Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 488 — page 30: what you’re looking at

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

to steal silently u the saddle of the horse provided by Hart and the criminal was free to , dripping blood from two bodies! hy 30 ported, but with grim resolution in face and tones as he added: ‘‘So far as I know, every word uttered by Mr. Oakes is gospel truth! If anything, be has been too mild in his charges. **Tt was all based on a desire to strip Gypsy Gale of his boodle. Judd Varley first proposed the scheme, and talked it over with me. I jumped at the chance, for I wanted money, the worst way! And then Varley brought in an- other actor. You’ve all seen her, You've all known her as Miss Olive Tempest, the daughter of the Big Bracer!” A murmur ran through the gathering, half threatening, half wonder. * You think iam lying, but every word I ut- ter can and shall be amply backed up in the end! { declare that Judd Varley brought this woman forward, and through her devilish charms fast- ened me to his side so firmly that I would have dipped my hands to the elbows in human blood at his bidding! And she—she swore that when all was finished, when the boodle was fairly won —she would marry me! And—all the time she was the lawful wife of Judd Varley!” ‘* An’ you’re trying to bang him to pay fer her shakin’ you!” ‘* Pm knotting the noose about my own neck, as well!” undauntedly. ‘I’m telling the simple truth. [’m confessing my own mad folly, simply to show how my partners in crime have merited exposure! **T swear that I helped draw Todd Undermill into the game he played with Gypsy Gale, when he lost the Cap-sheaf. I swear that Judd Var- ley and I promised the old man to help him skin the Big Bracer. I was to watch my chance and slip Undermill a cold deck at the right moment, and be was to bet everything on that single hand. I did what [agreed to. I gave him the cards and Gypsy Gale never dropped to it; or he would never have backed his hand so heavily. I turned the trick, but it was a ‘double cross,’ and we fixed it for Uundermill to lose! “Tt stupefied him, as you know. We made him believe he handled the deck so clumsily that he shifted hands on himself. And then—-1 make oath, asa man who expects to suffer death he- fore another sun! I swear that, the more surely to get Gypsy Gale out of the way, Judd Varley hired Ginger Gore to kill Undermill! I swear that Judd Varley forged the note which was found on the table beside the shattered skull of the pretended suicide!” The smothered excitement now broke forth in earnest, and only for the prompt action of Hart Oakes and a few of the “solid citizens” whom he had won over to his side, the speaker would surely have been crushed down and trampled to death by the enraged gathering. By the order of Hart Oakes, Bark Matson as briefly as possible told the rest of the atrocious plot for a fortune, He told how Judd Varley forged a letter to Olive Tempest, bidding her at once hasten to Silver Lode. How he intercepted the answer, ‘but which, through an accident, fell into the hands of Gypsy Gale, thus berms apr | givin warning. He explained how the stage trai was eon by a select gang under charge of Mrs. Varley and himself. How Grizzly was sent on to wait and watch for their intended victim, and how, at last, he gave the agreed-upon signal which told their spy in the tree-top that their prey was aboard, And then, in cold, mechani- cal tones he confessed just how that seeming runaway was brought about. Without the slightest effort to save himself, he told how he secured the door to the stage, and how he gave the signal which told his men to place the needle-stuffed cushions underneath the tail of each horse, thus spurring them to madness and death! He told how Queen Esther was lowered over the rocks, and the signal gre Judd Varley, who was out in pretense of searching for the body of the Big Bracer. He fully exposed that pretended rescue, omitting nothing which could throw light on the seemingly impossible im- position. There was a frightful interest attached to this confession, and even Hart Oakes, thoroughly as he was behind the scenes, watched the pale speaker as though fascinated, And as it was _ wita him, so with all that crowd; so with the three men who acted as guard over Judd Varley. And thus it was that, unseen, unsuspected by any one save her husband, Esther Varley, dis- guised in the masculine suit which she wore when playing the road-agent chief, was enabled n the porch and to cut the bonds which held the arch plotter’s hands behind his back. She was even able to drop a whisper of instruction in his eager ear as she left the deadly weapon in his hand! And still unseen, or, if seen, unheeded, the desperate woman stole off the porch to leap into akes and cautiously edge her way to the end of the platform. Then— Swift as thought, Judd Varley swung _ his _ armed hand around, driving the cruel blade _ deep into the side of the man who held his right shoulder in a careless grip, sending him reeling off the porch with a shriek of agony! Again— flee, his right hand One swift leap—a catlike bound—and he was safely seated behind his wife, who urged her good steed to instant flight, her pistol spitting forth a stream of fire and lead! It was all so sudden, so totally unexpected, that even the Thoroughbred Sport was taken by surprise, and could only stand staring at the fleeing couple, unable to divine who or what they were. The crowd seattered with wild cries of alarm and confusion as the spur-maddened steed plunged into their ranks. But then a shrill, ear-splitting yell broke through that confusion, and John Whisky leaped to the ground from the front of his little blanket-covered cart which he was just driving toward the hotel. His rifle spoke promptly, and with a shriek of almost human agony, the fleeing horse fell headlong, with a shattered leg; hurling its unprepared riders far over its head! ‘“My love—my darling!” shrieked Queen Esther, gathering herself up and springing to where Judd Varley lay, with head doubled un- der him. , She rolled him over—saw the awful truth— and fell across his body, with right hand grip- ping the haft of her knife. } Its blade was hidden from sight, deep in her own bosom, CHAPTER XXXVITI. THE SPORT’S BEST TRUMP. In the mad rush which followed the avenging shot of John Whisky the platform was crushed down, and Bark Matson fell with it. He never rose again of his own accord. Whose hand cut his life-cord only the owner of that avenging hand knew, and he took care to keep his secret. When Hart Oakes reached the spot where the devoted wife had fallen across the corpse of her husband and partner in crime he was too late to do more than sternly warn back the crowd, Pistol in hand he held them in check until the dead bodies were picked up and borne, under his directions, back to the hotel. His carefully planned denouement was per- force tponed, but long before day dawned over Silver Lode, something of the marvelous truth got wind, and only anarmed guard kept the half-wild crowd from literally overflowing the hotel in their intense eagerness to learn the whole truth, ane “‘Tf you must, you must, [ sup ,»” laughed the thoroughbred, as he at length stepped out upon the porch, still lighted up by a ruddy glow as the replenished fires leaped and crackled and roared. ‘I’m feeling mighty cross, ila So over the fiasco, [counted on being set up on the highest pinnacle in all Silver Lode as a little tin joss on wheels, for my marvelous transforma- tion scene—for my unexampled skill in bringing the dead back to life.” ‘“Durn the clatter!” howled an impatient auditor. ‘‘ What we want to know fu’st off is whether Big Bracer is raally alive,as some say.” With a light laugh Hart Oakes turned his head and called out: ‘* Needs must when the—call it voter, to be polite! Mr. Tempest, can you materialize, to oblige the populace?” After a brief delay, during which the eager, wondering, doubting, bewildered citizens fairly held their breath and almost pressed their eye- balls out of their sockets in their desire to catch the first glimpse of the being summoned, a tall athletic figure slowly stepped out of the hotel into the red glow of the bonfires, leaning on the arm of a slender, girlish companion. One moment of stupid amaze, then the men of Silver Lode recognized that well-known face and figure; the one thin and deep-lined, the other bowed as through long and severe illness, Hart Oakes lifted his hand to command si- lence, and the swift obedience showed how com- letely he had won over Silver Lode during the ast few hours, ‘You see, gentlemen,” he ‘said, gravely. ‘*Mre Tempest—never more to be dubbed the Big Bracer, save by those who want to climb all over my back!—Mr, Tempest yields to your natural desires, but through my lips he begs you to excuse him from making even a little bit of a speech, for he is still very weak from his wounds, and all he has gone through with of late. And he begs me to add that when his daughte1, on whose arm he is now leaning, grows more composed, she will be pleased to ex- peti thanks for this very generous recep- ion. A roaring chorus of cheers rent the air, under cover of which both Gypsy Gale and Olive Tempest retreated inside. Hart Oakes laughing- ly barred the way behind them, sacrificing his own remarkable modesty in the resolve to keep them from furthor exertlon. ‘* But I say!” blurted out one nearly breath- less citizen, when he could no longer join in swelling that chorus of cheers, ‘* Ain’t you gwine fer to let us know how in thunder an’ lightnin’ an’ blue blazes an’ all the rest! How you fetched it all about?” Hart Oakes suddenly grew grave, lifting his hat as he uttered: ‘Through the grace of God!” - . : » eit oss r "Es Hi ¥ > oe lS ~~. i ee te ae ae By . BIO Pie j 4 ~The Thoroughbred Sport. — Instantly the tumult was stilled. Not a head in all that gathering remained covered. But this did not last long. Their curiosity was far too intense to be stilled by even such a solemn announcement, and Hart Oakes felt that his shortest, if not only course, was to make free confession. To John Whisky belonged the credit of rescu- ing Gypsy Gale from what seemed certain death. He was out spearing fish by torch-light, on the shallows just above the bridge, when he was startled by seeing a seemingly dead body float- ing with the rapid current. He reached it, to recognize the man whom he owed a life. He saw that life still lingered, and hastened to carry the unconscious man to his little cart, only a few rods away. In this be conveyed him to his hut, far below Silver Lode, and succeeded in restor- ing his senses, Gale told him how his enemies were hounding him to death, and John and Molly Whisky vowed to save his life, though it should cost their own. How well they kept their pledge, the presence of the giant proved, Then Oakes explained how Olive Tempest escaped death by being hurled with the coach over Satan’s Elbow. It will be remembered that the thoroughbred was making his way over the rocks to the stage- trail when he discovered the runaway team coming down the steep slope. He saw Olive Tempest trying to open the fastened door, and the truth flashed upon his brain like magic. He leaped to the rock which overhung the trail, aud dropped on top of the stage. He leaned over and caught the terrified girl by the arms, dragging her out through the window, just in time to catch hold of a bough which swayed above the trail. Only with one hand, for the now senseless maiden hung limply over the other; but it was enough to break their fall on the rocky road. He was unhurt, but he feared the worst, know- ing as he did how evilly the poor girl was being schemed against. Instinct warned him of near peril, and he hastily climbed up from the trail with his lifeless burden, just in time to sink down behind the rocks when Queen Esther and Bark Matson came in sight at the head of the Ladder. ‘ From this covert he witnessed the strange and audacious manner in which the plotters ‘* manu- factured an heiress,” and after their departure, he set out to find a secure hiding-place for the girl. To soon after encounter John Whisky, who had learned from Gypsy Gale what peril threatened his chiid. Together they bore Olive to Johns cabin where father and daughter were reunited, And there they lay in safety until all was in readi- ness for exposing the evil plots of their enemies, Oakes also explained how nobly John Whisky had played the part assigned him; how he warn- ed Oakes of his peril, and how they schemed to take Judd Varley in his own trap. He told how John lured Varley into the chamber, where they quickly and noiselessly overpowered him, wrapping him in a blanket and lowering him through the window, to be hidden until his resence was required. And he told how he ulled the woman plotter, by stealing the voice of her husband, that night, All this and much more, Hart Oakes was forced to explain before the interested gather- ing would permit him to retire. But enough has been said to enlighten the patient reader on all essential points. Ginger Gore, the actual murderer of his old ‘‘»ard,” Todd Undermill, was the only one of the darkest criminals who was ever brought to the bar of justice. He sullenly denied his guilt, but though all his immediate accomplices were dead, there was enough evidence to convict him, and he was duly hung. Hart Oakes spoke true when he said that Stuart Tempest had been called “the Big Bracer ” for the last time in Silver Lode. The citizens did all they could to make amends for their unfounded suspicions, but the giant refugee had sickened of the place, With Hart Oakes as an able assistant, he straightened out his affairs, and within the year sold all his property in and about Silver Lode. This, even at a slight sacrifice, gave him a vast fortune. And long before all this was accomplished, Hart Oakes confessed his love for Olive Tempest, And she made bis heart glad by admitting that his love was honesty, fully reciprocated. But she added: , ‘‘ Dearly as I love you, Hart, and terrible as it would grieve me to give you up, I have sworn by the memory of my sainted mother, to never wed a man who gambles! It is for you to choose, darling! Give up cards, or give up me! Need I say which the Thoroughbred Sport selected? ; And, best of all, the happy couple declared, was the bridal gift which Stuart Tempest gave them on their wedding eve. -It was a signed pledge to never touch a play- ing card while he lived; to never make a bet or wager of any sort from that hour on! THE END. Lee OLY cae Bet BOS