Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 374 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

7s : aera . , io 37 aie rie Tee ete thy sty 2 “2 Be y=, he 26 a bour Mark came out and stopped to bid the girl good-by. All at once his eyes caught sight of the paper on the ground, and an exclamation announced his discovery. The next moment his hands held the decoy and Quartz Kid crept up to the cabin and look- ing in at the window saw Adele and Mark ex- amining the ‘‘ find” in the light of a lamp. ‘A gold mine!” cried Adele, looking up into the avenger’s face while her own eyes glistened with enjoyment. ‘‘ Wild Alaric has lost the letter from his master. The map will lead you to the new rendezvous, Mark. You cannot miss ‘‘T will find him now!” saidthe man: ‘‘I feel that the game I have played against fortune so long is about to end. The iron dagger has fal- len back into my hands after kiling Crimson Con, and now the trail comes to me. What fortune is this, Adele? At last, gir], I see the end, and ere long the iron blade will have rest!” ** After that, what?’ asked the girl. ‘‘ Heaven knows; but we will let the future shape its own course,” Quartz Kid saw Mark’s black orbs twinkle while they studied the map which Wild Alaric had drawn with one of the most diabolical pur- poses ever harbored by a cool desperado. ““T’ve seen enough hyer!” he exclaimed. ** Now I’ll go back an’ hear Alaric chuckle over the success of his scheme.” Back to the cabin went the boy-spy with the results already described; he found the place empty, the table and the stools overturned, and the desperate pard of Major Blister gone. What had become of Alaric? Deep in the mountain trail beyond Camp Coyote were two men who walked side by side, one without a weapon of any kind and evidently a prisoner, the other armed with at least one re- volver which he carried in his right hand. ‘*Show me the hiding-place of the man you have left somewhere in the mountain,” said the armed person. ‘‘ You know the trail to this man called Andros Ruby four years ago in New York. Iam not to be balked now, for there is an oath recorded where oaths are kept. You know me for the man walled up alive under Mo- ther Redbird’s trap in Mulberry street. I am he whom you dogged and decoyed into danger in New York because I was on the trail of five villains of whom your present leader was the chief.” Wild Alaric turned and looked into the speaker's face. ‘Tf IT show you whar ther Major is, you'll kill him,” he said. ‘‘ T will take vengeance,” was the reply. ** Vengeance for what—ther banker’s death or yer own wallin’ up?” ‘Hor both!” The Coyote sport turned away. ‘* Won't you show me?” asked the Broadway Spotter. There was no answer, and Alaric seemed to be contemplating the mountain wall at whose foot they were walking. ‘A stubborn man kills himself sometimes,” continued Fred Ferret, eying the desperado | whose silence seemed intended for exasperation. “Do not think, Alaric, thet I have trailed you and your master more than three thousand miles to be baffled by a hand like the one you lay. I never expect to see you stand at the bax: of the New York courts to answer for the crime thet shocked the whole city a few years ago. Ishall never turn you over to the tardy justice they exercise there. I am here to find you and Andros Ruby. He is the missing man now. Ihavefound you. Show me his eae place. I give you until daylight to do this. If at dawn he is still unfound, I will prevent you forever from joining him!” The meaning of the last sentence was not mysterious. told Wild Alaric that the man who walked at his side intended to find Major Blister if he had to conduct the search over his (Alaric’s) dead body. ith lips sealed like a_mute’s the Coyote: pard kept down thetrail. By-and-by the moon showered her light upon the path and show- ed Fred Ferret the ~ell-set features of the stub- born man whom he was driving along by the menace of the six-shooter. Camp Coyote was far behind them, and un- der the moon its few inhabitants cither slept or discussed the events of the last few days at Terrapin Tom’s. It was known that twenty men led by the cool and resolute Burt Browne were scouring the mountains for Major Blister for whose neck a stout lariat waited in the hands of the Coyote pards. “Pye set a trap for one man, but hyer I am in ther jaws ov one myself,” growled Alaric while he walked down a narrow trail with the morning almost at hand. ‘‘I am expected ter take this Broadway devil ter ther Major be- fore dayli ht in order that he may play his death hand. I guess I won’t do that. am waiting for a chance ter show him a trick that will give me the upper hand so that when Mark comes ter ther trap, I’ve set for him, I kin let the jaws close on him forever. No, no, my New York daisy. Wild Alaric war born un- der no fool star.” If Fred Ferret had heard these words he might have halted his prisoner where they | were spoken and finished his career there and then. He had conducted him through the night over trails of Alaric’s own choosing, for he thought that the Coyote sport had not forgotten the threat that if he did not find Major Blister by dawn, his hfe would be the penalty of fail- ure. The morning stars were glowing in the cloud- less skies and a light wind fanned the faces of the two foes. In a little while the new morning would burst upon the world, and Wild Alaric would have to face the revolver of the man who had | tramped like a stern and merciless avenger at | his heels, The Coyote sport showed no fears for the morning while he kept on. His eye had lost none of its old light; he might have set a dozen | new traps during the tramp. ** Halt!” At this command from Fred Ferret’s lips Alaric stopped and glanced at the avenger. Already the mountain pass was becoming visi- ble in the first streaks of light, and the earliest birds were making music on the dark boughs. ‘*Tt is morning,” said the Broadway Spotter. ** Where is your captain, Andros Ruby?” Wild Alaric gave the avenger a look that breathed defiance. ‘*Very well. Ihave asked you for the last time, Alaric. The warning was given last night, I spoke it in plain English, and you heard every syllable. It is known that you left Coyote with Major Blister; you came back for a purpose of some kind. Perhaps you hada trap you wanted toset. Traps have alwsys been your hobby, | but this time one of them caught the trapper. | Stand where you are, Alaric.” Fred Perret stepped tack suddenly and left ten feet between him and the man he had guarded under the moon and in the mountain trails. ‘‘T am going on,” he said, ‘‘ but you are to be left behind, Wild Alaric. Were I in New York I would be compelled to hand you over to the authorities, but here among the Black Hills man is his own avenger. Stand up and die like the desperado you have been in a dozen parts of Uncle Sam’s domain!” Wild Alaric must have thought at that time that his career had reachedits end. He saw the revolver creep slowly up till it reached a level with his face, and over the barrel that caught the first glints of day, he looked into the stern eyes of the man from New York. ‘‘Here I avenge the crime of the Delance mansion, and here I pay you for the torture endured in Mother Redbird’s dungeon,” came over the six-shooter. Let me tell you, Wild Alaric, that Ihave made a strange discovery since reaching the Black Hills. Ten years ago the New York Detective Bureau, to which I be- longed, received news of the abduction of two children in San Francisco. They were the | children of a man known as Silver Loup, They both disappeared the same night, though it is | certain that one man did not take them both. | Oh! you know about the case, I see, Alaric. Well, I have discovered the girl.” Wild Alaric started slightly but made no re- ply. Y The beautiful creature whom Major Blister calls Zoe, in Custer, is really Nita, Silver Loup’s child. He expects to make her his when he has dpe out the game against the iron daggers. ou wonder how I made this discovery? 1am a detective; unraveling mysteries is my life pro- fession, Alaric. I shall find the boy, Nita’s brother, before I am through with the game. As Captain Dandy, Major Blister stole the girl. You may know who dealt with the boy.” ‘Tt is a lie! I never touched the case!” flashed Wild Alaric. ‘““ Wait till you are accused,” said the detec- tive with a smile, ‘ You will not say that you don’t know why Major Blister left Crimson Con dead in his cabin in Coyote?” Alaric’s lips shut the tighter, and his eyes snapped defiance, ‘Ah! Alaric, there are crimes that time avenges by the hand of justice,” said Fred Fer- ret. ‘*The Major will never go back to Zoe. Vengeance will find him miles this side of the child he stole in ’Frisco and left in the West, while be ran a career of crime on the Atlantic seaboard. Never mind, Alaric. You have re- fused to show me his hiding-place, but it shall he found! Now, thug of New York and despe- rado of the Black Hills, Iam going to drop you in your boots!” The Broadway Spotter took one quick stride forward at the end of his last sentence. . ‘‘Halt'thar! We'’vegota trigger grip on that | galoot!” rung outa voice as stern as the death _ sentence of a lynch court, Fred Ferret did not turn, but threw a look over his shoulder and saw the man who had spoken. ‘‘The men of Coyote,” he said to himself, and looking into Wild Alaric’s eyes, he saw that he had recognized those who had appeared when least expected. Up the trail they came, headed by the stalwart figure of Burt Browne, and with six-shooters and repeating rifles gripped in their bands. ° ee i i Major Blister, the Sport of Two Cities. —_——$——_$ $$ $$ “This man is not Major Blister,” said Fred Ferret, facing the men, who halted at a wave of their leader’s hand. ‘‘This is not the person who left Con dead in Coyote.” ‘*No; but he is that Custer bloodhound’s pard!” was the reply. ‘‘We will get at one through the other. War yer really goin’ ter wipe Alaric out?” “JT was, and I will!” said the Broadway Spotter. ‘“Not just yet!” laughed Burt Browne. ‘We've got a ncose for him, as well as for his master. Don’t try ter play a single-handed game ag’in Coyote. It won't work, young man. Fred Ferret saw the stalwart forms that backed the speaker. These were the avengers of Crimson Con; they wanted the life of Major Blister, and the New Yorker knew that they would be baffled by no human barrier as long as their triggers worked. ‘‘ That man has refused to disclose to me the hiding-place of Major Max,” said Fred Ferret, sointing at Alaric. ‘‘ He will not tell you, Burt rowne. I have come three thousand miles to face him as I face him now. You shall nottake the life of the villain who made me suffer the torture of a thousand deaths for two days—the man who helped Andros Ruby commit a terri- ble crime, that orphaned a young girl and made her an avenger. By heavens! you shall not do this!” The Broadway Spotter sprung forward before the last word had left his lips, ‘‘ T will settle with Wild Alaric! prisoner! By the Eternal! I—” ‘* Not now!” The hand of Burt Browne descended like a giao ripe upon the young detective’s shoul- er. ** Coyote says ‘no!’” he cried, and the next moment he hurled Fred Ferret among the pards where half a dozen bands closed on him like the jaws of steel-traps. ‘‘ We deal with this man to the death. He is Major Blister’s pard!” CHAPTER, XXXI, SLIPPERY ALARIC. UNARMED, and confronted by the avengers of Crimson Con, Wild Alaric saw no change in his fortunes for the better. He had passed out of the hands of one man into the power of twenty, who would not hesitate to stand him up before their pine ie! and shoot him to pieces because he was the friend of the desperado who had taken human life in Coyote. Fred Ferret knew that he could do nothing against the men who had taken his prisoner from him, and they laughed in his face as he tried at first to break from their iron grasp. ‘*Thar’s no use tryin’ ter turn ther tables,” said Burt Browne with a smile, as he laid his hand softly on the young detective’s arm and looked steadily into his face. ‘‘We claim a right ter deal with Wild Alaric, an’ in doin’ so we avenge whatever deeds you may be after him for.’ ‘*The blood of Crimson Con is not on his hands,” said the Broadway Spotter, ‘‘ Major Blister committed that crime.” ‘* While his pard thar watched, maybe.” ‘‘'Who says that, lies!” leaped from Wild Alaric’s lips, the first words he had uttered for several minutes. ‘* Thet’s all right,” sneered Burt Browne, and his face darkened suddenly under the bitter ac- cusation, ‘* When we want ther lie, we'll ask for it. Cover thet man thar, every pard ov yer,” he went on, addressing his bronze band, who instantly obeyed. ‘‘ Now, my ccol sport ov ther mountains, show us ther trail} thet leads ter ther Major.’ Fred Ferret looked at the stalwart prisoner who was looking sullenly into the muzzles o the leveled weapons with his arms folded upon his breast. F ‘*T trust he will,” he said to himself. ‘IT have not despaired of paying that villain the old debts contracted among the night-shadows of New York. If he refuses to accede to Burt Browne’s demand, he will be riddled with bul- lets where he stands. What will Wild Alaric do?” Yes, what would the tiger sport of Coyote do? ‘* We lose no time on this trail,” Burt Browne suddenly went on, speaking over the revolver not five feet from Wild Alaric’s face, ‘* Quick! out with ther information. Refuse ter tell us, Alavic, an’ ther vultyre will see yer dead whar yer stand when he rises over ther mountain!” ‘“T hey never yet betrayed a pard,” said Alaric, returning look for look. ‘‘ Which means thet yer never will, eh?’ was the response. ‘¢ T did not say so.” Fred Ferret took hope. On the next few words would hang the whole thing—life and death. All at once the right hand of the menaced sport went up, and he said solemnly: _ ‘*A man will do anything for his life. Men He is my ov Coyote, I may turn on yer one ov these days _ for this.” ** All right, Alaric,” . ‘Then, with this understanding, I show you ther rendezvous,” Omicboo (E cS (0) a } m