Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 338 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

a si a ° Jack Sand, the Eo starting up. ‘‘If these men are afraid to go out, | am not.’ He had closed his eyes wearily, but at her abrupt start he opened them again. “Wait,” he said. ‘‘I’ve got an_ idea. Where’s the parson J—the lady I met brought here?” The chaplain presented himself. ‘‘Can I do anything for you?” he asked. “‘More than any other man ever did for me,” Jack replied. ‘‘I didn’t know that I was fetching you for myself. But if it’s all the samo to you who yop tie up, suppose you fix Nell and me so that I'll have the first claim to her on the other side, you know.” ‘Jack! Jack!” Once more she had his head in her arms, with her lips to his. The widow stood white to the lips and with clinched hands. Must she stay and see this? She edged back through the crowd, all be- ing too much absorbed in the love scene to heed her, The sounds outside had receded and died Ont: ‘Tf it costs me my life!” she muttered be- tween her set teeth. And in that desperate mood, she undid the fastenings of the door and glided out. Jack was saying to the chaplain: ** Be quick about it, before I slip away!’ And there, with Nell half-reclining beside him, holding his head on her arm, and while the world seemed to his dull faculties to be shutting in to the circle of her face, the ser- vice began which was to make them one for- ever. Began, but was not completed; for, in the midst of it, the shanty was invaded by a ruthless band through the doorway which Mrs, Clymer had left unsecured. “Death to every mother’s son!” yelled a voice which every one recognized with a shudder of dread. Then men “ge ate hand to hand, giving and receiving ghastly cuts and stunnin blows; writhing with every muscle straine to its utmost tension; falling, to be trampled under foot! The lights were extinguished, and only the flashes of revolvers were left to now and again illuminate a brutal face, distorted with murderous hate, In the darkness, a woman’s shriek cut the air like a knife. Again, and again, and yet again, at differ- ent points, which showed that she was being borne out of the room. Then came a sudden silencing of that voice. What had they done to her, there in the darkness? CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CUNNING WIDOW. Sty SAm knew that he could not hold the camp for any length of time with his hand- ful of men, even if he could capture it, and he could make nothing of it if he had it. So his only purpose was to revenge himself and Bob on their enemies, and get away. Under surveillance as he was, he could not take part in that first discharge; but if his men had done their work effectively, all whom he hated had gone down before their treacherous fusilade. Upon the extinction of the torches, there- fore, he shouted: “‘ Rangers, retreat! hyar!” Stooping, he caught his superior by one arm and shoulder; another took the opposite arm, and two more did the like by Bob’s legs; and thus, surrounded by their men, they set out at a run to abandon the eld. But meanwhile Blue-ruin Bob had had time to recover from the stunning blow dealt him by the colonel, and thoroughly roused by the shaking up of this ‘‘ rapid transit,’’ he now struck out with his fists and kicked with a vim that defied restraint, bel- lowing out a volley of profanity that left no doubt as to his ability to take care of him- self, Those who held his legs were only too glad to drop them, and the others hastened to turn him right end up. f at’s all this?” he demanded, when satisfied that he was in the hands of his friends. ‘‘ What air ye runnin’ away from?” Don’t furgit Bob, eee ‘* Bob,” explained Sly Sam, ‘‘the whole | thing’s blowed. Thar ain’t no time fur chinnin’ jest now; but all that’s left us is to slide!” ‘““The deuce it is! We'll see about that! | Air these hyar our men?” And he peered about among the shadowy figures that surrounded him, to see if he could identify them. ‘‘ They air all ours,” was Sam’s assurance. ‘* Our men—our solid men?” $¢ Yesi~” ‘‘ An’ whar’s the other side? What has | his triumph. been goin’ on he anyhow?” ‘The colonel soaked you in the ear, you know.” ‘* Soaked me?—the colonel?” ‘Why, don’t you remember? The lady blowed on you; an’ when you—” But a furious oath showed that Bob’s wits nay caught at the cue, and come back at a ash. ‘“That’s enough o’ that!” he said. ‘‘ Point me the way to somebody that I kin chaw!’ And frenzied with rage, he drew a revolver in one hand and his bowie in the other, champing his teeth like a wild beast. ‘Is Jack Sand dead?” he demanded. ‘“*T hope so,” said Sam. *“Hope so! What business have you to hope anything about it? Don’t you know?” “The boys let da light through him. J know that. But I don’t call no man dead until he’s under ground. I’ve seen too many dead men git up an’ make things lively.” ‘‘ Whar is he? Ill see whether he’s dead or not!” He turned down the street toward where the crack of pistol-shots and the yells of en- raged men showed that a desperate fight was oing on. ‘What's that?” he asked. men still at it?” ‘‘T reckon it must be Tony Baxter’s crowd an’ the blue-coats,” This was a fact. ‘‘Some of our In their blind self-defense the soldiers had |! rallied round their commander and fallen upon the first men who seemed opposed to them. In like manner Tony Baxter’s men had re- sponded to his call. He had singled owt Jack Sand and made sure of at least one shot. - Then as he bent to gloat over his success, or add another if it was required, Nobody’s Nell made one of those quick snap-shots for which she was noted, and put him beyond the chance of sgt Red ia attempts on Jack’s life. is friends saw him throw up his hands, flinging his revolver into the air, and then drop out of sight under the feet of the surg- ing mob. At that instant the last torch was dashed out, and all was wrapped in darkness. With furious yells the friends of the fallen ‘‘barker” of the Crystal Palace Saloon charged for the spot. So chance brought them in collision with the soldiers; and the fight for a moment was of a most desperate character. But discipline told. The trained soldiers drove the disorganized mob—not only Tony’s gang, but some of Jack Sand’s friends, who in the darkness became mixed with them. The latter, who had surrounded Jack, and sought to cover Nell’s retreat with him, took refuge in a shanty near by; but the men from Cony Flat, knowing that there was no safety for them thus cooped up in the camp of tho men they were fighting, continued the struggle outside. By this misunderstanding Tony Baxter's men at first aided Jack’s friends in protecting him from the soldiers, and then gave Blue- ruin Bob’s crowd, which had abandoned them under Sly Sam, time to return under the command of their revivified leader before Jack’s friends had recovered from their panic. The lights in the various: shanties were rapidly being extinguished, since greater security was to be found in the darkness. As Blue-ruin Bob rushed down the street he shouted: ‘‘Light! light! We can’t see what we're doin’ without more light ” And with his own hand he tore down a gasoline lamp which was burning before one of the dance-houses, and threw it into the doorway. ss of the Town. 23 In a flash a broad sheet of flame flooded the street with light. By it he distinguished Tony Baxter’s men from the soldiers, and joined them. “Go fur’em!” he yelled. ‘‘ No quarter! What right has the blue-coated varlets to _ come hyar, meddlin’ with our affairs? Down ‘em—every mother’s son!”’ And with the impetus of the charge the soldiers were swept away like leaves before the wind. ‘*Ya-a-a-ah!” yelled Bob, now crazed with ‘‘Whar’s this hyar Jack Sand? Whar’s this hyar Fool? Whar’s this Injun Sid? Whar’s this hyar scallawag of a Judge Lynch? Whar’s every blasted liar that says this hyar camp don’t belong to Blue-ruin Bob? I’ve got it in my breeches pocket, I have; an’ I propose to run it to suit myself! Trot out every man that don’t knuckle down to Blue-ruin Bob; an’ I'll hang ‘em all in a row!” By this time the front of the dance-house which he had so wantonly fired was all ina blaze, and the whole camp was flooded with its lurid light. The sight of it added to his savage frenzy. | ‘“Whoop!” he yelled, like a_ veritable maniac, flinging his arms about, a revolver in one hand anda bowie in the other. ‘We'll have a leetle hell hyar to-night! I want every one that has testified ag’in’ me—men, women, an’ children! I'll show ’em what kind of a galoot Blue-ruin Bob is! Trot ‘em out!—dead ur alive! It don’t make on difference to me!” ‘‘What do you propose to do with em?” asked Sly Sam. ‘Oh, I don’t know!” he replied, wildly. ‘«Tt’ll come to me when I git my claws onto ‘em! Give us more light, hyar! We want a bonfire on tother side o’ the street! Touch ’em up, boys! The fuel don't cost us nothin’!” And in pure wantonness another shanty was set on fire. It was at this moment that Mrs. Clymer issued from the shanty in time to meet the returning victors. Bob espied her, and swooped down on her with a yell. ‘“You’re my meat!’ he shouted, with a savage grin. ‘I'll show you a trick worth two 0’ the one you played me!” The widow had rushed from the shant with a woman’s impulsive recklessness, wit only the thought of escaping the necossity of being a witness to the marriage of her rival to the man whom she now persuaded herself that she loved with an inappeasable passion; the fact being that she loved her- self far better than she did Jack or any one else. So, finding herself in a desperate strait, her purpose changed with the celerity of a weathercock. ‘* Bob,” she cried, throwing into her voice a confidential cadence which she knew well how to assume, ‘‘I have been a fool, and so have you! What right has a man of your stamp to be posing here as an honest citizen of a one-horse mining-camp? You ought to be in the mountains, with a band of good fellows at your back. and your name in the papers from one end of this country to the other!” ‘An’ what ought you to be doin’, my dear, meanwhile?” **T ought to be sending grist to your mill, until we get enough together to go to Europe on, and be somebody.” “Oh! you ought, ought you? It’s odd that you didn’t find that out a few minutes ago, before you give me away!” ‘*T don’t mind owning that I had a differ- ent fancy from that”a few minutes ago; but a good deal has happened since then. I want revenge now; and you’re the man that can give it to me!” | “An then you'll skip, after I’ve played cat’s-paw to your monkey! That’s a neat game, but it’s old!” “No. By going in with you I shall cut the ground from under my feet, so that there will be nothing left for me but you. But I’ve a better reason than that. Bob, I’ve knocked about a good deal since the old time, but | own to you honestly that I have- n't bettered myself. This last experience, within five minutes, has satisfied me that there is no dependence to be put in any one or anything in this world. Give me revenge, = < , » EOMIEDOOKS=COr : - ES = $$ a ee a eee