Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 379 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

=> -Jonathan opened bis eyes, a, nea them with a snarling curse, only to cut it short with a grunt “of surprise as he stared at the fair widow. ‘* Be durned ef it ain’t the same purty angel come back—” ‘*To give you warning for the last time that I will not permit any such disturbance in this place, sir,” was the sharp interjection. ‘*You hear that, don’t ye?’ and Jonathan turned with a reproachful frown toward the barkeeper. “* Kick up ‘nother row will ye?” ** You made the row, not me. I appeal to the crowd—” “Look at that, now!” and the Howler ap- ‘peared the perfect personification of injured innocence, “‘ Didn’t you tell me I bu’sted your durned old slate, when [ hedn’t got fa’rly inside? Didn’t you want me to pay fer it or go to the jug? An’ didn’t I callon the landlord fer per- teckshun from sech a hungry bloodsucker? Be course I did; an’ so, ma’am, ef you'll only call him up to—” **Call nothing!” curtly interjected the widow, motioning the eager citizens to keep their dis- tance. “* I understand your case well enough to manage without calling for assistance. Youare a fraud and a traveling sign, but you can’t beat your drink here.” Jonathan gave the fair virago one long, mournful gaze, then without a word he dove down in his pocket and brought up a fistful of mingled gold coin and bank-notes, The widow cast a swift glance into his re- proachful face, then turned to the barkeeper with a sharp glitter in her eyes, There was no need for her to utter the question, and he quickly answered: ‘‘As a perfect stranger, calling for drinks for the whole crowd, ma’am, I simply asked him to look at the chromo over the bar. If that was wrong, I ask his and your pardon for my mistake.” The widow turned to Jonathan with a slight smile on her fair face, for business was business, and the sight of that money had changed her opinion of this loud-voiced stranger. He might be a nuisance, but he was not a bummer by trade. ‘‘Tt was a mistake, my dear sir, which will -sometimes happen in the best of companies. You were both mistaken, and so—shall we calliteven and begin over again?” ** An’ he didn’t mean fer to ’cuse me o’ bu’stin’ up the furniture, then?’ slowly muttered He- brew. The widow laughed merrily. ‘* He was following a rule of mine, ever since I took to keeping hotel, to give trust to no one, without regard to their appearance or whether they were old friends or new acquaintances. Otherwise, you see, [ might easily lose enough in bad debts to eat up all my profits.” ** Your profits—your rules!” echoed Jonathan, “a sudden light leaping into his blue eyes as they first cast a quick glance around the neatly-fur- nished bar and then came back to dwell on the trim, neat figure and eae, face of the widow. ** Then you ain’t—eh ‘*T am the landlady, sir,” with a mocking lit- “tle courtesy. ‘** And the boss—the land-lord ?” persisted the Howler. ‘*T own no other boss than my own sweet will,” laughed widow Watkins, far more communica- tive than was her wont. Somehow this rough diamond interested her, despite the luckless fashion in which he had thus far been introduced to her notice. And then, some womer are born coquettes, who would rather fascinate a satyr than to go through the world without am teed other captive. And widow Watkins would have been less than wo- aman had she failed to read aright that glow of admiration. ** An’ this is your bar? You own the hull she- ry Hotel, too?’ L ‘onl mine, and something more, if you must know, sir,” she laughed. ‘No old man to— Never married, I don’t reckon?” ‘‘ A widow, sir,” and she cast her brown eyes down bashfully, twisting the corner of her white apron between her plump fingers, a demure smile just curling the corners of her red lips. It was an amusing farce, after all! But the Howler seemed determined to make it more than a farce, if his earnestness could be measured by the force with which he dropped on his knees at her feet, catching her hand and it first to his lips an pressin then over his man] som, saying: | . “If Good Leather ain’t man enough fer to do what it orter, ma’am, let me take its place! Let me turn you from a ie ism a wife, an’ Pll do it so quick itll make y r head swim in a circle wuss a circus ring! “Sir! what am I to understand by this con- duct?” demanded the widow, fairly startled de- spite her coquetry, drawing back her hand with a gesture that bade fair to return it with inter- est—alongside the audacious fellow’s pate! ‘* Business, ma’am, business clean up to the han’le!” was the prompt reply. ‘‘I want a wife an’ you want a husband, to look after thin an’ see you ain’t cheated out o’ your eye-teeth! -Ef I do say so myself, I’m as good as they turn oe SSE a Howling Jorathan. out o’ the factory these days. I’m sound as a dollar in wind, limb an’ body. I kin lick an galoot as dared look crossways at my wife. kin love yer barder then a blind mule kin kick frozen pumpkins down-hill. I[ kin tend bar—I jest love to tend bar, honey!” and carried away by the notion, intoxicated by the mere shadow of the future which seemed to open before him, Howling Jonathan smacked bis lips and glanc- ed wistfully toward the bar. ‘Where you would be your own best cus- tomer!” ‘***Deed no, honey!’’ was his hasty assurance, ‘*Tll sign a pledge to never git drunk but once a day, onless you say I kin do better fer bein’ a oor oe The widow recovered from her brief disma at the ridiculous scene her coquetry had precipi- tated, and as though resolved to at once end it, her face grew bard and her voice sharp: ‘Enough of this folly! Get up, and beware how you ever offend in like manner again! If I am only a woman, I can handle the weapons of a man, and know how to rebuke all such idiots as you are showing yourself!” ‘* An’ you won’t— Durned ef I don’t begin to think [ve got the dirty shake!” spluttered Jona- than, his face flushing hotly, his eyes protruding wildly as widow Watkins turned and flouncec away. Slowly the red-haired stranger arose to his feet, wincing a little as the door closed behind the widow with an emphatic slam. Ho gave one mighty sigh as he ps eto around over the grinning faces, then said: ‘““Waal, ef I cain’t git married, I kin git drunk enough to look twenty-seven different ways at the same time! Sling ’em out, John- seid me thinkin’ wimmen ain’t no good, no- ow! CHAPTER VIIL. A WOMAN’S REASON. COLONEL JOEL MALLISON sat in his room at My House that same evening, the little round table at his elbow supplied with liquor, glasses and a box of cigars. It was easy tobe seen, too, that he had not stinted himself in the matter of drink, though it was very seldom indeed that the chief of Good Leather permitted himself to ‘‘ sur- round” enough *‘ poison” for it to be recognized through his face, voice or walk. Just now he was staring moodily at vacancy, his shaggy brows drawn together, his bull-dog jaws squared, his thick under lip thrust out as though he was trying how ugly he could make his never handsome face. His large hands were tightly clinched one mo- ment, then opening, to shut again, like one who longs to practice on the throat of a bitterly hated enemy. Dark and ugly thoughts were floating across his mind, and those in Good Leather who thought they knew him best, would have stared aghast at Joel Mallison if they could have read those thoughts aright. ‘**Curse the day, anyhow!” he growled, as he filled a glass of brandy and tonsil it down his anger-parched throat, ‘‘ Everything has gone wrong end to! Everything is turning against me! First, that name—” The sound of his hoarse, strained voice seemed to startle him, for with a savage light in his small eyes, he half-rose from his seat and glared around the room, only sinking back when he saw that he was alone. For once the magnate of Good Leather had spoken the simple, unadorned truth, which, it may be said, he rarely did, evento himself, That was a day he would not soon forget. Until then he had felt secure, had felt assured that the dead past was dead beyond all pos- sibility of resurrection, But now? All unsuspecting, that name had struck him a blow that ae drove the breath from his body, the wits from his usually cool and crafty brain. It had made him drop the mask before those who would, if they could, work him deepest injury. If they should suspect the truth! If they were to follow up the clew he had so insanely let drop! _ And then—that wild, fiery-headed, gascorad- ing stranger! If he had—had but sent a bullet through his brain on the instant. If he had— ‘**T would, only it came so soon after I saw him and heard him asking for Franz—devil grip both father and son!” te snarled, his strong teeth grating together until it seemed as though they must be split by the fierce pressure. Again Joel Mallison started sharply, one hand grasping the haft of an ugly-looking knife that nestled beneath his vest, but as the sound that startled him came again, he gave a gasp of re- lief and hastily passed a hand over his ted face. It was as though the motion drew a mask over his features, and he looked much nearer his usual self a moment later, when a narrow section of Sela wall swung open and widow Mercy Wat- ins ee a ae into the chamber, closing the door behind her. It {tted so closely, and the paper had been chosen so well to aid in the work, that no one not in the secret would have dreamed that a door was on that side of the room at all. ‘*Didn’t you hear me give the signal?” a little sharply demanded the fair landlady, as she crosséa the room and dropped a handkerchief i cca CC RR LLL LL, 13 over the door-knob, first making sure the key was turned in the lock. ‘“*T was thinking, and before I could fairly waken, you came in.” ‘* Drinking, I should say!” Clearly, the widow was out of sorts, or else she, like the colonel, was occasionally to Le seen without an every-day mask on. ‘** Whose money pays for it?’ growled the col- onel, in a bear-like style, very different from the manner in which he spoke to and of the charm- ing widow in public. ‘** Mine, as much as yours, you brute!” sharply retorted the woman, her eyes arypoey. er bosom heaving as her breath came quick sand short. She, as well as the colonel, had made a partic- ularly disagreeable discovery, and her temper was none the better for it, now. Colonel Mallison saw this, and from past ex- perience he took warning. He needed her aid. sorely, and rough usage would not make her any the more easily handled. He flung out one hand with 9 deprecatory gesture, forcing a smile and short laugh as he said: ‘*Of course, for what’s mine is yours, little woman. If I snapped you up short, forget it, cr lay the blame on what has happened to-day.” “Tf I knew what had happened, it might be Ce, but as long as you keep me in the dark, why— *That’s all right, my girl,” and the colonel reached out and by an arm about her trim waist, drew her to a seat on his knee. ‘It’s not for rou and me to quarrel, this late in the day. Our interests are so tied up in each other, that if bad hai drops on one, the other will be just as bad urt. There followed a little by-play that would have made Good Leather open wide its many eyes if those tight walls had suddenly been ren- dered transparent. Colonel Mallison had an end to reach, and he knew the shortest road to his goal. He knew how to play the lover, if he was old and fleshy and rather rough in his caresses. The landlady of My House did not appear reatly displeased, though, had he been cooler, oel Mailison might have seen that she suffered, rather than reciprocated, She, too, felt that she wanted some information he could give, and banished her tart humor with a good grace, | ‘If those poor fools outside could only see us now, Joel!” she uttered, with a short, mocking laugh. “And—do you know—I had another offer to-day? Isn’t it rich?” The colonel laughed softly. It was an aneng farce they were playing on the citizens of G Leather, and sea a time they had enjoyed a hearty laugh together over their perfect success in hoodwinking even the most acute, Thanks to their caution while in public. To that cun- ningly-fitted door, ae by a concealed pas- sage half-way around the house to the opposite side, there to end in another door to the full as cunningly concealed. And they two alone shared that secret as they did another, which would have startled the citizens of Gcod Leather fully es much. ; “Let the poor fools covet—I alone possess, little woman,” and the colonel punctuated words with a kiss. ‘‘ The time will come when you and I will open their eyes b shaving our certificate of marriage. But when the bloods know they have been courting a married wo- man+well, Good Leather wil be rather un- healthy for me!” That was the secret. The widow was no widow but a wife! It had been her propositicn, suggested by a pretty thorough knowledge of human nature In general, and man in particular. She knew that while as the wife «f Good Leather’s mag- nate, she would be honored and respected and all that, as a widow, young and charming, in the market, her chances for coining moncy would be enhanced a hundred-fold. And thus it came that while Colonel Malli- son supplied the funds for building, furnishin and opening My House, the widow received all the credit. Of course the colonel must beard at the house, and that their secret might be the easier kept, this private communication betwecn their chambers was constructed. The colonel was too deeply interested in other matters to waste much time in billing and ccc- ing after be had restored his little woman to ood humor, and as she slipped from his knee into a chair, he asked: “Well, what have ycu found cut?” ‘** Something—but whether itis what you want to know, of course I can’t say,” slowly respond- ed the ‘ widow’ as we must continue to call her, ‘** You ve been keeping a secret from me, Joel!” Mallison frowned a little at this sudden charge, retorting sharply: “And you—have you never from me?” The shaft struck home, as less keen eyes than bis could have readily told from the swiftl ing color; end Mallison laughed shortly as ke added in a hard tone: ‘*If I have held anything back, little wemen, it was only facts that couldn’t interest you in the least—of something that took place before you and I came tegether.” kept anything chang- ~% Gomilchoo CS (€(O)