Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 339 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

~ te + -_" ' A wife-deserter. = 10 Spread Eagle Sam. _ “And forget everything save the fact that you have been making a veritable donkey of ourself, Major Jack,” she said, lightly. ** Didn’t tell you you knew me not? There is much for you to learn yet, many a crook and turn | to puzzle out before you can gain the inner chamber of my heart—ha! ha!” It was a bitter, contemptuous, harsh laugh as she uttered that word, but Major Jack did not notice it. His eyes began to flame again, thé color to return to his face. “* Then I have not forfeited all hope?” ** Not by your sins; your weakness is far more difficult to forget or forgive. I knew from the first that you gave me a name not rightfully yours; I knew that you had once been a soldier —you admitted as much, by the way, though i —_ a | you forgot to tell me why and how you left the > service. It is not too late to make amends by | ardor, all-consuming; but it is short-lived, and open confession.” His gaze *T am telling you the simple truth, Major Jack,” and she resumed her favorite ition, watching his astounded face through her long lashes. ‘‘I have been leading up to this point ever since my spy went away. The time has come for work, and if you are to aid me itmust be with a full and perfect understanding of the facts. I gave you your choice; you elected to share my fortunes, and there was nothing else but a complete lifting of the mask. ** That you might not be too utterly disgusted at my real self, I first tore off your disguise, and showed you that [ knew you from begin- ning toend. Now listen: ‘*T am not the angel you have so frequently called me. I am not a woman to love or be loved. I am ashe wolf—a tigress in my loves and hates! While the fit lasts, it is all fire, all when the fuel is exhausted, the ashes remaining sunk before hers, but instead of the | are bitter as death itself—are death, 1f one tries former anguished shame, he now showed a , to blow the dying spark into a flame again! certain dogged desperation. ‘* What I call my love changes with the sun. “You know already. Your mocking eyes | Perhaps it is thus because I never met the right betray the knowledge. Why torture me like this?” he muttered, hoarsely. »ossessed the quali- es burning for a man—never found one who ties necessary to keep the ‘*Simply because the whim strikes me—or, | longer period.” maybe, because [ wish to test the utter devo- tion which you have so often vowed tome, If this, almost my first command, be disobeyed, it will not be difficult to add up the sum of your love!” **T left the army, because I was cashiered.” Slowly, thickly, barely distinguishable came the confession, and the brow of the disgraced soldier was dotted with beads of cold sek argh tion. The eyes of the she wolf glowed redly as she saw this, for it proved to her how great was her power over this man. ‘That will do; I know the rest,” she hastened to say. “I know that strong drink, cards, women, brought you down from your high es- tate.” . ‘*T was crazy drunk when I did the deed—if I ever did do it, which I cannot yet bring myself to believe!” ‘* Don’t lessen your merits in my eyes, if ‘he love me, Major Jack!” she cried, with a low laugh. The greater the sinner, the greater the saint,in my estimation. Forgery is not bad, though I would have liked it better had you spilled a trifle of blood with the ink you employ- ed—but time.enough for that. You have begun admirably. A forger. A liar. A drunkard. our next step was bigamy, I believe?” ‘‘Queenie!” he gasped, tortured almost be- yond endurance 4 ‘Well, what else could it be?’ she added, mercilessly. ‘‘I believe you have a wife still living? Yet you have asked me ten thousand times over, to make oa blessed by giving you my peerless hand. oes that not smack of bigamy ? B | fasred meant to get a divorce,” he mut- tered. She laughed shortly, shrugging her shoulders. ‘‘ Thanks, but I prefer you as you are, Major Jack. A husband may answer for some wo- men, but not forme. I have been cursed with two in my time; I want no more.” ‘‘But you have given me hope—you have—” “Said many at ing which I never meant to make good, no doubt,” was the cool, careless in- terposition. ‘ Just as you spoke to me of mar- riage, while you had a wife living.” “Be careful, Queenie!” and his eyes glowed savagely, his breath coming hot and fierce be- tween his clinched and grating teeth. ‘I love you so desperately that it may become even more deadly than hatred. Rather than lose you now, I would drive a knife through your heart, and then die, kissing away your last breath!” She laughed carelessly, insolently, showing no trace of fear, though he looked like a man driven to the werd verge of desperation. ‘‘You talk glibly of bloodshed, Major Jack, but I doubt if you would commit murder, even were I to command you—even if I pledged you myself as a reward.’ ‘Try me—try me and see!” he grated, for the time being no better than a madman, driven thus by her infernal arts. ‘‘Tf I said your wife alone stood between us?” *©T would put her out of the way. Shall I?” * No,” with a soft laugh. “She 1s no obsta- cle, if you can succeed in gaining an entrance to what you facetiously term my heart. The time may come when I will ask you to strike; but it will be against a man, never a woman.” “Tf I fail you, may I never win your love, Queenie!” ; ‘‘My love! Man,” with a hard, metallic laugh, “ you talk as though I were a thing to love—as though I were a blooming maiden, in- stead of— Can you guess how old I am?” He hesitated, looking at her in surprise. She added: ‘‘No idle flattery—speak frankly. How old am I?” ‘‘ Thirty—perhaps a year or two more.” “Yet t have a son living this day who has his thirty-fifth birthday,” she laughed, mockingly. - possible! You are jesting, Queenie!” | | | secceseeeeecs tlL: tt CT CC LLL L—LLLLL LL LLLL—LL LL OA ‘** There is time enough forthat. You are still young.” ‘** With a middle-aged son!” ** You are jesting—it is impossible!” ** Tt is the V aaes truth. You placed my age at thirty; I will never see the fiftieth anniversary of that birth.” He stared at herin speechless amazement. He could not believe his own ears, though her tone and look were those of cold reality. She laugh- ed metallically. ** Shock number one. Now for number two. Cast your mind back for a score of long years. Try to remember if you ever heard the story of Morris Kirkendall and his runaway wife. need - not ask. Your look of horror betrays you! She spoke within bounds; it was indeed a look of horror that overspread his face and glowed in his eyes as she spoke; but it quickly faded away, and he said: ‘‘ She was your mother, then?” “She was myself! Will you never believe that I am more than a girl? Shall I get down on my knees, and kissing the Bible—provided such an article could miraculously be discovered in this community of hopeless sinners—take solemn oath that wife of Morris Kirkendall—the original of that toothsome scandal—of the beautiful pictures and delectable record which adorned the columns of every paper in the wide world?” Her flashing eyes, her livid countenance and contorted features proved how terribly she was in earnest, and drove away the last lingering doubt which the soldier might have otherwise clung to. He could only believe her now, with that voice ringing in his ears—with that fright- ful, yet beautiful face before his eyes. Then it was that he proved how thoroughly he was her slave, how completely she held him, body, mind and soul, undersubjection. He took her hand and bowed his face over it, kissing it with reckless abandon, muttering: ** Angel or devil, I love you, my queen!” The wild, fierce look fled from her face, and the color came back to her cheeks. The wrinkles vanished, and she was once more a young and beautiful woman, her voice was soft and full of music as she spoke, withdrawing her hand: ‘*T believe you, my gallant knight! You are true to the core. hat a pity we did not meet earlier in life!” ‘“* It is not yet too late, Queenie,” he muttered, coneey ‘* There are long years before us both. e can go far away, where the ghosts of the past can never arise to trouble us.” ‘*Not until my work is done, Major Jack— not until Ihave paid my debts in full. What are they? Listen. You have heard his side of the story: now listen to my version. ‘‘T was horn in Italy, though you would hard- ly suspect that lam a foreigner, from my ac- cent. I was poor, an orphan, and made my living by posing as a model to the artists. One day an old man—a German—saw me, and fell in love so deeply that he made me his wife. I was only fourteen years old when I took his name in place of my old one. ‘‘Tt was a grand match for the little Italian beggar. He was rich, honorable, of an ancient family, and much kinder to me than I deserved —I it all that, now. But he was old, he took snuff, snored in his sleep, and puffed, snort- ed while awake. He was a sloven in his dress, smoked a filthy pipe constantly, swilled beer like a hog, detested society and—was intolerably jealous of his blooming young wife! “T bore it until my boy was old enough to talk and walk; then there was a terrible ex- plosion. Never mind what it was about, or how well founded were the charges his family brought against me. Enough that I left him one night —and he never rose from his bed again. ‘*T was in another land when I heard of his death. I lost no time in returning to claim m rights, only to find that I had none. His mind, poisoned by his family, had turned against me, and before his death he legally disposed of all am myself—the divorced ° his pro rty, leaving me only his death-bed told them they were welcome to my legacy) and returned to America. ‘ Never mind the years that followed, the sort of life I led until I met with Morris Kirkendall, then a rich trader of St. Paul, even as he is at the present day. He looked even more the brute than my first husband, but I was worn out with the long battle against such heavy odds, and when he placed his heart and fortune at my feet, 1 accepted the one for the sake of the other. ‘** Acting on my advice, he branched out in his business, and the success which rewarded him, justified my advice. The blind brute! he little thought I advised thus that he might be less constantly in my presence—but it is the truth! Already I hated, loathed, despised the rude, ignorant boor. Already I was counting on the time when he would take his departure for a ee land, leaving his wealth to me. You see, Major J ack, Ido not attempt to gloss over my faults! ‘* Well, you know what happened. All they said was true. I loved another man, and was caught by my legal master. You have not for- gotten the rest, so let it pass a / ‘*He hunted me until my lover was killed. He hunted me until he believed he had driven me into the grave of a suicide; but there he was mistaken. I do not know whose the body that was dragged from the river; I only know that it was not mine. I knew that he returned home satisfied that his revenge was complete, but I was afraid to let him know of his mistake, he had shown such devilish ingenuity and hatred. I feared him then, I fear him now! But I swore to one day wipe out all old scores, and though so many years have gone by since that oath was first taken, it is still alive and remembered! It will be carried out to the very letter, before this month dies!” ‘*T will help you in your revenge, Queenie,” said Westgate in steady tones. ‘‘And when it is done, you will not refuse—” She waved him away with a sharp, impatient gesture. ‘*Not a word of that, if you hope to be re- warded! Nota word or look of love until my revenge is complete, not alone on Morris Kirk- endall, but on his daughter as well! I will strip him of every dollar of his wealth, as the first move. For the second, I will steal his daughter away and make her a plaything for my son—for the cub of the old she wolf as he so affectionate- ly called me!” ‘*' Your son?” echoed the soldier, wonderingly. **T forgot that you have not had the pleasure of a formal introduction to the young gentle- man,” she laughed, lightly. ‘‘I will amend my fault one of these days: just at present he is ab- sent from the side of his venerable mother.” ‘* Not—he is not the young man that the spy spoke of?” ‘**'The lackey to Morris Kirkendall?’ and her red a curled scornfully. ‘‘Are you crazy, man ‘‘ T beg your pardon,” meekly muttered W est- gate. ‘‘Granted. I am feeling in a brighter mood now that I can almost see my revenge safely within my grasp! Think of it! Of him a beg- ar! Of her a toy, soon to be cast_aside in the ust! And then think of him—of Morris Kirk- endall—wholly and helplessly in the power of the old she wolf! Think how I will recall the black past, making him suffer a separate twinge of torture for each blow he aimed at my head in those years gone by! Think how he will writhe and groan when I press the blood from his hard vot drop by drop! Think of it, Major Jack!” CHAPTER VIII. SAM SPREADS THE EAGLE WIDE OPEN. Wip and reckless though he usually was, the face of the big hide-hunter bore a look almost of horror as that impulsive ejaculation escaped his lips. stant believed Jesse Purchass would attempt the risky shot, and when he heard that wild cry as of mortal agony, when he saw the rider reel and totter as though mortally stricken, he would have given his good right Ps could that sacri- fice place matters as they were a minute before. _ Jesse Purchass seemed far less shaken, and a short, hard laugh answered the cry of his com- nion. “Tf my lead broke skin or drew blood, Sam, then that fellow carries a longer head than the law allows. I can take oath you'll find both bul- let-holes within an inch of the hat-crown. Look at that!” There was excitement in both tone and man- ner as he beheld the fierce plungings of the black horse and the curious result—too curious, he thought, to be a mere accident. , Straight for the front of the dug-out dashed the black steed, stopping short just as it seemed as though he must dash his brains out against the logs. Over its head shot the rider, dashing aside the pendent hide that served as a door, en- tering the cabin just as a frightened frog leaps. Behind him fell the rattling hide, cutting off all view from without. ‘* Be durned ef it don’t look—” Gomicbooks To do him simple justice, he never for an in- te ee ——— - ae re i oa €olm) ah ome. ont