Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 420 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

' th | ie a PO al 5 Sei i. i Gs cna an adinds Aa > ‘ . ~ v= ; -<« ‘ . 2 mS d — 1 1 oan 4 © 4 ° Se ore eee Woes € ew aes 2 i 4 > © - | ‘ ms ~ ’ - * = <<» — * ~ a er ‘ ea Fs ’ much harm done. themselves in places where a misstep 26 The Old River Sport. he could, and found Gerald shaking hands with several men with whom he was conversing in the most familiar manner, , , | and he was easily recognized by two of the party. They had halted in the shade of a clump of The young man introduced his friend to Law- | bushes, and it was evident that he had not seen rence Crampton, and explanations then came thick and fast. “Why, Mr, Gordon, and Gerald,” exclaimed astrop and the two colonels, Bastrop and | them. ‘* Down, boys!” ordered Gordon, and the three went out of sight together. ‘That is Mark Hannafin, Jerry,” whispered Colonel Bastrop, *‘ we had not the least idea that | the leader—* the scamp I told you about—and it was you we were fighting. Who are those people with you, and how did you get here” ‘They are a party of men from down the river who are hunting a gang of horse-thieves, and Gerald and | are seeking h been carried off by the horse-thieves. ere? “Colonel Crampton isa United States Mar- shal, and he and bis deputies are hunting moon- shiners, and my son and I are looking for Miss Talcott.” ‘We have all come to the right place. Tho moonshiners are in there and so are the horse- thieves, and I believe that Miss Talcott is with them.” Gordon hastened to inform Abe Lassiter and his comrades of this amuzing discovery, and they came trooping down to fraternize with the men whom they bad lately been fighting. “Tt seems to me,” remarked Colonel Cramp- ton, ‘* that this trouble might have been avoided if there had been a little more sense on my part, We heard of Mr. Gordon and Mr. Talcott down the river near the wreck of the Rowena, and we presumed that they were searching for Miss Tal- cott. The only trail we could find brought us here; but when we found such a large force ready to meet us and full of fight, we thought of nothing but moonshiners then, and pitched right in ” ‘“We had been trying all day to get at the moonshiners an horse-thieves,” said Gordon, “and when you turned up we supposed that they had sent a party to take us in the rear, and that was what made us so ready to fight.” “Well, Mr. Gordon, I hope that there is not One of my men is slightly wounded. How is it with your side?’ “One of our Arkansas men is pretty badly hurt.” ‘We must bring him down here and attentl to him, as | am a pressy fair surgeon.” “Thar’s enough of us bere now,” observed Abe Lassiter, ** to wipe out the moonshiners and the hoss-thieves, too, if ye can git at them right, I and my folks don’t go in for worryin’ moon- shiners as a general thing; but this set is har- borin’ a gang of h¢ss-thieves, and that makes _ them fair game.” “That is what we must do, Mr. Lassiter. We will join our forces, and I have no doubt that we will soon be able to clean out the whole busi- ness when we have daylight to work in.” “ As there are so many of you now,” suggest- ed Gordon, ‘* you won’t miss a man or two, and T have a little scheme in my mind that I want oY Sm ight away.” ; is friends were anxious to know the nature of his little scheme. “T want to go up throu7zh the hills to-night, pass the camp of the moonshiners, and look for an opening at the other end.” “You will only get lost in the darkness, and coms out nowhere,” objected Colonel Cramp- ton. “JT don’t think I will. I shall take Jerry Mabry with me, who says that he knows the way throuch in darkness as well as in daylight, nad who is sure that there is an opening to the den up yonder. Ican’t pretend to say what I will do when I find it, but I hope to be in a posi- tion to help you, as well as to look after Miss Talcott. me if he is willing.” Gerald was more than willing, and he and Gordon, with Jerry Mabry as their guide, set off - without any further delay. The night was considerably darker than was agreeable, and, if it had not been for Jerry’s familiarity with that style of traveling, coupled - with his remembrance of the locality, the would have been lost soon after they left their friends, As it was, they made slow progress, and found the journey a long and wearisome one, though the distan’e was by no means great. It was a'so a dangerous one, as Jerry Mabry lost his way more than once, and they eect mig cause a fall that would be attended by serious consequences, They got through all right and without any harméat accident; but it was not until after daybreak that they reached the broken country at the west of the moonshiners’ camp. Then Jerry lost his way in looking for the opening which he ro py to find there, and they wandered about at random, seeking the faint trail which was believed to lead to the hollow below. At last they found it, and had halted to con- sult upon the next step to be trken, when an un- expected occurrence changed the current of their thoughts and intentions, A young men was seen waiking slowly up the trail, looling closely on each side as he came, is sister, who bas | Who are | o r people, and how did you happen to come | 7 | _ a a would be glad to have Gerald go with | here. continued the leader. we want him very badly. Keep quiet and out of sight, now, until he comes near enough, and then we will nab him.” On came Mark Hannafin, occasionally looking down at the trail for certain footprints that | | enough for the work they had to do, it would would bave been hard to find if they had been | there, and occasionally pausing to gaze at the | | forest on either side of the path, until he was nearly opposite to the clump of bushes where the three men were concealed who wanted him so badly. ‘“‘ Now, boys!” whispered Gordon, and they rose suddenly, and stepped out from their con- cealment, and confronted the young man with three leveled rifles. He was carrying his rifle in his right hand, but made no attempt to raise it, standing there motionless, as if fixed to the spot by horror or amazement. “Drop that gun, and throw up your hands!” ordered Gordon. Hannafin obeyed the order instantly—not, perhaps, through fear, but because he was ut- terly astounded by what he saw before him. There stood Gerald Talcott, whom he had thrown into the merciless Mississippi and be- lieved to be drowned, and with him was Gray Gordon, who had mysteriously disappeared from the Rowena at the same time. Of all men living—or dead, for that matter— those tw» were the last whom Mark Hannafin would have expected to encounter at that time anil place. How had they escaped, and how had they come there to conf vont hited These questions were soon to be answered to his entire dissatisfaction. ‘Pick up his gun, Jerry, and get his pistol if he has one,” was Gordon’s next order, and the young gambler stood disarmed and _ helpless fore his captors. ‘*T perceive that you have not forgotten us,” “ This is Gerald Talcott, whom you tried to kill by pitching him into the river. ‘* He attacked me,” answered Hannafin, ‘‘ and it was by accident that he went overboard.” ‘We have our opin on of the kind of accident it was. I am Gray Gordon, who went over- board after bim, and with my help he got ashore. Since then we have been on your trail, and now we have got you.” ‘* What do you mean to do with me, then? I am in your power, but I tell you at the begin- ning that you can’t scare me.” ‘* Weare not trying to scare you,” interposed Gerald, ‘‘and we would prefer not to hurt you, know of. It is not because you attempted to take my life that we have followed and caught you. lLunderstand that you saved the life of my sister, or helped to save it, and that may serve as a set-off to the barm youdid me. But there is another account to be settled—and the ques- is now, what have you done with Miss Talcott? Where is she?” “T don’t know,” sullenly answered Hannafin, ‘You don’t know!” exclaimed Gordon. “Come, young man, if won’t do to begin this business with a lie. We traced you and Miss Talcott to the boy place, and from there you came on with that gang of horse thieves to the camp of the moonshiners in the bluffs below ow we want to know what has become of Miss Talcott?” **T don’t know.” ** You had better make a clean breast of it, and tell the whole truth, or you will gat burt.” ‘*T am telling the truth. I do not know where she is. I believe that she left the place down yonder night before last with the Shropshire girl, and it is sunposed that they came out this way; but I don’t know what bas become of them, and I was looking for them when you met me,” ‘‘Ts this man speaking the truth?” queried Gray Gordon, as he rnised his rifle. ‘Shall [ believe him, or shall I shoot him down in his tracks?” He was answered in an unexpected manner, and from en unexpected quarter. A shrill scream was the first part of the an- swer, and the rest was furnished by a young woman who ran tothe group from a covert at the side of the path, dropping an empty basket as she ran, and brea hlessly placed herself be- tween Mark und his cantors. ** Don’t shoot him!” she vried, as soon as she could get her breath. ‘‘ Don’t kill him! He’s on the squar’ an’ honest truth, shelp me. !’ ‘* And who do you happen to be, my dear?” inquired Gordon, “I’m the Shropshire gal that he spoke about. You won’t kill him, will vou?” ie A as shall we do with him if we don’t kill m | if you have done no more damage than we now **T don’t know—only please keep him away from Miss Taicott.” ‘Where is Miss Talcott, then?” **Qut here in the woods,” CHAPTER XXXII. A SHARP AND SHORT CAMPAIGN, GRAY GoRDON and his two companions were not missed from the combined forces under the command of Colonel Crampton, as there were plenty of men without them. A general council of war was held shortly after the junction of the two parties, and it was unanimously agreed that if they were not be idle to undertake it with an army, Jerry Mabry, who bad acted as guide for the Arkansas contingent, had gone with Gordon; but his place was fully supplied by Joe Stemm- ler, Colonel Crampton’s scout, who either had more information than the other, or was more willing to impart or use it. indeed, it was pretty clear by this time that he had a grudge against the moonshiners, and ageinst Colonel Rapp in particular, which he was willing to gratify without being scrupulous in regard to the means, The wounded men were cared for by Colonel Crampton, the camp was duly guarded, and those who had lately been trying to kill each other lay down together to get as much sleep as the remainder of the night could give them. Their common adversaries were in the mean time not idle. A thorough knowledge of the ground enabled them to get without discovery near enough to the enemy’s camp to gain a good idea of what was going on there, and to learn much of what was said, as wel) as most of what was done. Two scouts who were sent down by Colonel Rapp returned safely, and both brought him substantially the same report. It was to the effect that the parties who had been fighting each other in the early part of the evening had come together peaceably, and were preparing to make common cause against the defenders of the pass, ‘*So they failed to chaw each other up, and they must have made a mistake when they came together and got into a skrimmage,” ob- eee the old man. ‘‘ Who are they all, any- ow? ‘**Part of ’em,” answered one of the scouts, ‘‘ are huntin’ hoss-thieves, as they told us plainly, and we know well enough who they are arter. But that ain’t the wu’st of it. The others are Uncle Sam’s men, with Colonel Crampton at the head of *em, and they are huntin’ moonshiners,”” ‘‘Tt is a bad business all through. I was hoping that they would clean each other out; but they don’t se.m to have made much progress in that way. Well, boys, as we have this trouble on our hands, the only thing for us to do is to fight it out, and it seems as if we ought to be able to keep off a rigiment here. But I must say that I don’t have much heart for this sort of a fight.” If Colonel Rapp could have known of the preparations that were being made by his foes, it is likely that he would have been yet more disheartened. At davbreak they were astir, and soon the combined force were pushed forward accordin to a plan that had been carefully considered abd well matured. The marshal and his deputies, who had teen accustomed to just that kind of work, proved themselves able to take advantage of every chance that offered, and their allies from Ar- kansas were all willing to profit by their experi- ence and to emulate their achievements. Sharpshooters were again sent up the rugged sides of the ravine to annoy the defenders of the pass, and at the same time their friends below moved forward cautiously under cover of the trees. Before a shot had been fired on either side, Colonel Crampton hailed the enemy, a:d an- nounced his rank and his intentions. ‘*My name is Crampton,” said he, ‘‘ and I am United States Marshal for this district. I am here to break up the unlawful still that I know to be up yonder, and to arrest the men who have heen working it, and that is what I mean to do.” ‘“My name is Abe Lassiter,” put in the chief of the Arkansans, ** and I have come here with some good men to hunt a gang of horse-thieves who have run into that hole with a lot of our horses, and we mean to get the men and the crit- turs. too.” ‘We have men enough to do what we came to do,” urged the marshal, **‘ and you had better snrrender peaceably, as that will make it easier for all of you.” ‘Except the durned horse-thieves,” muttered Lassiter, + ‘*Talk is cheap,” shouted Colonel Rapp at the top of his voice; ‘but it takes more than talk to get in here. Weare honest people who have been bothered by thieves before now, and we don’t know who you are and don't believe a word you say. We are well fixed here, and we mean to guard what's our own against any crowd that comes. So you had better all go away and keep out of trouble.” | ns JOOKS Eomiebook —" €O es —_ z te J > i EE it ee i MEE Bi me