Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

“ ~ But the Marshal of Satanstown was not the man to let his foes gain any advantage over him, and such would have been the case had he let them scatter too far, before he moved. He fired three shots only, and then shouted to ‘Tom, as he turned his borse: “No time to fool, boy; we’ve either got to run, or they’ll have us.” And away they went again, as hard as their ponies could carry them, while their foes gath- ered into a fresh mass, in pursuit; for the odds of seventy to three were too great to be over- come. Flight, and the Parthian method of fighting, which Top Notch Tom had adopted, were the only refuge of the three; and their pursuers thought that, if they followed them far enough, they must get the advantage at last. But they forebore to press them so close that Tom could try one of his famous back-shots, as the went. They had a holy terror of them from the total absence of warning with which they were sent, and the fact that they never missed ‘their mark. The mirror was so adjusted that any object in its field must necessarily be in the line of fire, and Tom bad become so expert in its use that he never missed his mark when within the ‘‘ point-blank” of his piece, a hundred and fifty ards, 4 Hank the Nailer, as they galloped along, was go stricken with admiration of Tom's skill, that be burst out, after a shot bad been fired which caused still another halt of the enemy: ‘*Tom, boy, I never expected to say it; but ‘ye’ve beat me at last. I’m Hank the Nailer, but you’re the top notch of ’emall, That’s the name ‘ye have arightto, and I'll see ye get it, arter this, Tom laughed, as he threw the lever of bis rifle back to let out a shell, and took some fresh cartridges toload up the magazine. “That will do for to-night,” he said. ‘*The ‘want to drive us from home, but all the while we are going, our boys are gathering bebind us, and this fight isn’t over yet, Hank!” — Hank, delighted at the words, cried, as he Tode: ** Who'd have thought you’d come to be sich a fighter, with all your quiet ways. Boy, I’m proud of ye. ’'d givein to, on the shoot; but you’re jest the 4 notch of all.” hen they rode on more leisurely, every now and then looking round at their foes, but find- ing them still on the trail, and pressing them too bard to allow them to think of letting their horses breathe. Hank still directed the lino of their flight, and the was making a detour by a long circuit, with the object of r turning tothe town, where he knew that his friends would be waiting to help him, if they were not already out, with the remnant of the cowboys. But the men with Berkeley were too well led not to perceive the stratagem; and Berkeley himself knew that, on the death of the three men in front of bim, lay all his own hopes of escaping a prosecution for perjury, if not for something worse, since the result of Top Notch ‘Yom’s, trial. He therefore set his men to gal- loping harder than before, so as to get nearer to the fugitives, at every turn they made, till Tom, who perceived the ruse, said to Hank: ‘We must run again. Let the horses go eas7, and they will run in on us, as they did be- fore,” So they turned ric away from their foes: and Tom coolly adjusted the mirror of his rifle, seeing that they were already in range, for the third time. He made out Berkeley’s figure, as he rode in front of the men, and, as be caught the image in the glass, he fired. For a moment, the smoke covered the mirror: but, when it cleared away, there was Berkeley, riding on, waving his hand defiantly, and Hank exclaimed: by Os ‘Missed, Tom! That won’t do, at this time of night.” ; Tom adjusted the mirror again and took ex- tra care, the next time, for Berkeley was still in plain view. Again the flash of tbe rifle came, and, as the smoke obscured the mirror he thought be saw something throw up its arms, in the air. Hank uttered a cry of surprise. “Hit him, Tom! Hit him, but he don’t budge yet! Lookout! They're going to fire.” Fire they did, for the first time since they bad pulled up their horses, and the bullets came whistling round the heads of the fugitives, warning them that the game they were play- me was getting too close to be agreeable. he sharp thud of a bullet, striking something, was heard in the midst of them, and Hank anx- dous!v asked: ‘*‘ Are ye hurt, Tom?” The young man shook his head, and pointed, in silence, to Wild Cat, who had a small stream of blood, dripping from his arm, in the moon- ight. ut the Indian, when he was asked, only shook his bead, and grunted viciously: ‘*No mind; no mind; Injun no mind dat.” _And he rode on, as unconcernedly asif he had Thar ain’t another man in Texas |" oo — ———<$<—<——————$——— ee Se Oe eee Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Outlaw. — eee eee : — 25 received no hurt at all, though a bullet had cut | still holding the line, and Hank said, as he its way through the fleshy part of his arm, with a smart that would have called forth a cry from most white men. Hank noted bis bebavior, and muttered: ‘*Good stuff, that Injun. Good stuff.” | | turned his horse: ‘“If them fellers think they kin keep us from goin’ back to taown to-night, they might be mistook. What d’ye think, Tom?’ Now that they were out in the moonlight and But it was noticeable that Wild Cat, who had | free from their enemies, for a breathing space. hitherto been the quietest of the party; who had tired but few shots, and those not aimed in the | best way, as soon as he was wounded, turned as | venomous as a snake. Hastily binding up his arm with a strip from his breech-clout, he took bis rifle, and suddenly wheeled his horse. For one instant he seemed to be turned to a statue of bronze, and then the rifle sped its contents. The foremost of the pursuers tossed up his arms and fell off his horse, and the Indian, with a herp hy turned and fled again. He had had bis revenge for the shot, and that was all he wanted. After that they got out of gunshot: for the exchange was too perilous, for the smaller party of the two. Mile after mile passed, and still the pursuit did not relax, till Tom suddenly cried, as he turned his borse to the right: “Ware fence! They've got torpedoes under the posts }” The brightness of the moonlight had enabled him to see, as he rode, the line of the treacher- ous, barbed-wire fence, that had caused all the trouble in the county, and it seemed as if the course of the three was checked at last. But Tom, who saw that bis companions, for the first time that night, were beginning tosbow signs of excitement, even Hank wheeling his horse, as if resolved to sell his life dearly, cried: ‘Keep them at bay, while I cut the fence. J have the nippers,” CHAPTER XXIX. LONG-RANGE SHOOTING, Top Nozcu Tom, at the moment he first saw the fence, felt as if his time bad come; but, as he was almost turning his horse, he remembered that he had, in the saddle-bags of his Texan rig, a pair of the nippers that had cut the wires in the county, before that. To dive into the bag for them, was the work of three seconds; but, the enemy being three hundred yards behind, there was not half a minute to spare. Hank and Wild Cat had turned; but, before Tom could get the lowest wire fairly cut, he heard the wild yell that an- nounced a charge, and the fire of Hank, the Nailer’s rifle showed that he was covering the breach in earnest. With a last desperate clip, given with all his strength, the wire parted, and Tem turned, to see the Marshal of Satanstown, sitting on his horse, turning bis rifle from one to the other, with the Indian beside him, both firing with a a that sounded like a volley, hen Top Notch Tom dashed to the side of his friends, and shouted, as be began to fire: ** Get to the other side of the fence. We can hold them there.” Hank obeyed the word at once, without wait- ing to fire another shot, and the young man took his place with deadly effect. Whether he had killed or wounded any of the pursuers, he could not tell, for the confusion of horsemen dashing to and fro; but he saw more than one fall, and felt sharp shocks, as he was struck again and again, by the bullets that whistled round, as thick as bees, Then he heard a shout behind him, from Hank, and be wheeled his horse, and fled at the top of his speed. Through the gap he went, seeing his friends there to show the way, and, the next minute, the three were racing over the green grass, with the cattle company’s men howling after them but not daring to press them too close, Then, as the shouts got fainter and fainter, Hank remarked to Tom: ‘“They’ve done thar wors', Tom, and it’s lucky, Are ye bit bad, boy? Ye’re bleeding.” He himself bad not escaped unscathed, by any means: for his yellow leather dress was stained with dark streaks, that showed plainly in the moonlight, like black, but would turn to red, in the light of day. Tom shook bimself in the saddle, and felt his body and limbs. He felt sharp pains in more than one place, but the absence of weakness con- vinced him that he was not od hurt, Hank had got his clothes riddled with holes, and had the blood drawn in at least ten places; but he also had the luck which often comes in contests on horseback, where most of the bullets graze instead of penetrating, and where the dangerous wounds are those that are re- ceived by chance. Wild Cat was bleeding, but not so much as the other two, his dark skin having been a less conspicuous mark than the light garments of the white men. All three were burt, but all three had esca any maiming injury, and after a little binding up of grazes and flesh-wounds, rode on, with the gratifying discovery that their enemies had left them at the fence, They — see them consulting together and \ ‘ * . : : | they felt considerabl of running the gantlet of the men on the other side of the fence seemed less desperate than it might have been. True they had lost blood, but the loss of the enemy could not be told. It could not be very beavy, at the best view they could take of it, for the light of the moon was a7 deceptive to admit of any great accuracy of aim. The question that remained was how they | should get back to their friends, and whether those friends knew of their whereabouts. Discussing this ane ah they called a halt and eyed the men at the fence sharply. They were well out of range from Winchester rifles, and had no idea that there was any dan- ger in standing still, when the bright flash of a rifle was followed by a much heavier report than those they had heard so far, and a bullet went singing over the head of Hank, the Nailer, who remarked, in the coolest manner in the world: ‘‘ Long-range shootin’ is mighty resky, gen- tlemen, in the moonlight. Ye might as well save yer powder, for ye can’t tell the range,” For all that, however, be moved his horse off at a walk, and the two others followed him in single file, frequently changing the pace from a walk to a trot and slow canter, so as to confuse the aim of the unknown’ marksman, whoever he was, That it was only one became evident, from the time that elapsed before a second shot was fired. It whistled by them so close that Hank burst out laughing with the remark: “Tom, I bet ye a dollar I know who fired that. It was the Britisber, and he’s gota long- range gun. He’s got his elevation right at last; but, if he hits one of us, he’s got to have better eyes than most men to see the sights in the moonlight, so as to aim. Come, let’s give the man a show,” And he deliberately turned his horse and rode straight to the fence, followed by the rest abreast. It seemed a wanton risking of life, but the next shot convinced Tom that the action of the marshal had been a wise one, for tbe ball, though its direction was perfect, went over their heads at least twenty fert above, and the apparently reckless Hank said: **Told ye so. It’s all nonsense tryin’ these fancy shots in the moonlight. A man’s got to alter his elevation every minute, or he’s all abroad,’* So it seemed, for the next shot was still fur- ther out of the way, as it was buried in the dirt before their faces; and, with that, the three rode back in the direction they had come from, so as to tempt another change of eleva- tion in the unknown marksman. As Hank had suspected, it was Berkeley, who had stopped the chase at the fence-line, disgust- ed with the loss of men and ponies he had sus- tained and unable to get the men to follow bim any further after they had seen the Indian. They had heard of Tom vow the friend of the Indians and imagined, from the defiant way in which the three were acting, that they were trving to draw their pursuers into an ambush. So Berkeley got bis long-range rifle, laid bim- self down by the fence, and tried sbot after shot with all the accuracy he could master, but with the uniformly mortifying result that he knew he had not hit a single man or borse, The marshal and his friends pursued their ride along the edge of the line of fencing which they knew extended along the outside of the company’s nt, and at last noticed that the pursuers bad halted, and were not following them any further. Ten minutes later they came to a gap, and saw that their foes were at least a mile behind, and standing still. They halted in turn, and watched their foes, for they were thinking of recrossing the fence and making for the town; but Hank could not quite make out what the enemy were halted for, and he asked the Indian. : Wild Cat looked round bim in all directions, and snuffed the air; then dismounted and put his ear to the ground. Finally, he said to Tom: “Your friends are coming, and they hear them, and fear; for there are many.” “Then, if that’s the case,” said Hank, the — Nailer, with a turn of his horse in the direction of the distant cattle company’s force, “I’m goin’ to arrest that Englishman to-night, and I call on you, Top Notch Tom, and tbe Injun, to help me,” * The reader, who has ever paid much attention to long-range shooting, will Aes bea the folly of ‘Berkeley in trying to shoot a mov > ew ect at long range. The variation of one fiftieth of an inch in the front sight makes a difference in the path of the bullet of four feet at eight hundred yards; and the ratio increases at the raie of a foot to ev two | bundred yards. leaving the influence of win elevation entirely out of the question. <s) EOMIEHDOO encouraged, and the task . 4 , 7 ~ , ', ow Fed