Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 38 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

— = eases “Who do you think I am?’ asked the sharp, suddenly. Oh, I know yer like a book!” the bummer ejaculated, with a series of knowing winks. ‘* You can’t fool this old coon much, I tell yer! Your handle is Dick Velvet—now Velvet Hand—but I knew yer name was Richard something else, and then ag’in when Cherokee was to the fore, an’ I reckon thar’s a few men in this town that would tremble even now ef somebody was to howl out that the Death Shot of Shasta war round, but 1 won’t give it away; wild elephants couldn’t tear the thing from, me! ’m your man, | am, an’ I jest come to you now to say fair and jsquar’, ef so be as how you’ve got your eyes on the Cinnabar mine, to let up, old man, an’ gi’n me a show fur my white alley!” Velvet Hand had listened-with astonishment to the latter part of this speech. ‘‘ What have you to do. with the Cinnabar mine?’ he asked. ‘Why, I’ve got a leetle rake in thar,” Bowers explained. ‘How so? 1 don’t understand; you don’t mean to say that you have any share in Del Colma’s speculation?” “Oh, no, not at all, but he’s about played out, an’ when he quits my pardner jumps in,” Bowers explained. ‘‘ You hear me, noble lord: it was all through me that this Californian came to invest in the mine at all. I knowed that it was a good thing, richer’n thunder if the right vein is ever struck ag’in, an’ struck it will be one of these days, you kin bet yer bocts‘on it! Well, thar was an old pard of mine, a high-toned chap, jest the cuss to work sich a thing, an’ I—thinkin’ that you were played for good asI sed afore—told him of the Cinnabar strike, an’ he h’isted Del Colma in, fur he had the rocks to start things—” ‘“‘If I understand your plan correctly, you intend to ‘hist’ Del Colma out!” Velvet Hand abruptly interrupted. “That is our little game; but, as I sed afore I had no idee that you were ever comin’ to the fore ag’in, an’'so, ole pard, I says to you, fair an’ easy, let up, old man, if so be as you’re goin’ for the Cinnabar strike, an’ lemme git my little rake outen it!” Bowers exclaimed, imploringly. | “T couldn’t think of it,” Velvet Hand replied, in his softest manner. No!” cried Bowers, in tragic accents. “No, not by a jugful!” | ‘““'You’re goin’ to run the thing yourself?” “That is what I intend to do; maybe I may not be able to make the riffle, though,” the sharp suggested. ‘You can take a hand against me if you like; the game is an open one, you know.” ‘“‘Me noble dook, I seek not sudden death!” Mr. Bowers ex- claimed, loftily. “Oh, no buck ag’in’ you, nary time, this chile will not. I draw out!” ‘* Are you for or against me?” ‘For you, every time—unwonted gold you kin bet onto that!” the bummer responded, promptly. ‘I reckoned that, mebbe, jyou might not be willing to see the Cinnabar consarn tossed round like a football, an’ I made up my mind to hev a talk with you afore I took another kick at it. I ‘pass’—count me out. Yer name is Velvet Hand—you bet; I never knowed you by ary other, Isavvey. Say, kin you trust me fur a dollar?’ The sharp silently placed a five-dollar gold-piece in his hand, and Mr. Bowers departed in high spirits. Thére was troubl ahead he was sure, and in troublous times he thrived. CHAPTER XX. THE CALIFORNIAN MEETS, HIS MASTER, VELveT HAND watched the bummer swagger off with a quiet» smile. “That fellow has been of use in the past and may be so in the future,” he murmured in meditation. ‘“‘So there is another party after the mine, eh? That is a bit of information worth knowing. It was cheap at five dollars, and who is it? AmI-. wresting the mine from the Californian that another may step in and enjoy it? Ob, no! whoever the party is he will find that | when I shake it out of the hand of the Californian it will drop into my paw and J’ll hold it with a grip of iron; neither man nor devil shall wrest it from me!” But in the list of adversaries the iron-willed velvet sharp had not counted woman. | The figure of the Californian, striding up the street with a gloomy brow, interrupted Velvet Hand’s meditations. “Hallo! here comes my bird!” hé muttered, ‘‘ and out of sorts, coo, if his face is any index to his mind. What brings him out so 16 Beadle’s. Dime Library. ee Now, then, sir, a few words with you!” he exclaimed, haugh- y. The manner if not the matter of the speech grated upon Vel- vet Hand’s ears, and he felt strongly inclined to reply in kind: but, as he hadn t the slightest idea of how he could possibly have offended Del Colma,-he restrained the impulse until he could learn the reason for the rude treatment, and so replied, quietly: ‘““ As I said before, I am entirely at your service, ‘“ Who are you and what am I?” Del Colma demanded. ‘‘-You are.one man and I am another,” Velvet Hand answered, coolly. ‘‘T am a native Californian, a descendant of a long line of Spanish nobles, whose blood is blue and who trace back to a’ kingly source!” Del Colma exclaimed, haughtily. , ‘““What you say may be true for aught I know,” Velvet Hand’ observed, almost contemptuously, ‘“‘or for aught I care,” he added, ‘‘but that you are any the better as a man for springing from such arace I deny. The Spanish nobles you speak of were a set of blood-thirsty robbers if history tells the truth, and no descendant of Hernando Cortez and his gang has any reason to boast of the fact.” ‘My race were the owners of all this land once!” the Califor- nian cried, hot with rage at the aspersion cast upon the character of his ancestors, and yet unable to deny that the old conquerors had rather overstrained their power in dealing with the simple- hearted natives. ‘Yes, your race stole it from the people of Montezuma and we North Americans wrested it from you, which simply proves we are the superior people!” The Californian fairly ground his teeth in anger. “Go on, go on!” he cried; “it is but right that you should make me mad with rage, you miserable gambler, for within the next ten minutes either I will kill you or you shall kill me!” Velvet Hand looked astonished at this out-burst of rage; he’ could hardly believe that his words could have provoked such a storm of passion. . “Oh, we are to fight, then,” he said in his cool way. “ With” all my heart, only I should like to know what we are going to’ fight about.” | ‘Qh, you know well enough!” the Califor@ian cried, bitter- ness in his tone. | “Do I?’ and there was considerable doubt visible in his voice as he put the question. 4*Yes, we fight because I am a wretched native Californian and you are a noble North American; but, wretched as I am—the’ descendant-of an old race fast dying out, melting away under the influence of your superior civilization—I spit upon and despise your people. There is nothing in common between us; the blood of the Californian and Anglo-Saxon can no more mix together than oil and water can mingle!” “And so we must fight because we are of different races, eh? Velvet Hand exclaimed, totally at a loss for an explanation of the Californian’s fury. | ; “Yes, yes!” Del Colma cried, hastily. ‘I am fully aware of the honor which, you intend to do me, but I cannot accept; I must kill you to prevent it. Come, sir, will you fight or must I spit in your face to heat your superior blood to the fighting - point?’ | _ “Oh, I wouldn’t do that!” Velvet Hand cried, quickly, flaming . into sudden anger, ‘“‘for a fight wouldn’t follow, but a murder, — for I should kill you on the spot without giving you the slightest chance for your life.” As . | “You kill me, you miserable thief!” Del Colma shrieked, | excited beyond the bounds of endurance, and then lifting his hand he struck the Cinnabar sharp a violent blow in the face. In a second Velvet Hand sprung upon him, He wrencbed the Californian from his feet as though he was but a child and forced him over flat upon his back, pressing his powerful knee upon Del Colma’s chest; then he drew forth his glittering bowiée-knife, Del Colma was half-stunned by his sudden downfall but he had” sense enough left to understand that he was utterly at the mércy of the man whom he had so wantonly provoked. “Strike!” he cried, wild with impotent rage; ‘‘the blood of a degenerate nation may be in my veins, but Ido not fear to die,” “Kill you, eh?’ cried the victor, with a bitter smile; “ oh, no, that is not my game., You called me a thief and now I’m going” to brand you asaliar. Your life I’ll spare but I'll put a mark upon you that will endure to your dying day! The letters L-J-A-R I’ll carve on your forehead!” | “Oh, for heaven’s saké spare me that!” fairly yelled De? , Colma, white with rage and terror; ‘‘ death rather—death I beg!” — ‘‘Why have you attacked and insulted me so grossly—a man” who never injured you?” : a ‘You, a gambler, would marry my sister! I know how you. meet her in secret—how you gave her a love-token which she - early? He is rarely abroad until after dark.” | Del Colma marched straight up to Velvet Hand and the gamester noticed, to his astonishment, that his eyes were fairly | flaming with anger. = - * = a SS ee ae = ee eee Se: He paid no attention to the friendly nod of the sharp, and it was quite plain that the Californian’s errand was not a pleasant one. “T want to speak with you a moment if you will have the oth fae to follow me,” Del Colma said, anger plainly visible in ooth face and voice. . ‘Lead on, sir, I am entirely at your service,” the other re- plied, taking no notice whatever of the peculiar manner of the mine-owner, ; Del Colma marched up the street, Velvet Hand following close at his heels, until they were fairly beyond the line of the town, | The gloom of the night was growing thicker and thicker, and . yet there was still light enough for the two men to plainly dis- tinguish each other’s features. — | The Californian looked carefully around him, saw that they were secure from observation and not likely to be interrupted, as they were some distance from the road, ew, okt Slower accepted!” hissed Del Colma, almost choking with rage. “A love-token!” cried Velvet Hand, in astonishment. | “Why, _ I never met your sister but once, and then I happened to stop her runaway horse after she and the saddle had parted company with the beast. And when she thanked me she saw the diamond ring gleaming on my finger—the ring which you gave me as a surety for the gaming debt you owe—her ring, which you had no business. to thus dispose of. She, never suspecting the truth, | instantly jumped to the conclusion that it had been lost, and : 4 found by me, and asked me if I had found it, pire oe, : mean, miserable thief of a gambler—lied to the girl rather tell, her that her own noble | security for a gambling debt.” “Js this truth?” Del Colma exclaimed, totally bewildered. “Truth!” cried Velvet Hand, roughly; “do you want me to drive my knife through your throat and let out some of your hot blood that you use such ugly words?” brother had given me the ring as a . “comicbooks:com eee eee ae ee — Cee —_— em —_ ee — oe —_