determined how deeply he was in earnest. . Ef this firm holds together, an’ there’s noth- ’ else fur it, she will—re-tire.” ‘*But that may not be so easy. It is one | thing to get rid of a warring man, who holds % his lite in| | ,bis hand for any one to snatch at; and another to remove a handsome young girl, for whom all the sympathies of the rude miners, - and rich mine-owners, would be excited. Can- ley’s find, of which he has taken such care to say but little, is worth a fight for—there maybe millions init, But the half may be better than the whole; and no harm must come to the girl —for the present,” “Have yew any perticuler eenterest in her?” “Only so far as concerns my own safety. It fig well we struck when we did; a day or two . * \ Canley and his friend, and how the latter bad come to her assistance. As she suppressed most of the conversation she had had with the three, the attack had no evident explanation, and the doctor appeared as much puzzled as herself. ‘Yer kin expect nothin’ else but tew kim tew grief ef yew sashay ’round this camp at all sorts of unchristian hours. Ef vew can’t trust me, yew had better drop the bizziness, I kin run it thru without yew.” *““Ab! Perhaps had better take as my partner the young man who struck in because [ wos awoman. Ellen Canley, he and I could hold the mine against the best of you—if it was not for Hartford.” ) “Go look fur ’emif yew think so. Hartford is whar he kin do no mischief; the young gal air previded fur; an’ Tetch-Me-Not, ther gay little sport—”’ ‘What of him?” **He air dead,” * You lie!” With his quick, agile step, Touch-Me-Not slipped through the doorway, his derringers cocked and at a ready. ‘*No foolishness, my dear doctor; but the fact is, 1 had to come back from the bappy hunting-grounds to hunt up my sixes that I fancy i ropped somewhere around here. You wouldn’t have a man prospecting around over the range without being fully heeled?” The*advent of the little sport was more than a surprise—for the moment it was a terror. He came with the drop, and if he meant shoot, nothing on earth could save the two; for, though he spoke to Coffin, he bad both covered, “What dew yew mean?” The doctor recovered something of his wits, and for the first thing tried to temporize. ‘*T mean that there’s some game going on here that [ve no call to chip into yet, because no one’sdealt meahand. Zhat’s allright. Go on with your cattle-show. But I do mean that if you don’t shell out the revolvers that I left here when I made wy other call, there’ll be, in about five seconds, the deadest doctor that ever turned his toes up in Southeastern Arizona. There’s not such another set of tools in the Ter- ritory, and the way things look I’m going to nerd them. You understand?” The doctor understood. It made no difference what kind of a man he was, he could do nothing else; and he had peculiar skill in reading the eyes of an irate man, no matter how smoothly he might speak. He did not move a finger, buf nodded with his head. “In yander box thar’s a pair of tewels some one left. Ef they're yewrn, take ’em an’ go.” ‘‘Ha, ha! So you’d play that game on me? Oh, do you take me fora fool? Go for them, Gouger, and if they are the Simon-pure arti- cles, we'll leave this little tea-party to meditate over their brewings.” A dark shade of ae ap cate swept over the doctor’s face, for he had hoped that Touch- Me-Not was alone; and the squat, sturdy rough that slouched across the floor was very different backing from rum-soaked Howlin’ Billy. ““They’re yourn, pard; I'll sw’ar ter it, acos’ I’ve looked inter the’r nozzles afore, an’ knows ’em by heart. Ye’r’ heeled, now, fur ther war- path, so I guess we'd better start.” “ Da-da!” said Touch-Me-Not lightly, to the doctor. ‘*When you don’t expect me I’m generally around. It’s time now to find out what has be- come of little Ellen. When I discover I'll let you know.” This time no chance for the drop did the doc- tor have for Touch-Me-Not, following Gouger, backed to the door, and then suddenly disap- ‘peared, CHAPTER XXII. VARIOUS PROMINENT CITIZENS TAKE A HAND. As the reader may have already guessed, Colonel James Canley had not been a personally om man at Glory Gulch, . e had come there with the rush—and had prospered. ees eee That was against bim with a good many. If it had been “come easy, go easy,” with him it might have been different, but with prosperity he had seemed to change. He had always been a silent man, so that no one knew where he had come from, or anything of his past life; but at first he had mixed somewhat freely with the rougher elements and even made some movements toward founding a pri- vate grave-yard, and the like. After a time all that was changed. He had little to say, and devoted himself to work with grim energy. Glory Gulch saw but little of him of late, for almost the whole of his time was spent at the Slap Jack, where he had men to work for him: and where it was sus- pected that he had made a big strike, The particulars of that he kept to himself. Hartford Blaine, on the contrary, had been a popular man from the very first day he set foot inside of the camp and shot Alligator Abe through and through, He was a different sort of man altogether. Though always well dressed, and apt to be domineering in his ways, be knew how to take right hold of the popular heart. Hecould spend more money in a night, at The Blizzard, than Colonel Canley could drop in the whole town in a week; and he put the greater part of it where it would do the most good. Very little work did Hart Blaine do that was harder than shuffling a pack of cards, and his strikes generally seemed to be madein pockets that were above rather than beneath the surface of the soil. For all that he was not distinctly classed as a gambler, for it was generally un- derstood that he was a speculator, who had come to the Gulch on private business, the ex- act nature of which had never been divulged. One thing was certain. A finer pistol-shot than Hart Blaine never had shown his skill to the people of Glory Gulch. Although the thing was kept pretty quiet, yet there had been a rumor in the camp that he and Canley had had a flare up, and the result was that the betting was three to one, and few takers, that when they came together Blaine would get away with the colonel’s lugge ge, And there was a kind of secret hope in the hearts of the majority of the betters that Blaine would, for once, play for keeps, So far he had gone in to cripple, and had dis- layed the most wonderful ingenuit in making oles and then absolutely pinning the life just inside. The morning after the occurrences just re- lated, there were various rumors afloat that both startled and perplexed the good people of the zuien, The report seemed to have originated at Johnny Goodman’s and The Blizzard, and in the beginning amounted to the report that the af- fair between Blaine and Jim Canley had come off, in a quiet, formal way, without any chance for advantages, and that both men had been **salivated.” Moreover, the seconds of both men were miss- ing. ‘ihe supposition was that these latter had buried their principals and lit ont. But why they should have cone so unless there had been 2 play of some kind no one attempted to ex- ain. ’ This was startling enough; but a little later there was an addition that increased both the mystery and the excitement of the affair, — t was that the trouble had originated about Blaine’s sister, who was Canley’s deserted wife; that the woman was in Glory Gulch, with full proof of her position, and that, backed by a dozen solid fighting men, she had that morning taken possession of her husband’s effects, includ- ing the Slap Jack, and that she intended to ad- minister on his effects after the usual Western fashion. That operation in Glory Gulch. was reduced to the simplest stage of Western jurisprudence. There was no probate judge or other elective officer to claim a moiety; all business being done on a cash basis, there were no recognized debts to be paid; and the administrator always corraled the whole estate. Then they began to remember the handsome, black eyed woman who had been stopping at Goodman’s for a week, and who had been seen several times in conference with Blaine, and once or twice with Canley, who had been pros- pecting around the burg in a manner that had Excited considerable attention, and whose pres- ence had been viewed with reasonable sus- picion by a number of the inhabitants, who had wondered what sort of a lay-out she was look- ing after. ere were various little indignation meetings held around at the different head-quarters, that day. Kithongh, as Alligator Abe expressed it, the Gulch didn’t “‘ want ter buck ag’in’ a woman—ef it war Hart Blaine’s sister—onless ter een fh war fa’r an’ squar’ it ’u’d be er shame ter see them richness goin’ ter a clean outsider, Suth- in’ orter be did,” ‘What ner thunder yer goin’ ter do about , & man who never it?” growled money Bo worked until he had his choice between that and starvation, ‘It ar’ jist er simple robbin’ ov Us comic! S \ 900 /. & oe eee ~~ cor <i: