Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 294 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

a ~ a en emerge F 4 ; iff rs Sm ea d jel o ed e ‘ me es at, % — ins —_—— almost lifted himself from the ground with an exclamation of amazement. ‘* Alice! by Jehosaphat! Heaven, fair creature, whar did you come from?” ‘‘No explanations now, colonel. anxious to see my friend,” ‘* Paradise Paul, eh?” et Se ‘‘ Wal, be ain’t in Deadwood just now.” ‘‘What! Is he hunting for me? I have come I am very back without his help; but ve had adventures, | colonel.” ‘‘Did the Mormon let you go before they hung him?’ ‘‘ He never had me in his possession |” ‘* What!” ‘Timothy Tenwives never touched me, I bave been the captive of the most relentless tigress that ever lived—Merciless Maud, the | Mormon Exile.” ‘¢ Je-hosaphat!” cried the colonel. CHAPTER X, THE LOST HAND, Ir Alice had beeu taken from Deadwood by the revengeful Mormon wife, if she had suc- ceeded in eluding her captor, it was likely that the end was not yet. Broadcloth Bu In the name ov. — as ~ dent that her guardian would put in an ap- pearance before the break of day. She had much to tell bim, all about her abduction by the Mormon wife, and more too. She had dis- covered how intensely Merciless Maud hated Paradise Paul, and now she knew that the pair _ had once been man and wife. From the avenger’s lips during her captivity ! Alice had been forced to listen to a story of 'wrong and suffering which almost froze her blood. If all that Maud told was true, she had cause to hate Paradise Paul, and even Alice had felt her heart beat with indignation while the wronged woman spoke, Yet she had trusted Paradise Paul so long! | Could it be that he was the man Maud had ainted him? Was it true that he had driven is wife from his cabin when the hills were crowned with peaks of freezing snow, and when the fastmesses of the crags swarmed with | wolves? ‘‘ He drove me from him despite my prayers! —he—your friend—Paradise Paul!” Merciless Maud had hissed into Aljice’s ears while her burning fingers encircled ber white wrist, ‘He did this, 1 would have perished if succor had not been near, I was saved—saved to be drag- ged to Utah to become the wife—the slave—of Would not Merciless Maud, baffled in her first | a veritable human devil. I have lived through attempt, game? ‘‘ An’ so that she-alligator, an’ not the old Mormon, took you away?” said the colonel shortly after the exclamation with which we closed the preceding chapter. ‘‘ Paradise Paul an’ his p hung the wrong man, in one sen:e ov the word, but Timothy Tenwives didn’t get more than he deserved, eh, girl?” ** They return with twofold fury to the ‘“*— cannot say,” was the answer. have told me that it was for me that the Mor- mun left Salt Lake City. Paradise Paul has frequently warned me against him, but I know not what to think.” ‘‘Wal, we're all rid oy the Mormon Greaser forever. Thet hangin’ réleased ten wives from slavery. He will never get you, Alice—never make you Mrs. Tenwives number eleven. Thar ar’ others whose lives are devoted to you; ahem! others, my dear child, whose affection is as everlastin’ as the endurable bilis!” and Simon Sandbanks put on an affectionate look and sought the depths of the girl’s eyes. ‘*Confound it!” he said to bimself at the same time, ‘‘she’s come back just when I didn’t want her to. I can’t have a chance ter rescue ber from the clutches ov someone, an’ thus prove my devotion. Itll be a durned dull courtship now, I’m thinkin’, with the odds somewhat ag’in’ me, but I guess I'll be able ter pull through it an’ to drag the Deadwood blos- som along.” I It was rather provoking, that just as the colonel was ready to leave Deadwood in search of Alice, she should return. | 2 eb wre pire and unwished for bad hap- n No chance to show his devotion now unless the Mormon tigress should return to claim her prey, and just then the proprietor of the Setem- up did not think of this. Alice did not stop to detail her adventures while in Merciless Maud’s bands; she was anx- ious to find Paradise Paul. Colone] Sandbanks told her that her guardian bad remained from Deadwood ever since the departure of the toughs in search of Timothy Tenwives, and closed by offering ber an asylum beneath the roof of his hotel. ‘Thank you, but I have a home,” said Alice gently, but with a certain firmness. ‘I will go thither and wait for my friend. He will not ve gone long. My trail, if be strikes it, and 1 am sure he will, will lead bim back to Deadwood.” ‘‘]l] just take my hoss back into the stable. I was goin’ ter hunt you up, girl—goin’ ter shed my blood for ye, if necessary; but yer comin’ home hez deprived me ov thet pleasure. Back = my hoss to the stable; but 1 want you to ow, girl, that in Simon Sandbanks you hev a ve ig who'll stick to ye through thick an’ n. The girl turned away, and the sorely disap- inted citizen of Deadwood led his horse de- ectedly to his stall, “Suthin’ bed ter turn up, curse it!” he wled. ‘Fate bad ter throw her back into eadwood afore I had a chance ter get in my work. Yet I informed her what I war willin’ ter do. I guess I overdrew the blood-sheddin’ bizness a little, but she never noticed it. By Jove! she’s a pink ov perfection. She’s mine from this minute—mine, despite forty Merciless Mauds an’ Paradise Pauls!” Alice soon found herself back in the old cabin once more. f hind when Merciless Maud swooped eagle-like n ber, and succeeded in her scheme, had either been extinguished by some one, or had burned out; but she soon found another, and again lit up the bate of the place. She now wait for Paradise Paul, who had ned among the bills for the pur- pose of finding her. ‘The night was far advanced, and she felt con- © a |r ee The light which she had left be- it all for vengeance against two men!” Alice tried to release herself from that burn- ing hand, but she could not; but she was forced to listen to the whole terrible narrative, forced to hear Merciless Maud’s scathing denuncia- tions, and to gaze into the depths of eyes that seemed living coals. When the hour for escape came, how eagerly the girl embraced it! When the Mormon Exile Jeft her for a mo- ment to go down the trail, in answer to a signal which led her to a crevice, into whose darkness we have seen Timothy Tenwives take a bead- long tumble, Alice made a dash for liberty. And fortune bad favored her! Back again in the Deadwood cabin, she could the to herself the astonishment that must ave filled Maud’s heart on her return to the spot where she had left her captive secure, and there, too, Alice could recall the thrilling story told on the trail, and wonder if the Mormon would ever complete her revenge. Recollecting that the cabin door stood slightly ajar when Merciless Maud made ber successful swoop, Alice shut it and secured it with some stout boards provided for the purpose. No fears of the Mormon tigress now. 1 Colonel Sandbanks had not acquainted Alice with his late adventures in the heart of wood, the meeting with Bowie Bluff, his tumble into the cacti and his revenge when he sent the Man from Iron-Grip reeling across the floor of the Casino with, as the Colonel fondly thought, a bullet in bis brain. Of these events Alice of course knew noi bing, for ber sudden return to Deadwood had taken the colonel by surprise, and almost deprived him of the use of his tongue, More than once Alice went to the door and listened for the sound of a footstep she could pick from among a thousand. To the right of the door was a little window the glass of which had almost cost their weight in gold, and as the night was warm Alice Lad not closed it, ‘‘ He’s here at last!” she suddenly ejaculated during one of her trips to the door. ‘‘ Don’t I know the tread of his horse as well as bis own step?” Her sharp ears had caught the hoof-beats that a ety he the cabin, and instinctively she laid her bands on the barricade of the door, Paradise Paul was coming back from the hunt for her: she would now know whether Merciless Maud had told a truthful story. Alice stood at the little window and held her breath; she trembled with eagerness. In another minute she wou'd not be alone, As the last plank fell from her r hands the horse whose gallops she had heard drew up before the cabin, and the next moment she threw wide the door and sprung to the thresh- old to greet the rider. : “Thank Heaven! at last!” fell from her lips in goss tones. n the saddle before ber sat the figure of a werful man, and there was from bis lips an nstant response to the girl’s ejaculation. ‘* What! back safe, Alice?” ° ‘* Safe!” she made reply. “Thet’s more than I can say,” said Paradise Paul, as he slid from the saddle and broke for tbe door. ‘‘Girl! Alice! Icome back a winged eagle; I am Paradise Paul no longer, but a devil from this hour!” Alice bad already drawn back and be tum- bled into the cabin with the last word sounding like the biss of a serpent. ‘You kin stand what I’m goin’ ter show you,” he continued, wheeling upon her, ‘I’ve taught you, Alice, ter be more than a faint- heart at the sight ov blood. Seé hyar!” The girl sprung toward the table at which the leader of the Deadwood toughs had halted. “Say I’m not winged fer life, will ye?’ he went on as he tore from his left arm some . 4 rt, the Denver Dandy. | thet it war a reminder of the past, Dead- | e/a << tt LL LT — ee —— ee - bloody bandages which had once formed a part of bis dark shirt. ‘‘Say thet thar isn’t one per- son in the world thet hates Paradise Paul, ef ye dare, Alice! Look at thet !” His arm fell on the table as the last word was spoken, and Alice with one look started back with a cry! “Merciful heavens! you have been robbed of a hand!” sbe gasped in accents of horror, Paradise Paul gritted his teeth till they cked. ‘T should remark ter mention!” he said, look- ing Alice in the face. ‘‘ Two hours ago, one ov ther best hands west ov the Mississip’ war on ‘tbatarm. Whar isit now? I cut it off!” “You? My God—no!” exclaimed the girl. ‘*T cut it off,” repeated Paradise Paul, glanc- ing at the bloody stump which lay on the table. ‘In the first place, it was shattered at the wrist by a bullet, an’I finished the work with my bowie.” Alice shuddered. “It isa wonder you haven’t bled to death,” she said. ‘‘] kept back my life-tide by binding it above the wrist with the threads ov a lariat—tbe same cord what choked thet Mormon serpent. But fer thet, I wouldn’t be hyer now, Alice. Look at that hand, girl.” And Paradise Paul beld his right band up to the girl’s gaze in the light. ‘*That’s the one on which so much depends the rest oy my career. It shall settle with all I hate; it shall pay the debt I owe for the loss ov the other! hy don’t you ask me who sent the infernal bullet crashin’ through my wrist?” “The sight of it has appaller me,”.was Alice’s reply. “ Tell me who maimed you for life that | I may hate him. Woe to him if he comes to | Deadwood to complete bis work!” Paradise Paul broke into a strange laugh, while his eyes twinkled ferociously. “You want to pay Aim back, do you, Alice?” he said, ‘‘Thet’s no man’s work—but a wo- man’s, You saw the passenger thet came in from Rockerville in the last stage up? Wal, she’s the wildcat who sent tbe bullet home.” ‘‘ Merciless Maud!” exclaimed Alice, recoil- ing. 5 Tbet’s her name. She said, arter she shot, 1 used ter know thet woman, Mebbe I used to think sutbin’ ov her; but to-day she’s the wife ov the Mormon galoot we caught an’ strung up on the Denver trai! since sundown.” ‘‘T know it all,” said Alice, looking into Para- dise Paul’s eyes. ‘¢ Who told you?’ ‘« Merciless Maud herself.” ‘When?’ “To-night. Ihave been her captive instead of the Mormon’s.” Paradise Paul sbrunk from the table with a wild cry. ‘‘Then who do you believe—me er thet | waren” e came toward the girl, mayer like a | demon incarnate in the weird gleam of the cabin light. ‘‘ Choose between me and that Mormon aven- er!” he cried. ‘‘She has filled you with some rrible story. Sbe bas told you that she was once my wife—that [ drove her from this cabin an’ made her listen to a Mormon elder’s court- ship. Do you believe her, Alice?” | lice stood before him, calm, anc gave him look for look. ‘‘There must be some truth in her story,” she said. ‘‘ Nobody with a heart would invent such a narrative, but—” The clinched fist of the Deadwooder shot up- ward and a mad oath parted bis lips. ' Alice saw the coming blow but could not avoid it. : | ‘‘ Believe her lies an’ take the consequences!” he hissed, ‘* With only one hand left, Iam still able to punish.” In another second the Deadwooder’s ward. would have reeled senseless from his iron fist, but a buman figure bounded like a Jion into the cabin, and landed between Paradise Paul and his victim. **]’}]l take a hand in your me, Paradise,” he said coolly as be shoved the Dead wooder toward the wall. ‘That girl shall form her own opin- ions and be protected in tbem. I didn’t come to Deadwood for a muss, but I’m always willin’ to accommodate any men who is tog for one.” The tall and handsome figure of the interferer stood between Alice and ber guardian with his face turned toward the latter, whose eyeballs glared at him like the orbs of the tiger. ‘“Wal, you did come back to Deadwood, Broadcloth Burt!” he growled. “Leave it_ rele ten minutes, er jine the sleepers on the ill! The Denverite only laughed. CHAPTER XI. THE THIRTY BPEADWOOD TIGERS, PARADISE PAUL slunk to the wall before he stopped. The sudden interference seemed to amaze the tough, and he stared at Broadcloth — Burt until bis eyes seemed on the eve of flying <i . from his head. ‘‘T seldom mix in other people’s quarrels,” said the Denverite, ‘* but this is one of the times - > > « » . ° sna i d ‘ a o e > is ys 6 : ly a é Wy P ' ye 1 & —" ’ , ' ae & ‘id * v- * - . 5 * a : ® ‘ - — Sue e Dns —- a 2 > ’ we . ’ E "= a eee ee mes . % ; °. 4 a . 4 , : a YS : ; a ; ; : \ + ef as a4 > . - P s = * p~ - 7