Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 438 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

Okla. i ee ee oe mm rr re ee ee ee a ee 2 White men, plain enough, Mr. Wright; but | all this, though he had never directly urged or that is precious small security at this time and | advised Wright to abandon his comfortable place.” , Nebraska home. But he had so often sung the A muttered ejaculation, that was almost an | praises of the Promised Land. Had painted its Oath, came froin the tightly compressed lips of | charms with such a master hand. Was so un- the elder man. Inarticulate though this was, | stinted in its eulogy, that no man with a trace his companion seemed to divine its meaning, for | of nomadic instinct remaining could help but he quickly said: **Only a blue shirt, ?m thinking, Mr. Wright. It was that that made me slow in answering | to Oklahoma, despite the positive prohibitions your question, a bit ago.” which had come from Washington, Nicholas Evander Wright lowered the glass with a | Van Bibber entered into the project with re- long breath of relief. A half-smile flitted across | markable vigor and earnestness. his face as he passed the instrument back to its| It was through his advice that Evander owner, and there was a grim hardness in his | Wright kept clear of all the ‘‘ Colony.” Where tones as he said: there was no fighting to be done, in union there ** Long’s it ain’t a blue coat, I'm satisfied. It’s | was weakness and danger. mighty dub’ous work fightin’ Uncle Sam, but ‘** It is the big band which the soldiers will be they ain’t nobody else got leave nur license to | watching for,” he argued, with a good show of block my way!” reason. ‘‘A small party may slip through Nicholas Van Bibber took one more look at | where a large one would be sure of detection, If the distant figures which had occasioned so! we can dodge the army scouts until the border much uneasiness, then closed his glass and | is fairly crossed, we're safe enough.” wheeled his horse about. The border was crossed in safety, by a route ** They’re not soldiers, whatever else they may | far west of that usually taken by the ‘‘ boom- prove.” ers.” Day after day Oklahoma guided the ‘* That’s all I wanted to make sure of,” laugh- | family further into the Nation. Day after day oma Nick. —= ed Wright,” as he strode swiftly along in pur-| passed without bringing either the ‘boys in suit of the white-tilted wagons in advance. | blue” or the still more dreaded scouts into “They've got might, ef not right, to back ’em, | view. Until thisday. an’ I’d heap ruther run than fight ’ém; but white, red or black, as long’s they hain’t got the | dinner, keen-eyed Oklahoma Nick caught a army-biue to back ’em, cain’t— Lad, thar’s a | glimpse of a small party of horsemen at a great tarrible storm brewin’!” Tintance. thanks to his good field-glass. He Almost involuntarily came the words as Evan- | said nothing at first, but hurried up their der Wright swept the sullen, lowering heavens | preparations, and slightly altered their line with his keen blue eyes. Nicholas Van Bibber | of travel, to take advantage of a change in the imitated that glance, but his gaze lingered lon-| nature of the ground. The alteration was not when his jetty orbs were turned to therear. | great, but ere long it would give them partial “he old man frowned gti g 6 cover, of timber islands, and broken ground. ‘** Never mind them, boy! Ef they was twenty Oklahoma Nick kept his discovery to himself instead of —” until well along in the afternoon, though con- Tt isn’t their number I’m thinkin’ of,” quick- | scious that the party of horsemen were still hang- ly interposed Van Bibber. ‘“I’d agree to send | ing to their trail. Atleast it had that appear- them to the right-about myself, if I could only | ance, though the party showed no positive signs be sure they’re not genuine bloodhounds!” of wanting to overtake them. Fstagd. they seemed content to maintain the same average distance, Then bright-eyed Otelia Wright discovered the horsemen, and called the attention of her father to them. Not that she anticipated trouble or my just then, but rather as something to break journey. Otelia was a true woman, in that she took it for granted that her father could do no wrong. In a vague way she understood that the Govern- ment disliked the idea of settlers crowding into Oklahoma, but that was all. If it was wrong, her father would not be acting thus. Even before Evander Wright made this dis- covery, he was Fale a little anxious about the weather. ough the heavens were clear and cloudless, there was an oppressive stillness in the atmosphere ‘that warned him, as by in- stinct, of a brewing storm. Though the air seemed so clear, the sun look- ed strangely blurred and unnatural. seemed intercepted by an invisible screen. could hardly say that the sun was hot, yet one felt almost as if confined in an oven, The slightest exertion brought forth profuse sweat. One’s lungs labored, as though they lacked air. Then, far away to the north rosea long, heavy bank of clouds, slowly, hardly perceptible in its growing when watched, but seeming to indi- cate a heavy storm from that quarter. Despite his anxiety about the party of horse- men who hung so persistently on their trail, Evander Wright drew a long breath of relief as he saw these clouds. ‘* A wettin’, mebbe, but not what this turrible close air made me ixpect,” he muttered, more to himself than to his wife or daughter. Like him, they involuntarily glanced toward the southwest. Like him they were tbinkin of the terrible tornado; of the ‘‘ cyclone” nn ‘*twister” before whose might the works of man are but as chaff. . Despite their long residence in the West, they had not as yet actually witnessed one of these terrible phenomena, though they knew in what quarter to look for the scourge. Steadily the cloud-bank to the north spread and rose in hight, and occasionally there could be seen a swift dart of lightning through the dense mass. Butit rose very slowly, and as yet ** ‘You mean?” **T believe they’re army scouts—and you know what that means!” A hard, gray shade settled over the face of the elder man as he broke into a run that carried him over the nearly level ground quite as rapid- ly as the good horse ridden by Van Bibber could trot. Evander Wright asked for no further ex- planation, for none was needed. Right well he knew that he and his were act- ing in violation of the law; a law, although one which he deemed infamously unjust. And like all such violators, he felt a certain dread cf all who were detailed to guard that law from trans- gression. : ‘*T may be mistaken,” added Van Bibber, as they drew nearer the two wagons,” but it won’t do to run any more risks than we are obliged to. Night is near, and with this storm coming up, maybe we can give the rascals the slip. Any- way it’s well worth the risk trying.” ‘Still thaf, pap?” cried out a tall, broad- shouldered young man from the front team as they came up. ‘Soldiers, or jest common re eh K lick a-goin’, Perry! Keep up your lic long’s thar’s breath in the critters!* sharply cried Wright, as he nimbly sprung into the sec- ond wagon without stopping its rapid pace in the least, snatching whip and reins from the hand of a fair young girl. ** Run it is, then, but 'd heap ruther fight it out!” growled the young giant, with a surly backward glance. The sharp crack of his lash rung out, and his horses plunged forward rapidly, the heavy wheels making a rumble and clatter on the hard, dry ground that rendered further conver- sation out of the : ping Though the loads were heavy, the pace was re- markably good in the absence of a road. Just here the ground was comparatively smooth and level, and the wild grass was not rank enough to conceal the occasional hollows and bumps. Strong and steady hands held the reins, and the ood horses covered the ground with remarka- Ble rapidity, considering how heavily they were handicapped. Nicholas Van Bibber cast many a backward look, and as those in the rear wagon, beside which he rode, glanced anxiously into his face, they saw that old puzzled expression there still. | naught of thunder could be distinguished. ‘“They follow—but only seem tying to keep ‘It is a chance, anyway,” said Oklahoma the same distance!” he cried, with a frown, in | Nick, as they pressed doggedly on. ‘‘ A heavy rain will wipe out our trail,-and if we can kee ahead of those fellows until it comes—well, wit the storm and the night, [ reckon we'll bother them a bit, anyway!” All this was before even the answer to the mute question of Evander Wright. ‘* 1] don’t understand it at all!” ‘“‘ Playin’ cat to our mice, mebbe!” grated the old man, his eyes flaming, his massive jaws set- ting still more firmly. ‘‘ Waal, we'll try to | make it interestin’ fer ‘em, anyhow—dum ’em!” | could distinguish the garb of their shadows with It was a flight, and yet those fleeing felt that | sufficient distinctness to remove the natural they were in the right. Like many another of dread of soldiers: before the brief conversation SL those days, they felt they were being wronged, | with which this record is opened. instead of transgressing against the right. And during the interval, there came a great Evander Wright, among so many others, inous change in the state of the heavens. caught the ‘Oklahoma fever” in its most Although there was not a breath of air aay virulent shape, and was now on his way to ‘‘ the | ceptible, the cloud-bank behind them ceased to land of milk and honey.” , Nicholas Van Bibber—Oklahoma Nick, as he was better known—was mainly responsible for driven back bya gale. And far away in the While hitching up for a fresh start after | It# beams | One | thedry, hard plain with whip and voice. feel strongly tempted to make the venture. And | when Evander Wright finally concluded to go | edges sharply outlined, yet seemingly with a misty vail hovering before and over them. Not a cloud as yet had risen to intercept the direct rays of the sun, yet in this there was a change, peculiar, impressive. A change that would have alarmed the ‘‘ boomers” had their thoughts been less wholly with the horsemen who hung so obstinately to their rear. The rays of the sun changed from yellow to reddish, then slowly altered to a metallic tinge, bright yet unnatural, something like the pecu- liar tint which heralds an eclipse. The light seemed mellow, yet it was trying to the eyes. Any steady gaze resulted in an aching pain; in causing the orbs to water. Only for those shadowing riders Evander | Wright would have hastened to camp to pre- pare for a storm of no ordinary magnitude; but now he dared not do that, If these men were soldiers, he knew they could have but one mission there, He knew they must be on the lookout for venturesome ** boom- ers,” to arrest and turn them back from the promised land. His blood fairly boiled as he thought of this, but at the same time he knew that they had tre _law on their side, with the Government and the arm | ' | | ' i | to back them. He knew that he dared not fight against such an arrest, unjust, illegal, as he firmly considered it. There was but the one chance; a miserably frail one, too! In less than an hour’s time the horsemen could overtake them, press on as des- perately as they migbt. wey they had not done so ere this, he could only explain by a brutal malice: ‘* playing cat to their mice.” During the brief halt for the purpose of clear- ly making out the party to the rear, a great and startling change had come over the sky. The long, low cloud-banks to the south and west had split in twain and taken on altogether different shapes. That directly in front of them was still dense and solid, nearly black in the center, shading out to the edges, which seemed penciled in fire. But to the southwest appeared the greatest change. The clouds had suddenly shot up high in the heavens, spreading out as they rose into the shape of an umbrella, Every edgo was sharply outlined, yet constantly changing in shape and color, though the prevailing bue was a strange, he monotony of that long, uneventful | ghastly green. Here and there shot out lurid streaks, not lightning, though somewhat resembling it. Like huge, distorted god ge they seemed, twisting and writhing in full view for a moment, then darting into the green mass as though diving into water, to give place to still other and more fantastic shapes. You have seen the ‘‘ dissolving views” cast by a deftly manipulated magic-lantern? Where the brilliant figures whirl and seem to be swal- lowing each other, the streaks and bands of color vanishing in the center to reappear at the edges! ust so the greenish mass of clouds began to work as the boomers urged their horses on = ee ust so the rising bank began to writhe and twist and whirl about in mad confusion, yet with a terri- ble precision that held the ‘bright blue eyes of Otelia Wright spellbound. Never before had she witnessed such a fright- fully glorious spectacle. Frightful—yet she was unable to avert her eyes. The greenish light deepened and intensified. The sun was still shining, but with a ghastly 1m- tence that only rendered the scene more awe- Me ed Then—it was like magic! A brief space of mad whirling, where the clouds seemed to crush together, obliterating the clear outlines, spreading the fiery serpents In a lurid blur over the mass. Then the mass shot still higher, its top looking like a flattened bal- loon. The clouds nearer the horizon were whirled off like spray from the bows of a clip- per, leaving a solid inverted pyrene the point of which was swaying swiftly, seemingly from side to side as viewed by the startled boomers. There could be no further doubt, Even one who had never witnessed a tornado, could make no mistake in this! The terrible ‘ cyclone” was upon them} “A twister!” shouted Oklahoma Nick, his voice hoarse and unnatural as he spurred his snorting, trembling steed closer to the rear wagon. ‘Veer to the left, and run for your lives!” Even as he uttered the healer leaned far forward and shot a strong arm about the waist of Otetia Wright, snatching her from the wagon seat with as much seeming ease as though she werful glass | were but a child in size and weight. A sharp ery of angry surprise broke from her lips. es ” a Oh sate Son, darling!” cried Oklahoma Nick, his voice scarcely recognizable as he drew her before him, clasping her almost fiercely as she instinctively struggled to break away and return to her parents. ‘“‘Save you—or we'll rise; was steadily lowering as though being | die—” “Together,” he said, but the word never west and south, other banks were rising, their reached even his own ears. IOO Gone “Ss £4 Ss el ( ‘ |