Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

. . j ~ he bad been writing, and Helen Collingsworth said to Tom hastily: ‘*Stay bere, and be ready to go out by the back door, while I go and see whoitis. It may be only some of our friends, after all,” As yet, they could not bear, from the house the noise of hoofs, tangible to the quicker ears of the Indian; but, as soon as Helen got outside, she found that Wild Cat had been right; for the tread of horses, at full s , bad been heard far away, passing toward the northern end of the Collingsworth range, outside of the fence line, She stood there for a minute or more, and was about to go back to the house, and tell them that it was only a party o’ the company’s men, with a possible scare about the fence-cutters, when she beard the stealthy step of the Indian beside her, and Wild Cat was standing there, peering out into the darkness, and listening, with his hand at bis ear. Helen shrunk away from the Indian; for she had not got over her prejudices against his race, imbibed from the stories of the ranchers; but Wild Cat never noticed her. He glided out into the open ground in front of the house, where he could hear all that took place outside without being disturbed by the echoes, and stood there for several seconds like a statue of attention. Then he came back to her, and in his broken English, which be would not have deigned to speak if he bad not known he wasamong friends, he said to Helen: ‘* Heap horse gone—catch oder horse. Mebbe fight a heap, soon, bimeby.” The girl did not at first understand him; but the sound of shots in the direction which the horses had taken convinced her that Wild Cat was right, and had interpreted the signs of the night correctly. here was a brisk action going on somewhere; and the Indian, who was a total stranger to the county, bad told her what she, who was familiar to the place, bad not suspected. But the sound of the shots outside yery soon brought out Top Notch Tom, in spite of the pleadings of his wife, who was afraid he would get into more trouble. The young outlaw held a short but animated conversation with Wild Cat in the native tongue of his friend; and then said to the judge, who had come out with the rest into the star- light: af Wild Cat says there is a fight going on, I think the boys are making another attempt at those fences, There is only one bad feature of the thing, that they are fighting at the very place where we left our horses. We shall have to go there and save them, for fear they may be found by accident,” Diana here threw ber arms around the neck of her young busband and exclaimed: **No, you shall not go there. If you lose your horse you can have another—any you want— from the ranch. Hark to the firing over there! Do you want to get killed? Isay you shall not £0, Tom.” Here Helen Collingsworth, who had been standing by, took ber sister’s arm and said to her with u quiet, resolute air, that was very un- usual to the gentle one of the family: ‘Di, you must leave [om alone. He has his duty to perform, and it must be done, If he says he must go, he will go.” Tom thanked ber with a grateful look, and Diana submitted with a docility that showed the change marriage had made in her, when Tom hastily parted from her, with a caution to keep the secret of bis coming, and stole off with Wild Cat in the direction of the firing. As soon as they had gone, Diana burst into tears and sobbed to Helen: ‘‘* What do you care, any way? You are not his wife. You don’t love him as I do; and you let bim go away into danger, like that. You are a cold, cruel, heartless thing.” Helen made her no answer; but put her arm round her and led her into the house, where she whispered something in her ear, which had the effect of quieting ber, so that she went with Helen to her own rcom, and was seen no more that night. In the mean time, Top Notch Tom and the Indian left the vicinity of the house, and pur- sued their way in silence to the skirts of the motte, at the edge of the ranch, where they had picked up the bottle, It was still in Tom Field’s pocket, and he had showed it to the judge, who had told him of the rumor, spread around the country, that the cattle company had laid traps, consisting of bottles of dynamite, at the foot of the fences, on purpose to catch the ranchers, if they went out on any expeditions. Tom explained the matter to the Indian, who as soon as he had heard what dynamite was, in- sisted to Tom that one of the traps must have burst, to occasion the fight that had started roe the cattle men and which they wero listening to. ; He had heard, he said, a loud noise, which was not a rifle or pistol, before the fire had begun; and Tom. knowing the sharp senses of Wild Cat, was inclined to believe him. A very brisk engagement was going on, all Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw. 11 mae sti iC“ —— the while they were advancing; and it came from the very spot they had left their horses, though the Indian insisted, with equal firmness that the horses had not yet been found. To settle the point it was necessary to go on; and, the nearer they got to the scene of the fight, the warmer it became. o.listen to the firing, one would have thought. a whole regiment engaged, The Indian kept in the advance, now that Senger was approaching, and Tom kept behind im, They got through the motte, at the edge of the Collingsworth Ranch, and saw the flashes of the firearms distinctly, on the open prisie, by the next motte, while a number of horse- men were charging to and fro, shooting at each other, Tom saw that part of the men wore the red hats of the cattle company; for some of them came very close to him, in the starlight. The other party seemed to be very nearly as numerous as the company’s men, and they were fighting hard. Wild Cat touched his arm, and said: ‘What will my white brother do, now? There is no way to get to the horses, except through the fight.” “Then, the sooner we get in, and do what we can, to help our friends, the better,” was Tom’s reply, which delighted the Indian so much that he answered at once; ; My brother is right. The Great Spirit has not taken away all the blood from his veins.” Tom could hardly help smiling at the frank wa in which Wild Cat acknowledged that he had thought his companion deficient in the courage of a warrior; but his only answer was to bring his Winchester rifle to the front, and say to ild Cat: ‘Come on, then, and let us see which has the best blood of the two. Take the nearest man, and I will do what I think best.” They were at the edge of the motte, and the current of the fight had swayed close to them, as Top Notch Tom opened fire at the men near him, with a rapidity and precision that made a speedy change in the position of affairs. He and Wild Cat had Winchesters, and they fired alternately, with a quickness that would have made a stranger think a dozen men in the edge of the motte, The attack took the cattle company’s men entirely by surprise; and produced an immedi- ate stampede; under cover of which the ran- chers came swaaping down after them, and the melee became a panic, The two friends dashed out of the motte, as the ranchers came down on them; and Top Notch Tom was recognized, as soon as he was near enough for his voice to be heard; when a great shout went up from the ranchers, and they held up from the pursuit, to crowd round Tom and ask all the questions they could think of; thus giving the routed men of the cattle company a chance to rally again. Tom was so much occupied, for an instant, in returning the hurried greeting of his friends, that be forgot all about the fight, and was only restored to the memory of the danger he was still under, when a rattling volley was heard, and a shower of bullets whistled round the ears of the rancher party, convincing them that the fight was by: no means over, for that night. hen Wild Cat caught him by the arm, and said hurriedly: ‘*No time to lose. A warrior on the plains, without a horse,can only fight. The horse is the one that says: ‘Fight or run, as you please,’ ” The aphorism of the Indian warrior produced its usual effect on Tom. He knew that Wild Cat was one of the oldest and most successful of the warriors of his tribe, which had once been famous, all over the Southwest, for the quality of its stratagems, though the numbers of its braves had diminished so quickly, that its war force was reduced to a nullity, and its war- riors compelled to stay under tbe protection of the Government, on areservation. Tom believed in Wild Cat, and with reason; so he obeyed the word of the Indian, and went with him at once to the shelter of the motte, where they found their horses at the foot of the trees where they had been tied; and, hastily mounting them, sallied out to find the ranchers in their turn routed and fleeing for their lives: while the cattle company’s men, reinforced by another party that had just come up, seemed determined to prove the uncertainty which at- tends on all fights, in which horses are con- cerned, by allowing the tables to be turned so quickly. , When Tom and the Indian came out of the motte, where they had been after the horses, the ranchers had gone, and the tall figure of the English overseer could be seen, on horseback, directing the movements of his men, with a coolness that showed where the cattle company had found a leader. And into the midst of the cattle company’s men, the two that had been in the motte burst by a surprise, and the moment they were seen arose a ory: “Sock it to ’em, boys!” And then eame a rush of horsemen, and Top nalfor the ferocious cry ‘ Notch Tom heard the bullets whistling round him, and the savage cry: ‘* Hunt him down, boys! Tom !” Then he remembered that he was an outlaw indeed, It’s Top Notch — CHAPTER XIII. A LONG CHASE. : But the young rancher was not demoralized by the ailen change Of affairs, which so quick- ly tcok the place of the victory that seemed to be within his grasp, and he was pogo! sus- tained by the fact that bis ally in the fight was an Indian chief, versed in all the stratagems of Indian warfare, which partake so largely of flight and pursuit first by one side, and then by the other. Wild Cat, assoon as he saw the enemy bear- ing dewn on him in overwhelming force, turned bis horse and fled for his life, without a thought of any shame in the operation. Tom went with him, and thought, as he went, of the counsels that Wild Cat had given him, in the hours of peace, as to what he was to doin case of war. “In flight,” said the Indian, ‘‘ wise warriors scatter; fools keep together. The wolves go, ort ae for himself; but the deer keep in « ock.’ The moral of the counsel was, that the safest course, in flight before an enemy, was to scat- ter, so as to compel him to divide his force in the pursuit, and though there were only two fugitives and at least sixty pursuers, yet the counsel was good so far that, the moment the two fugitives separated, the party behind them split into two fragments, one of which pursued op Notch Tom, and the other the Indian. he cowboy outlaw looked back over his shoulder as he rode, for he could not perform his back-shooting trick at night, and there was no moon to help him. He saw that the cattle company’s men were getting strung out, as they went, owing to the fact that their horses were wearied, while the ponies that had carried himself and Wild Cat to the scene were comparatively fresh, having rested all the day before, after getting into sight of the edge of the ranch country. The best mounted of the company’s men were pressing the chase with ardor, but the rest were slowly falling behind. Looking round for Wild Cat, he saw a long string of dark figures, diverging from his own track, whicb he judged to be the men after his friend; and he knew that Wild Cat was fully able to take care of himself, his pony being ex- ceptionally swift. hen he began to think of assuming the offen- sive, for he had not attained his name of ‘‘ Top Notch” without deserving it. The fact that his appearance had been the sig, Hunt him down: angered him considerably, and he kept glancing back over his shoulder, and thinking over the best way to turn on his pursuers. The night was too dark to make shooting cer- tain at any distance, and he did not care to let too many come close to him. He kept his pony at a good round pace, which compelled his pursuers to the full of their own animals, for he knew tbat otherwise they would be able to pursue him in a body, and he desired to separate them. ) The prairie rolled away behind them, and the outlaw saw, at last, that they had reached the outside line of the company’s claim, for the posts of the outside fence were before them, The chase had lasted nearly an hour, and the ponies bad galloped ten miles or more, He remembered well the place he had comein with Wild Cat, and made for it, as he spongat, Then the remembrance of the bottle he in his pocket struck him, and he saw that his nearest pursuer was nearly two hundred yards behind. = Why should he not try on the company the trick they bad hoped to play on him and the ranchers? The idea was a good one, and he drew the bottle from his pocket, It would be a dangerous trial; for, if he made a mistake and drop it too roughly, it might explode and he be hoisted with his own weapon. But if the trick succeeded, it would demoralize those who came after him, He galloped on till be came to the line of posts that marked the fence. He slackened his pace so that be might not run on the wires in the dark, if there were any there; but, as he had foreseen, he had struck it at a place where there was a gap, left on hd aes for the penick of the company’s cattle to the open prairie without. He had passed by herds lying down in the darkness, and had nearly toheat several ani- mals, but his pony, which was used to herding cattle, had avoided disturbing them, and T Notch Tom found himself safely outside the ee EY n, as he ga on, he m saddle and Segnaien the bottle on the ground, with a skill he had learned from his Indian Eomicbooks