Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 38 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

28 Beadle’s Dime Library. colored up and blushed like a bashful school-boy. It was a long time since the man of the world, he with a seared heart anda doubting mind, had had to do with such a fresh, young, impulsive nature. ‘‘The mine belongs to you!’ she continued; ‘‘ you told me so yourself; by trickery and fraud it has been wrested from you, and now, just as fortune puts within your power a chance to seize your own again, for the sake of a foolish whim—a foolish sympathy for a weak, unhappy girl, who is already borne down by the weight of the obligations heaped upon her without meas- ure, by your generous hand, you suffer the chance to pass aside; you give to me what I cannot and will not accept!” For quite a time there was silence; the woman leaned her cheek upon her hand, the arm resting upon the table, and gazed with her brilliant eyes, so surpassingly lovely, upon the troubled face of the man. ‘‘ Miss, what makes you so certain about this money?” he asked at last, evidently at a loss for words. ‘Your name is stamped upon one of the buckskin bags which contained the double eagles,” she answered. ‘‘I went at once to Mr. Pollock and—excuse the womanly artifice—I told him to tell you to please not to forget to have the money ready for the next payment, He, caught in the trap, believed that you had told me that the money came from you, and said, ‘Certainly, he would remember.’ You see, it is useless to deny the truth. And, what is this I hear from my brother that you possess some written document from him relating in some way to me, Fernando and myself had hot words to-night, for I am of the same blood as he, and I will not tamely brook even the interfer- ence of a brother in matters which concern me alone.” Velvet Hand silently drew a paper from his pocket, and handed it to the girl CHAPTER XXXVL LIGHT AT LAST. Fe “In consideration of the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, to me in hand paid, the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, I agree to give my consent to the marriage of Ri Velvet and my sister, che del Colma, provided both parties agree to the union. “ (Signed) FERNANDO DEL CoLmMa.”’ The girl read this peculiar document aloud, and her eyes sparkled angrily, while at the same time a burning blush spread over her cheeks, “What is the meaning of this?’ she cried. “Is it a jest?’ ‘‘Oh, no; sober reality,” he replied. ‘‘Your brother is an inveterate gamester. On the night before the auction sale he came to me and dared me to play, offering to pledge me this ring,” and he drew the diamond from his pocket as he spoke, and handed it respectfully to the girl—‘“‘ this diamond for five hundred dollars, so that he might be able to have money to play with. I advanced the money, won it back, then he was desperate; he had previously annoyed me by charging that I was in pursuit of you, and I determined to geteven withhim. I told him I would put twenty-five hundred dollars against his consent to wed you; he accepted, and again I won.” “And is the right to woo me worth twenty-five hundred dollars?’ she asked, a peculiar light shining in her eyes—a light that mortal man had never seen there before. ‘Blanche, the right to woo you is so precious that if it were mine—your own free gift to the man you fancied—there is no gold mine in all this treasure-laden California rich enough to buy it!” ‘‘And when I have a lover, teach him to woo as you woo, and I may be won,” replied the girl, with downcast eyes. Was it in human nature to longer refrain? and yet this man of noble soul hesitated to speak. ‘‘ Blanche!” he exclaimed, his voice trembling, ‘‘ your love is a treasure so great that the possessor of it need not envy the lot of any one in this wide world: your words bid me speak—give hope, but I fear that you do not know what I am.” She was about to speak, but he stopped her with a quick re, : ‘‘ Hear me out!” he exclaimed. ‘‘I am an adventurer—a man who lives by his wits—a gambler, to speak the name plainly and in all its bluntness. For the sake of the man can you forget what he has been?” With a proud, yet supplicating gesture, she extended both her beautiful hands. “To the hero who saved my life—to the man whom I had learned to love long before that time, can I refuse the poor treasure of the heart which has gone out of my keeping long ago, and is his already? Oh, my lord and master!” And gladly she nestled upon his broad breast. The end of the dark hours had come; light at last upon the gloomy life of the man who had toiled and dared as few men in these our modern times care to do, Once more Injun Dick Talbot is in possession of the Cinnabar lode, although he bears the name of Richard Velvet. There were too many painful associations connected with the old name to allow our hero to again assume it. And the proud Californian girl, clinging to the manly breast ef the man who was to her a very hero, whispered how she had learned to like him long before she had known his name or who he was; and that, after listening to the Mexican girl’s stories of the fandango, a foolish jealousy had induced her to closely vail her person and visit the Mexican den. Lucky chance it was for Velvet Hand that she had happened to come, for her timely warning surely saved him from the | assassin’s ball. ‘‘ And Bertrand Redan!” we fancy we hear a reader say, “ the superintendent of the mine,—what has become of him?” On the very night of the abduction of the Californian girl, Redan disappeared, and was never seen again, living, by mortal eyes. reat was the wonder at what could possibly have become of the wily and unscrupulous superintendent, and the mystery was not solved for some time until two hardy gold-seekers, prospect- ing through the mountains, came upon three bodies stuck full of Indian arrows, stripped of everything, and scalped, in the little defile just above the McCloud canyon. One of the bodies was easily identified as being the remains of the iniquitous and overbearing Redan. And after this McCloud massacre Captain Death and his road- agent band were never seen again. The pilgrim in the mountain gulches noted the fact, and rejoiced that no more the three black birds of prey came down upon the lonely camp, the solitary traveler, or the heavily-laden express-coach, revolvers displayed, and with the slogan of ‘‘ Throw up your hands!” Few of the men of Cinnabar, though, guessed that Bertrand Redan and Captain Death, the terror of the Shasta mountain’s side, were one and the same, The lonely mountain grave, in the rocky defile, held the road- agent’s secret. Smooth water, now, ahead, and plain sailing, apparently, for Velvet Hand; yet in the far distant horizon one little cloud—a sloud no bigger than a man’s hand, yet the practiced sailor dreads the white squall which from such a cloud comes, as he dreads no other ocean blast. And in the center of the cloud the handsome head, with the dark malignant eyes, of Fernando del Colma! TWO NEW BOOKS XHIBITIONS AND FOME FA NTERTAINMENTS DIME DIALOGUES, No. 20 Choice eg Exhibition and Parlor Colloquies, Farces, ogee ag nor Dramas, Dress Ploces Little Folks’ Rhymed Dialogues, The Wrong Man; or Two,An Air Castle. A Domestic “ Ex- A street “ nsa- —, For hee ales ‘on females. : tion."’ For three males and three ‘females, City Manners and Country Hearts. Afternoon Calls. A Society Colloquy Episode from Real Life. For in verse. vor vont ees <a Ne girls cae w? pe § Ned’s Presen ea, e Silly Dispu with For four bo a Moral. For two ls and ys. Judge Not. A School Episode. For teacher teacher. and several scholars. Not One There! A hly Dramat- A Poe ety charac- ny agrees tic Narrative. ic Drama. For four Saved ae Yee me 2 Temperance Foot Prin t. _A School or Par Vv ve, oot- ool or lor Colloquy, For two Charade. For numerous charac: boys. Mistaken Identity. A Domestic| ters. rs.’ For two | Kee ing Boarders. A Family “ Af- and three females. fair."’ For two females and three Couldn't Read oe A Serious; males. Comedy. For males and | A Cure for Good. A Drama with a one female. Moral. For one lady and two A Little Vesuvius. A School Rebel-| gentlemen. lion. For six little girls. The Credulous Wise-acre. A Col- “Sold.” A Salt Wi Colloquy. | loquy. For two males. , For three boys. DIME SELECT SPEAKER, No. 20. A fresh collection of Gems of Oratory and Literature from the Masters of Tongue and Pen, God, ‘The Last Man ‘How to Save the Repub- Save the Republi Mind Your Gwn Busi- lic, 7 he, reity 7 y Fourth f July Se Mor Nai ‘ fs) oO nt- Monmou The moe Ho osing Year. The Wrong and the My Esquimaux Fri Moral Desolation, The Story of the Little Self-Evident Trut ht Road, An to Society, Rid Hin, Won’t You Let M Barbara Freitehie, B. Castle in Spain, | Work? » kein e Most Precious Gift, Shonny Schwartz, rr ~ oy the Bes? Intellectual and Moral The Indian’s Wrongs, Guide, Power, An Address to Young Whom to Honor Thanatopsis, ve ‘The Lords of Labor, The New Era of Labor, Beautiful Snow, Early Rising, The Work of Faith, Now is the Time, ‘Pum rnickel and Pop- A Dream, An Exhortation to Pa- off, La Dame Aux Camelias,' _triots, Only a Tramp, The Penalty of Selfish- He is Everywhere, Cage Them ness, A Dream of Darkness, Time’s Soliloqu Lights Out, ‘Religion the Keystone, Find a Way or Make It, Clothes Don't Make the Scorn of Office The Mosquito Hunt, Man, Who Are the Free? The Hero. The City on the Hill, "The above books are sold by Newsdealers everywhere, or will be sent, post-paid, to any address, on receipt of price, 10 cents each. BEADLE AND ADAMS, Publishers, 98 William 8t., N, ¥. ECORTICLOOOKS