Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

° . % - 16 but I sometimes think he will never come home. And we were so happy—he and I, It seemed as if the trials we had, when we were courting, Jad ended in such happiness as never woman had before. And now we are separated; and God knows if I shall ever see him again,” And she began to cry softly, while Helen sat by her, not unwilling to see her weep; for if ——_— - showed that she was not in an excitable, but rather a melancholy frame of mind. ‘‘Come, come, cheer up, or Tom will say we have been making you wretched,” she said, as she patted her sister’s shoulder, ‘‘ Isn’t it time you had something to eat, dear? It is almost two; and dinner is over long ago. I thought that { wouldn’t wake you, as the doctor said that sleep was better than meat to you, when you felt like it.” Diana yawned; for the mention of dinner set her to thinking of her fleshly wants, just as Helen had meant it to do; and the “orders of the doctor” were fiats that were never disobeyed in the Collingsworth household. So Helen got ber off to the dining-room, and gues her with all the little delicacies that she new would be relished by the young wife; while Diana, who had lately developed an astonishing appetite, ate heartily, and then avowed herself ready to go out and take a little walk round tbe ranch, . Helen pretended delight with the plan, though she was burning with impatience to know what was going on in the town; but a walk would revent Diana from seeing anything beyond he immediate vicinity of the ranch, and Helen was mortally afraid that she might want to go up on top of the house, and look through the giass, when sbe feared that she could not help seeing that something was wrong at Satans- wo. The girl kept her ears open, all the time, for the sound of sbots in that direction; but heard none; and the little walk became quite a stroll round the yards, where the home stock of the ranch was situated, for the doctor had forbid- den Diana to ride on horseback, and the active habits with which the young wife bad been brought up compelled ber to take some form of exercise, to keep her from falling away in bealth. But she tired very soon now,and was glad to 0 into the bouse and lie down again; when elen had the happiness of seeing her fall asleep, in less than ten minutes, with every ~chance of remaining so, for at least an hour. That result occurred at about four in the afternoon, and Helen darkened up the room, and stole up to the belvidere again, to watch and see if there was any sign of disturbance in the direction of Satanstown. She turned the tube that way, and saw that a number of horsemen were riding to and fro, in the vicinity of the town, in whom she recog- nized the men of her own pare: But there was no sign of a fight taking’ place though there was evidently great excitement. Messages seemed to be carried to and fro, and men gathered in groups, as if they were ex- pecting something to take place; but there were no flashes of firearms, as she had almost e ted. “ Then, of a sudden, as she looked, all the os ga together in a dense mass, and balted while a second body of horsemen - came out of the town toward the first. 4u* ¥ Then the ranchers spread out, in a long thin line, and she expected that the fight would eurely open at last, The body from the town was composed of the cattle company’s party, for she could see the - ged bats, though the distance was too great, ven soapy J the powerful glass, to distinguish faces plain iy | She could make out figures; and, from the neral air, tell who was such and such a horse- man; but that was all. Then she turned her eyes on the company’s and soon r ized the tall figure of the po * ‘ 4 a , my ct nglish overseer, at the bead; for he rode in a q 44) i Ps a! 4 ithe 4 Hits (eee My & ie? see ‘' (tae 4 sw * “ | jet 4 ‘ ‘T - J y é Am * A ’ be? ety 4 t a oe ®t a '’ ‘2 + r é ¥ '> 4 . y 42 as /; +2 we ‘. T i F. eek Row altogether,and were riding straight toward ss fhe ranch where she was watching. } *. Ura > » *- ‘ 1 - ¥. a. different style from all the rest, with short En- glish stirrups, and a saddle thai made the Tex- stare, it was so different from the heavy Mexican rig they were used to. - And then, as the two bodies approached each other, came a sudden break in the long line of flight, from before the company’s men, to the _ ranchers, and their men galloped away, as if in aoe, astonishment of Helen, who could not nderstand the movement. She understood better, in another moment, “w ben she saw the ¢ompany’s men break up also, ss ‘and go racing after the ranchers, though the flash of firearms was entirely absent. Then also she saw something else. . _ The ranchers were racing after three horse- who had. come from.another side of the * . _* They were abead of the company’s men and the chers too, but she could not see plainly, yet, o they were. oy © , ! ben She uttered a slight exclamation, as she -“Fecognized something, in the air and glitterin dress of the first ‘man of the three, that made ‘t beat wildly, ked very much liko Top Notch Tom, and a ————— — — TA oe err re ——— + — —— - —— ———_ he. was coming to the ranch, as straight as a stretched line. Then she turned her attention to the men with him, and saw the plumes of an Indian on one, while the otlier was a tall man, who was mount- ed on a much larger horse than the rest, and frequently slackened the speed of his horse, as if to look back over bis shoulder. On they came, and, as they grew nearer and nearer, the power of the great telescope sep- arated their features till she distinctly saw Top Noteh Tom, Wild Cat, and Hank, the Nailer, with the ranchers between them and the cattle company’s party.; and all were coming straight to the ranch of the judge. What to make of it sbe did not know, CHAPTER XIX. FINDING A BONDSMAN. In the mean time, the good city of Satans- town had been considerably exercised, about the coming of its marshal, with bis prisoner. They knew that Hank, the Nailer, bad gone away from the town, alone, after a consulta- tion with the sheriff; and that be bad promised to bring back Top Notch Tom, with him, dead or alive; the marshal refusing to be accom- panied by any posse, though the desperate Seca tet of the outlaw was acknowledged by | tremens, all hands. The town boys were never so proud of their marshal as when he rode off all alone, on bis perilous errand. [t was suspected that Top Notch Tom was up by the Indian territory somewhere; for he had often spoken of his ranch there, which he had kept with Old Cross-Eye, and where he had ac- cumulated comparative wealth, by the hunting of Mavericks, The fact that he was “‘in with the Indians” made the attempt toarrest bim the more per- ilous; forthe Territory was known to be the re- sort of all sorts of desperave characters, who had fled from justice in Texas and Arkansas, and were willing to take any measures to defy the officers of the States, should they venture to try furcible measures. Three days passed away; and, on the feurth, one of the company’s ranchmen came tearing into the city, full gallop, and dashed up to the office of Mr. Belshazzar Levy, with whom be held a short consultation, which resulted in his leaving the town, and going, as hard as he could drive his pony, to the log-palace of the company, while Belshazzar spread the news that Hank, the Nailer, was coming back wi, the prisoner, and an Indian, from which it was augured that the Indians had consented to give up the fugitive. The man who had come in was a cowboy, on the watch at the outskirts of the herds of the company, who had stumbled on the marshal and his prisoner by accident, camped in a motte of timber, about fifteen miles from the city. He had seen the three men, all heavily arm- ed, from which it was supposed that Hank had made some sort of compromise with the crimin- al to secure his attendance. Levy spread the news, with all the additions that malice could suggest; and did what he could to injure Hank, the Nailer, in the estima- gp a the people of the town, but without effect. The people knew Hank and ee knew Bel- shazzar; so they preferred to wait till the mar- shal came in, before they passed any verdict sgainst him. But there was a great deal of talk around the bar-rooms of the Lone Star and the White Elephant on the subject: and, as Levy had a party, which fluctuated according to the amount of rum he set up for them, a driving business was done at both bars that day, pending the ar- rival of the prisoner. And then came the men of the cattle com- pany, in a body, with Berkeley at their head, poy on the news that the prisoner was com- ng; while the ranchers came straggling in, after their rivals, in parties of four or five at a time, ready for a row on the slightest provoca- Lion. The numbers of the two parties were not far from equal, though the cattle company’s men had the advantage, had they dared to use it at first, that they were all in a. body, while the raychers came along in straggling groups, But war bad not yet been openly declared, and the cattle company’s men, though they would have dearly liked to beat their enemies in detail, did vot dare to make the first attack on them, for fear the townsmen might take their side. | As it was, the sympathy of the native Texans for their fellow-citizens, as against the forei corporation, with its English leader, was begin- ning to show itself, in more than one place, as the passions, excited by the free fight at the Lone Star faded away in the light of reason: and Berkeley knew that he would bave to be very cautious, in order to fix the blame of any bt on the ranchers that day. | his was the principal reason he had col- lected his men into one body, where he would have them all under his own eye, and be able to keep them from getting into the unauthorized ) Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw. fights, which they were all itching to begin, on their own account, But the town was full of men, for nearly an hour, and still there was no sign of Hank, the Nailer. It began to be whispered about that there |was no prisoner, and that Hank had not been | —— i seen at all; and the excitement began to die away, when a shout, from the north side of the town, told the townsmen that some one was coming, and one of the rarchers’ party rode down the street at a wild gallop, and dashed up to the judge, who had been elected, by one con- sent, chief of their movements that day, to tell him that he bad seen and talked with Hankand his prisoner. . ~The man was Mr. William Ward, of the Screw Worm Ranch who had disappeared from the county at the same time that Top Notch Tom had fled, but had since made bis appearance at the ranch of Punch Burleson, where he had arrived the day before, when the news had been communicated to Punch, that Hank was coming. Sandy Bill had recovered his brightness of eye and steadiness of nerve, in the bracing atmosphere of the distant ranch, and from tbe total absence of whisky; and he looked a dif- ferent man from the shaky victim of delirium who had gone away with Tom, afraid to go tosleep or be ieft alone, for fear of the foul visions of a disordered brain. That he was in the confidence of Tom and his companions goes without saying, and he told the judge that Hank had sent bim on, to find out if there was any apprekension of foul lay against the prisoner, in which case his ailure to come back would be taken as a signal that the danger existed, while his return would be provf that Hank could enter the town with- out fear. The cautious marshal bad camped in the motte, and had not advanced further than abeut five miles from the city, where he had halted and sent Bill on to get the news. The result of this message was, that the old judge sent Bill back to the marshal with full intelligence of what had already taken place, and suggesting a plan of action, which he fol- lowed at once. It involved a visit to the sheriff of the county Mr. Jack Wilbur, who would come up for re- election at the same time as the member, and was anxious to avoid displeasing either side, if he could, The question, in Wilbur’s mind, was of the strength of the respective parties; and when he had sent Hank after the outlaw, he had done so, in the conviction that the cattle company was destined to beat in the strife. The arrival of the ranchers and their men, and the way in which they were received by the men of the town, convinced him that he had made a mistake, and that the strength of the two parties was more evenly balanced than he had thought. The Satanstown boys seemed to have got over their fight with the ranchers, and the sympathy which, in all rough countries, attends on brave men, when they are supposed to have been un- justly treated, was beginning to operate in favor of Top Notch Tom, The map was a splendid shot, which was a sure passport to the affections of Texans, and be was going to be tried for murder, when it was suspected that it was only a case of a free fight, in which ong was to blame but the man who had been killed and bis friends. Therefore the sheriff was ready to listen to reason, and when the judge offered to be respon- sible, in ary amount of bail, for the appearance of Top Notch Tom for trial, Wilbur instant- ly gave his consent, with a readiness that would bave shocked a northern sheriff, to com- mit this desperate outiaw to the custody of an old man of near seventy. But then the sheriff knew that the old man if he gave bis word to bring Tom to court, would do it at any cost; and the sheriff was right. This matter arranged, the judge sent off, un- der the direction of the sberiff, with a note from tbat official,a man who met Hank, the Nailer, Top Notch Tom, and Wild Cat, coming leisurely to the town, with Sandy Bill, in close conversation. As they saw the deputy, Hank rode cut to meet him, and a few words showed him what the sheriff had done. Tbe marshal smiled, as one well pleased and said to Top Notch Tom: ‘he orders is to give you over to Jedge Col- lin’sworth and orders must be obeyed, ye know. I’m kinder glad they’ve come, fur now I kin feel easier. I’ve did my dooty, in bringin’ ye to the sheriff, and the sheriff kin take keer of ye naow. I’m through, as soon as I give ye to the jedge.” Then they rode toward the town, and ve soon saw the confusion that showed the cattle Sey. and the ranchers were on the eve of a ght. 7 Hank surveyed the scene from the outskirts of the town, and saw that he was expected, by a l party of his fellow-citizens. e turned to Tom, **] don’t like this at ‘** Look-a-hyar,” he said. ECOMIEDOOKsS. / 4 Pm my —— ae wnt eh od Re MBS Pin a | ) d ef