Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 420 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

j Ae = b ” B * ay ‘. of al yates , al < % 7 ES} : . . « Eby .- . * . aq 7 ta ® be , sy are of \* » Ps is 6. : 4 -2 , , > Pa > we a. : Pa * = _. : 4 - ° is ‘ “* ? ST 2; «A e+ ‘ i | * ag F j % /) . \ras behind him as silently as a night bird, n shadows with Eva. ie _ © What sort of a ghost?” _ if she shows up again, I'll tackle her. ‘went north as fast as steam could carry them. office, where they naturally ex latest and most reliable intelligence: but they a! 4 ‘igoegee nothing that specially interested them. 22 pass-him in front. When I get his. attention engaged, and I hope to engage it pretty closely, you can easily slip. by on this side if you make no noise.” **Oh, [L will be as still as a mouse.” Eva Talcott took.off her hat and attached it to her dress, let her long hair fall down upon her shoulders, and rubbed the phosphorescent | eee —_—_—__——_ Further details of the disaster were plentiful, and the names of those who had been saved were more fully given, together with the names of those whose bodies had been recovered, and there were other! particulars which were more or less accurate; but in no report was there any mention of the names of Gerald or Eva Talcott. Though the captain of the Rowena, who was well acquainted with the young people, had been saved, he was seriously injured, and his mind was astray. vood under her eyes and on her brows. ‘* How do I look, Linda?” she whispered. ‘*Oh, Miss Talcott, you scare me.” ‘* That suits me, butitis a man that I want | Hank Byers might, easily have given to the to scare. Now for it!” press at least as much information as he gave to Eva stepped forward boldly and entered the | Gray Gordon and Gerald Talcott; but he was a pass, keeping well within the shadows of the | ‘‘ shady” character, and was noted for his trees and as far from. the sitting sentry as the | ability to mind his own business. nature of the ground would allow her to, As for Gordon and Gerald, they had been so in her nearly white dress, and with the phos- | closely occupied with their own concerns that horus shining about her eyes, she looked to | they had not thought of furnishing anything for inda Shropshire like a ghost as she glided into | publication. the pass. And so it goes frequently. Accident, and Like a ghost, too, she seemed tothe solitary | mischance conspire to keep facts hidden, and sentry when his gaze at last rested on her. | matters of news are juc ged by what the press The snapping of a twig aroused him from his |! does not furnish, quite as much as by what it reverie, and he looked up and saw it. | does furnish. . He was so startled that he rose suddenly, and As Colonel Bastrop could not doubt that his his rifle dropped off his knees and fell to the | young friends bad been passengers on the ill- ground with a noise. fated steamer, the necessary inference was that The noise startled Eva also; but she had been | they were lost, and he hastened to insert in the expecting to be startled, and was careful not to betray her agitation. | Though she was scarcely twenty steps from for the recovery of their bodies, Such being his belief—a belief in which he was supported by the lack of evidence rather than by evidence—it was the greatest surprise and gratification that he received more favora- ble news and from a quite unexpected quarter. It was late in the atternoon of the day of his arrival, when he and Lawrence had nearly com- pleted their arrangements for going to the scene of the disaster the next morning and beginning their mournful search, that he received a dis- patch from Mrs. Talcott, Tt was to this effect: ‘*T have delayed telegram sent from Memphis by Gerald. He believed that Eva was safe, and was about to go in search of her with some friends, I am coming on.” This put a new face on the affair, and greatly raised the spirits of Colonel Bastrop aud bis son. They hastened to seek further information of Gerald and his friend, and got traces of them not only at a hotel, but at the levee where they had engaged the little steamer that carried them down the river. The same craft was not available then, and they were looking about the levee for better means of transportation than that which they had alreacy partly engaged, when Colonel Bas- trop encountered an old friend, or, rather, was encountered by him, as the first intimation he had of the presence of his friend was a slap on ea “ae = followed by a hearty grasp of his and. These demonstrations were made by a bluff middle-aged man, of fine presence and military bearing. ' ‘“Why, Louis Bastrop!” he exclaimed, “ you are about the last man see here, and yet there is nobody whom I would be more glad to meet. You don’t mean to say that vou have really forgotten me?” ‘*Charley Crampton!’ Louisianian; ‘‘No, I have not forgotten you; but this is such a surprise!” They were a pair of old fellows to be callin each other Louis and Charley; but they ba heen college mates and old friends who had not only been separated by the war, but on opposite sides of the great conflict, one of them having commanded a regiment in the Union army, and the other holding a similar position in the Con- fecerate army. This meeting carried them both back to the days of their youth. ‘We have been growing old, Louis, since we last met,” said Colonel Crampton, and we have been through enough to give us gray hairs. I suppose that I must show my age more than you show yours, as I recognized you as soon as I saw you.” ‘‘ That is because you are brighter than I am, Charley, as you always were. Here we are him, the mist arose between her and the sentry, shrouding her with a fim that not only gave her the look of a ghostly figure, but added to her apparent hight and size. The phosphorus about the eyes, and the imagination of the sentry, added the rest, and completed the supernatural character of the apparition. _ -As he arvse and dropped his rifle, Eva halted and faced him. As she halted, raising one arm and pointing toward heaven, her figure exalted by the misty moonlight, she presented a truly supernatural appearance from his point of vicw, and it was no wonder that he stood there, transfixed with amazement, if not with horror, and found him- = for the moment unable to stir hand or oot. Possibly if it had been a ghost of the male persuasion, he might have mustered up courage enough to challenge it, or even to pick up his rifle and try its temper with a bullet; but to shoot at such a ghost as that was quite out of the question. Only a few seconds she stood there, her hand pointing upward and ber eyes shining with the phosphorus, and then glided away ae if the mist had absorbed her, but in reality disappear- -ediin the dark shadows of the pass beyond. There she was met by Linda Shropshire, who had not neglected her opportunity. She ap oo at on this occasion more than her usual intelligence, and, watching her chance closely, when the sentry jumped up and stood staring at the apparition, she glided into the d in less than a minute was safe within the The sentry stood and stared at nothing as if in a stupor, and it must bave been fully three —— before his senses began to come back to him. Then he rubbed his head, stamped his feet, looked foolishly down at his rifle, and finally fee it up, but did not resume his seat on the log. He Geithent further down, until he was fairly out of the poss, and there he ete to and fro in soldier fasbion, looking apprehensively about, and anxiously awaiting arrival of his relief. He did not have long to wait, as it was then nearly midnight, and at that hour a moon- shiner came to take bis place, “T am glad you have come, Sam,” said the bewildered sentry. ‘‘I wouldn’t stay here any longer for all the whisky we could make ina month. ‘““What’s the matter?” **Pve seen a ghost.” ee ee + eee rr a ** All in white, twice as tail as I am, and with | now, a couple of colonels, with a big past to talk eyes that blazed like fire. She started up in the | about when we get time.” peg there, and I'd sea’cely gota good look at ‘* Ex-colonels, if you please, Louis. For m er when she melted away.” part, Lam tired of the colonel business, thoug ** So it was a she host, was it? I wish I had | everybody continues to give me the title.” had your chance. ain’t afraid of ghosts, and ‘Of course you are not in the army now,” You had | suggested Colonel Bastrop. better go and turn in and sleep this thing off. ‘* No, indeed; I quit as soon as | was over. ment, though, being one of Uncie Sam’s mar- shals.” ‘Pretty good berth, is it not?” “Well, yes, in some respects it is; but in my jurisdiction there is rather more bother and risk about it than I care for at my time of life. | CHAPTER XXVI. _ ‘THE MEETING OF THE COLONELS. CoLoNEL Bastrop and his son Lawrence hastened away from Talcott’s Landing, and As Memphis was the point from which the news of the destruction of the Rowena had been | look up some moonshiners, and that is mighty telegraphed, it was necessarily the point at apt to mean fight, By the way, Louis, what | had aarir ed, Se gang-plank was hauled py Ana which the most information was to be gained, and from which the search should start. Of course their first visit was to a newspaper to get the are you doing here?” Bastrop.’ pe ‘a *y 4 : ‘ “?) : a ‘ 4) a. a" . ._ é * os ‘ . . AiaDe : o¢8 @ ui! a Te he ps Pind At : . . * ~ , : ¢ be " ... om . “Oe 4, f . , bd rare S* r . bh. © Bee 5 : ~~ : > r >" . - ; » Pe 8}, cal The Old River Sport. daily papers an advertisement offering a reward | ‘‘As I was saying, we have. just started to search for some friends of ours who were on the Rowena when she burned.” ‘* That was a sad disaster, lost, 1 suppose.” ‘*On the contrary, we have just learned that one of them is safe, and we hope that both are. I will tell you about it,” There was not much to tell, though it was a sad story up to the receipt of the dispatch from Mrs. Tajcott, and Colonel Crampton was deeply interested. ‘* It is lucky that you met me, Bastrop,” said he, ‘‘as 1 believe I will be able to help you in that business. As I told you, [ am one of Uncle Sam’s marshals, and am going over ycn- der to look up some moonshiners. 1 don’t know just where to find them, but am expecting a man with further information. I shail take half a dozen deputies, as good men as ever sat in a saddle, and I have a steambcat engaged that is to Jand me wherever I wantto go. If you will _ allow me, Bastrop, I will take you,and your son | aboard, and we will run down to w Asa the Rowena was lost, and I will put myself and my men.act your service. Iam in nosortof a hurr to find my moonshiners, you. see. Indeed, would be much better satisfied if there were none | to find,” Nothing could have pleased the Louisianian _ better than this offer, aud he accepted it with many thanks, ‘*“All you have to do, then,” said Colonel Crampton, ‘‘is to tell me where you are stop- ping, and go back to your hotel and rest. As soon as I see the man l am waiting for, I will Your friends were | finish my arrangements, and will let you know By the way, bave you “What use when you are to start. engaged horses?” ‘* Horses?’ exclaimed Bastrop, will we have for horses?” ‘* None at all, perhaps; but it is well to be wrepared for emergencies, as you are going into a country where you will need horses if you travel at all, and you may as well goarmed, too.” ‘* My dear friend, we are not going to hunt moonshiners.” | ** You don’t know what you are going to bunt, '| Of course I shall not ask you to help me; but I i } am giving you good advice.” ‘“ We have our revolvers.” ‘* That will be enough, and I will get a couple of horses for you. That isin my line, as I and my friends will go mounted, You had better go to your hotel now, and take things easy until the time for action comes, Early in the morning I will rouse you up, and you may depend upon it that I will get vou to your destination sooner than you could get there with- out me.” Colonel Bastrop not only acquiesced in this . arrangement, but was more than glad at finding the way smoothed for him so well. He was convinced that no man could be better able to help him at that time and place than Colonel Crampton, and be considered himself would have expected to | | answered the amazed an early the fighting | Lam in the service of the Govern- T am just on the point of going over the river to’ ’ ioe fine young fellow, and I am glad to meet remarkably fortunate in meeting his old friend and being assisted by him. He sent an answer to Mrs. Talcott’s dispatch, informing her of what he intended to do, and at Four he retired for the night, depending fully on his friend Crampton for the consumma- tion of all necessary arrangements, CHAPTER XXVIII. MEETING THE ENEMY. BEFORE daylight the next morning, Colonel Bastrop was aroused by the other colonel, who bar as fresh as a daisy in spite of his loss of eep. ‘‘T supposed you would want to get as carl a start as possible, Louis,” said he, ‘‘and so have hurried up things, and we will get off as soon as you can dress and come down to the levee.” This was joyful news for Bastrop, who jumped out of bed and hastened to call Law- rence. ‘*'You will get your breakfast on the boat,” | said Crampton, ‘‘and there is nothing else that you need worry about, unless you want a morn- ing cocktail, as I suppose you Southerners are | in the habit of that sort of thing, For my part I quit the use of liquor a few years ago, an find myself vastly better off without it. But I am not here to deliver a temperance lecture.” Colonel Bastrop did not care for a morning cocktail, nor did Lawrence, and in a very short time hey bad paid their bill and were on their way to the levee with their friend. There they found a little stern-wheel boat with steam up, and aboard the boat, besides her captain and crew, were seven men of Colon Crampton’s force, including the spy who had been expected, and horses for the entire party. As soon as the two colonels and Lawrence and During the short voyage that ensued, the two old friends amused themselves with telling stories of the war, Colonel Bastrop relating how ‘he had captured part of Colonel Crampton’s ecomicbooks: the small steamer rounded out and puff “We have just started to search—but you paddled down the river must know my son, Charley, This is Lawrence “ ett ae) ¥ Lie ee | ‘ . : ‘ | |