Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 256 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

20 ee —_—_—- —_—_— Double Dan, the Dastard. | With a piercing shriek she sunk to the earth, eae reaching the wreck Roy sprung to the | into the bottom timber; in fact, before the where she lay, devoid of sense, and with all the | earth as he drew his bowie, and with frantic | bushes had ceased to sway from the dash of the | outward appearance of a corpse. slashes cut clear the tilt from the broken hoops | Mexican. | and hurled right and left the debris of the freight. Captain Ray and the remainder of the party urrived as our hero raised himself up, | his f rea radiant with relief and thankful- ness cried out: i. nk God! She is not here, Captain Ray. Your daughter was not in the wagon.” The next instant he yelled: ‘Gentlemen, that man who drove the mules must be taken! We’ll torture the truth from This sight, which would have almost melted a heart of stone, only caused another brutal laugh to break from Le Grand’s lips; and he | drew rein, dismounted, lifted the limp form of IK Rosa Ray on his saddle, and then sprung again ; | astride, taking his recovered prize in his arms. As has been intimated, the two revolver-shots | fired by Antonio would have created suspicion in the mind of any prairie roamer, and caused | caution in following close after the Mexican. | And to understand more fully the position of affairs and what followed, we will dash ahea:l of the teamster in bis mad flight, during the latter Stee of which, as he realized that he was safe from pursuit, his features were lighted Driving deep his spurs, he turned his horse in a quartering course toward the timber of the : Sau Miguel, and then along the border of the | ' same; no longer fearing discovery, as the aven- H gers were too intent upon the wagon they were i poxening, to think of turning to notice any- i hing in their rear. ; Slowly, but surely, the pursuers now gained | upon the wagon, within which they believed bai was the poor maiden, for whom they were f ready to sacrifice their lives, had she been sur- ! rounded and held captive by a hundred cut- throats, However, they were gratified to know that there could not possibly be more than two men aa to contend with; and these, they had registered an oath, should hang to the nearest tree. Still on, sparing not spurs, until Antonio be- en to perceive that his doom was sealed, the exican did not abandon the wagon and mules, with which he had hoped to escape, and to run , into the camp of his bandit comrades, or he would not so readily have consented to leaving the San oy ys and taken to the open plain. f Jerking the mules to a halt, Antonio sprung from h’s perch on the wheeler, and ran to his horse in the rear of the wagon; unloosing the ; animal, and bounding upon bis back. Casting a look behind him, bis face became ghastly, as he saw bow near were the avengers; Pi and he drove spurs deep, guiding his horse close up to the team of mules, and lashing each and every animal unmercifully with his long ** black snake.” am With snorts of pain and affright, the mules rung madly forward iato a wild stampede, | e wagons surging and the wheels humming; | the leaders heading more to the northward than ‘ti when controlled by Antonio, who was now | se ing his horse straight toward the Rio My 0, ( The Mexican fancied that this movement Ae would cause the pursuers to divide, if they de- A cided to give him chase; and that a short halt, i or slackening of speed would be necessitated to consult in this respect, pe which he would , ain time. But he was mistaken, for mf Ran- ( dolph yelled to two of the young planters to | ursue the fleeing miscreant; believing it not : mpossible that the lone rider might be Louis 7 Le Grand in disguise. 4 Everything considered, this seemed quite v probable; and two of the best mounted of the : young men turned their borses in pursuit of iM Antonio, while the remainder spurred on after re the wagon, which was now going at more ter- 4 vific speed than ever, the mules being frantic it with terror. fF The pale and anxious faces of Captain Ray Fi and our hero became agonized in appearance, as they gazed at the wagon which was being jerked at such speed as to cause the hinder por- tion at times to bound in the air, the wheels clear of the ground. On they galloped, urging their horses to nty ater s , thinking only of the dread posi- ion of the one so dear to them both. Then, as they gazed at the white tilts, longing to see 4 beneath its arch, the mules suddenly bounded to | the left, as if something in their front had i frightened them. a bs . he hearts of the observers sprung up in their t throats as they saw that the wagon must be it overturned, but they dreamed not of that vy which was to follow, for no sooner did the lead and string mules show their sides in the turn ; than suddenly the wagon pitched forward, the ' back part in the air and the wheels fast revolv- ing. It was for an instant only; then the | wagon and mules disappeared from view, as if they had been swallowed up in the earth. | A piercing yell of anguish burst from Cap- tain Ray, and he sunk forward, his gray hair | ' mingling with the flying mane of his horse, while he clutched the saddle-horn for support. ii A groan was extorted from Roy, whose eyes iZ seemed about to burst from their sockets; but he drove deep his spurs and dashed onward, as did the young planters who were with bim. . Double Dan trembled like an aspen-leaf, for i he well knew there would be no mercy shown | him by those who held him captive—that all ig who had been connected with the abduction of | Rosa Ray, now undoubtedly crushed to death, ‘a would be hanged like dogs by her avengers. Roy Randolph reached the scene of the catas- - frophe and jerked his horse to a halt on the very | edge of a deep barranca. ar below him, on the bed of the barranca lay mules and wagon, the latter shattered and broken, and the animals either dead or dying. _-—--«sSGike a madman Roy spurred up the bank of the barranca for a long distance before reach- ing a “‘ wash-out” which led into the same, i was dangerous of descent, nevertheless | down he urged his horse, and then over the dbarranca bed toward the crushed wagon. him! Le Grand has foiled us at every point. Spur deep, and follow! **T sincerely hope that our friends have cap- tured the miscreant, whoever he is. Dan’— addressing himself to the captive—‘‘say your prayers, for your timeissbort. Iam desperate now, desperate as death itself! And I swear that all who have in the slightest degree been connected with this infernal deed, shaJl die by the rope! ‘‘Spur on, men! Don’t despair, Pye Ray! We will yet foil the plans of the Dastard Grand!” The eyes of Roy Randolph blazed with fury, as he thus spoke, and Double Dan crouched yet lower in his saddle, his eyes filled with abject terror; as all sped on their return to the upper plain, and thence on toward the fleeing Mexi- can, who was now far ahead, the two young planters but a quarter of a mile in bis rear, CHAPTER XXIII, AMONG THE BANDITS. FuLt fifteen miles had been the gallop from Rio San Miguel to the barranca, and five miles south of this was the Rio Frio; the dark ribbon of timber promising protection to Antonio from his pursuers. As time passed on, the two young planters, in hot pursuit, would gain upon the Mexican oe y; then the latter would shoot forward at redoubled speed, and they could not help seeing that the fugitive would gain the timber before he could be captured. Yet still they kept on, at their utmost speed, feeling positive that Le Grand had hurried his captive on ahead of the agnn from the San Miguel; that the miscreant had probably discovered them, with the aid of a glass, when they were afar north on the plain toward the Rio Medina, and had hastened away with the unfortunate maiden. Had not this been the case, they reasoned that the driver of the mules would have left the wagon and the animals secreted on the San Miguel, and would have hid himself, or else have dashed up the stream, and thus escaped. No longer did our friends think that the man they were pursuing was Louis Le Grand; just the opposite. For they were confident that the abductor of Rosa must now be hurrying to some secure hiding-place with his captive. At the moment they discovered that Rosa had not been in the wagon when it was thrown over into the barranca, they knew that Le Grand must have perceived their ra preg and made sure, in some way, of the safety of him- self and his fair captive. They did not once think of the probability of Le Grand and Rosa’s being in their rear, and so felt that their only hope of rescuing ber de- pended upon capturing the driver of the wagon, and forcing him to reveal the whereabouts of his dastardly employer. Double Dan had led them to the right place on the San Miguel. Had he done otherwise he would have been banged forthwith by the desperate men, who, worn by privation and fatigue, were in no mood to be trifled with. On dashed Antonio, he being near the timber, and close behind him the two young planters; the remainder of the party being balf a mile further back. Suddenly the Mexican half turned in his saddle, and fired two shots in quick succession toward his nearest pursuers, but without doing any harm, Had the young planters been accustomed to border life, they would at once have suspected danger, and de- cided that the two reports of the Greaser’s revolver were intended as signals of warning, or for help; as the distance between the parties Ne: much further than a revolver could send a ullet. This, however, was unnoticed by the two young men, they evidently thinking that the fugitive was merely trying to frighten them, in order that they might jerk up, giving bim ad-: vantage when it was most needed. — After the shooting, the Mexican darted ahead, bis horse showing remarkable speed and endurance; and goon steed and rider sbot into the dark shades of the Rio Frio, Now it was that the pursuers were greatly alarmed, an doubtful in regard to capturing the driver; and to prevent the latter from going either up or down the stream, Roy and one of the young men spurred to the right, toward the river, in an oblique course, our hero, by a gesture, instructing the others, headed by Captain Ray, to ride obliquely to the left, the trails thus diverging from a point. But a little time elapsed after the disappear- ance of the teamster, when the two foremost of the pursuers spurred their horses headlong up with a fiendish triumpb. A pistol-shot from the edge of the timber, between the same and the river, was a natural opening, clear of trees and undergrowth, of about an acre in extent; and on that portion of it nearest to the river were lariated fully a score and a half of mustangs, while on the bor- ders of the ‘‘open” nearest the plain, over which the chase was in progress, were a score of blanketed forms and the smoldering embers of a couple of camp-fires. A single, solitary sentinel sat in the middle of the encampment smoking a corn-shuck cigar- ette, the fragrant aroma of which floated through the air. Doubtless others were beyond the confines of the camp to guard against sur- prise. The sentinel was attired in the buckskins of the Rio Grande, the breeches being slashed, fringed and buttoned, as was also his jaqueta, while a highly-ornamented sombrero rested carelessly on the back of his head. Each sleep- ing form was wrapped in a Mexican blanket brilliant in color, and the face of each was shaded from the moon’s rays by a wide, stiff sombrero; this and their yellow hands proved that they were Greasers, while their number, together with the time and place, showed they were outlaws. Thus was it in the cant in the Frio bottom. All was still but for the noise made by the mus- tangs, by the stamping of their hoofs and in tea ring grass from the sod, Suddenly two reports of Antonio’s revolver burst with startling vividness on the plain, and echoed through the arches of the timber. If each sleeper had received a heavy charge from a powerful electric battery, the effect would not bave been greater. They sprung from the ground, seized their carbines, and stood braced for fight, the moon lightin up their faces; and a more fiendish and merci- less horde its silvery i never rested upon, Before they could own f comprehend the nat- ure of the sound that bad broken their slumbers, there rusbed into their midst, carbine in hand, one of their number, who had doubtless been stationed to overlook the plain, ** Antonio—Antonio comes back!” he shouted. ‘Ten diablo Texanos chase bim into Frio tim- ber. Two come first. Put away escopetas ! Knife and lasso come first. Alerta! Antonio comes fast!” With these words the sentinel returned into the undergrowth, the bandits quickly disposing of their carbines, some drawing knives, others coiling and adjusting lassoes with quick move- ments, their gaze fastened toward the plain, and their ears strained to catch the sounds, now easily distinguished as the tramping of steeds at full speed. The sudden and simultaneous awakening of the bandits, together with their movements to- ward defense and capture of the enemy, all spoke of long experience and strict discipline, as well as regular organization. ere was no undue excitement or crowding, the outlaws scattering along the north side of the camp. At the very moment that these preparations were perfected, Antonio urged bis panting steed through the undergrowth into the camp, jerking the animal to a halt, and yeliing: **Kight diablo Texanos! Plenty money et ranches on Brazos. No kill—lasso, then tie to tree!” Half. bent, a number of the bandits gathered on each side of the point where Antonio had crashed through the bushes. ‘*Two come first,” he explained. ‘‘ Throw rope auick, pull out of way. Plenty fun soon With these words, Antonio sprung. from bis horse, allowing the fagged animal to go free, amorg the lariated mustangs that were now prancing about in affright at the night alarm. Then he ran back toward the plain on a course parallel to that by which he had entered the camp. Gn akais the two young planters, quite un- suspicious of danger, except from the fugitive; who, they reasoned, might have dismounted and crouched in the thickets to fire upon them. This probability caused them to draw their re- volvers and glance searchingly on all sides. On they came, through the undergrowth, which reached above the heads of the riders, the branches flying in their faces, and before they fully realized that an ‘‘ open” was in front of them their animals bounded free from the bushes into the bandit camp, The gaze of the amazed young men tock in everything, the borses, camp-equipments. and the score of crouching, murderous-looking Mex- icans—all with their brutal faces gleaming witi SE) =e ICO <com € ba? 4 ‘