Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 380 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

He did not know who or how many clasped his hands for an instant as he passed armong them. ae He left behind him a girl sighing and sob- bing, and scarcely conscious, Once more he stood out under the open sky, to look his last upon the beautiful earth and the sun just setting among the mountain- tops. How indifferent is Nature to our pain! The world smiled as if on a happy nuptials! Just over his head a bird trilled the last sweet notes of its vesper hymn to the depart- ing wil In the glade below him stood the Golden Serpent, leaning on a carbine. About her were grouped her scowling ruffians., ‘‘T am here!” said the Tiger, in a clear, strong voice. Now he stood tike a statue of iron. Who would have thought that this man could be so perturbed as he had been but a moment ago? ; The Golden Serpent gazed upon him, and her heart leaped with a wild throb of admi- ration and delight. ' “Tiger Dick,” she said, ‘‘even in this last moment I offer you a reversal of my pur- pose—you know on what conditions!” ‘‘ Fire!” said Dick, gazing at her coldly. The wor.an trembled from head to foot. ‘It is my last offer!” she said, in a chok- ing voice. “Bah!” cried the Tiger. But suddenly he checked his anger. ‘‘Stay!” he said. ‘‘ I would not have my last thought of you!” Not changing the position of his body, which presented his breast squarely to her aim, he turned his head so as to look south- ward. His face softened. Over his lips was breathed the name: “¢ Beatrice |” * With a savage Spanish oath the Golden Serpent dropped upon one knee, and resting her elbow on the other, to form a rest for a steady aim, brought her carbine to bear on the motionless figure that waited her ven- geance, A moment of wavering. Then the sights came in a line with his heart. Another breathless instant! Then a puff of white smoke and a sharp report that was repeated from crag to crag! he bird’s song came to a startled conclu- sion, and the songster flew upward. Tiger Dick clutched at his breast as if he would tear a scorpion from his heart; and mah with a single gasp fell forward on his ace! The Golden Serpent sprung to her feet with a cry of horror. It seemed as if but now she realized what she had done, ‘‘Tead! dead!” she panted. Then turning to her men, she cried: ‘‘Rollow me! We may save him!” She rushed forward, they following at her heels in a body. - As they neared the mouth of the cave, there lav the motionless body. Her aim had been only too sure. He had not so much as quivered after striking the ground. “Dick! Dick!” cried the Golden Serpent, springing forward to cast herself on the body of the man she had Joved ard hated so fierce- ly, and whom she now grieved with as frantic a passion, But before she reached him, to usurp the place that belonged only to the woman who was waiting all unconsciously in Lower California, she started back with a cry of dismay. She had had her revenge; but now what? CHAPTER XXXTY, TIGER DICK’S GOOD ANGEL, Out from the cave rushed, not a group of prisoners trembling between hope and fear as to the good faith of the arbiter of their fate, who had exacted so cruel a ransom, buta band of armed warriors. | : Jim Farnsworth was in advance, with Captain Kidder at his heels. Behind them followed the boys, every one of whom loved Tiger Dick as if he were a brother. aken wholly unawares, the Golden Ser- pent and her men stopped and stared. ‘Surrender, boys! We’ve got you!” shout- The Golden Serpent. —$_$—$—$————————— ed Captain Kidder, while his men, with re- volvers bristling in either hand, set up a yell of resentment at the sight of the Tiger’s in- animate body. Jim Farnsworth sprung upon the Golden Serpent. In her extreme agitation over the work of her evil passions, it took a momen for her to collect herself sufficiently to realize the change in the situation. But then, with a snarl of rage and defi- ance she plucked a stiletto from her bosom, and struck at the life of her would-be cap- tor. But Jim Farnsworth had handled her like before. He caught her wrist and disarmed her; and then, though she writhed like a serpent, and scratched and bit and screamed like a wild-cat, he clung to her. ‘“You are my prisoner, my beauty!” he said, when, powerless in his grasp, she lifted her white face to his and glared at him, panting, yet speechless, Meanwhile, her men had lacked her pluck or her desperation. They saw that they were outnumbered, and taken at a hopeless disadvantage. Of course there was no prospect but the hangman’s noose in surrender, but in the face of immediate death they accepted the .re- spite. They were disarmed and bound without the discharge of a single weapon; and then the conquerors hurried to the mouth of the pocket, to secure those who were yet there on guard, unconscious that their citadel had been captured. But Jim Farnsworth remained behind to bend over Tiger Dick in heartfelt regret. The beneficiaries of his greatness of soul also gathered round, the Major-General re- morseful for her heartless insistence. Judge Littlejohn ashamed of his suspicions, Hugh and Uncle Billy and the Hon. Benoni feeling that here was a man as great in his virtues as in his vices, and Abigail in tears of unquali- fied sorrow. Only ye dainty dude tried to allay an uncomfortable feeling, which was something between shame and annoyance, with a pee in self-justification. But Tiger Dick’s game with fortune was not yet played out. He lived, though un- conscious of life, with a bullet through his left lung. “Tt went clean through him,” said Jim Farnsworth, as he took the bullet from be- tween his skin and his clothes. ‘‘That will save the necessity for a surgical operation that we lack the appliances for, “Dick, my boy!” he cried, cheerily, when he had restored the Tiger to consciousness, ‘‘there’s the stuff in you yet for half a dozen heroes! We'll patch you up—my word for it!” And the event proved that Jim Farnsworth was ‘‘no fool” prophet! Dick’s first care showed the quality of the man. When every word uttered was a stab at his life, and he knew it, he said: ‘*You know—the one condition—I stood for. Let her gol” The detective unbound the Golden Serpent and explained to her and to the wondering members of the Committee how and why Tiger Dick had stipulated for one condition in making his bargain with the Governor. When the Golden Serpent learned this, and that, even after her attempt on his life, he still made her freedom his first thought, she burst into tears and cast herself on her knees at his side. Overcome by emotion, she could not speak, but only kissed his hand. Jim Farnsworth reminded her of the dan- ger of exciting a man in Dick’s condition, in addition to the severe trial that was before him of having to be moved over rough ground in a swinging litter. She made but one low plea. ‘‘Say that you forgive me!” ‘1 do better than that,” said Dick, faintly. ‘‘T remember—that the effort to save me— has been your ruin.” Once more she kissed his hand, and then rose, and without so much as a glance at any of the others, mounted the horse that was placed at her disposal, and rode away, To the last she betrayed the essentially un- pratt nature of her heart, where her af- ections were not involved. In her absorp- tion over Dick, she gave not a thought to the bold fellows who had served her faith- fully, though in a bad cause, 29 ‘‘ But how did you find your way in to us?” asked Uncle Billy. He only knew that, at the very moment when Tiger Dick fell before the Golden Ser- pent’s bullet, the detective and the band of ex-road-agents had come through one of the corridors of the cave, ‘Too late to save the Tiger, they had lain inambush to capture the followers ef his would-be murderess. ‘We owe all to the cowardice and treach- ery of that infernal Greaser!’’ replied Jim. “They stood us off at the mouth of that ravine. An army couldn’t have dislodged them. Then | proposed that we find some way over thecrags. Iwas bound not to leave Tiger Dick in this trap, if I had to tunnel the mountain! ‘Well, I came upon the petticoated don, sneaking off by himself, and ran him down. It seems that, in watching the Golden Ser- pent, he had been here before, and discover- ed this entrance to the pocket, through the cave. That was why he led you here. He hoped for a chance to sneak off by himself and get away.” “But why not give us the advantage of his knowledge?” asked Uncle Billy, indig~ nantly. 3 He was afraid that such a crowd, espe- cially with the ladies, would attract the at- tention of tie Golden Serpent’s people and result in recapture. He was looking out for his own skin, ye onderstand, first, last and always.” ‘‘And where is the wretch now?” That question was never answered, except by surmise. It was thought probable that the don had sneaked off back through the cave, afraid to meet the company he had left. to so miserable a death. As gently as might be, Tiger. Dick was: carried to a neighboring mining-camp. There Abigail divided her time between him and her lover, nursing both with a tenderness that money could not have pur- chased, But in due time she was relieved of half her labor of love. ’ Jim Farnsworth went in person into Lower California, and returned with one whose presence was enough to call the Tiger back. from the brink of the grave. Let the reader imagine their meeting, and. the care she took of him! At the following session of the California legislature, the Report of the Committee to. Investigate the Chinese Troubles at Silver Riffle was ‘‘laid on the table,” with many a laughing motion that it be laid wnder the table; that it be buried, never to be called to a reading till the Day of Judgment, ete. Uncle Billy was the only one of the Com- mittee that took the matter good-naturedly, challenging the jokers to ‘‘ go and do like- wise.” Sweet Lispinard de Morgan is still in the market, ready to become the prize of the daughter of some. bonanza king, who is anx- ious to graft a shoot of aristocracy on her ancestral scrub oak, Hugh runs a journal of his own; and the Major-General, reconciled to him in a meas- ure, is ‘‘ working the sheet for all it is worth ” as her ‘* organ.” Judge Littlejohn still says ‘Hang her!” in ‘‘ French!” But down in that silvan Paradise in Lower California, which the reader has al- ready visited with us for a short period, lies. a man in a hammock, and hovering about him "a & woman with the smile of a happy angel, mong other things, she has been reading to him the glowing praises of his courage and magnanimity with which the papers. ring all over the land. | ‘“ But this,” he says, laying his hand on a rather formidable-looking document, bearing: the great seal of the State of California— — “this is the bridge over to happiness and. love!—over to the new life!” And she, glancing over to where an old gentleman is nodding orepally with his wig a little awry, and so assuring herself that her heart will be revealed only to him for whom it is ever more to be an open book, throws her arms about his neck, and with her lips ta his, whispers: ‘My husband!” THE END. <com €books.com