Beadle's Dime Library No. 351 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

yar with a hard laugh, ‘‘so vou are not the only one taken by surprise. But Pll explain it all aftera bit. Take her to your room and see if you can bring ber around, It will be a nasty turn, on more accounts than one, should she slip off the hooks just now. Do your best, and you'll be no loser, old girl.” Without a word the woman took the insensi- ble form upin herarms and left the room. For a minute he stared with a dark frown at the door through which she had vanished, and, handsome though he confessedly was, just then St. Clair Guthrie was not a pleasant object to contemplate. He tad played a bold game, and though it looked as though success had crowned his ef- forts thus far, he knew better. Utter defeat stared him in the face, and he knew that only the most skillful playing could save him from even worse. **To slip up like this, when I was so sure I had the game won to a dead certainty!” he mut- tered, the ugly light growing more vivid in his blue eyes. “I thought I knew every card in the pack, but in that cursed scar she held one that knocked my calculations west-end-and- crooked! So much the worse for her!” and he showed his teeth in a vicious snarl, ‘ I’ll change the combination for a fresh deal, though it doubles the risk and undoes more than half my work so far” He bit off his speech with a savage curse, then unlocked the door and uttered a low whistle, A moment later the tall shadow which had ac- companied bim from the hotel came forward, and the light of the lamp changed it into the tall claimant for the honors attached to the title of Nor’ West Nick. **Come in. I want to have a few words with you,” sharply uttered St, Clair Guthrie, stepping aside to admit the giant, then closing and lock- ing the door behind them, “Sit down.” ith a craven, uneasy air, the giant obeyed, and the two msn confronted each other across the little round table. ** You came to me in answer to a dispatch for @ man of nerve, of cunning and address. Your recommendations were good, and I relied on you to accomplish the work I had in view when I took the trouble tosend for you. You promised well at our first interview. You swore that the foe was as good as done, and I, like a fool, be- ieved you. Now—how has it turned out? A wretched botch from beginning to end!” aa view aeanaahe + remy y coo pepe the giant, enly. idn ay the part you told me all right?” RyObaiwire) Ce * At the beginning—yes: because there was no chance for you to bungle it, I gave you the money to rig yourself out, and to make the bet, A bigger coward than ever stood in Dan Brown’s boots would have taken you up, befure that crowd, But you let him get the better of ouinevery way. Then came that cursed red- orned fellow! Who is he?” “T’ll never tell ye!” with a shrug of the shoul- ders. ‘I never clapped my two eyes onto him afore he come oper in’ in an’ lay claim to the same name I tuck. ow’d I know but what ho was the raal Nor’ West Nick? Was it anyways strange that it sorter knocked me off my feet?” **No,” admitted St. Clair Guthrie, in a less sharp tone. ‘‘I was quite as much demoralized as you, and though I tried to seo an excuse for dropping the fellow before matters grew any worse, I let that infernal Dan Brown get ahead of me, and to save my own carcass I drew out of the game for that hand. But you’re positive you can’t place the fellow?” “*Dead sure! He ain’t a critter any one could fergit ina hurry when oncet spotted, I thouxzht I hed a soft thing when they sot us up forninst each other with the mauleys, but ef it was pie, thar was aright smart sprinklin’ o’ kyann pep- per atween the crusts!” with a hard laugh that was rte tog but mirthful, “I didthe best I knowed. I pounded the cuss as I never afore was called on to thump a human critter, but it was like tryin’ to make rails out of a sycamore log with a wedge o’ cake an’ a sponge fer a maul! Ef he ain’t the devil, with his horns turned to red ha’r an’ sot a little lower then common, then I give it up as too knotty fer me 19 wrastle down!” declared Nichols, with a slow wae of his shaggy pate. ‘*Nover mind. Idon’t care somuch for him as for the other fellow who claims the name of Nor’ West Nick. Have you any idea who he really is?’ “The ’riginal Jacobs, I reckon,” and as he spoke, Nichols cast a covert glance into the face ot the gambler from beneath his shaggy eye- brows, as though to read his belief. ‘*'You may be right,” was the slow response. “But whoever he is, he is in my way, and must be got out of it, by fair means or foul. And I count on you to do the job!” The giant shifted uneasily on his seat, clearly not relishing the turn which the conversation had t .ken. **Tt won’t be so easy,” he muttered. ‘The critter is chain-lightnin’ biled down! I'd rather tackle the red cuss ag’in.” ‘*{ dont ask you to take the job—I order you!” __ NOE WEL NICE tae ott Mercere _————————— ae ee | ‘* All right—ef ye putt if in that shape,” dog- | edly. ane i do—but at the same time, I mean to pay ou in proportion to the risk involved. You now the bet you made with Dan Brown? The stakes are in my hands, and I furnished you with the cash to put up. The whole amount shall be bret the mon:ent you prove to me be- | yond all doubt that this man—this Nor’ West Nick, as he terms bimself—is dead.” ; ote rubbed the tip of his nose thought- ully. “That sounds mighty ginerous, an’ J ain’t hintin’ but what it is jest as free-handed as it sounds, but what about Dan Brown, boss? -Reckon he’d kick, wouldn’t be?’ ‘* Kick he will, beyond a doubt!” laughed St. Clair Guthrie with a malignancy that caused the blood of the hardened ruffian who sat oppo- site to turn a shade colder. ‘“ But it will be kicking against empty air, at the end of a rope, | Don’t you borrow trouble, my friend. Dan Brown will never lay claim to any portion of those stakes. He mayreturn to Rocky Bar—he will return, I may say, but it will only be to meet death! 1’ve insured that. He will hang higher than Haman!” ‘They got to take him on the jump, then, or thar’ll be more funerals in town than his,” with a grim laugh. ‘‘I don’t lay claim to bein’a coward, but when that circus comes off, ef I hev to see it, I want to look on from abind a stump big enough to be bullet-proof—you hear me talk !” ‘- Never mind Dan Brown, I[’ll takecare of him. You have other business to think of. Wipe out this Nick o’ the West, and the money is yours. But you don’t want to lose any time, Only make sure of your first stroke. ou might not get time to put in another. You understand?” ** Chuck- . said the giant, rising to his feet. “Tl take the trail at oncet, an’ when sun-up comes, boss, thar’l] be a cold corpus fer you to look at—an’ TV’ll take the ducats in out o’ the wet!’ ‘See that you’re not the meat for the mourn- ers, then!” said the gambler, warningly, as he unlocked and opened the door. CHAPTER XXII. THE GAMBLER STOCKS HIS CARDS, Wiru this significant warning, St. Clair Guth- rie closed the door behind his bs rho tool, and returning to the table, sunk down in a chair, leaning his chin upon his hands, his eyes staring at vacancy. Not many of the citizens of Rocky Bar would have recognized the face of their prominent sport at first glance, could their eyes have rested upon it just now. The icy mask which he habitually wore was dro , his face was hag- gard, and the lines which marked it so deeply made him appear many years older than his most intimate associates of Rocky Bar had ever given him credit for being. His was a remarkable nerve, but it had been terribly tasked during the last few days, and now when he believed himself free from all dan- ger of observation, St. Clair Gufhriesuffered his mask to drop. This unwonted relaxation was to him as grateful asa bath of fresh cold water would be to the weary, worn wanderer through a mighty desert. How long it lasted he never knew. He seemed like one in a dream, when he was suddenly re- called to himself by the faint sound of a human breath—almost a sigh—and with the old glittcr- i oe Jon flashing back into his blue eyes, he jerked a revolver from his bosom and whirled around—to confront the dark, handsome face of the woman in whose charge he bad left Marjeah Ovelman. Her thin, but brilliantly-red lips curled slight- ly as she unflinchingly met his gaze, and a low laugh parted her white teeth. ‘* You will not waste a bullet on me, Saint?” *“No—of course not,” he niuttered, lowering the hammer of his weapon and returning it to its hiding-place. ‘But I was thinking—half asleep—and you startled me,” ‘““You flatter me, Saint,” with a peculiar laugh, ‘‘ That ismore than the best man in Rocky Bar could do, as [’ve heard others be- sides yourself say, more than once. Surely you are not beginning to lose your nerve?” “Tf I were, it would not be so wonderful,” with a grim laugh that came only from his lips. ““T’ve been playing a lone hand for the heaviest stakes of my life—and that is saying not a little, as you know.” “You will win,” confidently commented Belle. “Kither that, or lose—my life!” with a repe- tition of the ugly laugh. ‘‘Come, girl, bring me a bottle of brandy.’ ‘* Do your mean it, Saint? You are not throw- ing up you hand at this stage of the game? You’re not going to get drunk? ‘‘ Look here, little one. I can trust you. My brain is overloaded, and I must give it a little relaxation, or it will take it—by giving way en- tirely. Bring me the brandy, I could drink a barrel without affecting my brain in tho least! Or, if it should, there are your drugs; you can ’ gs; aay concoct a dose to set me on m pins enough. The brandy—fetch it!” In silence the woman obeyed him, placing two bottles on the little table ~~ a pair of glasses, ‘*T will join you, Saint. I don’t often feel that way, but somehow I do this evening. ; be it is the sight of that girl—who knows?” with a short, hard laugh, The gambler knocked off the head of a bottle with a singlo swift stroke of the edge of his | hand, then filled the glasses with a hand that | visibly trembled. As he set the bottle down, he | again held BP his hand, looking at it curiously, as though the sight was a strange one to his eyes. | of: You see, little girl, it was full time for me to loosen the strain. I never saw that before. I thought I was proof—and so I will be when ,this ame is played out. The girl? Oh, you mean Miss Marjean Ovelman! What of her?” ‘A strange namo, Saint—a stranger facel She has a history, that woman, or my art fails me for the first time.” ‘¢ What makes you harp on her, all the time?” with a suspicious scowl, as hoe drank again, ‘You're not jealous?” ‘‘What good would it do me, if I were?” she asked, her dark brows corrugating, a reddish light coming into her black eyes. “ What right have I to be? You are free enough, though I am bound. Your only master is your will. If ou have grown tired of me, it is only what I eee would panpen as the dayscrepton, Tl do you justice. ou did not try to deceive me, I saw the whole trail before me before I took the first step. And I could see the end of the trail, too. I knew it could come to no different end- ing, but I cared little then. It would bea long time, and my life-trail might end first—” * Enouch of that!” sharply, rudely muttered the gambler, thumping his glass upon the table. ‘‘You are making a mountain out of a mole- hill. Come—lI will make a clean breast of it to. you, and then you will see how widely ycu are mistaken. I must doit! I must relicve my brain, or it will fail me just when I need it the most!” ° ‘“ You know you can trust me, Saint,” softly uttered the woman, the long lashes shading hcr lustrous eyes. ‘‘I don’t ask it; I have never tried to pry into any of your secrets; butI have often wished that you could bring yourself to trust me. Not through idle curiosity, but be- cause I felt that I could help you win, even if I am only a woman.” ‘*T never needed your help before, but I may now. Anyhow, it will be a relief to talk, to lay bare my plans and show you the cards { hold. You are interested in them, too, for if I win the game, you sha’n’t be a loser, old girl.” For a brief space St. Clair Guthrie sat in silence staring at the blank wall opposite, seem- ingly having forgotten the intention just de- clared. The woman watched him keenly, cov- ertly, her dark eyes glittering vividly. “That girl,” he said, suddenly, refilling his lass and draining it, ‘* Be very careful of her. he is worth her weight in gold—literally, not 1s ep alg speaking. There’s no one to look after her, now, since the old gentleman’s turned toes up, and [I mean to marry her myself.” ‘And me?” asked Belle, the question comin with a little catch in her breath. ‘Of course am to say good-by?” “Not if Ican persuade you different, little one. You shall remain just what you are now, until I can get her Property, safe under my con- trol. Then there will be a funeral, and we will head the mourners, you and I,” . a after that?’ = aus ust as you say. marry you the day you set, if that will suit you. We will take our gains, and levant for some healthier clime. Tl retire—sink my identity as St. Clair Guthrie— give the foe the go-by, and settle down to enjoy life with you. How does that strike you,eh?” “Like a glimpse of heaven!” she murmured bowing her face upon her trembling hands, but only fora moment. ‘That will never come to age afraid, Saint!” * ‘With your help it will, my girl,” he laughed his face flushed, his eyes shining. *‘‘I tell you it can’t possibly fail, and to prove it to your satis- faction, listen: ‘*You know how I have been fighting Dan Brown—hell’s blackest curses cover him from head to foot, now and forever! Fighting him from under cover, because it did not suit my lans to show my hand in the work. But you on’t know why I did it—what bitter cause I had to hate him and seek his ruin first, his heart's blood when there was nothing more to gain by tg, him live,” ‘* No,” was the quiet response. ‘‘ You are not the man to face your cards before the game is fairly won or lost. Iam not a woman, to p into what is none of my business. So I waited, | knowing that you would remember me if ever | the time came when you needed my aid.” St. Clair Guthrie, with the subtle fumes of the strong liquor beginning to circle through his _ brain, gazed curiously into the face of the woman as she spoke. Hoebegan torealize that there was far more in her than he had eve suspected; that she was one who might easily become Cangerous , if such a notion occurred to her. cs (EOLA piel oyvexe) May-. : | LES Oe ee