Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

2 Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw. T N tech T | ever called him anything. but “Sandy Bill,” | It was raised none too soon; for, asthe body . op 0 om, eet as Mr. Alexander McPherson had long ago | of Sandy reached the floor, where he had been prostrated, stunned, every cowboy in the saloon ost his Scotch patronymic, in the less distin- ~ a The Cowboy Outlaw; R, The Satanstown Election. A Sequel to ‘ Old Cross-Eye, the Maverick Hunter.’ BY CAPT. FRED. WHITTAKER, AUTHOR OF ‘‘PARSON JIM, KING OF THE COW- BOYS,” “SETH SLOCUM, SURVEYOR,” “‘ OLD _ DOUBLE SWORD,” “‘ OLD CROSS-EYE, | THE MAVERICK HUNTER,” ETC., ETC., ETC. | CHAPTER I. THE SATANSTOWN BOYS. ane one who has ever been in Satanta coun- _ Texas, knows that the name of the county t, on the official maps, is “ Satantatown,;” f, guished, but more convenient appellation, of ** Baldy Mac,” on account of his personal pecu- liarities in the matter of hair, or rather of its absence. Sandy Bill had had a _— time, when the fatal order came. He had spent all the wages of a bard quarter’s work, wherein he had had more than one fight with the men of the Glas- gow Cattle Company. Bill, whose nickname was often still further shortened to plain “Sandy,” bad “taken the town,” the previous nigbt,though he had had his weapons confiscated by the marshal, before he was allowed inside of Satanstown. He had run the Lone Star, with the entire approbation of Baldy Mac, at his own expense, for the period of five hours by the clock, stand- ing treat for the thirsty crowds, and bad sallied forth into the streets, with a party of congenial friends, who had insisted on everybody in town keeping awake for the whole night, in com- made for the proprietor and his barkeeper, pick- ing up cbairs, glasses, and any missile weapon that they could find handy, including spittoons, as they rushed to the assault. Then arose such a noise as had been heard in Satanstown but once before, when Punch Burleson’s gang bad cleaned out the Black Falls House, when seven men had bad their beads broken, and the Sa- tanstown boys had gotten the worst of it. They bad been aching for revenge ever since, and Sandy Bill was known to belong to Punch Burleson’s ranch. At the ery of the landlord of the Lone Star, they came running up from the cellar, where they had been waiting for the trouble they had been informed was coming, and entered the sa- loon, in time to save Baldy from being murder- ed by the mere force of numbers. With base-ball bats for weapons, they drove the cowboys out of the saloon, and a free fight raged in the street, outside the Lone Star, for whether it be the perversity of common | memoration of the virtues of the cowboy candi- | the space of about ten minutes, that aroused the people in all of the world, which works | date for Assembly, Mr. Thomas Field, who had | admiration of more than one of the,old in- ‘ sad changes in uneiation, or a sense of fit- | earned, by his marvelous shooting powers, the | habitants of Satanstown ness in another designation, it is nevertheless true that, if you were to ask a neighboring rancher for the county seat, by its official name, you would be met with a smile and: § kon you mean Satanstaown, stranger. It’s sights aud a bit from hyar, and right smart little taown you'll find it, when you git thar. The boysis jest rip-tearers, and thar ain’ta livelier place of the size, in all Texas.” Therefore we shall have to follow the fashion of the county, and call it by the name the in- pame of * Top Notch Tom.” Sandy believed in Top Notch Tom, drunk or sober; and had impressed the fact on the men of Satanstown, to the best of his abilities; when his career of eloquence and free drinks was suddenly cut short by the stern order of Baldy Mac to his barkeeper: ‘‘Nae mair drinks for the mon that dizzn’t pay the siller for ’em, Evan.” Sandy heard the order, and his spirit arose witbin him, clamoring against the injustice, not Every house in the neighborhood emptied its revelers into the streets, and they all hurried to the scene of action; the cowboys with their quirts, and the townsmen with their clubs and base-ball bats, which had become favorite wea- pous with the Satanstown boys, on account of the ease with which they could be utilized for the double purpose of hitting a ball and a heac. The row spread, and the numbers on both sides increased every moment, the cowboys from all quarters flocking to the help of their belea- habitants bestowed on it—Satanstown. to say ingratitude, of the fiat. guered friends. Tuen came the of a Brother Ernest Fish, who went. there on a re- 4 Tackahyae? he said to Baldy. ‘“D*ye | pistol-sbot. vival mission, once on a time, afterward said | mean that fur me, or don’t ye?” that “ the name was a very fitting one, for the Baldy, who bad got behind his bar, with his CHAPTER IL. Evil One was strongly intrenched there, in the hearts and minds of the stiff-neckedest of all the enerations he’d strook, sence he left New ork, except Chicago.” The population of Satanstown was set down in the census as being about twelve hundred; but of the two hundred and fifty heads of families that made their regular abode here one hundred kept saloons of all kinds, and the won- der was that every one of them made a pretty fair living out of exhilarating beverages. . When Satanstown was not ‘ona drunk,” it was a pretty quiet place; for half the inhabi- tants were getting over the last debauch, and the only noise that disturbed the stillness was the occasional howl of a gentleman who was being vip in a back room by his friends, on account of a fancy he had that the house was fuli of snakes. - But Satanstown had a lively time, every now and then, when the neighboring ranchers paid off their men, and the cowboys came to try and —— ee hand on the club that reposed there at all times, instantly replied: ‘Deed and I do, mon. Ye’ve had a’ ye’re gaun toi’ this place. Ye’ve spent a’ yer siller, and ye can’t spend mine, wiout my consent. The best thing ye can do is to gang bame.” This advice, though perbaps the best that could bave been offered to Sandy, was the straw that broke the camel's back. X Sandy was naturally a map of impatient, not to say quarrelsome temperament; but he had kept, as be thought, a very strict guard on his temper all the time he had been in Satanstown. He had never done worse than taken posses- sion of a street with some of bis friends, com- pelling every one that passed that way to drink at his expense. There was no harm in that; and if one man had objected, and gota thrasb- ing in consequence, there was nothing very bad in that either. There bad been no shouting, for the best of all reasons, that there was not a pis- tol in town in possession of a cowboy, all bhav- | OTT EEE LT THE FEUD OF THE MACS. THE sound of the pistol produced a silence in the street for the space of about three seconds— just long enough for the voice of a man to heard, above the tumult elsewhere, sheuting: ‘‘ All the company’s men, come out cf treat!” The voice was recognized as that of the over- seer of the Glasgow Cattle Company, and it produced an effect on the fight that was per- ceptible, he overseer was an Englishman of the name of Berkeley, said to be ‘‘a lord, in his own country,” but certainly a bad specimen of Brit- ish aristocracy, if he was, for be bad the face of avery bard case, and was said to be a “ bad man to run foul of in the dark.” His shot had been fired over the heads of the crowd, on purpose to attract attention; ard the result of the cry was that half of the cowboys who were in the fracas withdrew therefrom, and left the other half to take care of them- selves. : run the town to suit themselves. ing been disarmed before being allowed to en- The men who dropped out were easily recog- ' The seasons were not many, because the | ter, by the marshal. nized by the fact that they wore a sort of uni- ranchers had not a superabundance of money at And the marshal, being one of their particu- | form, of which a red hat, in the Mexican fash- , most times, save after the fall drives when they had sold their cattle, the price of which they and their men proceeded to spend, as fast as they could, in some cases, and put into the Satanstown bank in others. In any event it did not last long; but, while it held out, they had a giorious time, especially the cowboys. At such times even if it was all sl ** drunk,” and the sal eepers made money in quantities that w have excited the envy of one of their Northern brethren. ‘‘ Twenty cents a arigk, and no questions asked,” was the rule; and the only feature of the business was the size of the drink within the oop ties of the average cowboy, when he once bis grip op the bottle, But Satanstown had its grades of society, as ‘well as longer-established places; in the s especially. The White Elephant was the place w the ranchers who wanted a drink resort- ed, while the Lone Star House was the favorite assimilating head-quarters of the festively- inclined pen hene. The White Elephant had attained its distinc- tion, by the circumstance that it had raised its ce from twenty to thirty cents a drink, and improved the quality of its whisky; while the proprietor of the Lone Star House used to say that “he reckoned he made most money at the end of the year,” on account of the cheap- ness of the fluid he dispensed, at the end of a geoeral spree, when the palate of the ave cowboy was not capable of appreciating the amount of water in the whisky. It was within a few weeks of election, when ‘‘rounding-up” time was over, and the men of the county were discussing the chances of the Satanstown had to wake up, ing from the last lar friends—‘' Hank the Nailer ” byguickname— the men had given up their Naa without a murmur. The fact of Hank the Nailer being the best shot in the county, with the exception of Top Notch Tom, had no ng to do with the submission of Sandy, though it had with that of many another man who came to town that week. But, when Baldy Mac told Sandy that he could have no more whisky, and calmly advised him to go home, after he had spent all his money in Baldy’s place, the heart of Sandy be- came too full for utterance, and the only vent for bis oe oot spirit lay in the direction of per- sonal violence, with or without pistols, Sandy started back from the bar, on which he was leaning, when the offensive words were uttered, and gave a wild whoop that acted as the signal for the other cowboys in the room to jump up from their chairs and tables, with linking eyes, as if they wanted to know what was the matter. oo Comsy made fhe rey at a nat and, seizi was a send it flying at “head of Baldy, when the Scot, who had “been there” on a previous occasion, and was all ready for the trouble he had brought on by his well-meant advice, made a signal to his bar- r, Evan Mac who come from the at the moment his chief went behind it. The next moment Evan delivered a blow at the head of Sandy, with a base-ball bat, that proved him easily the champion batter of his nine in the Satanstown Blue Stockings. The blow laid out Sandy as stiff asa stake, with the more ease that he was already shaky from the effects of his long debauch, and the next minute the bar was cleared of glasses by eee NSS ss... ____ nn ion, was the leading feature. he others were attired in all sorts of styles, and the townsmen were easily distinguished from them by their civilized dress, with none of the exuberances that distinguish the cowboy in his native State. The man who bad called out to the company’s men to “‘come out of that,” was mounted, and his voice had a loud, clear ring in it that denot- ed one used to authority. As he shouted, he turned his horse, and the men with the red hats, who seemed to be in very good discipline, came out of the fight at once, when he rode away at a trot. The townsmen, encouraged at the defection of balf their foes, attacked the remainder with a fierce. energy and power of numbers that speedily made a very important change in the conflict. Before the company’s men left the fight the town had been getting the worst of it, but now the tables were turned, and the cowboys were outnumbered at least three to one, too great a disproportion to get over, with all their superi- ority in the art of fighting, pure and simple. es began to rattlearound them, and the blows of the bats, which the townsmen seemed to have in profusion, were too much for the strokes of the quirts, skillfully as these latter were used, , The cowboys began to give way and retreat to their horses, the townsmer to yell in triumph, as they pushed the assault, when a borseman came down the street at full gallop, followed by several others, who made their appearance at the outskirts of the crowd, wielding their ms lashes, just as if they were driving cattle. ey came from the back of the townsmen, in new fence law being passed. The ‘drive- | Baldy, with a celerity acquired by ae tones the direction of the White Elepbant, and were money” bad been in town for about three | when the astute proprietor of the Lone Star ized as ranchers, who had come, to the days, and the place bad been “‘ painted red” by | emerged from the safe retreat, with another bat | rescue of their friends. ; the sowboys with their usua! Cheerful per- | in his own hand, and shouted out to his myrmi- | It was a bright moonlight night, and their zl sisteucy; when a grand outbreak took place at | dons, down in the : faces and agus were distinctly discernible. the Lone Star House atten P. M., when the The cooboys are coom- | There was Punch Burleson, of w Worm moon was full, on account of the refusal of Mr. Alexander McPherson, the landlord, to furnish any more whisky to Sandy Bill, of the Screw orm Sandy Bill’s surname was Ward; but no one “Bats, laddies, bats! The cry was cne well known in that part of Satanstown; for the cowboys had come there, many a time before; and the Satanstown boys were used to them. in Raoch, Deaf Smith of Dunderhead Ranch, Limpy Balstrop, of Bucker’s Ranch, and the famons candidate of ranchers and cowboys, Top Notch Tom. They were all whirling their long quirts in Gomiel JOO oe : - ‘ ‘ ; i,