Beadle's Dime Library, No. 406 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

18 Then, with a shout of triumph, he got it away from her, crying: ‘‘Now, my beauty, surrender! you now. Surrender!’ The mare, only used to short, vigorous efiorts, was blown with her long race; Sally was pale as death, and eyed Stone with a frightened stare; feeling faint for the first CL te Ne — — I’ve got a. time in her life. 7 Already Stone’s hand was_on her shoulder, anu he leaned over from thpaddl to grasp her, when both riders, whto had forgotten al! . else in their struggle, were startled by the sound of hoofs and wheels close by, and the ~_-yoiee of Lion Charley calling out: ' =. Heyday! heyday! What’s all this?” “Phe tone was calm and clear, like that of a ‘man in a jocular mood; but it startled Stone from hi8 game, while Sally turned her horse and fled tothe side of a small black road-cart, in which sat Noble, driving a stout bay cob, and looking as composed as possible. The little girl was white and trembling, and began to sob: ‘*Oh, Charley—I’m so—so glad—you’ve— you’ve come. That—that wretch—he’s—in- sulting me—” But Stone had recovered his coolness as : }- soon as he saw the lion-tamer, who had pull- z ed up his cob and was surveying him as - coolly as possible. ---He pretended not to notice Noble, but said to Sally: ‘‘T’m sure you’ve no cause to complain. . You've fired, me to follow you, and now _ VTve caught you fairly you beg off. It’s all your own fault. I wouldn't have followed - you at all, if you hadn’t invited me. You said you’d give me a riding-lesson, didn’t 2 v ou? Well, you have given me one, and ’‘m much obliged to you for it. How much - dolowe you for it, Miss—ah—Hicks, I be- It was cleverly put to turn the tables on her, and Sally colored furiously, while Char- _ ley Noble looked from one to the other in his __ imperturbably calm manner, as if he did not care to interfere in the matter, ‘‘How much do I owe you®’ » §tone, with perfect politeness. ‘‘ Will ten dollars satisfy you? I’m willing to make it twenty, if you'll give me the kiss you owe |. me fairly.” : ye Charley Noble turned his glowing eyes on the gambler to say slowly: 1 oar What's that, sir?” . | Stone tossed his head. _ ** Tt was not addressed to you, sir. _ speaking to the lady.” _ Noble bowed his head gravely. |» “You areright. Go on.” Bea ‘ Stone smiled triumphantly and ‘went on to _ **¥ou challenged me to a race. I told ee you I’d kiss youif I caught you, and now you want to beg off and claim protection from this man. I don’t call that a fair | shake.” __. Sally had been silent after her first burst of gobs, but she had quickly recovered herself, / used as she was to scenes of violent physical - exertion and excitement, and her fair face ‘was composed and defiant again as she an- - swered him: _ * You came after me without my eyne a word to you. I never told you that I’d re _ kiss you if you caught me. You're a mean, contemptible coward, or you wouldn't fol- -’ low a poor girl to insult her. Go home to your rich ladies and leave me alone, or - _ you'll be sorry for it. And give me back my ¢. ‘é i whip.” ; _ Stone laughed tauntingly. **Oh, no; [ll keep that asasouvenir. You can get it any time you want it, by paying me that kiss you owe me. Good-by, Miss _ Sally. Dll see this gets into the papers in - . a >? 2 me as > J . 4 * he : * 4 e J repeated L! - * erp a s. I was ~ _ proper style.” And so saying, he galloped away, leaving Lion Charley sitting in his road-cart in his is usual impassive, phlegmatic way, looking at Bally. on ber lion-tamer had not offered to look _ angrily at Stone and Sally saw it and resent- - She turned on him at once. **Yes;a pretty friend you are, to sit by like a bump on a log, and see me insulted by r a sick masher. I'll remember that on you, Mr. Charley.” Noble raised his hand to smooth his dark - moustache—an habitual gesture with him— Se A ' > * ase al “= — ee — —— and eyed her in the same calm, critical way Old Pop Hicks, Showman. | Neen ee ent nnn nn nnn nnn expectedly magnanimous manner, paid for he had displayed all through the affair but | the damage done by King Philip the day be- said nothing. “Why don’t you answer?’ cried the girl, passionately. ‘‘ Why don't you get out of the cart and whip him?” Lion Charley looked her all over from the top of her riding-hat to Flirt’s hoofs, and an- swered in his low, grave tones: ‘Because you were wrong, Miss Sally. You shouldn’t have provoked him to a race. You might have known that little mare of yours wasn’t up to a two mile run with that big horse. How did he eome to follow you?” 2 He looked and spoke with the grave, critical calmness of a judge, and Sally flush- ed up in confusion, as she began to tell her story, as if she were addressing her own father. As she told him about King Philip he listened attentively, and when she had finish- ed he observed: ‘* You hadn’t ought to have done that, Miss Sally. You should have let them do their own punishing. Elephant Jim didn’t treat your father right, and had no call to ask you to help him. King Philip is going to be a great card, now the folks know he’s safe. All he has done in his tantrums will make the guys crazy to see him. It’s going to hurt your father’s show.” He did not refer at all to the chase or to Stone’s brutality, and so frightened Sally by his way of speaking that she forgot all about theni, as he intended she should, and began to wring her hands, saying: ‘*Do you really think so, Char—I mean, Mr. Noble? Will pa be very mad?” “‘T don’t hardly think he will,” returned the lion-tamer dryly; ‘* but I tell you what it is, Miss Sally.” ‘What? what?” ‘‘ You'd better come along home with me, before that mare of yours gets cold, or you'll have her unfit todo her act to-night, and your father will lose another of his cards. Come.” So saying, he turned the cob toward Coal- ville, and they started off on a trot. CHAPTER XXIII. THE LUCK CHANGES. fore among the vans, anc in such a friendly and deceitful way about the exchange of attractions, that Pop had been quite taken in, and thought him in earnest. The next station on the way was the new and flourishing town of Oleopolis, and little Moone busied himself in trying to counter- act the return of King Philip to the other show by vivid descriptions of the wonders of Lion Charley’s cage, and sneers at Elephant Jim for being unable to bring his elephant into subjection without enlisting the services of Miss ‘‘ Celestine, Queen of the Arena,” whose name was lauded to the skies in Moone’s picturesque paragrajhs. But it was soon visible in the papers of the State that another hand, skillful as Moone’s and furnished with more money by far, was working against the veteran showman, and working in a way hard to combat. As the week passed on, and Oleopolis, Mar- wood, Bradfield, Towton and Blackpool were successively visited by the Hicks and Bownsse shows, side by side, slurring para- graphs began to creep in about the Hicks show, and the notice it received grew worse and worse, ; Lion Charley’s pets were stigmatized as “tame, mangy brutes,” with no spirit to them, while King Philip’s scars and former ferocity were magnified to the very skies in the same article. Finally, even the Riding of Sally Hicks was criticised, and the paragrapher took to putting her ring rame inside quotation marks, followed by ‘‘Sarah or Sal Hicks” in brackets, and the same process was ap- ch to the prosaic ‘‘ Bridget Stubbs” of a’m’selle Hippolyte, while every device was resorted to in order to tear away the vail of romance that hangs around circus ce- lebrities in the eyes of the country people, so far as concerned Pop Hicks’s show. Even little Moone was puzzled and alarm- ed at the persistence and bitter malignity of the assaults. He knew that Bownsse had not the head to do it, being only a Bowery side-showman, expressed himself with the body of a giant and the head of a. pumpkin, though Bownsse fondly imagined Twat afternoon the Bownsse ‘‘ Show of all | he had brains. Shows” was in full blast, and the people were pouring in to see it, while the tent of Pop Hicks was almost deserted, in spite of its attractions, and all owing to the single cir- cumstance of King Philip having been tamed so thoroughly. The news spread like wildfire that’the great beast had been conquered, and in less than an hour after it was first announced, King nilip himself made his appearance, striding into town, Jim Perkins riding in state upon his neck, Bownsse driving in front, in the yellow road-cart, and parading through the principal streets. The elephant was perfectly free, all his limbs unfettered, and yet as quiet as a lamb; while the many scars and burns on its trunk and forehead had not yet had time to assume the raw appearance exposure would give them when the skin broke Bownsse had Stone in the wagon with him, and kept saying to his confederate as he look- ed round him: ** Luck’s turned,commodore;luck’s turned. We'll get ’em to-day. You'll see.” And ‘‘ get them” they did; for the people, fickle as people always are, poured in to see the new attraction, leaving the Hicks show so deserted, that Pop Hicks, for the first time in a long career, lost his spirits in the ring, and when Rabbetts coaxed him on to one of his ancient and worm-eaten jokes about the length of a foot being thirteen inches, replied, in pure absence of mind: “Thirteen hundred dollars at the door, I'll bet a cent.” The trouble was that Coalville, usually a safe two days’ stand for Pop, ‘‘ went back on him ”’ the second day, and crowded to see his rival in the afternoon. In the evening it was so much worse that Pop closed his ticket-wagon in disgust, took down his tent and moved silently -out of town, sending Moone ahead to work up the next station, convinced at last that his rival meant business, His only consolation for the turn in his luck was that Bownsse, in the most unex- : 3 , % ‘ = e . Ys Ys id i ) eet y Pes’ rrr ee He could not believe Stone had done. it, for Stone did not look like a newspaper man, and the writer of the notices in ques- tion was evidently an old hand at the work. . It was not till he took a flying trip, three days ahead of his show, skipping two towns on the way, that he found out what was the matter, when he came on a large, stout gen- tleman with white hair writing in a hotel reading-room, and recognized the great Mr. Taylor, head of his profession, usually to be found only in the largest shows and in big towns. Taylor was scribbling copy in a third-class country hotel, so much absorbed that he did not notice any one around him, and Moone got a chance to retire unseen, Then the little man knew who was his op ponent, and went to his own room to con: sider what he should do. He was a scheming little fellow, and he knew that he would have to find out for cer- tain whether Taylor had been engaged by his adversary before he could act intelli- gently. It seemed as if a littleshow tike Bownsse’s could not possibly afford to pay the salary that he knew Taylor able to com- mand, many times over his own modest figures. He went down-stairs again and watched Taylor through the glass doors of the bar- room, till he saw the great advance-agent pick up his copy, dry it on the blotter, and go out, He kept out of Taylor’s way till the latter had gone out into the street, then he went into the reading-room, took up the blotting- Pe the agent ad used, and discovered, to vis great joy that it was a new white one one, and that several lines of the writing Taylor had dried were distinctly legible. To little Moone, used to such scheming and detective work, the clew was sufticient. He put the blotterin his pocket, sallied out. into the street, and followed Taylor, before the other could get out of sight. As he had expected, the agent went the (ECO A MIKE 900ks.cO a | | 1 = Aw e. LN tees yess U 4 ee —— * oe