Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 397 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

down 4. antly, for when in front of the outlaw’s hiding- place, the laughter of the rearmost horseman again broke forth at some remark of the one next to him. In that breathless moment of suspense to the outlaw and woman—of fear with one and hope | with the other—the two sat motionless, as did also their horses. A neigh, the stamp of a hoof, would betray their hiding-place, and then all would be lost for the man, all would be gained for the woman. And there they sat, the outlaw with one re- volver ready to fire upon his foes, the other | ressed hard against the woman’s head, to awe er from movement or outcry. Another second and the three horsemen would | be out of sight, when, suddenly, came in startled | tones, deep and strangely silver-voiced: ** Ho, boys! look! there is deviltry going on onder!” At these words the three horsemen drew rein, the last one being still in full view of the Red | Angel and his victim, to whom the suspense now became awful. CHAPTER VI. IN THE RED ANGELS’ PARADISE. "aE moment that the three horsemen sat on } ee The Wizard Brothers. ——_———— Bill, Bill, bunting in the hills. It was a narrow miss.” ‘* Yer was in luck, cap’n, fer if you is a dand on ther rampage in a skr immage they kin lic their weight in any man flesh EY ovate seen; but hain’t thet a female woman yer hes thar?” ‘Yes, it is a fair oe isoner I captured from the Overland coach. ut, be on the watch, for those Powells may have struck my trail and fol- lowed me here.” ** Tll be awake, cap’n, you bet.” The knight of the road now moved on up the _ canyon, and after a ride of half a mile came to where it widened into a vale, and here suddenly burst upon the view of the poor prisoner a num- ber of yaw ham , dimly burning, but with glim- mer of light enough left to show in the back- ground a row of rude tents. ‘* Here, madam, is the paradise of the Red Angels, and [ bid you welcome,” said the outlaw, mockingly, and riding up to the door of a cabin that was larger than the others and stood apart some rods by itself, he called out: ": Ho, Brick !” “Yas, massa ; answer, as a huge negro came 0 ut of the but. “ Give me a light and then take these horses.” “Yas, sah. Been ter supper?” Brick am here, sah,” was the SS ei friendshi i for the man whom he had attempt- ed to kill, and who had repaid him by break- ing his arm with a bullet, and then cutting it “Avotain the danger—being thus forewarned —Doctor Powell struck the trail back to the fort to meet his two brothers. Night Hawk and Broncho Bill,* coming on the search for him, the latter having’ left his ranch to join the scout in the rescue of Frank, or to bitterly avenge him if he had met his death at the hands of the outlaws. Back to the fort the three brothers went, and once more himself, the Red Angel chief began again his depredations along the Overland trail and against any unprotected ranch where booty was to be gained. Loving a life on the plains as he did, and roaming the hills and prairies whenever ’ duty permitted, Surgeon Powell had become known as the Doctor Scout, and his numerous despe- rate encounters with Indians and road-agents had made him famous, while his brothers, the one the fort scout, the other a ranchero, alike noted for the wild life they bad led on the Texen airies and Rio Grande, were certainly to be Sear ‘ed by Captain Kit; and no wonder he dreaded a meeting with them, and felt that if it came they would prove victorous, even over him, who had robbed single- handed a stage-coach full of passengers, and beatcn off four and five enemies when brought to Ley, Thus matters stood at the opening cf this story, and what with the robberies of the Red Angels and the raids of the Sioux, that pert of the country was certainly a most perilc us Jocal- ity to dwell in, and the man who roamed the prairies without a large force at his back lite- rally carried his life in his hands. But the ‘* Powell Pards” were men who went alone without fear, and roamed the prairies wheresoever they pleased, taking all chances, the Doctor making at the time almost daily pil- grimages for many miles to the ranch of an old Southern gentleman who had settled there, sur- rounded by his negroes, who, although ‘ slavery days” were a thing of the past, had clung to him in misfortune as in riches, and had gene with their loved master to seek a home in the land of the setting sun. A friend to this Southern ranchero, Surgeon Powell had sent to his home the young girl whose father, the dying emigrant, had left to his care, and there she had found a warm welcome, and had become the magnet that drew the hand- some army doctor so often to Prairie Rest Ranch, for the child-woman, Janette Joslyn, had won the great, noble heart of the strong man. When presented to the reader, Surgeon Powell and his brothers were returning from the ranch of Broncho Bill, where the Doctor and Night Hawk had gone to visit their mother, and had loaded their horses with — e for the garrison on their way back, Will Powell accompanying them simply for. the pleasure of the trip there and back. Having made the reader acquainted with the situation of affairs, at the opening of my ro- mance, told of true characters, and telling of real scenes and deeds of their liv es, I will now pick up the thread of my new narrative. CHAPTER VIII. CAPTAIN KIT AND HIS PRISONER. ELL, madam, be seated there, and then we we will have a little talk,” commanded the chief of the outlaws, motioning, to a rustic chair upon one side of the table, while he calmly took an- other just opposite. The woman sunk into the chair, in a tired kind of way, and leaned her head upon her hands, ‘While Brick is getting some supper for us, we may as well become better acquainted, Do you remember to have seen me before?” asked the Red Angel. g Your mask hides your face so that I cannot tell.” ‘Ah! well, as I do not remove it before my men, I shall not before you; but will frankly cow was to eare for Captain Kit in return for his | say that we have met before our meeting the | | | the intended murderer | Do you remember Richard Jos] “I their horses in front of the ravine, gazing u 7 get supper for two, as I have a lady __ the prairie below them, was one full of peri to | friend with me. other than the knight of the road, for his revol- ‘“* Yas, massa,” and a moment after a light f ver covered the breast of the last of the trio. | shone in the cabin, and the outlaw leader led and had they turned, as though to retrace their | the woman within, saying in the same sneering sway, he, at least would have fallen, however | tone: | quickly he might have been avenged by the ‘*Captain Hyena welcomes you, my dear others. madam, to his outlaw den.” a But after the words that told that some dis- | covery had been made by the one in the lead, CHAPTER VII. _ the three horsemen spurred forward and went A RETROSPECTION. _ down the hillside at a gait that tested their horse- THE hut of the outlaw was by no means a _ manship and the sure-footedness of their steeds. | tempting abode; yet it was not uncomfortable, ak In spite of his nerve the outlaw gave a sigh of | and some attempts had been made to have it as " relief. while from the lips of the woman came a | pleasant as such a home could be, for the Red | groan, for hope with, her fled, as it brightened | Angel band lived in the saddle and were con- with her captor. stantly on the move, *‘ bag and pacEere. oa ‘* Now we are safe, madam,” he ejaculated. Who their chief was no one knew, for it was ‘* You are,” she responded. said by his followers that his negro servant ** Ah, yes, I am, and my fair captive is also, | Brick was the only one that had ever seen his Jet me assure her, ¥ and there was a sneer in his face. He had been a road-agent on a Kansas look and tone. trail, it was rumored, and bad there been alone _ * As safe as I would be with a Comanche.” in his daring game of robbery—or at least, the re ‘Ha! ha! that is your opinion of me, is it? “er was his only companion, _ Well, we shall see; but, do you know, I would me of his desperate work won him a name % rather meet the devil than those three men?” that caused him to be greatly feared, and being Ai" ‘* Who are they?” asked the prisoner. hunted too close he had gone to another Over- a} “ They are called on the border, here, the | land trail to carry on his reckless plan of getting * Powell Pards,’ and they are a most dangerous | gold. getof men to have for foes,as I well know. Again driven away, he had taken up his abode ~—-iBut, come ; let them go their way, and we will | in Nebraska, and soon his name became well | _ go ours.” known and feared on the northern trails, and a «i As the brigand spoke, he rode out of the | number of bold, bad men flocked to his side and ravine cautiously, the woman following, and as | asked him to become their leader. he turned once more into the trail he saw what Bearing the name of the Red Angel, on ac- _ it was that had attracted the attention of the | count of the scarlet mask he wore, he soon be- Powell Pards, as he had called the three horse- | came known as Captain Hyena, from his cruel- men, for his eyes fell upon the tragic scene he | ties, while his men ceew him simply as Captain had left upon the prairie, and he saw that the | Kit. _ soidier, who had fled to save his life, had re- How many men he had in his band no one out- __ turned and was aiding his officer, who was still | side seemed to know, for it was reported to num- pinned down by his dead horse. ber all the way from ee to a hundred. “oh Still some distance from the spot, but riding If he had any regular retreat, or stronghold, '_ rapidly toward it, were the cena wore and | the best scouts had been unable to find it. for he the road-agent remarked, quick] seemed to dwell upon the prairie with his out- 3 ‘*Come, madam, those t oii may soon | laws, horses, ck-mules and baggage, and oe frat back here on our trail, so we have no time to | camped but a short while at any place. By The soldiers from the fort had often been on ‘<y Wi ith this he rode on ahead as swiftly as the | his trail for weeks, to returned disappointed and ' nature of the ground permitted, and calling to | find that he had attacked some train, or robbed his white horse to follow, the faithful animal | the aT Ter almost in sight of the military trotted close behind him, and the woman fully post. realized that she was now wholly at the mercy Some time previous to the o say of this of her desperate captor. story, Capt>in Kit had attacked an emigrant | 3 For several hours the two pressed on in | train, robbed it, slain several of the party, dnd | silence, the outlaw following the trail readily in | had killed one Richard Joslyn, a gentleman with the darkness, and simply riding by the side of | an og child, who would ‘have fallen into his ont his prisoner after the sun went down, as though wer but for the appearance of Doctor Frank 4 ~ suspicious of an attempt upon ber part to escape, Powell the surgeon of the post, wpon the scene, -- and confident of her ability to do so if he relaxed who rescued her, though he himself fell into the his watchfulness. power of the prairie brigand. --—-s- The hills into which they had penetrated were He had, however, desperately wounded the | __- not_very extensive, and crossing the ridge, the | chief, and'a compromise was made by which he outlaw held his way along their base upon the e , - Beker until it was after midnight; then | life, for the outlaws had long before sentenced Sr. 6S sharply into the dense shadow of the | the brave Surgeon Scout, as Doctor Powell was Ds bills once more, and, penetrating a canyon, sud- | called, to death as their bitterest foe. 1 ao den halted at the loud command: Surrounded by a hostile band of Sioux, and | EN t! who comes?” their chief lying wounded, the Red Angels’ were pe. bid The captain,” was the answer, and the out- | forced to call upon their surgeon prisoner to | Jaw was moving on when again came the words: | save them, they knowing his Hepptiate courage | te ** Halt! who is t’other one?” and skill as a plainsman and Indian-fighter. ae “The other is my prisoner. Is that you, Dead In safety he had led them to the retreat in rie Knife?” the hills, where the went occasionally to re- | | nok ‘“* Ay, ay, cap’n, it are whatare left 0’ me,” an- cuperate and rest; but, in spite of their com- swer a voice in the darkness. = and his services, they sought his life at the “* You are on the alert, I am glad to see.” ands of an n, whose arm was broken b ‘ 9 “1 allus is awake, cap’ n, where thar is duty | a shot from Powell’s cfg vent and then as skill- _ ter be did.” ‘fully amputated, an «TF know that, Jim, and I intend you shall | cared for as tenderly as though he had been a a step into Van's shoes as sccond in command of | dear friend. the band.” When at last the chief and Dead Knife Jim, ta ““Thankee, cap’n, an’ Van were a durned fool | the one-armed assassin, were out of danger, the > te thet Surgeon Scout, fer he are | Surgeon Scout demanded his liherty, to find | ad fatal lightning every time.” that he was to be allowed to go, but ambushed as I came near being struck by that lightning rar oye down after leaving camp. | this afternoon, Jim, for I met Surgeon Powell Bee of treachery was made known to end his two brothers, Night Hawk-and Broncho | him od ead Knife Jim, who had formed a deep ae | past day.” ‘‘ When and where?” asked the woman quickly. ‘You certainly do not think that I would run off with a strange lady, with really no better claim to loveliness than you have? Qh, no, I have better taste than that, and I kidnapped you because we were old friends, and I needed your aid.” ““Tn God’s name who are you?” gasped the woman, hoarsely. ‘‘-Your name first, please?” ‘¢ My name is Mrs. Kirk.” 6 Al! so I thought, my dear madam; but now ‘Tet me recall a little scene in the past to you. The woman started, and asked: ‘What of him?’ * The former, George Powell. at that time chief of scouts at the fort, where bis brother was surgeon, and William Powell, then a ranchero and plainsman living in Colorado. Both of these had won their names upon the Texas prairies. but had come tothe , northern border to be near their brother Frank.— THe AUTHOR, (Elo) NACE] OX eNO) A, . ' r