Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 436 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 be seen. He stepped to the fence nearest him, and made his way along till his position com- manded a full view of the front of the house, but no one was there. Then he advanced to the front door. There on the step lay the stone which had been hurled against the door to draw attention, and on the sill, with its edge just sticking under the door, lay a white envelope. Rube understood it allim a moment. It was 5 the money for Aunt Dinah. And so it proved. ' Whoever had left it must have crept up to the | door silently, deposited the envelope, and then retiring to a safe distance, hurled the stone at the door and then hurried off. “It’s somebody that knows my habits mighty well, an’ expected [ was out,” Rube decided, as i. he returned into the house, ‘ fer this is th’ first q night I’ve been home at this hour of th’ evenin’ M in a long while.” CHAPTER VI. AND STILL ANOTHER, Tae sudden blow against the door had re- called Blue-eyed Belle from her reverie, and dropping the ps ey upon the table she turned quickly toward the old negress, fearing further nger, and as Rube dashed out into the dark- ness, said: “Do not be alarmed, Aunt Dinah; no more harm shall come to you.” “No, no, child, dey can’t do old Dinah any more harm dan dey has, dat am shua. But, child, dat shot wasn’t ‘tended fer me.” * “Whom, then?’ and the question came in 4 startled tones. ‘* Hit was ’tended fer you.” of ** For me ?” **' Yes, honey, it was tended fer you, an’ fer q nobody else.” * ; ws But how do you know it was? Who fired 1 : ** Who fired it, I dunno; but I’s shua you was de one aimed at. Don’t you see how it was? | Mars’ Rube was out ob de range ’tirely; I was i on de oder side ob you, an’ ahind de table; but , you—you was right in plain sight. Nobody : would thought o’ shootin’ old Dinah, an’ if dey ' had, dey’d not shot when you was right in front | ob me; but if dey’d wanted ter shoot you, Missy ; r Belle, den was deir chance. But, bress de ; Lawd! dey missed you, an’ old Dinah am happy ter die.” **Oh! do not speak of dying, auntie! You x must not—shall not die!” I “Ts fraid Aunt Dinah am called, Missy | Belle, P’se fraid she am.” ~ ‘*Oh! why does the doctor not come? I—” A step was heard at the door, but it was Rube, and a moment later he entered the way he had gone out. “¢ What was de noise?” the old negress asked. - 4 That's what it was,” Rube answered, as he | threw the sealed envelope upon the table. | “That was stuck under th’ door, an’ then a stone was throwed at th’ door so’s we'd open it , an’ find it.” ‘ao “Yes, yes, hit am de money,” the old woman ! 4 muttered, ‘‘ hitam de money. Dat am de way ‘he done left it one time before, only dat time ) . was all alone. De man must thought I was _ alone dis time, too, I reckon.” / Shall I open it?’ Rube asked. mere >. “Yes,” Aunt Dinah assented, ‘** open it.” a Rube did so, and took from the envelope a - twenty-dollar gold piece, which was wrapped in ' , a piece of blank paper. There was not a word |. of writing. By ** An’ this money has been a-comin’ since th’ wight I first found Blue-eyed Belle, has it?” the ' gold miner asked, as he held the coin in his hand at it. Bt & ** Yes, Mars’ Rube.” es 2 * An’ you never told me.” aby **Oh! I couldn’t, I couldn’t tell m5 a “Who can it be that sends it?’ Belle inter- =e ; > hy Lg | « F _ “ Whoever it is,” Rube declared, ‘‘it is one a who knows th’ secret of your life, little Blue- ' Qh! do you think so?” ro “7 am sartain of it. Th’ fact speaks fer it- self. In course, though, th’ one that left this / ‘money heur to-night may not be th’ man that -- made th’ bargain with Aunt Dinah. He may be ab hundreds o’ miles away, an’ have an agent ter | tend to it.” lt “Yes, thatis so. Still, I am bound to find and force the secret from him. And you a } will help me, won’t you, daddy?” aN “ Yes, little gal, that I will. Now that there’s / an outcrop o’ th’ mystery found, we'll go on till 4 i we strike th’ true vein.” | * And, daddy, if it’s necessary we'll use this ” H “is money to get at the truth.” ‘ =i “Yes, if money is needed.” hee * But, Aunt Dinah,” the girl suddenly cried, Fy she thought aga‘n of the mysterious paper, irs the not $610 us pages one came from,” % the paper up as she e. Re * Sure nuff, child, SO T hasn't, But den I ii hain’t finished tellin’ my story.” -—— + ee LLL ELLE LLL LLL LC TC ti ily Kentucky Jean. SS ON ! den I go ahead to ondress de baby, an’ while I’s;} The doctor soon went away, and then Rube doin’ so I finds dat paper.” | bade Belle and Peleg sit down, and said: ‘“You found this paper on me?” Blue-eyed | ‘‘ Now we’re friends, us four is, friends as kim Belle cried. | trust one another, an’ what I[ say I say to all. ‘Yes, I found dat paper on you. It was I’ve gotan idee whar that cowardly shot kem pinned fast under your bands, so as it couldn’t | from.” it lost if it wanted to. I done took it off care- | ‘“You have!” from Belle and Peleg together. ul like, so’s not to tear it, an’den when it was ‘Yes, Ihave. It is plain that it was th’ work dry I putit away. You see I couldn’t readit | of either a cowardly cur or a madman, ain’t myself, an’ I didn’t want anybody else ter see | it?” it, so I put it out o’ sight.” | Ves.” agreed Peleg, ‘‘ that are plain.” ‘* And it has lain there in the bottom of that | ‘* Wal, it wasn’t a madman.” box all these years?” ‘* Then it must have been th’ other.” ‘* Yes, child, I never took it out ag’in. I was ‘* Tt was,” *fraid, because I s’posed mebbe it would sbow ‘Oh! daddy, whom do you suspect?” cried who you am, an’ J’d lose ye. You will forgive | Belle. ‘‘ Who can want to do me such harm?” me, Missy Belle?” | Tl] tell ye, baby Blue-eyes, but first I want. ‘“Yes, Aunt Dinah, I forgive you. You have ter ask ye a question; an’ what I say heur is to been so kind and good to me.” go no further, mind ye.” “**Deed I's tried to, anyhow.” . “Certain, Rube,” Peleg hastened to assure, ‘‘But, you meant to tell me sometime, I sup- , feeling that this was intended for him, as it was; pose?” . “ certain.” ‘““Yes, I meant to tell ye sometime, but I | Turning to Belle, then, Rube continued: | couldn’t make up my mind when it would be. ‘You remember what we was a-talkin’ of Dis may be de punishment ob de good: Lawd | when that shot was fired, of course.” sent pon poor old Dine.” Belle’s warm blood mounted to her cheeks, and ‘* But, th’ paper,” Rube interrupted, ‘‘ what is | she answered softly: it, gal?” ** Yes, daddy.” ‘* Why, daddy, it is a marriage-certificate.” ‘‘ Wal, I asked ye a question.” ‘“Ther doost ye say! Read it, gal, read it “Yes, Iremember. My answer is—No.” out.” ‘‘That don’t answer th’ hull question,” Rube Rube could read but poorly at best, so Blue- | declared, ‘‘ an’I must git atitright. Ye needn't eyed Belle unfolded the paper and read aloud: mind old Peleg heur, fer he’s as true as gold. “CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE. Now you said ye’d this day promised ter marry an honest man o’ this town, didn’t ye?” ‘This certifles that Delwin Mourton and Sibyl . . Gernett, both of Denver, Col., were by me joined b>. Belle dropped her eyes a little more, but her ether in Holy Matrimony, at Denver, Territory of | Teply was distinctly spoken. i ‘ Ki Yes, daddy.” olorado, on the tenth day of May, in the year of ‘ P ; our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and ‘An’ now ye say that man is not th’ one I Sixty-three. Mican Manon. (Rev.) | mentioned—Jared Kenneth.” JAMES GERNETT, Witnesses.” “Yes, daddy, solsay. It is not Jared Ken- Mary A. GRAY, : neth. You ought to know it could not be he.” ‘Steps were heard approaching as Belle finished | ‘‘SoIdoknow it, now, I didn’t reaily think reading, and in a moment more Peleg Green en- | it could be, but I wanted ter hear it straight tered without ceremony, closely followed by a | from yer own lips, fer he has been askin’ me- doctor whom he had had no little difficulty in | ag’in fer leave ter marry ye.” finding. ‘‘ He has—Jared Kenneth?” ‘* How is she?” Peleg instantly asked. ‘Yes: an’ what’s more, he’s as good as sworm ‘* No worse,” Rube responded. ye shall be his.” “Is this the injured woman?’ the doctor ‘‘ Never!” and the girl’s eyes flashed as the queried, turning toward Aunt Dinah at once, word shot from her pretty lips. Yes,” Rube affirmed. ‘So I thought, but I wanted ter hear ye say ‘* What is the nature of the wound? aknife | so. Yousaida ‘honest’ man, an’ though I don’t. wound?” s’pose I could prove anything dishonest 0’ Jared, ‘** No, she’s been shot.” he don’t fill th’ bill to my likin’ in that partic’lar.. Peleg having been dispatched in such haste, | Now, who is th’ favored one?” had not known anything beyond the fact that ‘* It is Charles Denson.” ‘‘murder had been done,” as Rube had ex- ‘*Oh-ho! Charlie Denson, hey? So that’s th” pressed it, and that Aunt Dinah was the vic- | way th’ wind blows, is it? “Wal, little Blue- tim. eyes, I don’t know as ye could ’a’ done any Rube now gave Peleg a sign, and the two re- | be ” tired from the room while the doctor, with the assistance of Blue-eyed Belle, examined and dressed the wound. this sooner er Jater, an’ I hain’t no fault ter Aunt Dinah was found to be badly, but not | find.” dangerously injured, the bullet having touched | “Thank you, daddy, and bless you. But I no vital spot, and the doctor predicted that if | shall not leave you, daddy, for I cannot marry tter. “ And you're not angry with me, daddy?” ~ ‘No, child, no, I knowed it would come to | her age could withstand the shock and loss of until this awful mystery is cleared away. Ob! | ' j let me die.” ' 8 EEE | blood, she would sown be all right again. | I was so happy before you told me, and— but, ‘* Better let me die,” she complained, ‘T's | daddy, we will solve the mystery, won’t we? done told eberything I knows, an’ now dere am | If I thought we couldn’t, I would almost wish no more happiness tor poor old Dine. Better | that cruel bullet had pierced my heart.” | ‘* Solve it! in course we will! An’ that brings: ‘* No, no, auntie,” the girl cried, ‘ you must | me back to whar we started. I am sart’in now not die! All will be the same as before. No | I know who it was that fired at ye.” matter what comes, I shall not leave you!” ‘* And who was it? Whom do you suspect?” ‘*Bress you, my child, bress you!” ‘““It was Jared Kenneth. Findin’ he could ‘You will pardon my curiosity if I inquire | not win ye, an’ learnin’ that ye have ledged yer how this accident occurred?’ the doctor ob- served, when Rube and Peleg returned to the room. ’ “It war no accident,” Rube answered; ‘ it war an attempt at murder. D’ye see that ’ar Blue-eyed Beile, ye must beware o’ Jared Ken- neth!” The advice was good, and Rube’s logic was sound yen but for once the old man was- hole?” pointing to the broken glass in the win- | mistaken. That shot had been fired by a dow, woman’s hand. ? “Yes.” eT ‘Wal, th’ bullet made that hole. Ye see th’ | CHAPTER VII. shutters wur open, an’ th’ shot wur fired from ‘rap BOW” AND ‘' THE ARROW.” th’ front yard thar, or from th’ street.” Ir proof were wanting that Bended Bow had ‘*This is wonderful! Who do you imagine | made such progress as we claim for it in the can have fired it?” eighteen years that had passed sinee the event- ‘“T don’t know, doctor, haven’t th’ least idee; | ful night of our first description, we conld show but I will know, an’ then you bet thar’ll be a | it in the fact that the town now supported two- settlement. I didn’t know th’ old woman had | daily newspapers. an enemy in th’ world,” ' One of these newspapers was “The Bow,” ‘‘Nor more she has, Mars’ Rube,” old Dinah owned, edited and published by one Major Theo- uickly interposed, ‘‘no more she has! Dat’ar , bald Miles. shot wan’t fired at me.” And she went on and| Theother was ‘ The Arrow,” the owner, editor advanced the same theory we have seen her ex- and proprietor of which was one General Orrion plain to Blue-eyed Belle. | Wade. , ‘By heavens! th’ old woman is right!” Rube | These two gentlemen were business rivals and exclaimed. ‘ Thar’s mischief afoot in this heur | bitter enemies, each striving to make his own burg.” paper the best, and at the same time doing all Torre right,” Peleg agreed. he could to injure the other's. ‘And you, my dear young lady,” said the | The motto of Major Miles’s paper was: “ It is doctor, ‘must be careful not to expose yourself | the catapult that hurls the bolt—the bow that to danger, now that you are warned.” | flings the arrow;” while that of its rival was: “Tt is hard to believe the bullet was intended | ‘It is the bolt that does the business—-the arrow for me,” Belle declared, ‘‘ but I shall be ve that wings the game.” careful, as you advise. If I have an enemy, In the way of mottoes they were phos evenly cannot imagine who it can be.” matched. But the case did not rest there. Eac **'No; and as you say, it is hard to believe the | issue of their papers was full to overflowing of a bullet was intended for you. But, the fact re- | wordy warfare, in which each bandled the other * Go ahead, then,” Rube urged, ‘an’ let’s | mains that you were nearest the window,” mercilessly and ‘‘ without gloves.” Threats. . hear all you’ve got ter tell,” “Right,” mused Rube, ‘right. Th’ shot wur | most ho ble and dire were hurled at each other ** Well, when dat man he done gone away, fired at little Blue-eyes, an’ nobody else!” in cold type through the medium of the press; ss ef Ae PASC, 5 20 5 “ See POD a Med Pat 7 ae ww reas \ a . F5b ain ‘eo / 74 ety ; : Se he - Soll hand to Charlie Denson, he has tried ter kill ye. . ~ Come Ping ee LJ = yp . Ps ae a 5 Pr peck A, OS Ys eee I books.c ‘ Pe Prt, 7 ee ee 1? «ee a