Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 41 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

28 The rifles gave the townsmen the advantage, as they could easily pick the Mormons off—thanks to their longer-range pieces —before the others could get near enough to return the fire. Within about a quarter-of-a-mile the new-comers came; then they halted, and the old gray-bearded fellow, affixing a white handkerchief to the end of his rifle-barrel, rode forward as a flag of truce, CHAPTER XXXVI. THE BATTLE. ‘A FLAG of truce!” muttered Clark; ‘‘ what do they want to say, anyway?” ‘Shall I plug him, Cap?” asked the nearest Danite, a stout fellow on the right of the line, armed with a rifle. ‘‘Oh, no; let’s hear what they want.” And Clark rode forward to meet the flag. The bearer was well known to the Danite, by sight. Ben Smith he was called, a boss-teamster, and reputed to be as good a man of his inches as there was west of the Missouri, despite his age. . ‘‘]%m sorry that I’ve come on rather unpleasant business, Mr. Clark,” he said, bluntly. ‘‘ Yes,” replied the Danite, shortly. ‘““We want you to surrender to us and go back to Corinne and stand your trial for the killing of the old man.” ‘Oh, you want to try me?” “cc Yes. ” ‘Who, pray? Corinne?’ “ Judge Lynch answered your turn the other night, and you hadn’t oughter object to the judge, now that your time has come to face the music.” “‘ Judge Lynch is to try me, eh?” “Yes, Oh, you'll have a good, fair trial; we guarantee that, and if you prove that the old fellow did commit those murders, of course the verdict will be not guilty.” ‘¢ And if I don’t prove it?” ‘Well, I reckon in that case that we'll hang you, Mr. Clark, as an example.” “‘J’m very much obliged to you indeed,” the Danite said, with that grim sort of humor which was so peculiar to him, ‘“ but I reckon that I won’t come to Corinne to stand any trial just now; I’m pretty comfortable where I am; thanking you all the same for your kindness. “Well, Mr. Clark, we shall have to try to take you!” Smith announced, with significant earnestness, ‘“-You don’t mean it?’ “Oh, yes we do!” “Why, I’ve got ten more men than you have, and my dogs, too, fight with halters around their necks.” ‘‘T reckon that we are the better armed, and kin pop you off at long range, if you really force us to fight you.” ‘¢That remains to be seen,” Clark retorted, carelessly. ‘ But, as for my forcing a fight on you, why the boot is on the other leg. Go your way; the prairie is wide.” ‘Clark, we’ve come for you, and we’re going to have you if it takes every man in our outfit!” the Corinne man averred, decidedly. “Oh, that’s your talk, is it?’ the Danite answered, insolently. “‘ Now, listen to me: I'll give you just five minutes to get back to your line with that flag of truce, and then I'll charge, and after we get through with you, I reckon that there won’t be many of you chaps able to go home to Corinne and tell your town how you hunted for John Clark on the prairie, and found him.” “That's your game?” “Yes, and you'll find that I will play it for all my hand is worth,” The flag-of-truce bearer turned and rode rapidly back to where the Gentiles were in line. ‘Look out, boys! It’s fight!” he cried, as he rode up, “and they’ll be down upon us in a brace of shakes!” Quickly Gold Dan gave the command for action. ‘* Let every man take the fellow that is opposite to him, and don’t fire until you are sure of your mark!” And then, as the borderer ranged his eyes over the line of the foe, he detected the Texan in the opposing ranks, and also caught sight of the drooping, boyish figure, sitting so statue-like in the saddle, on the prairie beyond. For a moment the stout and hardy adventurer—the man I wasn’t aware that you had any law courts in whose life had been one constant succession of perils—almost reeled in the saddle. “Oh, I recognize them, now!” he muttered, the words escaping from lips strangely white. ‘*] have been blind that I did not recognize him before, but her | have not seen. Now I under- stand why such bitter attacks upon my life have been made, and who is the guardian angel that strove so earnestly to warn me f the peril that threatened me; I understand all, now. The hase is up at last; I have hunted them down, but will I win or lose?” Small time had the plainsman for reflection, for as the Danite had said, within five minutes he gave the command to advance, and like a flock of hungry hawks swooping down upon their prey, the Danites dashed over the prairie at topmos., speed toward their foes. Clark had calculated, with a single bold charge, to break the ranks of the borderers, for be did not believe that they would stand to encounter the onset. But, as we have said, the Gentiles were all picked men, 2xcel- Beadle’s Dime Library. lent rifle-shots, and nearly all of them were either scouts or teamsters used to frontier warfare. ; “Steady, men; steady!” Dan cautioned, as the Danites, with wild cries, came dashing on. ‘Pick your men, and don’t waste a shot!’ Little need of the caution, for each and every man of the outfit was fully prepared, When the charging line got within about six hundred yards, they commenced to open fire, but the distance was too great, and the volley whistled harmlessly over the heads of the Gentiles; but when the Mormons got inside of four hundred yards, then all along the Gentile ranks burst forth a sheet of flame. Terrible was the effect of the well-directed fire. Ten men were down, either killed outright or else badly wounded, and some five more, though not unhorsed, yet had received quite sufficient taste of Gentile lead to last them for many a day. “Charge, boys! Give it to ’em!” cried Gold Dan, at the top of his Jungs, perceiving that the decisive moment had arrived. The Gentiles yelled and charged, revolvers in hand. Dismayed at their bloody reception, and struck with terror by the heavy loss that they had sustained, the Danites broke and fled in great confusion. In vain did John Clark, who by a miracle almost had escaped serious injury, although bleeding from two wounds, attempt to rally them. The ruffians had received too great a shock, and the Danite chief, perceiving that it was useless to attempt to turn the for- tunes of the day, reluctantly put spurs to his horse and fled with the rest, and as the Danites were better mounted than the borderers, who had been obliged to pick up what steeds they could, easily succeeded in making good their escape. The Gentiles pursued the ruffians until they lost them in the wooded defiles beyond the plain, and then, perforce, gave up the chase. But, the victory was complete; never before, in all the annals of Utah, had the Danites received such a terrible beating, and gloomy and full of wrath indeed were the Destroying Angels when they straggled into their camp on Antelope Island, one by one, a few hours afterward, and realized that by a single blow they had lost one-third of their band. And the Danite chief, too, was missing. At first it was believed that he had fallen at the murderous discharge; but then, when some recalled the fact that he had endeavored to rally the panic-stricken line, and others told how they had noticed the. blood streaming down his deer-skin garb, it was generally concluded that in some lonely defile the stern chief of the White Savages had succumbed to his wounds, and found an unknown ve. . John Clark never joined the Danite band again, nor was he ever seen by any of them. The Mormon leaders, when informed of the disaster that had befallen their chosen band, ‘ the Swords of Gideon,” and of the absence of Clark, caused careful search to be made for him. His den in the mountains was visited, but the hand of the destroyer had been there also. Gunpowder and fire had one. their work; the rude hut had been destroyed; naught but ashes remained; the roof of the little cave had been blown up with gunpowder, and a most desolate picture it presented. To the Mormon mind it was plain that the Gentiles, flushed with victory, had pursued the Duke of Corinne to his retreat in the mountains, and there settled in full the score of hate. And the Mormons lamented the loss of stern John Clark, for no such man as he did they ever find again. CHAPTER XXXVIL HUNTED DOWN AT LAST. THE pursuit ended, the victorious Gentiles returned to view | the field whereon the fight had been won s0 easily; eager, too, | if possible, to relieve the suffering of the wounded men. : The Gentiles had come out of the fight almost without a . scratch, And Dan, who in the excitement of the fight had lost sight of the two Texans, now proceeded to search for them. He had not far to look. Stretched upon the ground, just where he had fallen, right in the front of the charge, was the Texan; a well-aimed rifle-ball had settled his account with this world, but life still lingered within the stubborn frame, although it was quite plain that the man had not long to live. Over him bent the slender form, dressed in male attire, but . evidently a woman, the one whom he had designated as his brother. Great tears were streaming from her big, black eyes, and in the soft Spanish tongue she called aloud upon all the saints in Heaven to spare her brother. But what cares stern fate for a woman’s prayers or a woman’s tears? The bullet of the frontiersman had done its deadly work only , too well, and the time of the stricken man on earth must be: measurd by minutes, not by hours. The Texan was perfectly conscious, and was gazing with dull eyes upon the face of the grief-tortured girl, when Gold Dan came up to the group. Hastily the plainsman dismounted from his steed, and advanced toward the two. An expression of bitter, impotent hatred came over the face . of the stricken man, as his eyes fell upon the one whom he had GommilEebooks: co ectETw — ~~ ED we Cc =’ co