Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 389 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

With asavaze oath he jerked a big revolver from his belt. But he was not as quick as his little antago- | nist, who had already produced a smaller | weapon from some unknown portion of his ap- | rel, Click, click, went the cocks of both revolvers, and the crowd began to fall back. Justin time to permit the passage of aman who forced his way through and placed himself between the belligerents. The new-comer was a tall and stalwart fellow, splendidly formed, and with the air and mien of ce who was born to be obeyed. His raven-black hair matched his piercing black eyes, and his swarthy face was set off by a heavy black mustache. The arsenal that he carried upon his person increased his formidable appearance. At his waist were two heavy revolvers in ain sight, above them a belt of cartridges, and ck of his right hip a bowie-knife in a sheath, The crowd gazed at him with respect, if not with awe, If any of them had thought of taking a hand in the impending fight, they speedily abandoned the intention. Well they might, as the tall man who was so well equipped was no other than Jim Sartine, the redoubtable Marshal of Sandstone, ‘Stop that!” was the marshal’s stern com- mand. ‘Keep the peace, or you'll go to pieces! I don’t allow anybody but mvself to ficht in this town. What! have you been fighting? Who’ struck the first blow? Jep Jones was pointed out to him. ** Well, he’s a hitter from Hitville. Come, my little man, you’ll have to go to the calaboose with me.” Wurtz had quickly replaced his revolver, but the acrobat stood there, with his hand lowered to his side, but his pistol still cocked and ready for action. He was staring at Jim Sartine with his eyes and mouth wide open, as if in wonder. ‘Will you go quietly?” demanded the official, “or will iH have to hurt you?” ‘Yes, I will go with you,” quietly answered | less than a year. Jep Jones, as he continued to stare earnestly at the marshal. which he had taken it, and walked away by the side of Jim Sartine. CHAPTER VIII. ‘““IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.” THE morning after his collision with Sile Wurtz Jeptha Jones was taken before the po- lice magistrate of Sandstone, and was mulcted in a small fine for ‘* disorderly conduct.” The fine was a little matter; but there proved to be a bill of costs attached that swelled the amount to a considerable sum. {t was thus that Sandstone paid its enter- prising officials, When Jep went down into his pockets he dis- covered that he was not possessed of sufficient lucre to settle the combined account against , him. So he sent for Walter Brandis, who came and paid the bill an 1 took his friend out of pawn. ‘Then they went to the hotel at which Bran- | that I wouldn’t be here now to tell you about dis was boarding, and on the way Jep stopped | it.” | but once to try ‘‘a hair of the dog that bit him. After breakfast they sought and found a quiet and shady place where they could smoke and converse without too much discomfort, ‘‘Tt seems, then, old man, that Sam Sholes’s whisky was too mnch for you, after all,” ob- served Brandis. ‘‘ You would have done better to take my advice when I told you that you woud fetch up in the calaboose unless you went ow. “It wasn’t the whisky,’ answered Jeptha Jones, ‘‘It would have taken more than that to worryme. But Sile Wurtz p'ayed me a dirty and rascally trick, and when I let him know that I knew it he called mea liar. Of course I had to hit him,” **T suppose so; but if I had known that you were going to fight that telezraph pole, I would have brought you a stepladder to climb up on.” Oh, I could get at him easy enough, Walter, and [only had to take care that he didn’t tumble over on me.” af dha ‘But you climbed down all of a sudden, as T have heard, when Jim Sartine took a hand in the game.” ‘“T wasn’t going to buck against the law, you ow.” “That’s right, Jep. But I have been won- dering why it was that you told the marshal that you would go with him—just as if you would. have refused to go with some other of- ficer.” __Jep’s countenance changed, and he looked as if the question worried_ him. “Wall,” he ventured to remark, ‘‘the man looked as if he was big enough to take me, and the easiest way was to give in.” ‘“‘ That won't do, Jep. Do you suppose I be- ‘lieve that his size counted with you? Do you vos x play it off on me that you were “No, Walter. Iam willing to admit to you o | then, that astonished you, Jep?” } EE | He put his pistol back in the recess from | elected for a year. He has made a’ splendid | Colonel Double-edge. es ee eee ee that nothing of that kind was the matter with me. Iwas knocked cold by astonishment.” ‘‘By astonishment?’ cried Brandis. we are coming to it, something out of the ordinary that could turn a | wildcat into a lamb like that. “TI don’t like to talk about it, Walter,” said he. ‘“‘I am almost a stranger in Sandstone, and must be careful what I do and say, so I don’t want to get the people here down on me.” ‘But Lam not one of the people here, Jep, have excited my curiosity to such an extent that [ insist upon knowing what was the matter with you.” Jep looked around, after the manner that is peculiar to the stage, to make sure that nobody was Within hearing distance, and then he spoke almost in a whisper. ‘*As soon as I saw that marshal, Walter, it | struck me like a shot that I had seen him be- | fore. When [ looked at him again I was sure of it.’ ‘* Where had you seen him, then?’ ‘*T don’t care to tell you that just yet, Let | me give it to you in my own way. When I was sure that I knew the man, I wanted to go some- where right away—where I could think over things quietly—and the calaboose was the quiet- est place I knew of.” ‘* As well as the hottest. Well, you thought | it over there, and what came of your thinking?” Jep Jones went into a brown study before he spoke again. ‘* Walter, who is that man who took me in?” ‘* Jim Sartine, Marshal of Sandstone, the best- | known man about here.” a ‘““T knew that much, and I want to know more. Where did he come from?” **That is more than 1 can tell you.” ‘* How long has he been here?” ‘‘There you’ve got me again. But I know that he has been acting as marshal something He was elected last Septem- | ber in place of a man who had been killed in the discharge of bis duties, and in January he was marshal, too, and the town has quie down amazingly since he has been in office, though | a 3) Ce have been pouring in lately. he people of Sandstone just worship him.” ‘**So | supposed, and that makes the business | a ticklish one to talk about.” ‘“What are you trying to get at, Jep Jones? ‘You excite my curiosity more and more.” | ‘* Walter, does that Marshal of Sandstone ever go away from here—ever take vacations?” | ‘*He took one, I remember; a vacation of about three weeks, covering part of May and June of this year,” An? “What do you mean by your AA? If you | have got anything to nsf a don’t you say it? | | | | him last night. You say that yon knew Sartine when you met Did he know you?” ‘*T am happy to say that the last time I saw him he did not see me. If he had, it is likely ‘About what, Jep? Will you never come | Se esse point? What is it that you have to. te ‘Walter, it was in the early part of last June when, as you tel] me, the Marshal of Sand- stone was on a vacation. How did he spend | that vacation?” | ‘*That is what I want you to tell me, if you know anything about it.’ . | ‘**T was up in Arizona then, Walter, with my | last circus venture—Richfield & Jones’s Enor- | mous Aggregation of Consolidated Galaxies.” ‘Could you stuff all that into one Territory, ** What’sin a name, my boy? Inthatconcern | there was not much outside of a name, and not | enough to make itago. We had wintered and | refitted in Arizona, and in the latter part of | ian 3 we started out with big paper and asmall snow, ‘“ We bad worried along fora few weeks when Jim Richfield skipped out with the cash there was in the army chest. | ** He took his daughter with him, too, and, as she was our best card, I was badly left, and the | care of the remnants and realize what I could from them. ‘**T had heard a good deal of a stage-robber and ime. “He had not been about there for many months until the early part of June, when it was | said that he had come back there, and that he | had been hired by the cowhoys and cattle-men to help drive off the sheep-herders and small | ranchers, - ‘* There was a queer and unpleasant condition I knew that there must be | What was it, | The other frowned and fidgeted before he an- | swered, | and I am not likely to get down on you. You | | show was bu’sted wide open. | ‘**T pulled down the tents and stored them, and | sold enough horses and traps to pay salaries up | to the close, and then I hung around there to take ' , : that I wasn’t scared, as I am sure you know ‘of affairs about there at the time, though | can’t say that it was peculiar to that section of country. ‘** The cattle-men wanted the earth, as they al- ways do, I believe, and the sheep-men and small people were in their way; sothe big fish deter- mined to swallow the little ones, and this Colonel Double-edge was employed by them to do the dirtiest of their dirty work. “You may be sure that their cause was a em one when they used such an instrument as that, ‘** Cutting of fences was the first move in the game, and then came the scattering of sheep, and then the bloody work began. ‘*T had been warned to beware of the colonel and his gang: but there was no chance for me to guard the ranch whcre I kept the odus and ends of my bu’sted show, ‘** There was a wire-fence sheep-ranch just be- yond me, and I thought it might act as a sort of a buffer for me. ** Anyhow, I weuld know when the sheep men were stampeded, and might have time to get out of harm’s way. “The turn of the sheep-ranch came a little sconer than I had expected it to, and I hap- pened to be there and saw how the game was worked. ‘The herders came running in, driving their sheep, and they told me that the fence had been cut and the raiders were after them, ‘** I started back to my ranch to lok after my property, and was crossing a rocky piece of ground when I heard galloping and yelling. ‘**T hid among the rocks, and there I saw two herders riding near me at their best speed, and after them came five mounted men, ** Rifles cracked, and one of the herders fell from his horse, quite dead, The other was wounded, and he fell under his horse, which had been mortally shot. ‘* One of the pursuers reined up his horse near the wounded man, drew a revolver, and de- liberately fired two bullets into the head of the poor fellow as he was trying to free him- —_ from the struggling beast that held him down. ‘*I shall never forget the face of that cold- blooded murderer as long as I live. : ‘* And that is all the story.” . ‘* It was a brutal and cowardly murder,” re- marked Walter Brandis. ‘No doubt of that, _ Who was the murderer, Jep?” ‘**Colonel Double-edge, the terror that I had been told of. I had met bim before that, and got him down fine. He said Dick March was nis true name,” ‘* But what has that to do with the man who took you in last night?” ‘* Dick March, Col. Double-edge, the man who blew out the brains of that helpless herder, is Jim Sartine, the Marshal of Sandstone.” ‘* Tt is impossible!” exclaimed Walter Brandis. ‘*T supposed that you were coming to that point, Of course, Jep, I don’t doubt your word, but, that is sin:ply impossible!” CRAPTER IX. A TERRIBLE BLOW. JEPTHA JONES was not at all put out by his friend’s decided expression of opinion, which surely did not in the slightest degree affect his own settled belief. ‘* Impossible!” he musingly remarked, “ That is just what I expected you to say, Walter, and that is why I must be careful not to turn my _ tongue loose. If I had told the story to anybody else in Sandstone as I have told it to you, the least I could have looked for would have been a broken head. Quite likely the Sandstoners would have hung me off-band, But 1 don’t know why you, who are a sort of an outsider, should say that it is impossible?” ‘* Because Jim Sartine is not that kind of a man,” promptly answered Brarci:. ‘* Because his entire character and career prove him to be no such a person as you describe.” ‘*What do you know of his character and career, outside of Sandstone?” ‘* Nothing—that is, very iittle. I know that he served vith the Rangers, and that he made a ood record among them. But his record since e has been here is enough for any man to bank on. As a man and as an officer he has been a great success, Everybedy knows him, and everybody says that a cleaner and squarer man never lived in these pay It would be hot for anybody who shoul Sandstone believe that he was anything else.” “Just so. They have set him up asa little tin god on wheels.” ‘They worship him, that’s a fect, and they thief and terror in general, known as Colonel | have goed cause to think well of him. He has ouble-cdge, who had made the country north | and west of Tucson his stamping-ground for some | done food work here, and has made a reputa- tion th at nothing short of a cyclone could knock over.’ ‘““As I don’t pretend to be even a small bliz- vard, I shall not undertake the job. I shall not undertake to interfere with the worship of the Sandstoners, 2s 1 know where unbelievers may expect to go to. But I shall keep my opinion my boy, between you and me, though i keep it to myself.” try tomake the people of » Gomicbooks: (E(0)] Ms AD (| atl