Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 383 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

Surely there must be some person near him— some person in pain or trouble. Again he looked about carefully and closely, but saw nothing that could account for the ery. Then he heard another noise, louder and more startling than the cry. It was the sound of a man’s voice—plainly and surely that—a voice that was raised in angry or threatening tones, The sound was muffled and indistinct, as the cry had been, and he could not catch a spoken word; but it was beyond question a man’s voice. What could it be, and where had it come from? It sounded as if it might have come from the depths of the snow beneath him; but was that possible? There was nothing to show that anybody had fallen in, and the crust of the snow was every- where undisturbed. How could human beings be buried under there, and yet be living? Dick Herries could not understand it at/all. He took a few steps forward, but saw nothing that could throw any light upon the mystery, In his amazement and perplexity, he stamped upon the crusted snow. ' Suddenly it gave way beneath him, and he dropped into the drift! CHAPTER IX. DROPPING INTO A GOOD THING. Wuat could the drop into the drift mean but death, certain, if not speedy? When Dick Herries went down there, he had no expectation of seeing daylight again, He fell so far that there could be no hope of emerging from the white and cold mass that surrounded him. He might be smothered, or he might freeze; but in either event he must slowly perish, with no chance to help himself. Yet it was strange to note the fact that so little snow fell with him. Even stranger was it that he alighted on hard ground, and that he was clear of snow except the little he had brought down with him, He looked about him, and saw distinctly, in spite of the absence of daylight, that he was in a tunnel about three feet wide, cleanly cut through the drifted and packed snow. Overhead was a roof of snow, and he had hap- pened to be directly above the tunnel when he stamped his foot and broke through the crust, Of course it was the work of human hands, and he would soon know where the noises had come from and what they meant. Again he heard that wailing cry, clearly enough this time, and it was quickly followed by the heavy voice that he had heard once be- fore. This time, too, the spoken words reached his ears, and he knew what was said. The heavy voice was raised in threatening tones, and this is what Dick Herries heard: “Tve fooled with you long enough, and I mean to make an end of you now.” The wailing tones struck in again, evidently in an entreaty for mercy, though the words could not be distinguished. Dick Herries ran along the tunnel in the di- rection of the sounds, A few steps brought him to a low cabin, buried in the snow, scarcely any of it but the door being visible. The door was open, and the interior was lighted by a fire. As Dick Herries ran up, he saw a man bend- ing over another who seemed to be lying on a low bed or couch. : This time the plaintive wail was almost a shriek, ‘Don’t kill me, Boggs! Take all I’ve got. I will make everything over to you. But for mercy’s sake let me live!” A savage imprecation followed this appeal, and the man who was standing stooped as if with deadly intent. There was a faint struggle, and Dick Herries rushed in. He instantly seized the aggressor, and violent- ly pulled him away from his victim. he man seemed at first almost paralyzed by surprise and consternation, but he quickly recovered himself, and, fiercely attacked the stranger whose interference had robbed him of his prey. : His aa was purple with passion, and _ his eyes blazed like those of a wild beast, In his right hand he held a hunting-knife, and his savage attack showed that his intent was murderous. Instead of one victim,there were two, but the second one was well able to take care of himself. Ee was also prepared for the onset. As he entered the cabin he had drawn and cocked his revolver; but he hesitated to use it with deadly effect. ‘ He backed away from the assault of the knife, using cautionary words, arid endeavoring to calm the fury of his antagonist, but he might as well have read the gospel of peacs to a wildcat, for the murderer, balked of his helpless victim, was wild with rage. _ He dashed at the intruder, slashing fiercely * cle \ EEE I Silver Sam, Detective. and without judgment, but with deadly pur- pose, Then the revolver cracked, and the encounter was ended. The man who wielded the knife fell back- ward on the floor of the cabin, shot through the brain. As he was doubtless dead when he touched the floor, he was counted out of the subsequent proceedings, Dick Herries turned his attention to the man on the bed, who had sunk into a swoon, the ef- fect of weakness and fright; but the prompt at- tention of his rescuer speedily brought him to his senses. He opened his eyes, and his wan countenance lighted up at the sight of the strange face, ** Where is he?” he whispered, ** Dead,” answered Diek Herries. ** He is dead, and I am yet alive. It is so strange. You saved me from him, and I am very thankful. I have been nearly dead here; but I did not want to die, and he was going to kill me,” ** Keep quiet,” ordered Herries. ‘* Don’t try to talk just yet, and I will do my best to straigbten up things here.” He perceived that the man was weak and emaciated, and there could be no doubt that he was in need of nourishment, Regardless of the dead body on the floor, Dick Herries searched the cabin for provisions, of which he found a sufficient store. He speedily prepared as good a meal as the circumstances would allow, and set it before the invalid, who ate as ravenously as a starved dog. ‘**T was famished,” he said, when he had satis- fied his flerce craving. ‘' That man has been starving me for some time; but I failed to die soon enough to suit him, and he concluded to kill me.” ‘Who is he?” inquired Hernes. ** My partner, Jim Boggs. I will tell you all about it after a while, if you will only get him away from here, or put him out of sight somehow.” Dick Herries accomplished this unpleasant task with as little delay as possible, He dug a hole in the snow outside, dragged thither the body of Jim Boggs, and covered it up; then he returned to the cabin, built up the fire, and list- ened to the story of Jim Boggs’s partner, ‘*My name,” said the invalid, ‘ is Angus Da- meron, and I have told you my partner’s name. We have been mining and prospecting together for nearly two years, and have saved up quite a decent pile. ‘* We did more than that. Just at the close of the open season we struck a rich find. We could not touch it then, as the snow had begun to fall and work was out of the question; so we decided to locate here until spring, when we would de- velop the find and scoop in a fortune. ‘* We built this cabin, and stored it with pro- visions, and settled down to make ourselves comfortable; but the winter has been the worst I ever experienced, and it proved to be too much for us. We were snowed in here in this canyon, and the drifts piled down upon us and buried our cabin out of sight. ‘That did not bother us much, as we tunneled out to our woodpile, and there was nothing else that we needed. ‘‘So we determined to stay here, and to kee our pile and our secret, at least until we shoul be thawed out. ‘* Perhaps it was the solitude that worked on us then, or perhaps it was the thought of being buried under the snow, or perhaps we had got to be too much for ourselves. ‘* Anyhow, we both went wrong, but in differ- ent ways. I was taken sick, and it is my opin- ion, my friend, that Jim Boggs went crazy. He nursed me, and took right good care of me for a while, and it was not until I was beginning to mend that he got terribly queer. ‘Then he would sit around and talk about my dying, and would wouder where and how he was going to bury me, and would speak of what he meant to do with the pile and how he would work the claim, and now and then would say that after all it might be cheaper and easier and better every way to put me out of my misery. “That sort of thing, as you may suppose, didn’t tend to make me get better very fast. ‘* At last he began to starve me—just when I was on the mend, too, and needed food badly. J was too weak to help myself, and was so deathly afraid of him that I didn’t dare to try, except when he went out for wood or something of the sort, and then I would pick up a bit. ‘He used to keep walking the floor, too, mut- tering to himself, and going on at such a rate that I was afraid I would soon be as crazy as I believed him to be. : ** What I managed to pick up was just enough to keep me alive, though you may bet high that I didn’t get a bit fat or strong; but he caught me at it to-day, and said that he was going to put a stop to thatsort of thing and make anend of me. ‘* He meant to do the job, too, and would have done it, if you hadn’t dropped in and saved me. 1 don’t know that I ought to blame him, as he was crazy; but I can't help feeling that it was a mighty close call for me.” 7 ** There was nothing to do with him but to kill him,” remarked Dick Herries, ‘ I tried to keep him offand calm him down; but it was his life or mine, and he would have settled you after he had got through with me.” “T know that, and it was the biggest kind of a streak of luck for me that you happened to drop in. How did you do it?” Herries explained the manner of his arrival, and gave a brief account of himself. ‘* Now that you are here,” said Angus Damer- on, ‘‘I hope you will stay here and see me through. You have saved my life, and 1 want to prove to you that it was a paying job. You shall step into Jim Boggs’s place, if you will, and take his share of the pile and the secret. When I get strong enough we will dig out of here, and it won’t be long before you will see that you have dropped into a good thing.” Dick ferrios began to believe that he had dropped into a very good thing, and he readily consented to stay there and take care of Angus Dameron. CHAPTER X. A BLOW FROM BIRKETT, SILVER SAM’s arrangement for the care and comfort of Kate Herries worked admirably. They were few and simple, but quite to the pur- pose, and seemed to serve her needs sufficiently, She went to and from the Concert Hall at night, secure in the belief that she was well watched and guarded, The first attempt to molest her was met and checked in such a summary manner by Muggs, of Mugesville, that it was nearly a week before se incautious molester was able to leave his eda. Andrew Birkett made no further move to- Mea executing any of his schemes concerning ier. Perhaps he had concluded that the game was a dangerous one, and was biding his time and waiting for a better chance. Perhaps he may have been deterred by a little personal explanation on the part of Sam Slevin. That individual met him in a Butte saloon shortly after the encounter that had been des- eribed, and mildly wanted to know whether Mr. Birkett thought he had any account which he wanted to settle with him. **1 don’t know you, and don’t want to have anything to do with you,” answered the promi- nent citizen, This was satisfactory as far as it went: but Slevin observed that he had a little settlement to make on his own account, ‘*T want to know,” be said, “‘why you made Dick Herries believe that I was responsible for his being driven out of camp with the others?” ‘Who told you that I did that?’ demanded Birkett. ‘*Dick Herries’s daughter,” ** And who told her?” ** Dick Herries himself.” “Mighty fine authority. If you want to be- lieve anything of the kind, on that sort of evi- dence, just go ahead and believe it. TI have enough business to attend to without bothering my head with such stuff.” ‘Very well, Mr. Birkett. If that sort of a get off pleases you, you are welcome to put it so; but [ want to say that if any man did tell Dick Herries that I had anything to do with the notice to quit, that man was a liar and a sneak, I suppose you remember something that ha ned the other night, and I want to say, while am about it, that if that game is pi . yw again, or any game of the sort, somebo get hurt.” ‘*And I tell you,” angrily retorted Birkett, ‘that anybody who meddles with my affairs will be sure to get hurt. And I say, too, that if you did help to run off poor Dick Herries, a man with half an eye can see the reason why you did it.” There was an insult implied in this remark, but Sam Slevin took no notice of it. Sane accomplished his purpose of saying his say an speaking his word of warning, he went about his business, That business took him away from Butte fcr a little while, and when he returned he hed a good report for Kate Herries concerning her father. He was able to assure her that Dick Herr‘es was probably alive and safe, though he could not say whither he had gone. Though he did not admit as much to Kate, Sam Slevin’s expedition in search of her father had been attended with a little difficulty and un- pleasantness, Among other places he stopped at Stephen Boreman’s ranch. When he inquired there concerning the exile, he was met by distrust and suspicion. ‘*Who are you, and what do you want of . >. Dick Herries?” demanded the ranchman. ‘‘My name is Sam Slevin, and I want to find him,” answered the inquirer. ‘The blazes you do! You're a sweet-scented son of a gun to come around here purtendin’ to want to find Dick Herries, arter you’d driven | him out of Butte, and come within a hair's breadth of killin’ him!” \ a . rd a ; The ranchman was icbe to Gk plain his : comicbook €or (\ ; <S) / Be '