Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 294 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

22 — He struck down the arm of Colorado as he thundered out the last sentence, and the horri- fied mob saw his revolver pressed against their new leader’s temples. The Denverite was as agile as a tiger. CHAPTER XXVIII. HOW THE AVENGER CAME. Ir the reader does not object, we will turn . from this scene for a little while to witness an- other equally as thrilling, although it takes us back a step in our romance. Half-asleep on the sorry cot on the floor of his cabin, while Broadcloth Burt was creeping down the darkened streets of Deadwood to an interview with Alice which might yet cost him his life, lay Paradise Paul. He had not recovered from the terrible choking received at the hands of Simon Sandbanks, which, added to the loss of blood already sus- | tained, had brought his strength down to that 4 of a child’s. .. Night had fallen again over the Black Hills capital, and at his own request thecaptain of the toughs had been left alone. e saw not the stealthy figure that crept into Deadwood from the Denver trail, nor did his acute senses catch the tread of the approaching one. It was not until the door of his cabin, never locked, and ready to answer to the push of all, opened slowly, that he knew that he was to have a visitor—and the most terrible one that had ever crossed his threshold. The last friends who left him had put a re- ts 1. ae a . La _ i “ - _ as ee ee di - volver within the reach of his remaining hand, 3 and toward the weapon his fingers glided as the ae shadow of the stealthy visitor fell athwart his cot. 5 But he was not ies enough now, though os there had been a time when no one, however ce alert, could steal a march on the prince of a Northwestern toughs. [ _ _ The new-comer swooped suddenly upon Para- ‘< dise Paul, and four long fingers closed on his - wrist just as they touched the ready weapon, **lam here for the everlasting settlement!” | hissed Captain Pauls visitor, and a pair of eyes ie darted downward a flash that seamed to burn | his pallid cheek. “1 am hsre for the other i hand! The wiles of man and 6h clubof the Mormon ine have failed to keep me from + yrevange, I had your wardagaix, but this time a the Salt Lake City viper rescued her. He took her toward Denver, and I will follow bim when I have settled with you.” g Even before the speaker opened her mouth | ‘Paradise Paul had recognized her. be) Her fingers seemed to cut through his wrist to the boue; ber eyes were living coals of rage. ; i What do you say? Have you no words for rah ame i ye **None for you!” was the defiant answer, as ‘the teeth of the Deadwood desperado closed be- _ hind thelast word. ‘I turned you out of this 2 cabin once. I would doit in.” bet “You would believe the | would you?” iS as Yes ” ormon’s lie again, | “ Then you never loved the woman you made i your wife?” | Merciful Father! b ” . ae. erciful Father! bear him! Merci- | less Maud. “Then, in the nual hetntoren, ery ee Paul, why did you wed mer” 5 > faint smile came to the desperado’s lips and a triumphant light lit - his eyes. “I did it to beat the man who did love 4 ial : ° , ~ pi “ * __—- you,” he said, while the smile continued visi- Be ** My God! I never dreamed of this heartless- ness. And having beaten him as you term it, ie) ou reso a quarrel and shot him?” wie aud was silent for a moment. “That adds another weight to my wrongs,” ree she said. “‘ You wanted a pretext, then, to iar turn me from your door; you were more than ss ready to listen to the lie that originated in Timo- thy Tenwives’s heart, that be might make me _ his Mormon wife.” _ -— The old fellow did me a service then.” » A e “Weren't you in league with him?’ asked the avenger quickly. erm ites go ip with a Mormon villain? No! I ‘never got down ter thet level, Maud!” said . Captain Paul, indignantly. "Not to bis level,” she smiled, sarcastically. _ **God knows you bave sunk below it. But my ~~ time bas come! The wratb of years is about to fall upon the beads of two men—the one who " 4 Lé@ * » ; % + ) ) ay J Mew ay ed ms from him one winter night into the | —- joathsome armsof tbe other! I am here for the _ hand that sent me adrift!” Captain Paul was at the mercy of the woman whose life he bad blighted; he could only gaze __up into her merciless eyes and feei the burning _ fingers of revenge at his wrist. © T will become Alice’s guardian,” she sud. _ ' denly went on. ‘“‘I want somebody to love when I have taken vengeance, I believe I could Jove that girl.” You love Alice?” eo “7 will try.” **T pity the poor creature, then,” said the es ™ * << f = tg Semen . —_* i > ‘" ht 3 “~ eh. fy a ; agen fee - t on e” ie le % * Broadcloth ie he oS 1 _ 7 F Li 7 oo eae desperado. ‘But you will kave to play a deep game if you get her.” ‘* From that Mormon wretch?” ‘* He is no fool.” ‘*T know him, With me on his trail Salt Lake City will never hide him!” cried the avenger. ‘‘He may take Alice to bis house; I will enter it. Bolts and bars shall never keep me out, 1 will get the girl and stir the Mor- mon capital to its depths with a tragedy that shall make the chief wretch of all—Brigham | Young—tremble in his security. Yon shall never see my triumph; you, Captain Paul, will be handless.and dead when your desperadoes | gatber for orders.” ‘‘ We will see!” and Paradise Paul made a futile effort to withdraw his hand from the woman’s grasp. ‘‘T will free your hand in a minute!” she hissed. ‘‘ Captain Paul, the hour of vengeance waited for so long is here!” Quick as the spring of the mountain-cat, the hands of Merciless Maud darted at the villain’s throat, still sore from Simon Sandbanks’s terri- ble clutch, With but one arm left for defense, the Dead- wooder could not prevent the attack, and the fingers of the wronged woman found bis tra- chea, Her eyes seemed to shoot forth sparks of mad- ness as she threw the weight of her body into the assault; the once giant in strength strug- gied, but for what? The theft of the left hand and the landlord’s attack had paved the way to the avenger’s suc- cess, She seemed insane, for, in her fury, her fin- gers almost met behind the desperado’s wind- pipe, as if the remembrance of her past ren- dered her hatred ungovernable. Captain Paul’s eyes appeared ready to fly from his bead; his face, at first. coloriess, red- dened and then grew dark. The Mormon Exile bad become a demon in- carnate; she had come to kill, to avenge, and she did both. . When she left her victim lying in the poor beams of the dying candle on the table all was silent in the shanty, and under the table, pulse- | less and bloody . a human hand, six feet | from the bleeding wrist at the dead man’s side. | Just beyond the cabin door Merciless Maud , balted in the starlight and threw one hand solemnly toward heaven. ‘‘ One!’ she said, in thrilling tones. ‘“ Half of my vow has been fulfilled. There yet re- mains another—the Mormon spider who lied me from the bondage of one house to the tor- tures of another, I am merciless, but those two men have made meso. In the future, if Thou forgivest me, Heaven,I will be a woman, but never again a wife, once more!” She strode from the cabin and vanished amid the gloom of Dead wood’s streets. Like a tigress, stealthily and noiselessly, she had glided to her work, and like one she went away. iat Paradise Paul, dead in his cabin and mu- tilated, waited for the coming of the desperate men whose leader he bad been througb years of wickedness. Deadwood had lost a “‘ prominent citizen,” but one whom she could very well spare. ' CHAPTER XXVIII COLORADO'S CATCH, LIFE appeared a brittle thread to Colorado Clate when ba found himself looking into the muzzle of Broadcloth Burt’s revoiver. True it was that a scoreof the toughs of Deadwood stood within a few feet of bim, and with revolvers iv their hands, but he knew that et belongs ter ther annals ov Cl’ar-Grit | the lifting of a single one would seal his own doom, ; ‘“‘T am bere for the girl—for Alice, I teli you, and if you want to keep ber in Deadwood, vou must do it now,” continued the man from Den- : ver, breaking the silence that ha@ followed his | coup. ‘I seek the life of no man, but fam pre- pared te bandle those who don’t like me without | gloves. Gentlemen,” he gienced swiftly at the horrified crowd, ‘‘ I bold at Colorado’s head my ssport from Deadwood, also the passport of this woman at my side,” “Take her. then, an’ be hanged ter yer!” growled Colorado, ‘Take her ter Denver ef yer kin git ber thar.” ‘*T am to be hunted, then?” “Who said so?” * You, by implication.” Colorado smiled. ‘‘Take her ter Denver; that’s what I said. | Stand back, boys, an’ let ’em out.” | Quite unexpectedly the Denverite’s revolver : dropped from a le¢el with Colorado’s head, and : he looked down at Alice. | _‘* We'll go, girl,” he said, and then his eyes ' glanced at the toughs again. | ©The bandless man, in the last interview I bad with him, said that twixt we two it should be war to the knife. He said so, not I, under- stand.” ‘** We understand you,” grated the new leader. “‘Thar’s ther door. Take yer pard an’ skip,” A quiet smile that breathed of contempt and ‘ * «% . ’ Burt, the Denver Dandy. _-_ — ro — oe - defiance toyed with the dandy’s a as he step- ped quickly to the door, preceded Alice. A moment later the pair stood in the starlight, while the baffled tigers of Deadwood, beaten for the third time by their Denver rival, stood amazed in the presence of the dead. “It’s no harm to shoot a map like that in the back!” suddenly exclaimed Colorado, “A deeper-dyed villain than Broadcloth Burt never struck Deadwood. Thet girl doesn’t leave town with him! Sbe belongs ter Deadwood, because she war Cap’n Paul’s ward. We ar’ her pro- tectors from this time on. She sha’n’t see Den- ver in Broadcloth’s company.” There wasashout of approval from every | tongue in the house save two, and Colorado Clate turned madly toward the door. **Stay back!” he suddenly said to the crowd that surged after him. ‘‘ lama match for that fashion-plate, if he is armed to the teeth. Fix | ther cap’n up fer ther grave, an’ swear over ther corpse ter et even with Maud ther Merciless fer | her work. | will find Broadcloth Burt an’ Alice. | They won't leave Deadwood to-night; ther one with ther boots on stays hyar forever!” Colorado Clate ae from the shanty be- fore any one of the dwood pards could de- tain bim. ‘He had me a minute ago an’ he wouldn’t use his advantage—ther fool!” be ejaculated, “‘ Now let him eat ther consequences with ther bread ; ov etarnal bitterness. Broadcloth Burt, when / you left Denver ter rake in ther Deadwood queen, you sealed yer coom!” He, too, was in the starlight now, but not a glimpse of the two companions rewarded his keen eyes, ‘* Paradise dead! an’ me captain of the Dead- wood toughs!” be continued. ‘‘ Naturally, the girl falls from his bands inter mine. While he ived no man in Deadwood had a show for her now the man what wins her an’ keeps ber agin’ odds will get a dandy wife. She never hated me, thet girl didn’t; but she told me once thet I hed no business ter b’long to ther Thirty. She never loved me, though, but thet’s no sign thet she never would.” And Coloradosmiled. “A bold strike will win tbe prize. A bullet through the Denver dandy’s head will keep Alice hyar, an’ thet means a game for me.” Away he went toward the southern part of the town through which ran the Denver trail. He walked rapidly, but his feet gave out no sound; he seemed to believe that he could over- take Broadcloth Burt and Alice, who he took for granted had already left Deadwood. All at once while yet among the stoa!] shan- ties of the silver-miners Colorado halted sud- denly, and then stepped quickly into the shadow of one of the bute. A motionless figure a few feet ahead had startled bim and now he watched it with eager eyes and a finger at the trigger of a heavy re- volver. “If I hev found bim already I am lucky,” he said to himself. ‘‘I have said, Broadcloth, thet you shouldn't leave Deadwood, au’I guess I’m goin’ ter keep my word. Move a step, show yerself, give me a better chance for a dead- drop, an’ then—-good-by, my Denver night- hawk!” Colorado Clate had caught sight of the figure so suddenly that he had been almost lifted Som his feet, and now he held his breath while he regarded the person whd leaned against the next cabin and in a poor position to afford hima good shot. , “Tt is Broadclcth, but what is he standin’ thar for? Has he lost the girl a’ready? She wasn’t averse ter =. with bim, but, they're not together now. Hello! Vl get a chance ter bounce him now?” The man against the shanty had moved and that toward Colorado Clate! Slowly the villain’s revolver crept upward until it covered the advencing figure. ‘‘Goin’ ter Denver, eh?’ chuckled the Dead- wooder. ‘“‘ When you git thar, Broaccloth, just drop Deadwood a line.” Searcely five feet separated the two men now. Colorado Clate eager to blow the sport’s head to pieces leaned forward with the ready wea- n,. Suddenly a change came over his counte- nance and bis tiger orbs changed from rage to blank astonishment, ‘*Great heavens! bas ther dead come back‘’’ he geapeds i; ‘“*The man in the narrow street heard these words and stopped. “TI wasn’t expectin’ you, but I'll take you a) the same,” blurted the captain of the toughs covering the distance between bim and the man with a singie stride. ‘‘ Don’t you know that for you Utah’s a blamed sight safer than Dead- wood?” There was no reply for the listener had re- coiled a foot to be followed by the blazing and the menacing revolver of Colorado Clate. ‘No squealin’. Pve got the drop on yer, Timothy. Twice run trom Deadwood when you ought ter hev been shot in your tracks, Under what you still persist in comin’ back, ‘Under a very unlucky one, I judge,” was star war ye born any how?” | | 7 GOmMIIegnDOCKS. Ga ee ———— ° ° i. ? * - « "or Can ® | , 4 O 7 OC | a Zz ” “ *