Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 379 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

e636 ee oe TS oo EN ee ee -—* ‘trace of emotion in his face or voice as . hands, that was far more flattering to the man *'. The widow arched her fine brows a little as 10 Howling Jonathan. — ——— — —— ——— ' Franz waiting some place for his dear ones!” | Iceberg Dave drew back a pace, folding his arms hurriedly muttered the blind man, turning | across his chest. away. ‘‘Itis long roat, ’Melice, but the goot ‘* You fail me, Mr. Ingram?’ she murmured, Lord will make it come by an end after a little! | ort It is that gives me heart to keep up. Yes, itis | ‘lt is your game, ma’am. Mine was only a time to be off going! ’Melie?” little side-bet. aniel paid that, but I took the ‘“Yes, father; 1 make Neddy fast up in a | hint and drew out. I was ready to slip a cop- hurry, now!” per on the knave, when I fancied you wished me Widow Watkins hesitated a moment, but then | to, but—” said: ‘*TIs it Greek you are talking, my dear sir?” “Tf they are content, I am satisfied. laughed the widow. go, David.” . ‘*The shop will slip in occasionally, ma’am, ‘My thanks to you, Mrs. Watkins,” and Ugly | but lll try to make my meaning clear. Todo Dan bowed low, smiling after a sickly fashion. | you a service, I was ready to lay out Ugly Dan, **And you, Iceberg, good-by! May we meet | but when I saw that you were worrying only on again!” my account, as a possibly valuable aid to—to a With these words the feilow turned on his | friend of yours, that altered the case entirely. heel and strode away, never once glancing back, | I can wait, and so can Ugly Dan.” his crippled hand swinging unheeded by his There was one little break in the cold, even side. nd thus it was when he vanished from | tones of the gambler, barely perceptible, more their sight around the bend in the road, leading | like a catch in his breath than aught else; but it Let him = By to Good Leather, was sufficient to bring a flush to the cheeks of “A black heart—if heart it can be called!” | widow Watkins and to make her answer shorter, muttered Iceberg. less frank than it might otherwise have been. **And by far too quiet!” the widow said, her ‘* Thanks for the service you rendered me, Mr. fair brows contracting and her little hands ner- | Ingram, If you would only be askind to your- vously fingering the haft of her knife. ‘‘ He | self!” She turned away and hurried over to where Amelia Moskau was putting the harness on the | little donkey, preparatory to hitching him to | the cart. | Herman Moskau, forgetting all else in the bit- means mischief, or he’d never go off like that! I’m almost sorry your lead did not shatter his | skull, instead of his hand!” ‘*T feared for your life, or his skull it would have been, Mercy,” and Iceberg Dave came a little nearer, his voice strangely softened, his | terness of his disappointment, leaned against the ray eyes, usually so cold and hard. now shin- | lightning-scarred tree, his head bowed, tears ng soft and tender. ‘ But it is not too late, | silently trickling down his thin cheeks and over even yet. Dll take his tools to him, and then | his beard. empty his skull, if you say the word. That is It was the one object of his life, this finding my law, Mercy!” the long lost son. Scores of times had he met idow Watkins flushed, then turned pale, | with disappointment just when his loving faith drawing back as Iceberg Dave made a motion | told him snecess was close at hand, but never as though to capture her hand. She laughed, | before had he felt it so intensely asnow. Ugly short and uneasily as she cast a hurried glance | Dan had played his cruel part so well, had so around them, Her voice was far from steady | mercilessly lied and fed the fires of hope, that as she said: the blow fell with double force at last. ‘*T have no right to give you orders, Mr. In- ‘*That ugly rascal did not hurt you much, m “am!” dear?” asked the widow as Amelia turned wit ‘* You have—if you only so elect, Mercy!” he | a grateful smile through her tears. quickly breathed. ‘Hurt? yes! But it wasinthe heart the most, lady!” and Amelia hastily averted her face as the hot tears come anew. ‘It was because he made poor father——he was not always so, as you see, lady. He was strong and could sce then, before brother Franz went away and never no more come back again home tous. That was the worst—that was the thing broke him down so bad, Franz was bis son—I, only a girl.” A woman herself, widow Watkins could un- derstand just what this quiet little quaver meant, and acting on the impulse of the moment, she caught Amelia in her arms, and—Iceberg Dave turned his face hastily away, striding over to the old blind man. ‘Traveling, I reckon, uncle?” he said, briskly. ‘Going to make any stop at our town? Good Leather we call it.” Herman Moskau roused himself, brushing the tears from his face, a wan smile crossing his care-worn features as he said: ‘Tt is foolish-weak the old people times, my friend, as you see by me. was—but you ask question, I believe?” ‘Only hoping that you mean to take in our town before going further, uncle. It’s many a long mile you might travel before seeing—” It was not often that Iceberg made a wrong play, but just now his nerves were strung up so tightly that before he thought the words fell from his lips. Herman Moskau smiled faintly. ‘Tt is great hardship to lose sight—yes. But there many thing more worse than that, my friend. To haf no eyes—that take one great pleasure away, but to lose a dear son—that take all, everything!” Iceberg Dave started, casting a hasty glance about him, for the moment fancying that he had come too late to discover the worst deeds of Ugly Dan. And Herman Moskau, with the wonder- ful intuition with which some blind persons are gifted, seemed to read his thoughts, for he quick- ly uttered: ** Not so—not that way, my goot sir! It was long ago that I lose my boy—so long, it seems like I must be older as the world! I haf looked so many places! I haf said to myself, this time the goot God will surely let the glad day be! And now, that wicked man say he can bring us by our boy! He swear he know him like a broth- er! Heask for pay, and we gif him all—what is money and things by our love for Franz? No more as dust! And then, he say—ach ! it was bitter black sin! He say my boy was hung for pose hacia He say he pull rope—meim 7) “T have not—I wish it not,” she said, with sudden coldness. ‘‘ You know why, without my telling, Mr. Ingram; so say no more.” He bowed, stiffly, once more Iceberg Dave. CHAPTER VI. THE CHIEF OF GOOD LEATHER, ‘* Iv rests with you how much further Ugly Dan travels, Mrs. Watkins. What you gave you can take back again, and a life like his must be a curse and a burden,” quietly uttered the sport. “You would follow him—after what—” There was a spice of the coquette in widow Mercy, else she would not have managed such a shy look out of the shade of those curving lashes, Her voice would not have been so low, so filled with rise; nor would it have broken off with that curious little gasp, as though emotion was overpowering her. For she knew well enough that Iceberg Dave, so cold and hard and merci- less to all the rest of the world, would be like wax in her hands if she so elected; that he would bathe his hands in blood without an in- stant’s hesitation at a single motion from her hand or head. But the pet faro-dealer of Good Leather had not so soon forgotten the lesson read him by the fair widow, and there was not the slig) test 6 re- et, some- ch! time sponded: ‘Why not? It is on my road to town, and T'll have to punch the fellow’s ticket on my own account if I don’t on yours.” “Tf I thought so—if I thought the rascal ‘would try to play you foul for this day’s work,” ani there came a reddish glow into the nut- brown eyes, a clinching of the small, gloved who stood ready to carry out her slizhtest wish than a dozen shy glances and quavering tones. Still Iceberg Dave gave no sign, and few who saw or heard him then would have even dreamed how madly, insanely, he was in love with this little woman, “That goes without saying, ma’am. Daniel is not an cs ee whatever he may become before I get through with him. He'll wre to get even with the game, and won't let his hair nrg ai calling the turn—for me or for him- self. The widow hesitated, but it was only for an ‘* He was lying, of course, uncle.” instant. Her voice was low, but sharp and ‘For sure it was lie!” quickly proudly, ut- stern, as she uttered: tered the blind man, his thin cheeks flushing. “Then follow and settle him! You are too | “It needs not stranger lips to tell me that. It valuable a friend—” was not that maken the heart so sick, no! It was to think we must still further looken for our ‘boy. Unless,” and there was a sudden eagerness in his voice, a trembling of his frame, a quick catching of his breath, as he added: “If you could say, goot man—if you might haf seen m boy—if you knew where we must look to find him?” . ‘“* Franz, you say?” ** T don’t want to hurry the procession, ma’am,” interposed Iceberg Dave, with a characteristic squaring of his firm jaws. ‘If it is on my ac- count that you are changing your mind—” * A woman’s privilege, is it not?” with a little Jaugh. “That settles it,” bowed the gambler. a rere LL LLL LL AC LLL LL LL LDL LLL, SELL LL LL LLL LLL LLL LLL LL LLL LLL LS ‘** Franz Moskau—see!” and the poor old man held forth the card containing the face of his son. Iceberg Dave took it, and as he did so, abrupt- ly turned his back toward the blind minstrel. ‘hy? What made his gray eyes fill with such a sudden fire? Or, was it only the change of rade that brought that grayish shade over his ace? It must have been something of the sort, for he turned back and slipped the card into the trembling hand, his voice as quiet and full of sympathy as before. ‘*T do not know him, lam sorry tosay. But there may be some one in Good Leather who can put vou on the right track, Atleast it will do no harm to try.” ‘*Tt is there we was going when that evil man came t6 us. It is new place, so we look there, too. The day must come. It may be so near to us as this place Goot Leather. Yes, we go there, *Melie?” ‘* Yes, father,” was the hurried reply. ‘In one little minute all will ready be, now!” Widow Watkins had not been idle during this ae between Iceberg Dave and the old man. She had learned that the travelers were on their way to Good Leather, and though she was forced to give the same answer as Iceberg Dave to the question whether she could tell aught of the missing brother, she ventured far more en- couragement than the gambler offered. ‘* You will be safe there, my dear. I am only a woman, but those silly fellows regard me as highly as though I were an angel! For my sake they will help you find your brother.” Amelia, greatly comforted and not a little en- couraged, managed to whisper something of this in the ear of her father, who bent his white head and almost reverently pressed his lips to the gloved hand. And then,with the blind minstrel seated in the cart, Iceberg Dave leading the donkey, while Amelia perched on the horse behind the widow, the little cavalcade took its departure from the noonday camp, moving toward Good Leather. The widow seemed in a particularly joyous mood, and her merry laugh more than once brought a similar sound to the lips of her new pet. while Herman Moskau smiled faintly as he istened. ; Iceberg Dave, cool and wary, kept a close lookout as they proceeded, for some sign of Ugly Dan Bennison. But that worthy had either busily improved the time in fast travel- ing, or else had turned aside from the main trail, perhaps to bandage his crippled hand. At any rate, nothing was seen of him before Good Leather was gained. Before ren town, Amelia insisted on alighting from the horse and resuming her wonted place as driver. Iceberg Dave was nothing loth to relinquish his position at Neddy’s head, and he fell back a few yards, though still keeping near enough to lend a hand should Ugly Dan have reached town before them and should try to “* get even.” ‘Widow Watkins drew rein before My House, leaping to the ground before Iceberg Dave could come to aid her. She gave her horse to the nimble, tough-looking lad who ran out from the saloon attached to the hotel, then turned to her new-found friends, saying cheerily: ‘Welcome to My House, both! It shall be our house as long as you care to stop in Good | eather, and it shall cost you nothing ut good- will! I have said it, and my word is law, if not gospel!” As she spoke, she was aiding Herman Moskau to alight, and leading him toward the door of the hotel. But with her last words the old man te a short, his voice steady and even proud as he said: “Tt is very kind and goot-hearted you are, lady, and we tkank you many times over for that. Bntitis not such pesrere that we are, my little girl and me—no! e will stop for a while, but it is better we camp out, or go to an inn where—” ; “ But this isaninn, and I am the landlady dear sir,” laughed the Widow Watkins.’ ‘ it have no master, and if I say you are my friends —if I refuse to take pay for the little t can do, who will dare deny my right? Not you, my dear sir!” ‘‘Not if you so forbid, kind lady,” and the blind minstrel bent his head over the gloved hand which held his, ‘ It will leave more gold tocarry us longer by our look for our Franz!” As he began speaking, the door before them, which led into a passage by means of which the upper story might be gained without enter- ing the office and bar combined, swung open and a stout, well-dressed man paused abruptly before them. A look of surprise _came into his face as he noticed the widow Watkins in such company, and then a sbarp sound—if not a curse, it very much resembled one!—broke from his lips as he wheeled and vanished in- side, A still brighter light leaped into the brown eyes of the little woman as she gazed after tne vanishing shape, but then she laughed softly and pushed open the closing door, leading her strange guests into the entry, saying: “T will take you right up to your rooms, a nNiGDoOo (E() (C S) Td J ' fi he co Y t Md) 2 ee ee é , 4