Beadle's Dime Library No. 387 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

re Dark Durg, the Ishmael of the se You think—” ‘1 know!” grated Dark Durg, as the pound- ing on the front door was renewed, ‘It’s a devils scheme to win that secret—else Damon Wingfold wouldn’t be coming here so close on our heels with police to back him up! He has murdered for that gold—he will take it from you if you give him even the ghost of a chance!” ‘“ Let bim try it on!” sternly muttered Rex Stuart, as he turned toward the stairs, while Dark Durg entered the chamber. ‘‘ But let him make his will first?” he added grimly, clinching his strong teeth. ‘‘The gold is mine and hers! Til fight for it to the bitter end against all odds!” od CHAPTER VIII. THE FOX AND THE GRIZZLY STRIKE PAWS. “STERLING COIN! He’s dead—I saw him— that red-skin devil killed him, after—” Damon gasped out these broken sentences, choking himself off as though, even in his sudden terror, he noticed the grim smile that played about the bul-dog mouth of the Droop-eared’ Daisy. He even tried to laugh, but that was a ghastly failure, and betrayed the full extent of his agitation, even more than his chattering tongue, Lop-eared Mose echoed the laugh, but his was easy and confident, with an under-current of significant meaning thut caused Damon Wing- fold to hide his tell-tale face hy bending over in a fit of coughing as though the smoke from his cigar had strangled him for the moment. ‘A monstrous poor job o’ killin’, J tell ye, boss! Ef anybody paid Mister Injun fer tke butcherin’, he got sold out too cheap!” Damon Wingfold was using his handkerchief vigorously as he lifted his head, his greenish eyes alarting a swift glance into the bruised and blood- ‘marked face of the desperado. All seemed open and above-board there, and he felt that matters might have turned out worse, ; ‘You must be mistaken, Mose. I am positive that poor fellow never lived to get clear of the hills.’ ‘Clinch it right thar, boss,” a little sharply interposed Sawyer, bending forward and squar- ing his massive jaws. ‘‘I Endowed Sterling Coin long afore you *nd me come together. We was ‘pards ’way back in the ’50’s, We tromped over the biggest part o’ ’Forny together afore we split —never mind jest how nur what fer. That was the fu’st an’ only time I knowed old Clean Dirt ‘to show a want o’ sand; an’ it didn’t come o’ be- in’ afeard o’ hard knocks then, nuther. But never mind that, [ say. “The idee is this: 1 ain’t one who can fergit too easy. I make a pard once, an’ I don’t rub his face out o mind the minnit he takes a dif- ferent trail from the one [ like best. Ef a hun- dred year was to pass by afore we come together agin, ’'d know that face. An’ so I’m readin’ it off to you like a gospel sharp slingin’ a holy text at ye, that Sterling Coin wasn’t killed by no- body. That he’s livin’ an’ in Denver this very minnit. ‘hat Ae is Humpy Dick an’ Humpy Dick is him. An’ that he kerries with him the secret to that same cache o’ dust you was so red- hot to diskiver, An’ now you've got it, boss!” Deliberately, without the slightest stow of ex- citement Lop-eared Mose spoke, striking right forefinger into left palm at the end of each and every sentence as though clinching it. But all the time his eyes were fixed on the face of Da- mon Wingfold as though unwilling to lose even the slightest change of expression, He knew from past experience how tricky and uncertain this old fox was, if he could gain anything there- iby. ‘There was much to be seen, too, for rarely had Damon Wingfold so lost all control of his facial amuscles. And this was all the more evident from his efforts to hide the emotions that were running riot in his half-stupefied brain, ‘‘T can’t believe it!” he muttered, as Lop-eared Mose came to a pause in his dogma ¢ statement. “* Hoe is dead—I saw him—” ‘ * Did you plant him deep enough to stay putt, oss? With a visible shiver, Damon Wingfold shook this head. * *'That’s whar you got left, then,” with a grin. “‘It’s a good rule to foller; / never fer- it it. Plant deep, an’ stomp tho kiver down hard. ‘They ain't no raisin’ up after that—not any!” q © There wasn’t time. The red devil killed him.” Lop-eared Mose nodded gravely, but with a laughing devil in his bloodshot eyes, “Thats all right. I ain’t blamin’ you, but all the same, Humpy Dick is what's left o’ my old pard, Sterling Coin. I see’d him this night. I see'd him: feelin’ in his breast when he croaked about his treasure. I knowed then what it meant, even ef I hedn’t ketched the rattle o’ paper under his grip. 1 knowed he was tellin’ the truth when he swore he hed dust to throw to _ the dogs!” “Why did you let him slip through your fin- gers? Why didn’t you secure that paper, even though you had to slit his infernal throat?” Not and savage hissed the words through those wolfish teeth, and as he bent nearer to the Droep-eared Daisy, Damon Wingfoll was once more all alive, apparently convinced that there was a foundation of truth beneath this strange assertion. ‘“ | done the best I knowed,” and the red light deepened in the eyes of the desperado, ‘t You ain’t the man to rip an’ snort an’ cuss in my face, ef you be boss! I held my grip while three good an’ stout boys went down fer good an’ all! I ketched a knife-p’int fu’st twice over. I blunt- ed a bullet all out o’shape with my cabeza! Let him slip? The devil hisself would ’a’ hed to let go while he spit on his fingers!” Damon Wingfold was rapidly regaining his usual acuteness, now that he began to realize what a serious obstacle had so unexpectedly risen up in the path he had marked out so care- fully. Hesaw that he would require every aid and all the knowledge possible were he to win his long-cherished game. ‘*T beg your pardon, Mose, for my hasty speech,” he said, his voice low and even humble. ‘* Your news was so unexpected—I can hardly bring myself to believe it, even yet. Alive— Sterling Coin?” ‘**Now Humpy Dick, the durndest chunk o’ crippledness I ever see!” ‘*T have thought of him as dead for years! I coulll have taken my solemn oath that I saw him a corpse! And now—” ‘* He’s a mighty healthy corpus—or was, when I fu’st run onto him this very night that is!” laughed the Droop-eared Daisy, with a peculiar emphasis on the emendation that did not escape his companion, " aoe you are quite positive you made no mistake?” ‘** At fu’st I couldn’t hardly b’lieve it, no more then you kin now, boss, but when I slung that name out at him, an’ he showed up so mighty plain, then I was pritty sure I wasn’t fooled. Sut still I wanted to be sure. Somehow it hit me hard that you'd give a few ducats to know who the critter raally was. Then I come to think mebbe the durn critter wasn’t all wind when he run on ’bout his golden secret. An’ so, to hev a quiet game ’thout too many eyes watchin’ or too many fingers stickin’ in the mush, I run him out o’ Dan Nipperley’s an’ into a shebang whar [ knowed I could count on findin’ some o’ the boys ef I should want a lift in any way. ‘Ye see, boss, it hain’t bin many months sence I got out o’ quod. I ain’t overly anxious to try it on ag’in, without they’s a gocd stake to be won by runnin’ the resk. An’ so I wanted to make all sure afcre I went in deeper. ‘* Not that I counted on its bein’ much of a job. Humpy Dick was runnin’ neck-an’-tie with the beret rene an’ I reckoned with a pint 0’ whis- ky I could lead him up to therack an’ go through him at a case. ‘“T tuck him to the old erib—you know, boss, an’ settin’ him down over a glass of heavy wet, I tuck his photergraph. An’ then I was dead sure I hedw’t made no mistake, It was Sterling Coin, sure as I'm the Droop-eared Daisy!” Damon Wingtfold sat bowed over with elbows on his knees, gnawing viciously at his thumb nail, His] ttle eyes glowed and sparkled, thin nostrils dilated and contracted as his breath came short and hot. He could see that Mose Sawyer was speaking the truth, yet even now he could not fully be- | lieve what he heard. If so—could the dead re- turn to life? First, Dark Durg—Milo Garth, as he firmly believed—and now Sterling Coin! Time and again he had encountered Humpy Dick while on the streets of Denver, and he re- membered looking at the horribly deformed fe}- low with a vague sensation of pity; a sentiment that troubled him but little. Yet, if this could haye been the man that guided that ill-starred party into the mountains beyond Cherry Creek, surely he would have felt some premonition,of danger? Surely he could not have looked-upon van face and forgotten when he last saw it, ying— A shiver crept over him, and he caught at the nearly empty decanter of brandy. Lop-eared Mose pushed the other glass toward him, and when both were filled, the burly desperado re- sumed his narrative: “Theda roomin a handy part o’ town, whar neighbors ain’t apt to tick thar smellers whar they ain’t fu’st ’vited, en’ I counted on gittin’ Humpy over thar. I got him outside the do’ an’ tipped the wink to three o’ the boys. Not that I thought Pd need them, much, onless it mought be fer crowdin’ off any ducks as might know Humpy an’ go fer some fun with the critter. ‘“‘This was the way I spelled it out, boss. I knowed it was my old pard, sure enough. I knowed that he was the man who * yaa he guide to you critters on that trip. But I wasn’t dead sure he hed the papers to show the way to the lost cache. It would be easy to s’arch him an’ find out, but ef he didn’t have no sech, why skeer him off? Mébbe it mought be he could tell somethin’ to set a fellcr on the right track, even ef he was looney. Or mebbe show the way—who knows?” ees Lop-eared Mose paused to finish hise glass, and Damon Wingfold nodded approval. His little eyes were gleaming with growing hope. Surely the fellow would not draw out his account so i _ TTTnnEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEREEEEEREEEE His long, only to bring up at shameful defeat in the end? ‘* But Humpy wouldn’t hev it that way,” with a snort of disgust. ‘‘ He swore he must be goin’ home, or somebody—I couldn’t make out who that somebody was, jest then—would be comin’ fer him, hot-foot! n’ so, keepin’ all the chainces in view, I tried coaxin’ the best I knowed how, until I see it wouldn’t work. Then I pertended a centipede was crawlin’ in his shirt, an’ tore it open to snatch the paper—” ‘You got it, then?” ‘*Durned ef I didn’t—right in the ribs!” grinned thé Droop-eared Daisy with a wry grimace as his hand went down to a blocd-spot on his right side, ‘‘ The critter smoked what I was up toright off, an’ run out his stinger at me, bad! Fu’st off I thought I'd got it right whar I lived, an’ I actilly turned sick to the in’ards at fu’st. I yelped fer the boys to wade in, an’ so they did, the best they knowed.” ‘** Four stout men against a cripple! And yet he got the best of pon all!” suddenly exploded Damon Wingfold, losing the control of himself for which he had striven so Cesperately a little before. Lop-eared Mose showed his teeth a little, but did not resent the taunt as savagely as he pro- bably would had he not felt master of the game, even yet. ‘*Don’t you try to rub it in, boss! An’ I’m sayin’ that fer your own good, too!” ‘** But you did lose him, didn’t you? Isn’tthat what you’re driving at with your long-winded chatter?) You haven’t the paper?” ** Mebbe I hev an’ mebbe I bevn’t, Mebbe I’m thinkin’ too hard fer to speak right up to the top-notch. Mebbe I’m tryin’ to make out ef it wouldn’t pay me bigger to drap you right whar you be, an’ go it on my own hcok, Mebbe—” Damon Wingfold leaned forward and grasped the huge hand of the burly shoulder-hitter, a fawning smile taking the place of the sneer which had rendered his foxy face anything but pleasant to look upon. ‘**I didn't mean it, old fellow, and I hope yowll forget and forgive. I feel sure yeu acted all for the best, but some of your mates must have blundered terribly, or one man, and he a drunk- en cripple, couldn't have got away from them all! Just think!” ‘| be thinkin’—that you’re the durndest crit- ter fer hoppin’ the track, skeered at a shadow, I ever see!’ ‘* But you haven’t got the paper?” ** Would ’a’ hed it sure enough, but jest as the boys was puttin’ out his chunk, up comea couple 0’ critters an’ crowded in like they was jest spilin’ fer a free fight. An’ ef one wasn’t a gal- woman, l’m a bob-tailed hornet in a blizzard!” Surprises were numerous for Damon Wing- fold that evening, and this one came near ‘knocking him out of time.” He stared at the Droop-eered Daisy with mouth and eyes wide open, scarcely able to believe his ears. ‘‘1t’s straight as a string, boss,” grinned Saw- yer, half-sheepishly. ‘‘One was a gal, Lut the other—he was a thumper from Hammertown! He hit out right an’ left, turnin’ Red an’ Chris. end over end as ef he'd stuck an ex through thar middles an’ wanted to see how they’d do fer lead wheels m a hearse! Durned ef it wasn’t so pritty done that I come mighty nigh cheerin’ him over agin afore I thought which side my ducats was placed onto!” ‘* Who was he? And the woman?’ ejaculated Wingfold, too impatient to get at the bottom facts to appreciate the shoulder-bitter’s cnthu- siasm in this particular respect. ‘‘Ycu knew them?” ‘Not right then,” grinned Sawycr. “I hed too much to look after, though I did see so much o’ the fun, I lowed the three lads could take keer o* the stranger, es he didn’t flash no tools, an’ I put fer Humpy to git. bis papers afore the row spread any furder. he was laid out fer the cooler, but durned ef he didn’t pull a por afore I could git my hooks onto him, an’ over I kceled, too quick! *Peared like the hull side 0 my head was gone fer keeps! An’ a mighty close call he made, as ye kin see, boss!” parting the hair and show- ing the bloody track of the bullet. ** And so he escaped you all!” ‘* Ef we'd bin a round dozen, boss, I’m open to bet the game would ’a’ went jest the same way,” coolly nodded Mose, taking particular delight, as it seemed, in keeping the speculator on the *‘ ragged edge.” No need to follow him word for word, how- ever.’ Enough that, though he lay apparently out of the fray for good, he saw all or nearly all that followed, up to the hasty retreat of Dark Durg with Humpy Dick in his arms from before the growing crowd: ‘*[ done a heap o’ thinkin’ durin’ them few minnits, boss,” he added, settling down to business again. ‘I see that Humpy was bad hurt, ef he wasn’t laid out cold, but I knowed that his secret was still on him an’ I wouldn't give that up so easy. So I rolled over into the shade an’ when the big critter run off, I follered to the corner. I see him chuck Humpy in a buggy, an’ could hear him tellin’ the gal to take’ keer o’ him like she mought a sick baby, An’ He lay like 700 (EO) m (C <S) COl Pi i : a