Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 303 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

- one, if they had not got out of the way.” of the great ‘‘ Reconstruction.” ‘‘] think he has gone to the old ranch he told us of, where he used to live with that poor old man who was killed. Mitchell, the name was, I think.” ‘‘ And are you sure they did not see him?” the bride asked anxiously: Helen laughed. ‘Do you think I should have waited as long as I did, before Lcame out to face them down, if I had not known that he was getting further and further away every moment?” she asked, in return. ‘“‘ Wh-~, Di, that Englishman isa fool. He thought he could make eyes at me, when my sister’s husband was iu danger from him, But ll make him sup sorrow for that, I can tell you. I have not done with him yet.” Her words roused the young wife from the half-stupor which had seized her, and she raised ber eyes to her sister, and saw that Helen’s eyes were blazing with anger, and that she was twisting her handkerchief to and fro in her hands, as if she was twisting something else in her imaginetlon, bo wit, her enemy’s neck, ‘‘ Why, what has come over you, Helen?” she said in a wondering way. ‘‘ You used to be so quiet, and now you are worse than I ever thought of being. When you stood at the door, you looked as if you would have shot at some ‘‘ And sol would,” replied Helen viciously. “Do you think that you are the only girl in this house that knows how to fire a pistol? Not a bit of it, You’re married now, and it has changed you, You have got to be timid and cowardly, for the man you love. Very well; it is time the family bonor was kept up by some one else. / have learned to shoot, too; and you will see, some day, that I have not studied in vain. Di cl d her sister to her bosom, as she whispered: ‘Oh, Helen, what a pity he didn’t love you. You are ever so much better than lam. You are a perfect heroine, and I, who thought I was the same, am turning out a regular coward.” There was a strange change that came over the face of Helen Collingsworth, as she listened to her sister’s words. She turned away her head so that Di could not see her face, and said in a hard tone: ‘“‘There, there, what is the use of talking like that? He knew what he was about. In the mean time, Di, we have got to save him from the schemes of this Berkeley. He thinks to have him indicted for murder, and we have got to save him, Remember that it is one thing to go to the open prairie, and another to be an out- law. CHAPTER X. THE COWBOY OUTLAW. HELEN COLLINGSWORTH was right. The first thing that Berkeley did, after leaving the ranch of Judge Collingsworth was to ride to Satans- town and see Mr. Belshazzar Levy, to whom he told the whole affair; and the recital made the lawyer rub bis bands gleefully, for he foresaw the advantage it would give his clientsand him- self. The idea of abandoning the suit was given up forthwith; for Belshazzar did not like to lose anything in the way of costs, which were grow- ing all the time; and, if Top Notch Tom could be indicted for murder, the race would be Levy’s, without any competitors, as he thought. The whole gang of cowbovs went over with Berkeley to the office of Judge Concha, and swore to a number of affidavits, by which Top Notch Tom was charged with firing at Berkeley, without any provocation; with the willfal mur- der, also without provocation, of James H Bruce, the cattle company’s ety a who had been killed in the fight; further with “ assault with intent to kill” and the final accusation of mayhem; all brought against the absent Tom; and the record was complete. From the office of the justice the papers were taken to that of the district attorney, a gentle- man of the name of Cross, who was a friend of Levy’s and bad no rivalry against that gentle- man, for the reason that Mr. Cross was satisfied with the charms of Satanstown and her of both kinds—and did not care to go to Austin to sit in the legislature where the pay was not as great as the expenses, and where there was no chance of a steal, since the close of the days Mr. Cross and Mr. Levy understood each other very well and played into each other’s hands, so that, when Belshazzar told Cross that he ‘wanted thozxe things put through at the next Grand Jury,” the minister of justice said, with a wink: _ “Is right lucky it meets so soon, Bel: ain’t it? Air your men all prepared to go and be ex- amined? ‘‘Every one of them, and all straight as a string,” was the response. Then the pair of schemers left the office, and, as they went down the street, Belshazzar ru his bands and said to Berkeley: ‘(This indictment will be worth more than a hundred votes to our side if it isn’t spoiled, Cap.” How can it be spoiled?” asked Berkeley, Levy winked, * —_——_—_ = Ch) hrrro—0VvOm rr a a ES = —— Top Notch Tom, the Cowboy Ranger. ‘If the man comes back, you know. Those witnesses of ours wouldn’t stand cross-examina- tion, on their antecedents, to any severe extent. But it’s my impression that the man won’t come. lt’s right lucky that the cowboy with him was stretched. He might have been an awkward witness on the other side.” Berkeley laughed. ‘*T took care of that, you know. quite dead, and the boys fired several shots into him as he lay there, Indian style, you know. I had heard of that practice, and, by Jove, it’s a very sensible one, if there’s any doubt, It makes precg suine sure, you know.” Levy rubbed bis hands again. ‘*Very true. Well, there is no defense, then. If he is fool enough to come back, your men must swear the thing through. That puts Mr. Top Notch Tom out of the race, and by the by, Cap, it might be as well, all things considered, if we were to go to the court and get that injunction set aside, about the fence. The head of their iy was this Top Notch Tom, He had all the brains in the crowd, and now he’s gone, they will be very much discouraged, you can sure. I'll try it at once, if you like. The old fellow they call Judge Collingsworth never read a line of Jaw in all his life; and he is no good oreeps at Austin, where he has a good reputation, But we can get the injunction set aside, | think, and then you can rebuild that fence and defy the ranchers to start another night raid on it.” ‘*A very good idea, if you can carry it out,” said Berkeley, who began to look more cheerful than he had for some time previous, ‘‘I leave you to attend to it. By the by, about that money you asked for, in case we stopped the suit—” “Never mind that,” was the hasty reply. “This day’s work puts a different aspect on things. It will save the company all the money cw? have in the place, and get us the election besides. I'll see to it all, CR And the pair parted, while Berkeley rode back to the log-palace of the company and devoted the rest of the week to a correspondence with the agent at Galveston, who was delighted with the turn affairs had taken, and promised to make all the representations to the ‘* people at home,” The week * peng by quietly, and at the end of it, the grand jury of Satanta county met at the court-house in the town. It was composed entirely of townsmen, this time, for reasons which the district attorney and sheriff knew best; and the first case brought before it was that of ‘‘ Thomas Field, common- ly called ‘Top Notch Tom,’” who was accused of the crimes of ‘‘ assault,” ‘‘ criminal assault,” ‘assault with intent to kill,” ‘‘mayhem,” and finally of “ willful and premeditated murder,” And on every accusation, the proofs brought were so convincing to the honest grand jury- men, of the town and county of Satanta, that they sent in the papers to the judge of the State court, in session at the time, and, on every one was the ‘legend: ** True bill found. ‘ JAMES H. JOHNSON, “* Clerk. “ JARED STEPHENS, “* Foreman,” The batch of indictments was followed by the offer of a reward of five thousand dollars “‘ for the body of Thomas Field, commonly called ‘Top Notch Tom,’ dead or alive, he having fled the county to evade justice.” Tom Field had become an outlaw; and a price was set on his head. Then followed the effect that Levy had pre- dicted, when he went to the district attorney’s office. ; Tom Field had been the life and soul of the ranchers’ party; and his sudden flight and in- dictment for murder had disheartened them, to an extent that seemed absurd. When Mr. Bel- shazzar Levy served his notice that the judge would, be petitioned to open the injunction against the erection of any more fence, pendin the action against the company, the demorali ranchers let the case go by default, and the in- junction was opened, for want of a lawyer to op it. he very next day, the cattle company’s men set to work, ‘n broad daylight, to re-erect the fence of contention, and the dismayed ranchers had to sit on their horses and watch it, as it went up, with the ytd that, if they tried to interfere, they would met by new certificates of special constables, that had been issued to the scoundrels that composed the force at the disposal of the cattle company. By the end of the second week, after the flight of Top Notch Tom, the fence had been run around the whole of the outside of the cattle company’s claim, and the lanes that had existed between the different ranches began to make re-appearanee, The line of ranches bad been taken up, when the county was t settled, and the ranchers had erected their bouses at about half a mile He wasn’t 9 a from the river, at which their stock was wa- tered, The only concession that the cattle company had granted them, after the first erection of the fence, was that it left a lane, about a hun- dred feet wide, from each claim to the river, down which the cattle might go to the water. But the beasts were confined, all day, to the limits of the claims of the ranchers, and these’ claims were all of the same character, in the: old-fashioned style of Texas; namely, a square league of soil, with the right of way to the wa- ter. One would have thought that a square league would have been ample for the pasturage of the herds of the ranchers, but when it is consid that these herds generally consisted of about ten thousand head of cattle, and that the J my and Punch Burleson had near twenty thousand, each, the amount of space that the animals re- quired may be guessed,* Till the coming of the cattle company, they had been accustomed to graze at large on the rairie, outside the limits of the claims, where and was practically unlimited, and where there was room for all. But the cattle company had changed all that. Their claim, paid for in cash, at the rate of about fifty cents an acre, took in a strip of Jand, ten miles wide, on the north bank of the Blue Fork river, for a distance of thirty miles; thus giving them three hundred square miles of grass, with the additional fact in their favor, that there were no Claims outside of them and {that they could turn their out, a any time, into the open prairie, ten miles from the river, without trespassing on any man’s land; while the ranchers, to get to the same place, had to tLrough the land of the com- pany, and the company refused them that rivilege though they had to allow the lanes, or watering purposes. This state of affairs, at the first erection of the fences, had called forth the pe beh Boy | outbreaks, with which the readers of “O Cross-Eye” are already familiar; but that suc- cess was not destined to be repeated easily, as the fence-cutters found out, very soon, As soon as the fence was fairly up, the ran- chers held a night meeting, to devise a new fence-cutting trip; but, as soon as the subject was broached, it was settled by Punch Burleson who told the men assembled, that “ times had changed.” The cattle company’s men, it appeared, had “ set all sorts of traps, round the range, which no one could see, because they were not set till the coming of night; and any near a fence, was liable to be blown up by a charge of dynamite, which would not only or maim him, but serve as a signal to the special constables, who would come swooping down and give a warm fight in any event, with the further disadvantage to the ranchers, that the would be fighting against the law, and be liable to be indicted for the crime. And, as the last grand jury had shown, if the sheriff was against the ranchers’ party, all he had to do was to make the panel from amon the townsmen, and the case would be deci ee a rancher every time. herefore, the ranchers had to take their gloomy way home, after a long consultatio and the general conclusion that nothing coul be done for the present, and that they would have to bend all their efforts to the election of a man in the legislature, who would take care of the rancher interest, | Ties Who he was to be, was the problem, for Top Notch Tom was now out of the question, he having been outlawed, and no one knowing where he could have gone to. ‘ In this extremity, the ranchers bethought them of the next best man, in the person of old judge, who had not been drawn into the fight at Satanstown, and had the good-will of both sides, as far as could be found out. The judge would still make a good candidate, as against Belshazzar Levy, who bad to contend against the prejudices inspired by his race, in a untry where there were a good many men of Irish ancestry, and where the Mexican Catho- lics held the balance of power. It wanted two weeks yet to the election, and a good deal can be done in two weeks, if money is at hand to do it with. | The ranchers were by no means poor men, for they could, at any time, get a cvol fifty thou- sand dollars apiece, from the Satanstown Bank, — on their next year’s stock, if they were inclined, but they had no wish to embarrass themselves, . till the money was absolutely needed. So gs fight began, before the people, on merits, —_-—_—-— CHAPTER XI. THE OUTLAW'S VISIT. NiGHt brooded over the prairies.of Tex: and the coyotes were raising their m wail over the want of something to when one of the cattle company’s men, on | *The square league of old-fashioned T irs, tains sien saaiee naiee or 5760 acres and animals - require more at pasturage, all the year round, two acres per head for their proper sustenance, ~~ on f ‘GOMmiIe S eee) a rson, who went » - - ; bal - z : a + 2 . * * “ ‘ , ‘. 7 Ved er. fee - f - Ps | v ae.