Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 419 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

— Tare tee SE ee Samra a you afore, and I reckon you don’t own the hull tate, for all you talk so big.” “The time is pretty nearly gone,” cautioned Lamardale. “Oh, w’ot kin you do? You can’t skeer me, | nohow you kin fix it!” ‘‘Three!” ‘““Three be blowed! w’ot do I keer?” *“* Arrest him!” the banker commanded. The two men seized the fisnerman with a quickness that took him by surpr se, and before | he could collect himself for a struggle, a pair of handcuffs were snapped upon his wrists, and one of the men, threatening him with a short club, which he produced fiom under his coat, warned him that if he attempted to “‘cut up rusty,” he’d haye a head put on him which he wouldn't get rid of for a month, Shackleton fairly foamed at the mouth with rage. The old man had had several tussles with the local officials within the Jast few years, and as these worthies, being about as worthless as the usual run of villege officiels, had feared to enrage the so-called desperate old man, he had always come out first best. But these strangers were evidently men of cifferent metal and not to be frightened by words. ‘* Now, then, will you tell me where the girl is, or must we lug you cff to jai! and then break into vour old sbanty?’ Lamardale demanded. “You don’t dre! you ain’t got no warrant!” the wrecker howled. * Ain’t we? weil, now, old brffer! that is gest whar you are out, for we’ve got a hull pocket- full!” cried one o: the men, “Governor, ’tain’s any use to waste words upon such a cuss as this!” exclaimed the other. Tf be opens bis head egain Vil fetch bim a lick that will shut bim up fora weck. Just sey the word and we'll smash in the ranch as if it was an erg-shell!” ‘*Oh, you will, will you?’ cried a shrill voice, and Mrs. Shackleton appesred at one ef the up- per windows with a double-barreled shot-gun. ‘Take cff them handcuffs and get out of here, or I’)] put a charge of buckshot inter your hides, you blepdy-minded villains!” Ard she bran- dished the gun in a threatening manner to give du» effect to ber words. But she hada terrible gang to deal with, as she speedily discovered, for ro sooner had she finished her speech than, without a word of warning, both of the men drew revolvers from aled their coats and opened fire en the win- ow, The moment she feard the bullets whistling through the air, followed by the dull thud as they entered the wood of the house, with a oaky ig of herror she dropped the gun and ed, Having thus routed the garrison, the men rushed up to the door and with a few vigorous kicks stove it in. The fortress was captured, CHAPTER XXIV. A SURRENDER. WHeENn old Shackleton witnessed the utter dis- comfiture of his better-half, who on several oc- ca ions had “ held the fort” successfully against half a dozen local officers, no one of whon: dared to run the risk of getting a charge of bucksvot in his precious body, be realized he bad fallen into the hands of men who ** meant business, every time,” and immediately came to the con- clusion that discretion was the better part of valor. . : ‘* Hol’ on, bol’ on!” be cried; “for goodness’ sake, don’t tear the hull house down! J'll gi’n in to once, without making any more time *bout it, but I think it’s a cussed shame that you ain’t willing to give m» something for my trouble.” ‘Ah, it is rather late in the day to taik that way,” Lamardaie remarked. * If you had com- menced by being reasonable, I should have been willing to pay you a trifle if you have taken good care of the lady.” : ‘“‘] wouldn’t have hurt herfor the world!” the old rascal protested. ‘She was a leetle flighty —a leetile teched in the upper story, ’cos she had an awfu! night of it, and I didn’t think it was right to let her go a-wandering "bout, for fear she mought git inter bad hands, you know, who, *haps, would burt her, so I jest locked her up till I could find out *bout ber friends.” The face of the banker changed, and it was evident he was much agitated at the intelli- ence, ee Do I understand you to say that her mind is affected?” he asked. “ Yas, a leetle, but nothing to burt, I reckon. ou see, she had a terrible time, She came ashore, clinging to that mast and sail, and jest had strengih to crawl up on the beach, then fainted dead away, and when I came along the tide was almost up to her. It was a flood tide and making in strong, you know, and if I had been twenty minutes later she would have been a goner, for the water would have got hold of her, and as she wouldn’t have been able to fight ‘in’ it, the surf would soon have battered the life out on her.” ‘¢ But she is safe now?” Lamardale demanded, anxiously. x omy leetle weak and light-headed, but The Bat of the Battery. that is all. Why, the gal couldn’t even tell me the name of her friends, although I offered for to send a message for to tell °em where she was.” | The banker understood the meaning of this; in bringing the girl across the ocean both he and his agents had been careful to keep in the back- ground. ‘‘ Where is she? lead me to her at once. If I find your wey to be correct and you have taken cood care of t by it.” | The face of the old man brightened when he found he was not going to be completely “left,” to use the vernacular. ‘‘Say, can’t you have these leetle bracelets taken off?? Shackleton asked, holding out his manacled wrists. ‘‘I never did keer much for jewelry, anyhow.” ‘Take them off,” commanded the banker to the men who held possession of the coorway, and who, having secured entrance, were wait- ing for orders. One of them came up to the old man and re- moved the handcuffs. ‘‘I’m ever so much obleeged to ye,” he re- marked. ‘*And now produce the girl!” cried Lamar- dale, ‘* All right; she’s down into the c-llar; I put her there ’cos she was a loctle restive, and I didn’t know but she would take itinter her head to run away.” Te attacking party looked at the shanty in- quisitively. Built on tke level ground, there was not the slightest indication that there was any cellar under it. The old man chuckled; he guessed the thouzhts that were passing in his visitors’ minds. ‘Don’t seo much signs of acellar, Co ye? I reckon that if 1 had chose to be ugly "bout the matter, allon yees would have been a long time a-finding it out.” Then the old man led the way into the house, and as he entered, the woman, who had descend- ed to the lower floor, met him with loud com- plaints. ‘Did you see these devils shoot their pistils at me?” she cried. ‘It was a mercy that I wasn't killed! But I'll have the Jaw on ’em, if there’s anv law in Jersey; seo if I don’t!” ‘Ob. shet up, old woman! you made a good ficht, but they were too much for you, and that’s all there is *bout it. I con't bear no mal- ice, though they did clap the bracel:ts onto me, They are going to do the right thing by us, when thev see we didn’t hurt the gal, but took as much keer on her as if she had been our own darter.” The woman was quick to alter her tone at this information. ‘““Well, I guess we did! the poor. dear child! Oh, good gentlemen, we have treated her exactly as if she had been our own flesh and blood, and the will tell you so when you see her, although he may complain because we didn’t let her zo; ut, gracious! we didn’t dare to, ’cos she was all. i *bout where she was going—couldn’t mixed up tell *bout her friends or nothing, and we was afeard that some harm might come to her. We put her down in the cellar, ’cos that was the only safe place in the house; she went as quiet as a lamb, ¢ ntlemen, we didn't have a bit of trouble with her. We told her that we'd send for her friends as soon as possible, and fixed up n bed so that she would be nice and comfortable, The cellar is dry, and although it’s a leetle dark, mh a right nice place for anybody w’ot’s a leetle sick.’ ‘Don’t waste any more time, but conduct us to the girl at once!” Lamardale exclaimed, im- patiently. ‘* Certainly,” responded Sbackleton, pulling aside an old piece of oilcloth that was laid upon the floor in front of the stove, and revealing a trap-door beneath: when this was lifted, a flight of steps leacing down to the floor of the cellar was exhibited. | ‘*The stairs are perfectly safe,” observed old Shackleton, as he descended into the under- ground apartment. Lamardale followed closely upon his heels, But hardly had they disappearcd from view when a cry of alarm came from the old wrecker. The cellar was empty—the girl gone, The little cot-hed and chair, which had heen placed in the apartment for the accommodation of the prisoner, were there all right, but the girl herself was not to be seen. The cellar was only about ten feet square, be- ing merely a hole scooped out in the earth, and about six feet deep, There was no way of light- ing the or except by opening the trap-door. Shackleton was not long in discovering how the girl had managed to escape. As the old shanty was terribly out of repair, the gutters of the roof, instead of carrying the water away from the house as they ought to have done, discharged nearly all of it near one corner of the building, and, as a natural result, the water had made a hole through the earth, into the cellar. The girl, upon discovering this fact, had found it an easy matter to tunnel through the loose earth until she made a passage large enough for her to creep out, Lamardale was terribly disappointed at this unexvected misfortune, At first the suspicion ‘ " ' “ v9 P A "Ga +e ft. =} Py ee d e girl, you shall not lose anything | a a : ° . * . rs 4 + 4 a 4 5 entered his mind that the old couple were de- ceiving him, an? that the rirl had not been with them at all, but their disgust and wrath upon discovering that the girl had been sharp enough to escape, were evidently genuine. ‘*T wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!” Shackleton declared. ‘Why, boss, when the o] | woman and me b’ist- ed her down into the cellar she didn’t seem to have as much life into her asa sick cat! Durn me, if it don’t beat my time!” ‘*She war a-playing *possum!” declared the old woman, shrilly. ‘* We war a couple of fools not to suspect that she war up to some mischief when she took the matter so quietly.” ‘* We must go in search of her at once!” Lam- ardale exclaimed, as he ascended from the un- derground apartment. ‘Can you form any idea how long it is since she escaped?’ The two shook their heads dubiously. “Fact is,” said the old man after a pause, “neither the misses nor me went near her arter *bout eleven o’clock,. ‘Bout the time the old woman went down to see if she would take a bite of something, thinking she might be hungry. She said she would take acup o’ tea and some bread and butter, and the cld woman fixed it for her; so she was there then; she was lying on the bed, a-pretending to be all used up, but now I reckon that was all put on for to throw dirt in our eves, and it did, too, blame her!” ‘* Where can she have gone? Ah, if the poor child bad only waited: but then how could she know that friends would come so soon?” Lamar- dale exclaimed, visibly affected. ‘*Gov'nor, she can’t be very far cff!” the old wrecker cried, thinking that be perceived a way to make some money out of the affair after all. ‘* Tf we all pitch right in we'll be sure to find her, or, anywey, if we don’t find ber, we can find out which way she went, for somebody must have seen her!” ‘*No doubt about it, and we must lose no time, T'll give a buncered dollers to the man that finds the cirl!” the New Yorker excloimed., **)’m in for the job!” Shackle.on cried, with alacrity. Five minutes later the party were upon the quest, Lamardale, Blount and the ol lewver roing in one direction, the muscular New York- er in another, and Shackleton setting off by himse!f, Bnt not the least bit of success attended any of their efforts, and up to eleven that night, when the search was reluctantly given up, nut the slightest trace of the girl was obtained, ~ —$ CHAPTER XXV. THE PLOTTERS AGAIN. RETURN we again to the cos y sanctum of Doe Almayne. The clocks have just marked the hour of eleven, and the owner of the man- sion, ensconced in a great easy-chair, was helping himself to brandy and soda from the bottles placed upon a small table drawn up to his side, Almayne, always colorless, was paler even than usual, and he seemed nervous and out of sorts. He tossed off the brandy—the best that money could buy—as though it was nothing but water, and it did not seem to produce any more effect upon him, He bad just come in, and bad hardly got com- fortably seated, when the servant whose busi- ness it was to attend to_the front door came with the intelligence that Mr. Culpepper desired to speak to him, ‘* Show him up,” commanded Almayne. In a few minutes Culpepper entered the room, being careful to close the door tightly behind him, and by this movement he gave Almayune to understand that he had something of importance to communicate. A serious look, too, sat upon Culpepper’s face, and any one with half an eye could see that he was materially disturbed. ‘* Take a chair, old fellow, and help yourself to the brandy,” Almayne said. ‘‘ You must ex- cuse my asking you to wait upon yourself, for I’m all tired out—played out, expresses it ex- actly.” “That's all right,” Culpepper rejoined plac- ing a chair by the side of the table, opposite to where the Lost sat, and belping himself to a liberel draught of the ¢g liquor. ‘‘ But what is the matter?’ he asked, after draining the glass. ‘‘ What have you been up to?’ ‘Oh, I fell id with a jolly party at the club — this afternoon, and to pass the time away we in- dulged in a little draw-poker and we became so interested in the game that we played from abont three o’clock up to ten.” ‘* Well, that was a long sitting!” “ A deuced expensive one for me, too!” “How was that?” “Hang meif Il know! The very deuce seem- ed to be in the cards, If I held a good band, some ove elses was sure to hold a_ better. Never in all mg life did luck run more coun- ter. ‘*Did you lose heavily?” “Rather!—ten or twelve thousand!” = re- sponded Almayne, with a wry face. and then he sought consolation in another dose of the — brandy, ” Eboo SS a a .C * ad (E(0)] 11)