Beadle's Dime Library No. 384 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

2 after the fashion common to tle South, two apartments divided by an open passage through the center of the house. A sand bar extended into the stream, around it the water curved, and from the looks of the bar it was evident that the occu cabin were engaged in that primitive style of gold-seeking known as placer-mining. In front of the cabin were three men. One was seated on a tree-trunk, with a tin pan on his lap, engaged in the prosaic occupation of peelin eight-inch bowie, more fitted for removin cuticle of a bear than the outer skin of Paddy’s | favorite vegetable, One of nature’s noblemen was this potato- peeler, too: a little above the medium hight in | he su stature, magnificently built, with a frank, open face, fringed by dark hair, snugly trimmed, and lit up by a pair of clear brown-black eyes, so Se rating in their gaze, that it would seem heir owner might boast, with the ancient god that he could look steadily into. the full-orbed sun, nts of the | potatoes, but the knife he used was an | the | | | j j Injun Dick, Detective. her husband, who was inclined to be quarrel- some aud brutal when in his cups, with mild re- signation. Talbot, though, always took it upon himself to quietly interfere when the drunken man grew too abusive, and Limber Bee seldom attempted to dispute his authority. Bowers shrewdly suspected it was for the sake of the woman that his one pard stood the man’s nonsense, Left to his own resources, weighed down by the fatal habit which had been growing on him day by day, if was plain that the two would speedily come to the point of starvation if sub- sistence depended upon Limber Bee’s exertions. Bowers had never even hinted to Talbot that ted how matters stood, for he knew In- jun Dick of old, and understood that he was a man who did not care to talk about such things, On this day of which we write, when we com- mence to trace the fortunes of these pilgrims by the Yampa’s stream, Limber Bee, on the excuse that he was getting out of tobacco, had gone to | the mining-town in the morning right after This man, formed by nature to be a king | breakfast, and had not returned until sundown, among his fellows, is no stranger to the readers | just as his pards were who have followed the fortunes of the hero of Overland Kit and its sequels, for he was’ no | had other than Dick Talbot in person. Richard Talbot, bold Injun Dick, a few years older than when we last introduced him to our | | readers’ notice, but in no respect materially | changed. He was dressed in the rough fashion common to the mining-region, but there was a nattiness to his dress, a style about it, that plainly dis- tinguished him from the comimon herd. e was well-armed, for besides the formidable bowie in his hand, two self cocking seven-shoot- ers adorned his waist, a pair of as fine tools as ever a man boasted. A few feet from Talbot, engaged in frying ** flap-jacks” in a pan over a fire burning in a rude sort of fire-place built out of bowlders, was another personage, also anold acquaintance of the reader of the Dick Talbot novels, It was the veteran, Joe Bowers, just as fat, just as greasy, and just as full of strange conceits as ever, The third man of the three, the utterer of the threatening words with which our story com- mences, is a stranger, for upon this occasion we first introduce him to our readers. He was a tall, angular man, loosely put to- gether, a man of forty or thereabouts, with a peculiarly odd face, lantern-jawed and hollow- cheeked, with sunken eyes. Not a handsome man now, although it was ev- ident that he had once been a pretty good-look- ing fellow, but strong: liquor, to which he was plainly aslave, had worked its will upon him and reduced him to a condition little better than a wreck. He was called Leander Beaverwick, but after the odd fashion common to the mining region he had been nicknamed Limber Bee, and was sel- dom addressed by any oter appellation, He had been absent on a visit to the nearest camp, some five miles down the stream, Yampa City, from whence all the minersin the foot-hills procured their supplies, and had just returned, with a full cargo of whisky aboard, as Bowers observed when he noticed the zig-zag approach up the trail of Limber Bee. al The three men were pards, although Talbot and Bowers did nearly all the work, for the lanky man generally manxged to find some ex- cuse for going to the camp every evening, from whence he invariably returned decidedly the worse for liquor, and as he was not a man who could stand much drink, the better part of the next day was occupied in sobering up. Bowers, as all of our old readers will wes remember, was a man who obeyed the Scriptur- al injunction of ‘*‘ Love your enemies” to the let- ter, as far as whisky was concerned, and — ‘ot full” whenever it was convenient, but he had a head of iron, a stomach apparently cop- per-plated, and it was his boast that he never allowed his pleasure to interfere with business. It was somewhat of a mystery to Bowers why Talbot stood Limber’s nonsense, The veteran had only been with the others a few days. His wandering footsteps brought him along the Utah trail, and, to his delight, he encoun- tered Talbot, who of course insisted upon the veteran’s joining the party, assuring him that the strike they had made was a rich one and would pan out a fortune if followed up. In fact, with their rude appliances, they were taking out about fifty dollars a day. Bowers willingly joined his old pard. Besides Talbot and Limber Bee, there was Beaverwick’s wife, a woman of about twenty- five, tal) and queenly, with the most magnifi- cent hair and eyes, black as the raven’s wing. As fair a woman, despite her coarse attire and total absence of all ornament, as the eye of man would care to look upon. | | ._——_— — —— — —————————— — ———_ -.,.0¢0°0— OO LNG OO oreparing. supper. Mrs, Beaverwick, nee as she was called, taken the fishing-pole and gone up the stream to a noted trout-hole, half a mile away, to catch a mess of fish for supper, so the three men were alone. Limber Bee bad come up the trail in his wind- ing, devious way, halted directly opposite Tal- bot, pulled out a ready-cocked revolver sudden- ly, and leveling it full at the breast of Injun ick, addressed him as we have chronicled. For once in his life, at any rate, Talbot was taken ea seas by surprise. Limber Bee had “the drop” on him in the worst kind of way. The drunken man was only some ten feet dis- tant, and although he was far from being a crack marksman, yet it did not seem possible he could miss so easy a shot. True, Talbot had his bowie-knife in his hand, but it was of little use under the circumstances. But Injan Dick never lost his coolness, even when so taken by surprise. ‘* What do you mean?’ he demanded. ‘ Are you joking, or are you so drunk as not to know what you are doing?” ‘** You infernal villain, don’t you dare to talk to me!” the plainly infuriated man fairly howled. ** Down on your knees and beg for mercy, or I will kill you like the dog that you are!” “ Beg for merey, and to you ?” and Talbot's eyes fairly blazed as he put the question. ** Pshaw! man, you don’t know what you are saying! What crazy notion is this that you have got into your noddle? ‘““Why do you want to kill me—how am I a scoundrel—what harm did I ever do to you?” ‘*Oh, my eyes are opened at last!” the other cried, in hoarse accents, **T have been a weak-minded fool, but now that I know all, you'll find that I am a very devil and I mean to slay you without mercy! ** Down on your knees and say your prayers, for you have only a minute or two more of life!’ It was the face of amadman that Talbot gazed at, but he never quailed. ‘I’m not so sure of that,” he remarked, ‘‘ but before you go ahead on this riffle spit out why you want to kill me.” “You have been trying to separate me from my ,wife—my peerless Alethea, and you must ie! There was death in the man’s eyes; his finger eee the trigger, but at the same instant owers’s frying-pan came sailing through the air, hurled with so true an aim that it hit Lim- ber Bee full in the face and drew from him a how] of pain which mingled with the sharp crack of the revolver. CHAPTER II. LIMBER BEE FINDS HIS MASTER, THE prompt action of the veteran bummer had saved the life of his old , for death was in the heart of the infuriated , and he fully determined upon killing Talbot. And our hero was so thoroughly ata disad- vantage that there isn’t the least doubt the pis- tol-shot of Limber Bee would have inflicted a mortal wound had not Joe Bowers worked a miracle in behalf of his ancient friend. : The frying-pan, flap-jacks and all, striking Limber Bee fu'l in the face, disordered his aim, and Talbot, quick-witted and prompt to take ad- vantage of every possible chance, threw himself to one side just as the drunken would-be mur- derer discharged his pes and so it happened the revolver- mi by a half-inch and whistled harmlessly by Talbot's head. And before Limber Bee could recover suffici- ently from the shock inflicted by Bowers'’s novel weapon to fire a second shot, Injun Dick, with a A strange, quiet, reserved woman too, one old tiger-like spring, was on him. beyond her years, one who bad evidently seen a | deal of trouble, and its weight had left a dark impress upon her. he was very dom smiled, and He grasped the right wrist of the desperate man and forced it upward so that the second re- eente, na Soa garscors but sel- | ; re the treatment of ing the other by the throat, he threw him over volver-sho was discharged in the air; at the same time ith his powerful right hand clutch- backward, and adding his own weight to the fall, pinioned Limber Bee to the ground, utterly en he fight was over. ‘** Knocked out in one round!” ejaculated the veteran, with a snort of disgust. ‘** W’ot kind of a fighter do you call yourself, Limber Bee, anyway?” ** You're a nice kind of a hair-pin to tackle a oe a Dick Talbot. ‘*Have you picked out the t whar you would like to beblantads a " ‘Say, Dick, squeeze the cuss, and then we kin use him to start a graveyard with: I ain’t been to a funeral for more’n a year, and I’m gitting kinder rusty.” The shock of the fall had sent the pistol flying from Limber Bee’s hand, and in his desperation he attempted to grapple with the man whom he had tried to murder, but it would have been as possible for a common cur dog to hold his own against a blooded bull-terrier as for Limber Bee to contend with the iron-limbed, steel-muscled Dick Talbot, The struggle only lasted a moment, and then Injun Dick, half-throttling the other with bis left hand twisted in the collar of the red flannel shirt which he wore, raised the dangerous right ** duke,” and held it in menacing proximity to the nose of the miner. Joe Bowers observed this proceeding with in- finite satisfaction. “Go fur him, Dicky, old pard! Hit him one on the bugle fur me; and arter you hammer bim to your heart’s content, turn him so as I kin git some satisfaction by spanking him with the frying-pan e But Talbot paid no attention to the badinage of the fat bummer. He was too incensed at the cowardly attack of the miserable wretch whom he now held com- pletely at his mercy. ‘You infamous scoundrel!” he exclaimed, shaking Limber Bee as a terrier shakes a rat; ‘‘what do you mean by attempting to murder me in this cowardly manner? ‘“'You wretch! I’ve half a mind to choke the life «ut of you!” ‘* Mercy—mercy!” gurgled Limber Bee, balf- sobered by the deadly peril which now so closely confronted him. **Mercy! What mercy did you show me when you thought you had me helpless in your power/ ‘* By all the rules of war your life is mine! Why should I spare you, you cowardly assassin? You do not deserve to live, ‘*By right you should die, and I ought to choke the life out of you so that you will never be able to do any more mischief.” And Talbot tightened his. grip on the throat of the other just as if he fully meditated execut- ing the threat, Limber Bee was horribly alarmed and became as white as a ghost. ‘* Spare me!” he gasped. ‘‘ For Heaven’s sake have mercy! Think of my wife—my Alethea— what would she do without me? I was crazy with liquor, or else I never would have tried to harm you. Don’t I owe everything to you?— hain’t you been like a brother to me?” ‘“And a nice way you take to show your gratitude,” Talbot remarked in contempt, slight- A sa his grasp upon the throat of the other. Limber Bee was quick to perceive there was a chance for his life, and he. became abject in his humiliation. ‘It was the liquor, I tell you, and some of the fellers down at the camp kinder talked to me "bout kow you was payin too much atten- tion to Alethea, and how I ought to resent it like a man, and the first thing I knew I gota crazy notion into my head that I ought to kill you, and that’s how I come to pull the revolver.” 9 ‘Nice sort of man you are to listen to such stories and allow a_pack of meddling scamps to make a fool of you,” Talbot remarked. ‘“You managed to give me a close call for my life, but you can bet every dollar you have in the world that you have had a closer one. ‘If it had not been for your wife, whom I respect for a thoroughly good woman, I would have killed you without meres for you richl | deserve to pay dearly for your Nee attack.” ‘So help me Heaven, it will never happen again!” Limber exclaimed. ** If you'll spare me this tome I'll give you m word that I'll never be such a fool again. was the liquor, I tell you. ‘ ; “Call a uare this time and I'll promise you won't drink any more. 4 “Pll give it mf upon my soul I will!” t “Bah! Limber , your promises are like pie-crust, only made to broken,” Injun Dick retorted, contemptuously. ‘How many times have I heard you swear to our wife that you would never touch a drop of Sone again, and then the next day make o beast of yourself as usual?” “Gitting fuller’n a biled owl!” ejaculated Bowers. “T know j*: I’m an awful weak cuss as far as liquor is concerned, but I’ll keep a promise made to you,” Limber Bee whimpered. (E(0) (E “Si Cor micboo s. mid = \