Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 472 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

12 Six-Foot Si. * the chance you’ve been waitin’ fur? What’sthe reason it ain’t?” **f likes to take somethin’ as’ll make it inter- estin’? when I trouble myself,” replied Harri- gan. ~ 6 Waal, hain’t he made it interestin’ fur Chip- py? Chippy’s as good a man as you, an, day.” ] ‘*You stand to the rock, you ole fraud,” ordered Old-man Crocker. roughly. ‘““My Christian friend!” pleaded the Teaser, making his appeal to the Bouncer, in seeming utter desperation, ‘*ef you'll call ita go, Pil lay right down, an’ let ye walk over me.’ % That ain't my style,” replied the Bouncer. ‘‘Maybe he is, an’ maybe he ain’t,” replied | “You stan’s yer show, fair an’ square, an’ ef Mr. Harrigan, with a show of asperity. you git away with me, it’s because you’re a bet- There was a long-standing grudge between | ter man. him and Old-man Crocker’s jackal, which had never been fought out. The fact was, the old quip applied to these two perfectly: ‘‘One’s afraid, and the other daresn’t!” ** Bah!” scoffed Old-man Crocker. ‘I believe you're afraid of him!” Harrigan colored with humiliation as the eyes of his companions turned upon him derisively,. Men of such reputations as Old man Crocker and Dandy Dave enjoyed, could afford to scorn one who had shown himself far more plucky than the stranger, but with Harrigan it was different. His position not assured, he was bound to maintain it whenever challenged. At the same time it hurt his vanity to be forced to prove his prowess on one whose cow- ardice was univerfally recognized, . spoon know better’n that,” he growled, sul- enly. “Bhat’s so,” corroborated the Teaser, quickly. “*Tt’s all the other way—I'm afeard o’ him. So, ef you please, Mr, Man, [ll be a heap obleeged to ye not to put yourself out fur to set this hyar gent ontome, ]—” ‘“*Talk’s cheap!’ sneered Old-man Crocker, still jeering Harrigan. ‘““T’ll_ knock his two eyes into one!” growled the Irishman, stung by the taunt. ** Don’t! don’t!” pleaded the stranger. ‘* Pard, Dll take your word fur if. I will, so!” ‘* Harrigan passes!” gibed Crocker. ‘ He’s a corker, he is—a healthy corker!” With a furious oath, Harrigan made a sudden rush at the man who stood apparently tremblin before him, and with whom he was being baited as a bull is with a red flag, Seeing him coming, the stranger uttered a yell of terror, and fled through the open door. Harrigan plunged after him, and for an in- stant they passed out of sight of the crowd. With roars of laughter, Syria started for the door, eager to see the enraged Lrishman ‘* mount” the fugitive when he overtook him. But before any one reached the door there was a crash of glass, and a body shot in through He window, and fell upon the floor in a limp eap. ay eey nosy. gathered about and stared, in equal bewilderment, ow had it happened? Harrigan had scarce- ly set foot out of the door, before bere he was back again, his return quite as expeditious, and certainly as unceremonious, as his exit. ** Boys,” he gasped, with the unfailing readi- ness of a Westerner to take a humorous view of enything, ‘* was it a cyclone?” he sound of shuffling footsteps at the door at- tracted every eye that way, and there stood the Teaser, apparently ‘‘ shaking in his shoes ” as he peered into the saloon. CHAPTER XiL THE BOUNCER BOUNCED, “Dip you fling him in through that winder?” semended Crocker, staring at the trembling ve. Mer was the deprecating reply. ‘Now, really, gents, I hope you won’t hold me responsi- ble. Ye see, it’s jest like this. When I git skeered—an’ 1] git skeered so mighty easy!—I ain’t accountable fur what I may do. It’s tem- porar panes ab gata what it is; an’ the min- ute after I couldn’t say, fur the life o’ me, what I’d done, or what I didn’t do, That’s the Lord’s truth, an’ I hope the gent ain’t hurt none—” ‘** Hurt none!” growled Harrigan. ‘I’m all broke up!” And he made as much ado picking himself up, asif he had literally to collect the pieces of his achin eee § ** Waal,” said Dandy Dave, slowly, “ thiugs is lookin’ a leetle mixed. Your men don’t seem to pan out overly so-so.” “I reckon,” retorted Old-man Crocker, with some show.ef feeling, ‘‘ that we’ve got some man in this hyar camp what kin git away with this scalweegian! har’s the Bouncer?” He looked about until his eyes rested upon a stockily-built man, with a bullet head and the jaw of a bull-dog. ‘* Billy,” he said, ‘‘ is the camp done yit?” ‘* He’s been playin’ off on ye,” remarked Billy the Bouncer, eying the stranger keenly. ‘Waal, you ain’t afeard fur to tackle him, be yo® “I reckon not. He ain’t a-throwin’ of me through no winders—bet yer sweet life!” ‘Gents! gents!” pleaded the Teaser, plaintive- ly, * be you bound fur to use me up entirely? “‘T hain’t feelin’ well, I tell yer!” he con- tinued, with a touch of petulance. ‘“ Gi’ mea rest till to morrow, an’ I'll git a friend what'll see you chaps all day.” Ay % | ‘** My holt is wrastlin’.” ‘‘ Wrastlin’:’ aimost sbrieked the Teaser. ‘*You kin jest mop the floor with me, easy! Back-holt, side-holt, squar’-holt—I ain’t jest nothin’ at them. Fur the love o’ God, do it easy !" And joining his hands in pleading, he looked piteously at the Bouncer. Now the Bouncer was not to be fooled by any of this sort of chaff. As he deliberately rolled up his sleeves displaying the muscles that lay fold upon fold under the smooth skin, he closely eyed the man before him. ‘*Thar ought to be some money up on this,” observed Dandy Dave. **Maybe you’ve got some to put up,” retorted Old-man Crocker, irritated by the stand his rival was gradually assuming in the matter. ‘** You bet!” was the quiet rejoinder, ane Dandy Dave coolly drew forth his wallet. ‘* Hyar’s two to on the Teaser.” This was a wanton insult, and Old-man Crocker returned wrathfully: ae Vl go you even to any amount you da’st to put at ‘* Vl go my pile,” said Dandy Dave, emptying his bag of coins on a table. Crocker covered the amount, and asked, sneeringly: ‘* Have you got any friends what ’u’d like to keep you in countenance?” But the Bouncer’s reputation was ‘*A 1,” and not swayed by the same feelings that prompted Dave, no one else cared to risk his money on the chance of the stranger’s proving what all began to suspect. ** Now,” said Old-man Crocker, with a menac- ing flash of the eye, ‘*‘ ef he gits away with you, But he left his purpose unstated, . ‘*Use him up!” he substituted, viciously. “Ef I git my grip on him, Pll make it in- ee fur him, ef I don’t do no more,” said y. Backing away as the Bouncer advanced, the Teaser pega to cower and whimper. His knees knocked together, and he seemed ready to fall in a shapeless heap at the touch. At last Billy saw—or thought he saw—his opening, and sprung for him. **Q-o-oh!” shrieked the Teaser, and he seemed to go down like a limp rag. But he rose again, with bis assailant on his shoulders, for he had thrust his head between the Bouncer’s legs. A moment Billy pawed the air wildly, and then, having described the regular curve of a projectile, landed on bis head several feet away. The crash was enough to have broken the neck or fractured the skull of an ordinary man, for of all falls in wrestling this is perhaps the most dangerous. But the Bouncer had a head of iron, and the muscles in his bull neck were tough enough to stand almost any strain. Even he, however, was dazed somewhat, as he ners g te to his feet and stood staring about in blin mag Old-man Crocker was speechless with aston- ishment and incredulity. He could not persuade himself that this thing had really happened, and with so little apparent effort on the part of the Teaser, Not so Dandy Dave. ‘** Hi! hi!” he yelled. ‘‘ What’s gone with the Bouncer? Pick ’im up again!” The crowd were swept off their feet with wondering delight. Everybody surged for- ward to stare at.the man whose execution was in such marked contrast with his pretensions, There were men in plenty who ‘ traveled on their war-record,” they being their own chron- iclers. But wbat manner of man was this, who only begged to be spared, while he annihilated everything that came in contact with bim? ‘*Whoop!” yelled an enthusiastic admirer. ‘1 go my pile on the Teaser ag’in’ anything in Bloody Run!” ‘** Gents! gents!” pleaded the Teaser, holding up bis hands in deprecation. But his voice was drowned, ‘** Stow that gaff, ole man! We've dropped to ye solid, thoug we dropped to ye slow.” ‘‘ Everythin’ as has come anigh ye has drop- ped! Ha! he! ha!” ‘* Hold on,” cried Billy the Bouncer,-who was loth to see his record rubbed out with aswipe of this sort. ‘‘I ain’t done yit. Ary man may be taken unbeknownst at a new game.” ‘* Why, that’s as old as the hills.” ‘Tt ain’t old with me, vou bet yer life.” ‘* Better throw up yer hand before he knocks the spots off of every keerd in it.” ‘* That’s his privilege, ef he’s got the sand.” ‘** But, gents, you don’t seem to onderstand,” pleaded the Teaser. ‘Time! time!” shouted the crowd. ‘I didn’t git my grip on him,” said Billy the Bouncer, advancing again, but even more warily than before, ‘**Pard,” whimpered the Teaser, ‘‘ you kin git ary grip what suits ye best, ef you'll only lay me down easy. Don’t hurt me! 1 didn’t go fur to land you over thar—’pon me soul, I didn’t. It’s jest the crazy fit what gits on me when I’m skeered out o’ my boots. Thar! thar! go easy, pard. I— Oh Lord!” Billy saw his chance again, and closed. The Teaser seemed unable to oppose him. You would have thought that he sant not lift a fin- ger for sheer terror. The arms of the Bouncer closed about him like bands of steel. Billy exerted himself to the utmost to-crush the wind out of his antagonist. From the strain of his muscles it seemed as if the very bones of the other’s body ought to be heard to crack, 7 grams curse you!” he gritted, between his set teeth. **Oh! ah! ugh!” greased the Teaser, so that his new-made backers began to think that they had been too hasty in their concessions. ‘t Have ye got that thar grip what ye was talkin’ about?” ‘You bet I have,” returned the Bouncer, gathering his powers for a mighty effort to lift his adversary off his feet and hurl him to the ground with a crash that should knock out of his body the little breath bis fierce hug had left in it, ‘* Easy! easy! fur the love o’ God, easy!” begged the Teaser. “I’m— Ugh! ah! [ma goner)” But somehow he kept his feet for all that, and the two went surging and swaying about, scat- tering the crowd that pressed around them, not to lose a point of the struggle. *“Down him, Billy! down him!” yelled the admirers of the Bouncer. ‘* Hi, thar! Now you've got him! the knee tip!” ‘* Lock his off hoof, an’ he’s yours!” ‘Whoop him up on the other tack! thar! that’s somethin’ like!” But meanwhile, in spite of this encourage- ment, Billy was learning that his first overthrow was probably not as accidental as he*had said and believed. Twist and trip, writhe and strain as he might, the stranger was a veritable cat, for always coming down on his feet, while, as for the hug of the Bouncer, though the spectators did not suspect it, it was repaid with interest. The Teaser’s arms were like clamps of steel. Meanwhile, that enigmatical individua] had all the appearance of a man in the agony of ab- ject fear. His face was distorted with a grim- ace of distress, and his eyes rolled about in de- spairing supplication. ‘* Hoo-00-00!” he bellowed, like a great calf of a hobbledehoy receiving a thrashing from the schoolmaster. ‘‘ Im skeered! I’m skeered!” Then followed a performance that amazed every beholder. The wrestlers began to spin about like devil- possessed Dervishes. Here, there, everywhere, they whirled through the crowd, their flying SONS rapping the shins and ribs of the hustling mob, so that on one in reach of whom they came seemed to escape a painful token of their Give him Thart passage. Wilder and wilder grew this devil’s dance, as the Teaser’s voice became a howl of terror, un- til the Bouncer’s feet lost their hold upon the ground, and he was whirled round and round, with his heels thrashing the air. Suddeualy the Teaser iet go his hold, and Billy was flung heels over head into the crowd, re- taining a desperate clutch only on the raglan his antagonist wore. The Teaser had but to bend forward his body and throw up his arms, to have the garment skinned over his head, so as to leave him en- tirely free from the grip of which Billy had boasted. The Bouncer was not much hurt by his fall, for be carried down half a dozen men under him; but he was thoroughly convinced that he bad no further use for the man he had under- taken to ‘* bounce.” Old-man Crocker stared blankly, boiling with wrath. Dandy Dave was not disposed to “let up on him.” ‘* Waal,” he drawled, ‘‘ he’s about used your crowd up, bain’t he?” Crocker did not reply. He was looking at the man, to make out how he had accomplished what he had done. ‘* That reminds me of an old saw what’s got millions in it,” pursued Dave. ** Never send a boy to mill,” he drawled, with a tantalizing chuckle, The hint was too broad to be mistaken, Crocker flushed, and turned his eyes toward his tormentor. ‘* Maybe you think I’d orter back my crowd,” he said, with a savage glare. 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