Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 374 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

A —- oa OO iS ES a + a ee ee ee ee seen Camp Coyote. We were together in New York. also will confirm me in this. stand by the man rescued by the Injun.” ‘Very well. I[ am afraid that Lariat Lige. Whar ar’ they now?” ‘The men who went to the door saw nothing of Gideon Goldbird and his red rescuer. ‘‘One thing is sartain,” said Crimson Con. ‘‘Tt will not be safe for Lariat Lige ter set foot ag’in in Coyote. We hev all ther respect in ther world tor you, Alaric, but ther evidence ov ther mole on ther shoulder settles his identity.” Meanwhile Gideon Goldbird and Gray Arrow had passed beyond the cabins, and were moving down a trail that threatened to bury itself soon among the mountains. The astonishmeut of the messenger-sport had not abated in the least. He walked beside the Indian like a man who could not realize the ter- rible events that had taken place. The charge, the evidence of the birth-mark, the Indian’s arrival and the rescue seemed the parts of a wild dream to Gideon, yet the pre- sence of the red-skin at his side told him that it was stern reality. ‘* Tt wasa close shave, Gideon,” suddenly said the red, looking into Gideon’s face, ‘‘ Don’t you wish you had never come back?” Gideon started. What did this Indian who spoke very good English know about his visit Kast? ‘“Don’t I wish I had never seen ther Black Hills?” ejaculated Gideon. ‘‘ Because I have a mole on my shoulder, those men war goin’ ter noose me for a man called Lariat Lige.” “They'll do it yet if they get a chance, Gid- eon,” laughed the Indian. ‘‘I believe I’ll take you back ter Coyote an’ turn you over ter Crim- son Con and pards.” ‘Angels ov mercy, no!” cried the sport. “‘ Give me a chance an’ Tl let them clutch me if they can. I came back hyer ter be called a liar by ther man I served, an’ then Coyote wanted ter eat me blood raw. You’re no In- jun. Gideon had stopped and was looking into the red-skin’s face. ‘What makes you think so?” ** Your eyes.” The next instant Gray Arrow burst into a laugh, ‘“No, I am not an Indian,’ he said. ‘ Gid- eon Goldbird, Il am the avenger of blood and the game I play may know fifty disguises before I get to the end. Listen to me. I did not expect to see you in such a desperate situation when I came to Coyote. I came for quite another pur- pose than to rescue you; but the moment I reached Terrapin Tom’s an’ saw you with bared shoulder before the Coyoters I knew what had happened. I happen to know that the man called Lariat Lige is dead, but that fact would not have saved you, Gideon, if I had not inter- fered, If my eyes tell you that I am not an Indian, do they tell you who I am?’ +s No,” ‘Gideon Goldbird, I am the man called Mark.” ‘* Mark the Unknown?” exclaimed Gideon re- coiling a step, with a pair of wild eyes fixed on the strange being. ‘‘ Mark the Unknown, the man who has fol- lowed a trail over two thousand miles,” was the reply. ‘‘Lam the owner of the iron dagger, It found Night-Owl Ol! in Coyote and Pokat Perry in Custer. As the sun shines it will find Major Blister and Wild Alaric. It has found Gideon Goldbird. Like a fool you came back from the East to feel the point of the blade that has been consecrated toa work of vengeance!” Gideon heard the man through like a person receiving a death sentence. His hands got cold at the finger tips; he was at the mercy of the iron dagger. “Come along, Gideon,” Mark suddenly went on, and his hand closed suddenly on the sport’s wrist. ‘* The place of execution is still some dis- tance ahead. To-n ght the remaining two will know that the trap set in Coyo‘e for me will not hold anything. Ha, ha! when Andros Ruby and his gang try in the wild West to live down the crime committed in New York, they fail sadly.” ‘*T did not help that night,” said Gideon. ‘I swear to Heaven that I merely stood guard. I war compelled—” ‘* Noexcuses—you were there ; that is enough!” was the interruption. Gideon caught the speaker’s eyes and said no Mark. the Unknown ied. 4 ark the Unknown led his prisoner deeper into the mountain. The trail’) ew piddizaly narrow at times, and then would widen for a little spell. To Gideon they were moving into a terra incognita, When the strange man halted they had reach- ed a place where no sunlight touched the trail. Far above them rose bare walls of dark gra stone, and Gideon knew he was in one of the many little canyons in which the Black Hills a apg to be his death spot? He thought even at that terrible moment of his promise to the stage driver of Custer that he ‘would come back some day the possessor of a a hundred | oaths would not convince Coyote that he is not | My friend Major Blister who was thar | Gentlemen, I must | | even though ten feet separate us. mustache as fine as the one he had lost. But now he stood on the brink of doom, and he ex- pected to see the ircn blade which had been so fatal to two of his comrades, sweep downward before his eyes. Allat once Mark the Unknown stepped back, and Gideon stood free. ‘** Don’t congratulate yourself, Gideon!” laugh- ed the Unknown, ‘I hold you in my hand, See! Ican throw this blade into your heart with the preci- sion of a practiced juggler.” The avenger clutched the point of a blade whose hilt was iron, and when he finished he suddenly raised it poising it above his head as if for a throw. ‘** Ain’t I ter have a chance?” asked Gideon. ** None!” ‘It’s ter be murder, then?” ‘* J call it vengeance, Gideon. you had never come back?” It was the same question, and the same cutting taunt. ‘* Don’t I wish I had ther dead drop on thet merciless devil?” grated Gideon, ‘‘ Iam ter be dropped hyer like a wolf wounded an’ run down. Fool [ war ever ter come back hyer. Gideon Goldbird, yer time has come.” Fifteen feet from him stood the wielder of the iron blade. He still looked like an Indian whose role he had played so well, but Gideon saw a look in his eye that told that his hatred was not that of the red race, ‘*T avenge here the crime committed one night four years ago in New York,” he sudden- ly went on. ‘‘ There is another iron blade on the track of the men who did the deed, but it would avenge personal torture in Mother Red- bird’s den.” ‘*T know—the other man is Fred Ferret,” said Gideon, ‘‘I helped to wall him up in the under- ground prison. I have been thar myself. I know what it is.” ‘* Better for you to-night, Gideon Goldbird, if you had remained there,” was the response. ‘There you would have a grave, here you will have none, Gideon Goldbird, are you ready?” The messenger-sport shut his hands and closed his ashen lips. ‘* Ready?” he said to himself. ‘‘ I'm one ov ther kind thet ar’ never ready, but my time is hyer an’ thet settles it.” Yes, his time had come: Suddenly the iron blade seemed to leap several inches higher in the avenger’s hand, and he threw one foot forward. ‘You ar’ the third man, Gideon,” he said. ** After you comes Wild Alaric!” The next instant the knife left the uplifted hand and whirled through the air. Gideon who had watched the last movements threw up his arm instinctively and uttered a wild ery as the blade struck! For a second he kept his feet despite the pene- trating dagger, but he suddenly recoiled, spun half-way around and dropped near the foot of the wall. Mark the Unknown did not leave his tracks for several minutes. With triumph gleaming in his deep black eyes he stood and Ltiad at the man who lay a few feet away with the hilt of the avenging blade above his breast. ‘*This man was the least guilty of the five,” he said aloud, ‘‘ but his hands were red all the same, I would to Heaven that I had never shed a drop of blood, but they made me an avenger. Major Blister and his pards fashioned the iron dagger from the bar with which they took a human life that dreadful night in New York four years ago. So there is a trap set for me in Pazar, eh? I will test its strength.” e glanced at Gideon again and walked away, destined to feel the terrors of Wild Alaric’s trap. Don’t you wish CHAPTER XX. THE TWO MESSAGES. LET us go back to Camp Coyote. Major Max Blister ‘lid not see the rescue of Gideon at Terrapin Tom’s by the disguised avenger, and he knew nothing of the event until told of it by Wild Alaric when they met. “* Let Gideon go,” said the Sport of Two Cities. ‘*I don’t believe more than half of his story about the lying message that came over the wires from New York. Gideon Goldbird never went to Mother Redbird’s; his courage failed him when he got to Gotham. We can play the game through without him, Let ’im go!” Crimson Con and pards were not so willing to let the man called by them Lariat Lige remain beyond their grasp. They stole from camp and followed *‘ the Indian” and his captive. They found the trail, and were gone several hours; when they returned their countenances told that the hunt had been unsuccessful; Gideon was one. Thus the day went down with no more ex- citing events. Major Blister and Alaric had watched Burt Browne’s cabin with eager eyes. Adele, who had come to cauap with Gideon, was there, Since entering it with Burt himself, the girl had not been seen, and the long shadows came with her still on the inside. Quartz Kid, the hoy spy of Custer, had not Major Blister, the Sport of T'wo Cities. ee OO _* ee oe tae 8 Te been idle during the day. He had kept one eye on the cabin and another on the man’s trail that entered Coyote. He had forgotten Cyrus Slink- um whom he had saved, as we have seen, from the vengeance of Major Blister. When the sun went down the boy left his post and moved to another nearer the cabin that held the girl, Quartz Kid was anxious to cross its threshold, and to see what was going on on the inside. He could not believe that Adele had passed the whole day in sleep. If he had entered the little cabin, he would have found the girl near the window seeing more than he thought she was seeing. She had been refreshed by a sleep on a cot furnished by the owner of the cabin, and it was past noon when she awoke and looked out upon that part of Coyote observable from the little window. It was Starlight again when Major Blister laid his hand on Wild Alaric’s arm and whisper- ed: ‘*T want to know what that girl is doing. She came hyer with Gideon; she is hyer for a yurpose. Remember! she has been seen with Tark, the Unknown.” ‘* Let Adele go for the present,” was the an- swer he received. ‘‘ We want ther wielders ov ther iron daggers. Fred Ferret slipped through our fingers at Terrapin 'Tom’s; ther other one— Mark—is yet ter come.” At that very moment Quartz Kid had reach- ed Burt Browne’s shanty, and was listening un- der the little window. His figure was not ob- servable as he hugged the logs and sirained his ears to catch the slightest sounds. If a cricket had chirped beyond the door, he would have heard it. ‘*T'd give my left ear ter see in thar,” mut- tered the boy spy. ‘‘Something mighty im- yortant brought thet strange girl ter Coyote. She keeps housed up like a sick person; hasn’t showed herself since Burt Browne showed her ter her quarters, Mebbe she is hyer because ther gray-eyed man isn’t far off. They’re con- nected, | know, but just in what way is what I'd like ter find out.” Quartz Kid seemed to have reached his wit’s ends, for although but a few inches of wood separated him from Adele, he might as well have been miles away. ; Nobody came to the cabin to disturb the 9 4's vigils. He saw his patience ooze away at his fingers’ ends as it were; he was in despair. At last, and so suddenly that it sent a thrill through Quartz, the cabin door opened and Adele’s face appeared, If the boy had not been crouched under the window at that moment, he would have been discovered. As it was, he thought for a moment that he had been seen. Adele looked down the darkened street bor- dered by little cabins, and listened attentively. Then the breathless boy spy heard her say: ‘*So this is Coyote. I wonder what bas be- come of Gideon, and whether they will find the place.” ‘‘ Gideon, my fine bird, has gone away,” ejacu- lated the boy, but not for Adele's ears. ‘* Yes, I think ‘ they’ will come by and by. If they knew you were hyer, Adele, they would surely come, Ah! thar you go!” The last words were spoken as the girl drew back leaving the door slightly ajar as keen-eyed _ (Juartz could see. ‘* Hit or miss ’'m goin’ ter havean interview,” said the boy, edging toward the door. ‘I guess ther’s shrewdness enough in me not ter give anybody away an’ I want ter know more ov this girl who plays a cool hand whar it takes an al- mighty cool hand ter win.” The following moment the boy was at the door, and an instant later he pushed it wide enough to admit his body and glided inside. Exactly as he expected, he was discovered in a second. ‘*What do you want?’ exclaimed Adele, as she pounced upon Quartz Kid, before he could utter a word and encircled his arm with her white fingers. ‘‘You are still in Major Blis- ter’s employ, I see. This is not Custer City, boy; this is Coyote!” ‘Whisper to me something I don’t know,” laughed the young spy. “If this war Custer, we'd not ba meetin’ in Burt Browne’s shanty, miss. Surprised ter see me hyer,ch? I’m liable ter turu upanywhar av’ atanytime. I thought ye'd hit this cay al It was nearly dark in the cabin, but the twain were near the door, and the boy could see the start with which Adele received his last sen- tence. ‘*So you looked for me? Did—” She checked herself suddenly as if she had reached dangerous ground. ‘**T don’t think they’ve seen you,” said Quartz, ‘*Ter tell ther truth, Adele, you struck camp at an early hour an’ thar war nothin’ ter get ther Major an’ Alaric out at thet time.” ‘** Where is Gideon?” ** Gone away.” ‘* For good?” ‘* T shouldn’t be surprised,” answered the boy, remembering the manner in which Gideon Gold- bird left Coyote. ‘‘ Do you want ter see him?” ‘No; let him go.” Adele shut her lips firmly behind the sen- tence. Gomicboo (¢ ‘S7.ECOomM