Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 340 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

ey ~- ™ ar -_— = - - “a = = ™ eas $e 8 ce ee Tg SS ‘‘ What's thet?” cried the ty—you, a baby girl?” ‘*]T do!” exclaimed the girl, giving him look for look. ‘‘ This is Pistol City, | know; but you are not my master!” “ Come, don’t be a fool, Floss. Let’s com- promise. Tell me who helped Red Roy from » Satan’s Hotel, an’ Pll give yer ther true history ‘* Then Pll get it in another manner.” He loosened the girl so suddenly that she stag- gered back, almost losing her balance; and Ore- gon Noll, with a quick movement, threw himself between her and the door. ‘You don’t get out o’ hyer until you’ve peached on Red Roy’s helper!” he hissed, in a mad voice. ‘‘I run this boat, Floss, my child. You’ve forgotten that you hev disobeyed Cap- tain Noll.” ‘*T forget nothing,” said the girl, who had shrunk to the table which stood midway be- tween the door and the wall. ‘* You may stand there and threaten till the roof of this cabin crumbles with age over our heads, Captain Noll. I don’t betray my friends.” The ruffian laughed. He evidently thought he had the best of the parley, and he knew that Floss could get out by no other way than the door against which he had braced himself with an air of wo All at once Floss glided forward with her eyes fixed on Oregon Noll. **Don't you think you could be better em- loyed hunting Monte Merle?” she said. “I ve told you that you cannot get any secrets out of me.’ ‘*Thet remains ter be seen. See hyer; I give yer just two minutes in which ter make up yer mind. Only two minutes, girl.” ‘* Make it shorter than that if you wish,” was the cool rejoinder, ‘*‘ My mind is already made up -<>~ ae - — ~ > ‘ — a ee a fe ef we +e, ~ — ri 2 —— = ~ —- Floss saw one of his feet glide toward her as she finished, but she did not recoil. ‘‘One minute’s up,” he said. ‘Ill cut ther other mighty short if yer don’t mind!” ‘*Suit yourself, Captain Noll.” The remaining minute passed amid profound _ gilence, and on wings of swiftness, too. ‘* Time up!” suddenly ejaculated Captain Noll, as he made a h step forward. ‘* Now, my YY double-dealin’ angel, give me the truth!” In another moment he would have swooped down upon the seen a helpless girl if some- thing bright had not flashed before his eyes. It was a knife in the hand of Pure-Gold Floss! She still stood braced against the table, her eyes on fire again and the gleaming blade which she had jerked from concealment on her person held menacingly before her face. Captain Noll halted and then went back a pace with an ejaculation of surprise. “T draw this against you only in the direst extremity,” said Floss firmly. ‘* But you wouldn’t use it on Oregon Noll?” he tried to laugh. ‘*T do not want to,” was the reply ; ‘* but I do not ask you to attempt coercion.’ Ah! how her eyes snapped while she uttered these words. ‘*T didn’t think I had found a tigress when I % op — < 7 ~ er ee ’ ———-- = > * — _ . * ~ ia a ‘ rs — ~~ ee a ee - ‘*What I do—what I have done—is my own work. Marmoset has never been my adviser.” ‘* But he’s. a cute one—a sly serpent, anyhow. ** Do not try me!” \ ‘You couldn’t get in more’n one stroke, an’ Td ward thet off,” Oregon Noll went on. “I guess I'll let you go, but Pll get to ther bottom ‘ov yer secret afore dark. I’m disgusted with --womankind. I never thought I war raisin’ you for work like this, Floss. at ef I should go clear back on yer? I’m liable ter do some strange things, I am—when I’m mad.” ou think you’ve kept!” he cried. ‘Tell him thet I’m goin’ ter kill the person who helped Red Roy out ov Satan’s Hotel, an’ I’ve got a good idea ov his identity. Make him yer pard; turn on the man who saved ye at ther risk ov his fied face of Silver Chick. | | ‘*My God! Noll!” cried the desperado- Apollo. “ Monte Merle’s come back an’ on my hoss, too!” bronzed villain. ‘Do you threaten Oregon Noll in his own shan- ' ** No!” cried Captain Noll in an incredulous voice springing into the light. ‘*‘ Whar is he?” ‘** Over yonder whar ther crowd is,” said Sil- ver Chick pointing to a crowd of miner-roughs | who were congregated about a horse. | “Go an’ look at the poor pard. By heavens! if ther sight don’t make yer blood boil, yer’ made ov stone!” ; Captain Noll waited for nothing more, but **Hyer’s ther cap’n!” said a dozen men as Oregon Noll came up, and the crowd parted to let him inside. Half a minute later the bronze boss of Pistol City stood before the horse which had just come back to camp with a terrible burden. Strapped to the saddle, with his white face turned toward the calm heavens overhead, was the once proud monte king of San Francisco. He was dead, but still warm, and in his breast stuck a knife whose polished ivory handle glis- tened in the sunlight. ‘Great God! who did this?’ cried Captain Noll. “If this war Satan’s work I would call him ter account for it in ther depths ov Hades!” ‘* Don’t you know who did it?’ cried Silver Chick. ‘* Who got away from us last night?” ‘*Ther Dakota Tiger!’ **Cool Conrad he calls himself. Hold! thar’s suthin’ clutched in Monte’s hand! By Jove! ther killer has ther impudence ter send a mes- sage ter Pistol City with his dead prey!” ager to see the contents of the dead hand, Silver Chick pried the fingers apart by main strength and tore from their clutch a piece of white paper scarcely three inches square. The crowd watched him while he mastered the writing visible on the paper, and Captain Noll sta forward. ‘* Read!” said Silver Chick, thrusting the note into his pard’s hand. ‘“ I war right. et man- hunter did the work.” Already Captain Noll had mastered the con- tents of the paper for they were brief, and as follows: **Parps or Pisto.t Crry:— * This is but the beginning! CONRAD, THE AVENGER.” CHAPTER XVII. THE FRIEND IN NEED, “ Ati right! D’'m ready!” Oregon Noll wheeled upon the crowd and held sre paper, the challenge, the warning, over his ead. When he announced its contents to the pards of Pistol City, a tigerish yell full of vengeance and defiance went toward the heavens. ‘* That means me, I reckon,” spoke a man who stood on a rock along the mountain-side some distance above the gold camp, but near enough to hear the echoes of that yell and to see the crowd that surrounded the dead ’Frisco sport. Of course, the solitary speaker was Cool Con- rad, but he no longer wore the striking gar- ments with their braid which he had torced from Jeff Banning, the vaquero. He now stood erect in dark pants and gray- ish shirt, not very much like the sleek man who had fallen into the man-trap in San Fran- ning. The end may not be far away. Stand thar and shout your yells of defiance. ‘Yell till you’re hoarse! You can’t weaken my arm in of the mountain camp, not one of whom dream- ed that he had witnessed the reception of his message brought in by the dead. He did not stay to see Monte Merle taken from the saddle and laid out on the floor of Captain Noll’s cabin; he did not see the fierce looks of Silver Chick and all the rest, nor hear the dreadful oath of vengeancesworn over Holy Hank’s bar. pied by Marmoset. The boy met her at the door, excitement and curiosity in his eyes. ‘You are in danger!” were her first eager words. blood. Monte Merle has come back with a bowie in his breast. and the Dakota Detective has proclaimed his work with audacious bold- ness. Captain Ncll more than suspects you, I ee en ee —_—_ - ——_ —_—-___ — Cool Conrad, the Dakota Detective. say. He will see you before sundown. The ee camp will rise against you if he lifts his rand,” “Then,” said Marmoset with a smile, ‘‘ then, [ am expected to fly.” “Would it not be best?” asked the girl anx- iously. ** You cannot face Captain Noll and all the rest.” ‘* But to turn my back to them—I hate that!” ‘** And you advise me to leave Pistol City?” ‘“Tdo. It is for your own good. You must not get mixed up in the red drama soon to be played here.” “T will go, but not between two days,” said Marmoset. ‘‘ No man shall say that I sneaked from Pistor City after dark like a thief. No! I shall seek the mountains in the broad light of day. I helped Red Roy from Satan’s Hotel be- cause he was my friend. I will help a friend a any time and under all circumstances. Did Captain Noll say he would see me before sun- down?” se Yes. ” ‘¢ Then he will have to do so soon.” Marmoset began to put his little cabin in or- der for immediate departure. Something more important than his personal safety impelled him to flee. He knew he was not strong enough to face the men-hyenas of Pistol City, but it was not that. There was something in the girl’s voice and in her look that resolved him into a fugitive from camp where he had spent so many pleasant ays. ow that Karl the Kid had been lost in Pure- Gold Floss, the desperado’s protegee, he felt drawn closer than ever to his beautiful young friend. She had prevailed u der any other advice, breasted the storm. If the camp should discover that he had saved Red Roy from a terrible doom in Satan’s Hotel, his chances for life would vanish like mists be- fore the sun, The whole pack would swoop down upon him, blood-hungry and relentless, and in the twink- ling of an eye, as it were, rend him limb from limb. Better a dose of Doctor Pablo’s deadly medi- cine than a fate like this! Marmoset saw Floss withdraw while he pre- pared for flight. He told her that he would see her again be- fore a great while, for he said, stubbornly and while his eyes flashed, that he had no notion of quitting the gold region, even though Cap- tain Noll and all his band wanted his neck to ce their merciless nooses. At the end of thirty minutes after the girl’s departure, Marmoset found himself reaily to bid Pistol City adieu. There was still in his breast a deep-seated aversion to flight. ‘Tt looks cowardly!” he said to himself, “I used to say that, of all things, I would never be a runaway, yet, here I am, flying to the mountains because Floss tells me that Captain Noll thinks I saved Red Roy from Satan’s Hotel. IT hate acoward! Marmoset, I hate you. But I have promised Floss, and go I will.” n him to fly, when, un- e would have stayed and brightly, and the song-birds of the wonderf deadeve on of the Merced were delighting na- ture with their happy carols. Pistol City lay quiet in the warm light of the come back and inhabit you again.” He drew the door shut behind him and threw a quick glance down the street. obody seemed to notice his flight. Tn another moment he would have been on his way to the mountains, but his flight was sud- denly and startlingly prevented. The door of a cabin hardly twenty yards dis- tant was suddenly flung open, and a stern, a repeating rifle from the doorway. Captain Noll! This name flashed across the boy’s brain at the first glance, but he did not utter it aloud. Yes, his confronter was the boss of the a wolf, without one fang missin’. March!” Marmo et had been taken completely by sur- rise. The very man whom he had hoped to avoid . picked ye up years ago,” he said. ‘TI think | cisco. He stepped to the door and looked out. ou must hev been advised by ther Mung rat- ‘* Yes! wolves of Pistol City, as I said on the The sun, high in the heavens, was shinin : er we've harbored in Pistol City—Marmoset.” | paper I sent by the dead, this is but the begin- ._ J'm a-goin’ ter hev an interview with him afore | that manner, nor dim the aim that covers you | god of day. ee long—mebbe afore sundown. So you won't | all. Found out as Vaquero Van, J must take Not a suspicion of evil disturbed the scene; give Red Roy’s helver away?” another turn on you. I shall teach you that a we eae reathed of peace. | **] will not!” } snake should be killed when first seen. If let| ‘“ -by, old cabin,” said Marmoset, look- | ‘An’ you will tickle me with that knife if I | go, it will turn on you and bite!” ine back at his little home as he ste ped forth. persist? Cool Conrad disappeared unseen by the men | ‘‘ When this game has been played through, I'll He step aside, and, as he finished, waved | While these events were taking place, Floss, | ‘‘ Halt!” struck his ears. <r F his hands toward the door. the girl, stole back to the cabin,’and having Marmoset stopped instantly in his tracks, and | ‘Go, an’ rejoice with yer pard over the secret | armed herself there, went to the shanty occu- | saw the stalwart man who covered him with a ov yer life.” ; bounded toward the group watched and followed ** Your life is at stake.” | ‘No; you can’t buy me that way,” was the | by Silver Chick who did not seem to have no- ** Perhaps.” I quick retort. ticed the girl. **1 know itis. I know that camp hyena.” i | own life from a pra’ry fire. Go home! Go ter ‘* From whom?” Semi mS and his eye was flashing like a te Marmoset.” ‘Captain Noll. He morethan suspects you.” tiger’s be ind the leveled rifle. a Floss gave him a look that still breathed de- ‘Of what?” ‘Thought 5 owd git away, eh?’ came over Y |}2 a fiance, but made no reply and took a step to- “Of assisting Red Roy from Satan’s Hotel.” | the weapon in sneering but triumphant tones, ort ward the door. The boy did not speak for a moment. ‘“ When you steal a march on this California 4 At that moment the voices of men entered ‘“‘T shall face the danger when it comes!” he | Chick, you’ll know it, my young daisy. You're the cabin, and as Oregon Noll turned to see | said, bravely, from between clinched teeth. not goin’ off just yet. Just march back into i what the matter was, the door flew open and “Tt will not be long delayed,” exclaimed the | thet cabin an’ stay thar till ye’r’ ordered out. I both he and his rebellious protegee saw the horri- | girl. ‘‘The last act has fired the desperado’s | war never suckled at ther breast ov mercy, I’m COME 5. GO IOO