Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 436 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

-youthful sport’s rescue of Minnie Denson; etc., wt, Finally came the story of Blue-eyed Belle, with all the particulars of the case the two journalists could glean. ‘“‘There seems to be no doubt,” the papers agreed, ‘‘ that Miss Rittens’s true name, is Belle Meurton, and that she is the child of Sibyl Gernett Mourton. This being the case, we are happy to congratulate the young lady upon her good fortune, As the heir»of the mentioned James Gernett, she is sure to come into speedy ssession of one of the richest gold-mines in this State.” This news made public, Blue-eyed Belle became “the object of general interest to all, and Dame Rumor was kept busy. Tf Belle had been the belle of the town before, she was even more honored now. ‘The imaginary yellow gleams and golden jingle of the prospec- tive mine, lent new charms to her presence, At east so it was with the young men of the town, with one exception. That exception was Charlie Denson. He loved the girl for herself alone. In truth, she would have preferred to take her without wealth rather than with. ' With Jared Kenneth it was different. He was now even more determined than ever tthat the girl should become his wife, Still he was not blind to the fact that his case ‘was almost hopeless. By no fair means could ‘he ever hope to gain the prize. In the way of heart affairs, things at Bended Bow were now growing a little complicated. Let us glance over the field and bring to mind how matters stood. af We will mention our hero first. Kentucky Jean was unmistakably in love with pretty Minnie Denson, while Amabel _Erving, or ‘‘ Incognita, the Faro Queen,” was as unmistakably in love with him. other hand, a fact we perhaps have not before mentioned, Willis Stanton, the bank cashier, i was as hopelessly in love with Minnie Denson as Wan ‘was Jared Kenneth with Blue-eyed Belle. , Minnie’s affections, however, were all centered S, upon the youthful sport. i _ Blue-eyed Belle, our heroine, is to be men- Af ‘tioned next. ¢ She loved Charlie Denson, as has been demon- 105 strated, and was loved by him in return. Not only by him was she loved, but by half the J young men of the town, some of whom we will '} resume, would have laid down their lives for , het--eapaciall since they had become aware of et her great expectations. And foremost and Pe. aost determined of all of these, was Jared Kenneth. Concerning Jared Kenneth, something remains ‘to be told. In truth we flatter ourselves that we have more than one surprise in store for the reader __ -who will follow us to the end. : Yon Now, since we are in the retrospective vein, BE Jy eter as well mention our other characters ‘te ! { : ; ye bring them forward to the present chap- r. Aunt Dinah Bragg was fast recovering from - her wound, and was up and about the house, though Belle continued to manage the little cot- e and do most of the work. he money the old negress had hoarded so } earefully for so many years, had now been & placed the bank, where it was certainly far saf er. Rube Rittens had but little to say beyond the fact that he hoped the case would soon be cleared «wp, and that the true fissure would be found and Re Ny the right vein struck. He ho it would not turn out to be a blind lead. hat he wanted to see was a reai ‘“‘ bonanza;” he wanted no *‘ba- ue rasca” find, And thus he and his bosom friend Peleg Green smoked and talked the case over al- “most every evening, when they met for an hour at the Everybody’s Home, the Enchanted Hall, or some other place of popular resort. . Blue-syed Belle, too, had little to say, except uff to Minnie Denson. The two girls met uent- dy, as formerly, and now they could talk of nothing else besides the unsolved mystery. - Kentucky Jean remained at the hotel, and owas liked by everybody, except, of course, his two enemies, Jared Kenneth and Willis Stan- . ton, He visited the Dallas re ce quite fre- r uently, ostensibly to see Col allas or harlie Denson, though in their absence he was not by any means averse to apencing an hour with Minnie. It might have been noticed, too, that he sought Mrs. Dallas’s company whenever possible. Perhaps he had an object in so doing. mie, Besides this, he had paid two or three visits to ¢ the Faro Queen. An arrangement had been ry made by which he could gain access to her pres- ence without the help of her four hirelings, as on the first occasion, which was a vast improve- ‘s ment. He found the strange woman to be a ‘perfect lady in her every word and act, and ad- - . mired her, Had he met her etoarg to meet- ‘ing Minnie Denson, it is possible that she might have won his love, Now it was not, oe Charlie Denson and the sport were now sworn friends and companions. Many confidences 5 were exchanged between them, and the sport a managed to draw out a great deal concernin __, the private life of Colonel and Mrs. Dallas, and 4 ‘ d f ; an ad ‘ ¥ a) - , s _ Then, on the. BO Oe Kentucky Jean. : much of the family seeking the compan racticable, perhaps he had am object in view. e shall see. Colonel Dallas of late had become silent. thoughtful and reserved, while Mrs. Dallas | seemed to grow even more so than formerly. Jared Kenneth and Willis Stanton were often seen in company, and both wore clouded brows and scowling frowns. We shall have more to say of them ere long. And now to turn our attention to the home of EKuphemia Wiggins, the fair young widow of thirty-nine, who considered herself an instru- ment to do the will of Providence, and who, it seemed, could not forget the ‘ late lamented.” She was a widow still. Neither Major Theo- bald Miles, General Orrion Wade nor Hans Keppleheim had yet captured the citadel of her heart. Hold! We mistake. What we meant to say is, that neither had yet won her hand. One of the trio had made a captive of her heart, and that one was—can you guess?/—honest, good- | natured, smiling Hans Keppleheim. Such was the fact. » “ Hans, however, was not aware of it. He had not yet put his fate to the test. The secret was yet locked in Kuphemia’s breast, and the fate of Major Miles and General Wade was decided. | Their cases were hopeless. She had made up her mind that she could marry neither of them. | [f, though, honest Hans should ask for her heart and hand, she bad decided that she would con- | sider it the will of Providence that she should hand them over, and act accordingly. In short, she would answer ‘* Yes.” And we are of the impression that she had | chosen wisely. Hans was an honest, bard-work- | ing and well-to-do man, one whose love could be | depended on when once it was won. The two | heltteertait journalists, on the other hand— | Well, we doubt the sincerity of their regard for | the widow, anyhow. It is always the empty | cask that gives out the loudest sound. Yes, Hans had the inside track by quite a majority. | **Aunt Belinda,” that’ strange woman whose | story we told in a previous chapter, was grow- | ing so unlike her former self that Euphemia was | coming, Bhs ay pte Not only were her day-| dreams coming more and more frequent, but | they were more easily brought on, and were of | shorter duration. Thedistance from the = to the past in the mysterious woman’s life seem- ed to be growing shorter, Was her lost memory returning slowly? It seemed so. Besides this, she began to evince a desire to wander away from the house, a thing she had never before attempted, Two or three times, of late, Euphemia h n obliged to set out and look for her, finding her, walking aimlessly around in some distant Of the town. Euphemia was constantly in the proverbial ‘* neck of trouble.” * ot only did she have Aunt Belinda to look after, but her other protegee, the Mrs, Annie Kent we have introduced, was -still with her. This woman’s little daughter, Bessie, Was very ill with fever, and she had not been able to leave her scarcely for a moment, night or day. But Euphemia was the soul of patience, good- ness and charity in sickness or misfortune, and accepted her troubles bravely. Providence had | sent these poor creatures to her, and she meant | to do her daby by them; and if dear Wiggins— | the ‘‘ late lamented ”—were alive, she knew he | would approve of it. As no doubt he would. | He might have had secret doubts about Provi- | ; ——— ee ee dence having any particular grudge against him, but he would have admitted that Providence | was a great fellow, and if Euphemia wanted to | turn the house into “ charitable institution— Well, he would be willing. But let us return to our first statements—that The Bow and The Arrow still flourished, and | that neither editor had yet slain the other—and | sana with what we set out to tell about in| his chapter, | | Ever since the night when they had met at the | home of Euphemia Wiggins, the night on which Hans Keppleheim had served them such a clever trick, Major Miles and General Wade had hated each other more cordially than ever, and bitter were the attacks they made upon each other, in rirnt. | 2 Over and over again had each exhausted his vocabulary of choice epithets, and each felt the necessity of bringing up something new. At last they brought the name of the fair young widow into prominence. And then their warfare became bitter indeed. One day The Bow came out with a red-hot ar- | ticle, an attack upon The Arrow, of which the following is the substance in brief: ** How much longer, oh Lord, are we to be thus af- | flicted? How much longer will the worthy and hon- | orable citizens of this town put up with the nuisance? | When will that dog-faced ape across the way be | forced to suspend publication of that rotten sheet— The Arrow, and rid the town of his presence? May | the day be near at hand! The paper is but a loose- join apology for a newspaper, at best, and we wonder that it has survived so long as it has. We. wonder still more that its editor has so long man- aged to keep out of jail. Most of all, though, do we wonder why so amiable. well-bred, educated and en- tertaining a lady as Mrs, Euphemia Wiggins, of this — Se ak ore Ar 7 ty ‘ ia) ‘ 4 © ‘ Min a ef hy mi ud, =* . 3 ~~. history. As we said of his city, can allow him to enter her presence. We un- of + an Dallas whenever | derstand that he is married, but has deserted his amily, and is now boring as a single man. Oh! if there is a sneaking villain unhung; if there is a crawling reptile alive; if there is a mean and cowardly wretch in the land; if there is a miser- able mortal in this world; then that thing across the way — that bald-headed, hump-backed, brainless nothing that edits 7ie Arvo —is the cre ture. Its name is GENERAL ORRION WADE (?).”’ But The Bow did uot have it all its own way. In the other paper was a similar attack, of which the following is an outline: “It surprises us beyond measure to note how long, and with what patience, the people of this city have endured the affliction that is forced upon them in the form of a worse than wortbless sheet called a ‘newspaper’; and to see its editor, that braying jackass, allowed to remain in our midst. 7) ¢ Bow is worse than a disgrace to the city. and the crank who edits it is worse than that. We long to see the | day when the citizens of this town will rise up and crush him and his paper out of existence as they de- serve. We wonder that they have not done so long ago. What surprises us still more, though, is to think that so fair, so winning. s_ refined and so charming a lady as Mrs. Euphemia Wiggins, of this city, will allow the wretch to visit Ler home. She surely cannot know that he is said to be an ex-Mor- mon, with half a dozen wives and a score or morecf children behind the scenes, Oh! the miserable cur! the low-born offspring of foreign outcasts! If there lives a soulless thief; if there exists a degraded wretch; if thereisa gr raha among us; if there isa whining, snapping, snarling, miserable dog at our heels; then that wretched specimen of humanit across the street—that bow-leggzed. thin-skinned, long fingered, empty-headed nobedy that edits The Arrow—fills the bill. The creature’s name is (said to be) MaJor THEOBALD MILES,” This was going pretty strong, but the next is- sue of each paper was even worse. And the next after that capped the climax. Want of | Space forbids our entering their warlike lam- poons in full, so let it suffice to sexy that the next _ succeeding issue brought forth a challenge from each, which in the next day’s papers was | promptly accepted. And they evidently meant business, too, for preparations were begun at once, and the forth- coming event became the talk of the town. Apropos, their papers sold like hot cakes, and their presses had to be kept running night and me to supply the demand, he result of the duel will be given in a later chapter. CHAPTER XXYV, PLOTS AND PLANS. LATE one evening, in a room in the Every- body’s Home Hotel, two men were seated at a table, smoking and talking. ° These two were Jared Kenneth and Willis Stanton. Both were perfectly sober, and they were evi- dently there to talk business. The faces of both still bore traces of the iron- like fists of Kentucky Jean, and, as we shall see, they had not forgotten their vows of re- venge. The room was Kenneth’s, and Stanton had evidently but recently come in, Their cigars had just been lighted. ‘* Well,” Stanton observed, as he leaned back in his chair and threw his feet up upon the cor- ner of the table, ‘‘how does the case stand now?” | ‘* What case?” ‘** ‘Why the one you are most interested in.” ‘Well, I’m interes in several. I suppose you mean the girl case, though.” ‘*Exactly. How doesit stand? Is there any better hopes of your winning?” ‘No, hang it! it remains the same. In fact, | Blue-eyed Belle won't give me a chance to speak to her.” ‘“ Won't, eh?” “ce No.” ‘* And where’s Rube?” 5 ern Sayed When there is the ghost of a chance that I might take the advantage of, he is sure to be around.” it And you can’t win him over to your side, eh? “No, sir! ahi is dead so far as he is con- cerned. But, Wills, that girl shall be mine! I have sworn it and I mean it.” ‘But how are you going about it? If she won't marry you she won’t, and there, I should say, is an end of it.” ‘Not much! She’s got to marry me. I’m going to steal her and force her to do it.” ‘* The deuce you are!” “That’s the programme, and that’s why I wanted to see you to-night; I want you to help me, ‘‘Thunder! Jared, it’s a risky thing to under- take!” ‘“Vouw’re not afraid, I hope, are you?” “No, ’m not afraid, but you see what a risk itis. There’s Rube Rittens to buck against, and Charkie Denson, to say nothing of that cursed sport—Kentucky Jean. task, I can tell you.” ‘Of course it ain’t, and that’s why I want Its no boy’s your help. If we together can’t accomplish the job, we’d ought to give up.” Vs bi but where am J to make anything out of it i ES), } at 4 cv, at 4? Wh comichboo } o - ; at 4) 4 vi a Wes 2s '} Ai, col A