Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

i , % A “ES ea = + » oT ‘ der, and he bas got toswing for it, ‘4 4 ‘BE pe Saar Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw. _— 4 ——_- = 7 = = = a — of the town were shouting for the town candi- date. Tbe order had been given to the sheriff, who bad called out a posse ; but how it came into the hands of Hank, was the mystery. Hank made baste to explain. ‘* Ye see,” he said, twisting the paper in his hands; ‘‘ I ain’t got no call to come out on no posses, sir; and I don’t see what they’re a-doin’ to put me on. I’m the taown marshal; and I’ve got all I want, to keep the boys, byar, in some sorter order. If 1 go a-huntin’ all over, fur this man, the taown wiil be run inter the gra-ound afore I come back; not to speak of the man be- in’ a friend of mine. Not that his bein’ a friend has anything to do with it; ’cause I has to do my dooty, no matter who it’s ag’in’. But. I don’t wanter do it, if so be I kin get aout of it; and that’s why I come to see R00 : Berkeley lay back on his pillow and surveyed the marsbal with increased interest. “ What bave J got to do with it?” he asked. ‘* Waal, sir,” said Hank, with. the first evi- dence be had yet shown of nervousness, ‘‘ ye see, they say, you and Levy is thick, and. this hyar warrant comes from him. I come hbyar to ax ye, to ax him, if so be ye wouldn’t. excuse me from goin’ on this byar os ; cause the man’s a friend of mine, and I don’t wanter go arter bim, onless he comes inter this taown. Et he does; it’s all right. I’d ’rest my own bro- ther, ef he was to come byar, and the law said it were my dooty. But I don’t wanter go a-huntin’ fur him, nowhere,” Berkeley had, by this time, fully recovered his clearness of head: and saw that his visitor ‘was, at heart, a simple, kind-hearted man, who wished to avoid being drawn into arresting his friend, He had heard, from Levy, that Hank was noted as the best man in that part of ‘Texas, and the only man who could be relied on to face Top Notch Tom, if it came to a fight, with any chance of success, man to man, That was why Levy had had the sheriff put Hank on the posse, and why it was advisable he should be kept there. Had the Englishman been anything but the cold-hearted scoundrel he realy was at the bot- tom, he would have answered Hank’s request in the way the latter wished; but as it was, the selfishness of the man made him say coldly: “It is no business of mine, you know. The ‘man is a murderer. I saw him commit the mur- You are the officer of justice, and you have got todo yeur duty. If l had my way, you are the only man whom I should never think of discharging, for the reason that I know you will do your t 7? Hank leoked disappointed. ‘‘ I'll do my dooty, sure, sir,” he replied, with a simple pride that showed how he had it at heart; ‘‘ but, if so be, the fayor could be grant- ed, I'd take it as a great kindness.” | ‘* Well, it can’t,” retorted perkeeys harshly. “If you noe your duty, it will at your own peril. This man has got to be arrested, and you are the man that must arrest him. I insist onit. Itisasbame that you should have any sort of sympathy with this outlaw. I want him arrested and punished.” Hank sat by the bedside, looking at him, and when Berkeley had finished, he replied in a voice soe showed he was putting a constraint on his eelings: ‘*See hyar, sir; I know all that; but that ain’t got notben to do with it. It ain’t my business to leave the taown; and I kin refuse, ef I wanter.” Berkeley turned round his face to the mar- shal, as he replied, in a slow, sneering way: ‘Certainly you can, if you please; but you know what people will say about it.” Hank colored slightly as he answered: ‘* No, I don’t, sir.” Berkeley curled his lip in a sneer of great sig- mificance, as he said: “They will say that you were afraid of Top Notch Tom, and did not dare to arrest him.” Hank gave an almost imperceptible start and his fingers clutched at the handle of the pistol in bis pocket, as he said, with an involuntary tremor in his voice: ‘It ain’t that, sir, and you know it as weal as Ido. It’s ’cause he’s a friend of mine, and I don’t wanter see the pore feller hunted daown, when I know he ain’t done what he’s charged ‘with, That's talkin plain; ain’t it?’ Berkeley rose half on his elbow, to ai gk ‘‘ Very plain, indeed.. But I can talk plain, ‘too. Isaw him kill the man; and if you refuse to go on the posse, they’ll say you were afraid.” CHAPTER XV. A POINT OF HONOR. As the Englishman spoke, Hank the Nailer Jet go of the pistol in his pocket, and his face took on a@ new expression as he asked: ‘‘Do you mean that, stranger?” Berkeley saw that the man thought he did, and bis selfish beart exulted that the other was so simple. With a bitter steer, he answered: ‘Do I mean it? What a man you must be to doubt it. Here is a red-ba murderer at darge, and he is the best sbot I ever saw. thought J could shoot pretty well, but he showed a me that he could beat me all to pieces. J be- lieve he can beat any man that ever stepped. You are the man who has been picked out, be- cause you Claim to be the champion shot of the county; and if you cry off, on the pretext that the man is your friend, it shows that you are afraid of him too, I don’tsayit alone, Kerery one will say the same. If you are the marshal of the town, and refuse to go out of it after a man of that stamp, people will say that he might come in, and you would find some other excuse to get off tackling this splendid shot. That’s all,” He had spoken with the deliberate intention of taunting the other into accepting the errand, which, Levy bad told him no otber man in the county could. perform so well. He saw that the taunt had taken effect. Hank, the Nailer drew up bis tall figure to its full hight, and said slowly: ‘* Waal, sir, then thar ain’t no honorable way to git aout of it, as I see. Top Notch Tom.shail be 'rested; but if so be I ondertake the job, I ain’t goin’ to do it on po terms but my own. You say I’m afeard of him—” ‘No, no, J don’t; but everybody else will,” said Berkeley, stung into telling the truth by the fice of the man he could not help admiring. Hank nodded. ‘“‘That’s all right, stranger.. Reckon you and me won’t quar’! over it. The boys says [m afeard of him? Waal, thar’s only one way to settle it. I'll go and bring bim in; but I don’t want no posse to do it. Ill go alone, or not at all. You kin tell that to your man, Levy. I wish ye a very good-mornin’, stranger.” And the Marshal of Satanstown stalked out a room, leaving Berkeley to mutter to him- self: ‘‘Heavens! if I only had a regiment of such ey as that, ’d go anywhere and do any- thing. And with that reflection, he rose, dressed himself and went down-stairs, where he paid Red Mac for ths damaged wall, with his bill, and departed, to seek his estimable friend, Mr. Belshazzar Levy.” He found the legal geutleman in his office, for Belshazzar allowed nothing to interfere with business; and his potations of the night before had not impaired the clearness of bis head. When the lawyer had heard the substance of the interview with Hank, the Nailer, he was pleased. ‘“Tf Hank says he will bring him in, he will do it,” remarked Levy. ‘“ He is the best man in the county, by all odds, and be never yet failed to make an arrest. If he likes the man, so much tbe better for us. He will be sure to get him; for he has the,tenderest conscience of any man I ever came across; and he will not let even Top Notch Tom get the best of him. Rest secure, Cap, Hank will bring Top Notch Tom into Satanstown, if he says it.” Berkeley seemed a little uneasy. ‘*Confound your Texas people,” he observed. “I don’t understand them any better than I did when I first came here. Hereis a man who likes another and won’t arrest him; but, the moment I hint be is afraid, he is off at a tan- gent, and only insists that he sball be allowed to go alone. Don’t you think there may be a trick in it all? What is to hinder him from going off with his friend and turning outlaw, too? Such things have happened before,” Levy shook his head as he said: ‘* You don’t know them yet; and Iam afraid you never will, Cap. These Texas men have their own points of honor, and they are as tena- cious of them, as you are of yours, over the water. Now, you Englishmen, I have heard, have points that we think foolish; and yet you stick to them. They say that, over there, you make it a point to lie, if there is a woman in the case. Now, I should call that folly—” Berkeley broke in: _ “Qh, no, confound it, you know, man, there is a line; and we must draw it somewhere. A man can’t go and tell all about a woman, if he has got ber intoa scrape, I bear you do it over here, but [ must say none but a cad would,” The lawyer laughed as be replied: “Exactly. You have ead point, and they have the same here. The Texas man’s point of honor is that he never gives in, when it isa question of personal danger, Hank will go after his best friend, and bring him back to cer- tain death, if you can only manage to make him think his friend might shoot him. For my. yea I don’t believe that Top Notch Tom will show fight, when he sees Hank, the Nailer. If he does, one or both will go under, and that is our gain, anyway, Cap.” ‘*“ How so?” asked the Pity PS ‘*How so?. Why, if Top Notch Tom is killed it is our gain, and Hank the Nailer is a good man on the other side before election, He will be away, and can’t work the boys as he would, against me, if he were here. On the whole, Cap, the best thing you ever did, when you came bere, was when you got bim to say he would arrest Top Notch Tom.” ‘es _ Berkeley smiled. ‘‘I'm only from the other side of the water, you know, Levy; but I have a little knowledge of human nature, and I saw there was some . . * * * 75 rs “de® te i] ~ 7. * . A. ca A - % — ~ trouble with this man to get him to arrest bis friend. Well, it’s all right now, isn’t it?’ ‘All right, if Hank says he will go. We must do as he says. He is the town marshal, and has the right to refuse if be pleases.” ‘‘So he told me, and I didn’t believe him.” ‘You didn’t tell him so, did you?” ‘é No.” “It need not have asked, for I see you did not. “What do you mean, Levy?” ‘*T mean that if bee had told him that you wouldn’t be sitting here, Cap. That man is the best shot in Texas. It’s a wonder he didn’t shoot you when you fired at the door.” “But confound it, Levy, he couldn’t, ye know.” “Why not?” ‘‘He hadn’t a pistol in sight, and his hands were in his pockets as he came into the room. He wouldn’t have bad time to draw a weapon before I could have riddled him. I had my pistol out and pointed at him.” | ‘ And he had his bands in his pockets?” ‘Certainly. He couldn’t have got his pistol out in time, I had the drop on bim.” Levy laughed. . ‘‘T see you are green in Texas, yet, Cap.” Berkeley colored with anger. _ 7 ‘What do you mean, sir? Td haye you know that I have traveled in other parts of the world, where they shoot as well as in Texas.” a9 **Exactly, but not in the same way. And you thought you had the drop on him? r “There is no thought about it. I had it, sir. “Captain Berkeley, I'll tell you one thing. A man may travel a good deal, but there never was a country he came to where he could learn so much as in Texas.” ‘* What do you mean by that? Confound it, Levy, none of your mysteries with me. Tell me what you mean, orl may sbow you that I know too much for you, anyhow.” | ‘‘Granted, Cap, granted. Iam no fighter. I do not covet any distinction of the sort. But that does not prove that you.can whip any man in Texas. Why, Hank, the Nailer, might have killed you ary time ho pleased, and you would never have known what hit you,” “ How? Please explain whatyou mean. How can a man kill another, with his hands in his pockets?” “ By firing through the pocket, of course,” was the quiet answer, at which the captaia stared, and then with an angry ‘ Pshaw” broke out: ‘* How the devil can that be done? He couldn’t aim and he might burst the pistol.” | The lawyer’s only answer was; “Look at that spot on the walJl,Cap. Iam no shot; and don’t know ifI can bit it; but here goes fora try.” So saying, he fired a sudden and unlooked for shot, out of the side pocket of his coat, in which bis bands had been thrust, all the while he had been talking, since the Englishman had uttered © an angry word. . The shot struck the wall in the middle of where the previous winter's northers bad made their mark on the wall. The stain wasa six inches across, and the mark an de A py to fire at; but the Englishman was nevertheless, astonished; for he bad not thought the little Jew capable of any thing ofthe kind. _ The smoke of the pistol, curling up from the side pocket of the old office cont Levy was wearing, showed that he had actually fired as he said, through the cloth; and Berkeley with a grave look, said: : “By Jove, I didn’t think it could be done, The man might have shot me, at any time.” Levy laughed, as he took the pistol out and blew the smoke from the muzzle. ‘“When a Texas man puts his hands in his Bene, Cap, look out for trouble,” was all he said, : Then he turned away from Berkeley to his iy earn desk, and began to clean out the which had been discharged, and Berkeley left the office with a thougbtful air, an cake «3 viction that Texas was a hard place to live in, even fora traveled Englishman, an As for Levy, the little Jew chuckled to bim- self “Reckon, he won't come blowing aro here, if he is six feet high, when he sees hands in my pockets, Wanted a lesson, if he | a client.” | it CHAPTER XVI,_. , Tor Notcu Tom was sitting in the ? where he and Old Cross-Eye had bad so man bappy hours, before be bad thought of becomi a crack shot, while his friend Wild Cat, + three other Indians, sat in the but ' conversing soberly over the prospect of Tom, to get relief from his outlawry. ; The Indians understvod him; but failed to see that bis position was a hard one; for they had ag ae it, almost all their lives, and a fa thusiastic friend stick closer to them, a3 And they were all fond of Tom, for several GComicboo him, a that it would make their young and en- S.cO . . bee shan. 8 =f -_ é Se Pee” ter ee ’ ” 7% os] . - PI en i ° a .* Hi +A ra . _ y Ry Ge ; ( |u| 4 . 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