Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 374 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

age a ect, IO A EE I —— aie = = — ny Se =. en a TE eee > =—-" a ee * ‘ ~ 28 -- Major Blister, the Sport of Two Cities. ‘‘Does he want them to escape the fate they found?” be Yes. ” ‘* Well, he will never touch them with the iron blade he carries,” said Cyrus, ‘* Now since it is all over, will you not tell me who Mark is?” Adele started and drew back. ‘| hope you don’t think that the end has not been reached,” cried the clerk. ‘‘I don’t see any use in keeping a secret like this any longer. - Who is Mark, anyhow?” ‘* Not yet, Cyrus Slinkum,” said Adele, with 2 smile. ‘‘ We will wait till the last hand has been played.” ‘The late clerk of the Dolores leaned back and laughed. ‘“T’'d like to know who’s going to play it?” he exclaimed. ‘‘By Jupiter! Id like to take a en at the cards, too.” He ceased suddenly, and leaned toward the irl with an expression of seriousness on his ace. “Don’t you think, Adele, that it would be a good idea for us to unite our fortunes?” he asked. ** You will pardon me, I sincerely hope, but I can’t help asking this que:tion, The man call- ed Mark cannot be to you the companion a young lady of your disposition will need in this wild country, and as for Fred Ferret—no per- son will want to cling toa man whose business is that of hunting his fellow men with a dagger! In view of these facts, Miss Adele, I propose that we unite our fortunes and set up for our- selves in Coyote or elsewhere, and—” ‘*There!” said the girl coloring deeply as she touched Cyrus Slinkum’s arm with her hand. **T will not listen to words like yours from any lips to-night. Remember that I came to the Black Hills to help the iron blades you speak of. Remember that [ am the person who felt the cruelty of the crimes of Andros Ruby and his gang, and forget not that I hope that this wild game, this hunt for human hearts—is not played out. No, Cyrus Slinkum—no love-making in my presence!” Adele spoke with all the firmness she could assutne, but her words did not abash the young man who was not to be balked. “Tf you don’t fancy Coyote as a place of fu- ture residence, we could find another more con- genial,” he resumed. ‘I’m no millionaire, Adele, but—” ** Enough!” cried the girl, her eyes suddenly flashing as she rose still.confronting the fugitive clerk. ‘*I will not listen to you. I did not wish that you might come here to hear a de- claration of pretended love.” ‘* Pretended—love?” gasped Cyrus. me for a road-agent! my dear girl—” ** They'd almost hang you for forgery if they had you in New York!” was the interruption that almost took Cyrus from his feet. He went back with a quick gasp and a white face. As he stared at Adele his eyes seemed to leap from his head; he looked like a person who had seen a thunderbolt fall at his feet. What! did the girl know that he was a fugi- tive from New York justice? Had Major Blis- ter told her that) he was dodpee Judd, and not Cyrus Slinkum, and that he dared not go back to the great city on the Atlantic seaboard? ‘* That's something that sounds like a riddle,” said Cyrus at last seeing that he had to reply in some manner to the sentence that had astonished ‘* Hang him, ‘*Tt should be very plain,” continued Adele. “Tf you will take your departure with my thanks for your narrative of the cave events, we will stop here.” But Cyrus did not move. ‘She shot at random,” he said to himself. “Tm going to tell her that I’m not to be balked thus. My dear girl—” ‘‘No more!” cried Adele sternly, as her hand, suddenly lifted, pointed to the door. ‘‘T have already put up with the presence of Jasper Judd the bank robber long enough. There is the door, sir! Itis open and the night awaits you.” There was no doubt now. ‘““Who told you?” cried Cyrus. “By the fiends! if I had my revolver at Major Blister’s head, dead as he is, I would blow it to pieces!” ‘*T never got my Bnew eee from that des- erado!” laughed Adele. ‘‘ You forget, sir, that Viived in New York when you had to fly from your crime. You have forfeited to-night all the friendship I might have given you. Insult me again with your presence, and we will see that some one else knows that the missing bank-clerk has been found.” Cyrus, who was at the door, suddenly showed his teeth like a wolf. ** All right!” he hissed. ‘you may discover that [’'m no child. “Tf I am found out I am _wJasper Judd, and I don’t care who knows it.” “Then go back and throw yourself on the mercy of the courts.” ‘** 1'd sooner pitch myself over the battlements of Tartarus! By Jupiter! Adele, I will face the music if 1t ever comes, and you will regret the epithets you threw into the face of Cyrus Slinkum. I’m in the Black Hills, but [m a young wildcat when they stir meup. For years T’ve been desperate, expecting to be called Jasper Judd at any time.” i er LT ‘¢ Guilt has been the ghost. that never leaves ‘*We will get along with no you,” said Adele. Good- further acquaintance, Cyrus Slinkum. night!” ut in the starlight, with blazing eyes and clinched hands the guilty clerk stood for a few moments, eying the girl’s cabin like a tiger. ‘* Here’s a go | didn’t pay for,” he ejaculated. ‘¢ They drop themselves upon a fellow when he expects a shower of roses. ‘Thet beauty was the last person from whom I expected a blow like this. Iam Jasper Judd to another inhabitant of the Black Hills! I don’t like that, for a secretin a woman’s bosom always finds the cage doors open. The matrimonial alliance is spoiled now. I think I precipitated my schemes a little too fast. ITll go to my shanty and think calmly for a spell.” He walked toward the cabin he had left awhile before with rosy plans and high hopes, but now he ground his teeth whenever he thought of the outcome of his venture and cursed himself many times for his ae, Entering the cabin and slamming the door madly behind him, he threw himself upon the nearest stool and struck the table with his fist. ‘Play the fool another time, Cyrus,” he flashed, ‘‘ and you'll find yourself pounding pegs in Sing Sing. Hello, what’s this?’ He caught sight of a piece of paper on the table at that moment, and pounced upon it like a hawk upon a partridge. ‘*T don’t know who would send me a letter,” he said, as he unfolded the packet. ‘‘ Let me see what it says.” It took him but a moment to open the letter, and, in the light of the lamp, he read as fol- lows; a Jupp (wanted for forgery, etc., in New OrkK):— P Camp Coyote is no safe place for a man of your strips. You are standing on a dynamite bomb, which is liable to blow you back to New York at any moment. If I were you, I wouldn’t let the sun see mein this mountain corral. I warn you in time, This is a b-a-d place for you.” There was no signature to this startling docu- ment. If there had been one, it would not have increased the young man’s terror. ‘‘Hemmed in everywhere!” he cried. ‘* The whole camp must know that I am the New York fugitive. What's the use of fighting fate any longer after this? By the horns of Satan! I will never go back to the scene of my deeds.” He stepped back with a wild flash in his eyes, and drew a revolver. The lock clicked as he lifted it to his head. ‘‘Come! don’t be a fool, Cyrus Slinkum!” ex- claimed the person who leaped up from the darkest corner of the cabin and dashed his arm aside. ‘* Blow yer brains out, an’ hang me if I don’t telegraph East that Jasper Judd shot him- self like a coward!” Cyrus looked down into the face of the boy spy of Custer. CHAPTER XXXTII. WILD ALARIC’S TRAP. WE must not lose sight of Mark, the Unknown and the man who had picked up the bait of Wild Alaric’s trap. If he had been in Camp Coyote when Cyrus Slinkum visited Adele with a very pleasant end in view, it is probable that the interview would have terminated in a somewhat different man- ner, but while it was taking place the Unknown was far from the place, following the trail as laid down in the decoy map. ‘Major Blister does not know that the iron blade has fallen back into my hands!” exclaimed the industrious trailer. ‘‘ I long to meet him— the cool villain!—and play the last hand in this tragic game. It opened in New York four years ago; it is to terminate in the Black Hills.” We need not follow the wielder of the iron blade over the windings of the trail which Wild Alaric had drawn correctly for him. He did not know that Burt Browne and his pards had found the tiger sport in the hands and at the mercy of Fred Ferret, that they had rescued him to lose him in the cave to which he had conducted them, and that they had returned to Coyote firmly believing that the career of ar Blister and his companions had termin- ated, By the merest chance Mark the Unknown missed the Coyoters in the mountains. If he had found them he would have pressed on for nothing could have kept that determined aven- ger from the caye which Wild Alaric had been pleased to call a trap. The stars came out, the stars went down and rose again. Mark the Unknown was still pick- ing out that trail mile hy mile, and his pertina- city was that of the bloodhound which when once on the scent never leaves it until he has fastened his fangs on his victim. It was night once more when the cool trailer reached the mouth of the cavern of thrilling events already detailed on these pages. A consultation of the map told him that he had reached the important place. He felt the Ne dagger in its sheath and entered the corri- or. Nothing was to balk that man, nothing could turn him back for a moment. Se ne ee | Down the dark corridor with ears on the alert—he had no use for eyes—Mark the Un- known crept to the large chamber some distance ahead. Along his sleeve lay the blade with which he had hunted five men with the ferocity of a wolf, and ready now it was for the last close combat for victory. Not a sound reached his ears while he stood erect in the gloom of the main chamber and listened. He had reached Major Blister’s retreat, but where was the man himself? For a moment the man from Gotham felt like penetrating the darkness with a challenge that would bring the enemy forth. He did not care whether the Major came forth alone, or with his mountain pard, Wild Alaric. All he wanted was to finish the long hunt there and to finish it forever. But twenty minutes passed without a noise, If the cavern had bats for tenants, they did not flap their wings in Mark’sface. The very silence was annoying. All at’once there came from the depths of the Stygian gloom that confronted him a cry so terribly human yet devilish that the avenger started: It seemed to emanate from some point beneath the stone floor on which he stood, but yet it was far off, ‘‘for Heaven’s sake, kill me!” followed the cry. ‘‘ What’s ther use ova feller goin’ through life a few days longer, maimed for the grave? Horns ov Hades! this is what a man gets for faithfulness! Alaric! Alaric! have you no mercy?” Mark went forward, keeping along the wall at his right. ‘T ought to know that voice!” he murmured; ‘Tf have certainly heard it before,” and then, when a second appeal for mercy came from the same direction, he stopped suddenly and cried: ‘Tt is Gideon Goldbird! Is it possible that I have found my wounded hawk, instead of Ma- jor Blister?’ The silence that followed the last cry was broken by a laugh that came up from the gloom like a sound from a vault. ‘‘ Somebody is inflicting torture on that poor wretch. ‘* Where he is I shall find Wild Alaric, for he has just called on that graceless scamp for mercy.” A few yards further on ‘the avenger found him at the edge of a pit which was as dark as the chamber about him, ‘“Merey! merey! Oh God!'my hands!” Mark the Unknown caught up a pine cone and dropped it over the edge of the pit. It struck in a moment, ‘¢ Tt is not over twenty feet down,” he said to himself, as he drew back. ‘‘I am here to find the last tigers of the gang, and may Heaven turn my oath against me if 1 shrink now!” He drew off his boots and set them against the wall, then clutching the blade of the iron dagger between his teeth he went back to the pit. The next moment he had lowered his body over the brink, and was feeling the wall below with his toes. The wall was rough, but not rough enough to give him a place by which to lower himself by degrees, Mark hung along the stone in the midst of Cimmerian gloom, almost forced to go on, for he was not in a position to go back unless with great difficulty. Another ery decided him. ‘‘ Hell will gape for you for this, Andros Ru- by! Mercy !—mercy !—mer—” Mark the Unknown released the cope of the pit and dropped! “Hit or miss, here goes for a last tussle with the tigers!” he said. The fall was not a lengthy one, for he struck in an instant and without a particle of noise, nor in the least hurt. So far, good; and as Mark picked himself up, he let slip a word of congrat- wation. ‘‘Now for the underground game!” he ex- claimed. He turned to see some distance away the faint glimmer of a light as of a fire half smoth-’ ered, and if anything was wanting to tell him that there he would find Gideon Goldbird it was speedily removed by a groan. With a revolver in ed to need it first, the New York trailer elided forward along a wall which he could see at intervals as he approached the light, When he stopped he Jeaned forward and look- ed at the horrible spectacle that met his gaze. In thelight of a small fire that threw a faint light on the walls that hemmed it in lay a man on his back. His arms were lashed to his sides by means of a black rope like a lariat, but there were no hands. Mark could see this with his keen eyes, and his teeth met madly while he looked. ‘ “JT hope ther iron blade’ll find ‘em both!” cried the man on the ground. ‘‘ This is ther end ov Gidgon Goldbird, who swore that he would eo back ter Custer with a mustache like ther one he took ter New York when Andros Ruby sent him thar. Because I grappled with him in ther cave above and helping mh ta ther pit’s edge at ther risk ov both ov our necks, J am ter die hyer without any hands. A wolf wouldn’t treat a traitor pard like this. May they find his hand, as if he expect- : rAllicel oyveye) (E(0) (G So al