Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 500 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

we : Poh vy -_ . ~ ee oo ee By this time they had reached the gate, ‘‘f know nothing of the man, you see, Miss Davenant—not even his name.” ‘** His name,” said Dolly, *‘ is Endicott.” ‘** Endicott!” almost screamed the young man, ‘ Not James Endicott ?” ** Yes, James Morse Endicott.” ‘** And you say he is in New York?” ‘**T haveevery reason to suppose so.” ‘**{ have every reason to suppose differently, Miss Davenant. ‘ He is on his way here !” ** Here?” she exclaimed, *‘ to Indianola?” ‘* Precisely. I have ascertained it for a fact, He was in New Orleans but a week ago,” ** Bat why should he come here?” she cried, her heart full of terror as it was, answering her own question. **T never thought of his object, until now!” was the low reply of Vivian Fairfax. -~ . CHAPTER XVI. PRAIRIE PINK AS A DETECTIVE, A LITTLE reflection convinced Butternut Ben, when he found that the man of whom he was in search was already in San Antonio, that it would not be best to come in his way for the present. It;was very doubtful if Endicott had observed him sufficiently on the couple of occasions on which they had met in New York to recognize him again, but in New Orleans he must have seen and noticed him, and should he now come up with him his suspicions might be excited. It would never do, therefore, for Endicott to be allowed to suspect that Ben was on his track, But the scout was never long at a loss what course to pursue whenen a trail. Therefore on the following morning, when Endicott wade his appearance on the Main Plaza it was not But- ternut Ben but his pard who accosted him. *‘Well, I be durned!” exclaimed Pink, in well affected astonishment; ‘‘ who’d ever a- think o’ meetin’ you hyer-a-ways, colonel. How ther deuce come ye ter turn up hyer? Ther last I see’d o’ yer war in Bunco Britts’ in old York.” . ‘“By Jove!” said Endicott, trying for a mo- ment or two to recall the figure before him, and then suddenly recollecting that he had seen some one like him in a resort of the character named ‘‘so itis, I declare! Really I'm glad to meet you. And so you belong in San Antonio?” Endicott offered his hand graciously which the Texan took and shook vigorously. ** Right glad ter striké hyer boss,” hesaid, ‘I sw’ar hit seems ter me like a slice of York it- self, sot down in their middle o’ ther ole Plaza!” ** And, ’m counfoundedly glad to see you,” returned the other. ‘‘ You see I hadn’t been feeling quite up to par lately and thought a lit- tle run out this way would do me good. Fine climate this of yours.” ‘So folkses giner’ly says,” was the reply. “Hit allers ’greed purty well with me. Hope you'll find hit salubrious, curnil; though durned ef I kin see signs of consumption ’bout yer, cept hit mought be of beef and whisky.” ,_.“ Well, ’m not to say sick, you know, but I’ve been on rather too steep a racket, since I returned from the other side of the herring- pond a few months ago, and I feel the need of rest and a change.” ** Jist so, boss, want ter take things kinder easy after a ip Waz-al, that’s right; some time durned ef [ don’t feel sorter sorry thet rig ain’t up ter a leetle somethin’ like life. e mought show yer a thing er two this-a-ways ef some of us ain’t quite up ter civerlize; an’ yer looks ter me like ther very pilgrim what would enjoy some ’citement o’ ther right stamp.” ** To be frank with you, my friend, 1 have a little game of my own on hand, and deuced glad I am to fall in with a chap like yourself pie. if I mistake not, wouldn’t mind talang a and. ‘*Say, what’s your name, pard?” . ‘Joe Pinkston air’ my handle, Curnil Endi- eott, but ther gerloots hyer, an’ on ther fron- tier giner’ly, spells hit Prairie Pink.” 2 ** Quite sentimental, by Jove! But how come -- you to know my name?” a ‘‘ Heard it several times,” said Pink; ‘tan’ I never loses my grip on a name er a face,” “A most invaluable faculty,” was the reply. YJ wish I was like you in that respect.” wa ** But *bout this hyer game o’ yourn, what yer was jist ‘ludin’ at. I ain’t no great at poker, but I hes a pard that ain’t noslouch. S’pose yer puts us up ter ther racket, fer we air ’bout dead broke.” ‘** [']] promise to mend your fortunes for you, old boy, if you'll help me a little in this matter,” _ ** Pm with yer, pard: but what's ther game?” 4 ‘*Love aud lucre, of course,” said Endicott, What other game is there, worth risking stamps on?” > A: “Love and eucher?” queried Pink, with a puzzled look. a **No—lucre!” explained Endicott, with a — Jaugh, “* wealth, you know—spondulicks!” — ‘Now I tumble! Why didn’t you speak American at fu’st? But yer hes got ter post mein ther moves,” ‘I'll give you the dots, never fear. But we * - Ae. ca 3 eS So oer ee —_— ‘Th Ne must take it easy for the present, I fancy. I can’t do anything till my ship comes in.” *“‘ Ship? whar—not in San Antone?” ** Hardly,” laughed Endicott. ‘ I should have said till I have heard that she is in—at India- nola.” ‘*Pard, yer lays over me,” said Pink, appar- extly mystified. ‘*‘ Give us another deal.” ‘* Let us adjourn to the nearest saloon, then,” suggested this new acquaintance, ‘* and then we can talk it over quietly.” * Now, Pink,” said Endicott,,when they were seated comfortably and no one within hearing, ‘* [ will explain how matters are. ‘* You sees I came here overland, by the all- rail route so as to reach here ahead of certain parties who are coming by sea. I might have come on the packet, and possibly it would have been my best move to have done so; but the chances for winning the game in the long run seemed stronger this way, and so here I am.” ‘* I see,” replied the Texan. He meant that he saw the New Yorker had arrived, not that he saw bis hand, for Pink sat, looking the picture of patient mystification, **T might as well say at once,” resumed Endi- cott, ‘‘ that a pretty girl and a pretty consider- able fortune, in both of which I am interested, were on that voyage. The girl has, or had, rather, a brother—sick, or imagined he was— who stood between me and both. But somehow he didn’t stand the voyage.” ** Jist so,” said Pink, looking as blank as be- fore. ‘‘ But I kinder ’magined yer said yer hadn’t hearn from ther packet, Or mebbe so yer only opines ther sick pilgrim passed in his chips on ther way out?” ‘*Never mind,” was the somewhat confused reply. ‘I happen to know that the young man is no longer in the way and that is sufficient. ‘Then thar ain’t nothin’ in ther way?” ‘*The fortune is all right—that is, the great bulk of it—the property falls to me on the death of the gentle youth I just spoke of. But the young lady herself is even more an object with me than the money.” ‘** An’ ther gal is in Injinoly?” ‘* Yes, or will be soon.” ‘** Prezac’ly. An’ yer think o’ gwine thar?” *“Not much. Their intention was to come here, in the first place; and now that the young man is—well, no longer in the way—his sister will, 1 am quite certain, come on to San An- tonio, for they had secured accommodations here for the winter, She will come beyond a doubt; even though it be her intention to return North immediately.” ‘* Then bit pears to me, boss, yer air liarble ter hev it all yer own way,” remarked Pink. ‘*{ hope you may be right, my friend,” re- lied Endicott; ‘‘but the truth is, the lady as the poor taste not to admire your humble servant.’ **] think I sees yer more now, pard. Yer wants ter fotch ther gal ter terms.” ** Something of that kind.” ‘* Wal, yer hes ther wealth now yer says?” ‘Yes, to all intents and purposes.” ** An’ ther gal air posted on that p’int?” ‘* By Jove, yes! fancy she has waked up to the precise state of things by this time.” n bis yer reckon then yer holds ther aces, par ‘*Dash it! I am afraid not. Fact is, from what I know of the young lady, she’s as proud as Lucifer’s aunt. I stand a deuced sight worse show with her now than I did before,” ‘* These yer’ kaliker-kivered humans air mighty cur’ous truck,” was the sage remark of the Tex- an. ‘‘ Now, nat’rally, ther wealth yer speaks of orter be yer strong suit. Hit would be with a all ther female women I air ’quainted with, ‘* There are exceptions to all rules, my friend; and if I know anything of the case under con- sideration, the prejudice I spoke of, on the young lady’s side, will be rather hightened b this sudden accession of mine to fortune. But think I see my way.” ‘* Thar’s money in it ver say, boss?” “For you, yes! I have made my pile out of italready. What I want now is the girl; andI will make it worth the while of any one who will help me to secure her. But it must be done in a way that will make her look on me as her preserver.” ‘“*That’s yer card, eh?” *“The only one that can take a trick in this game, depend upon it,” said Endicott. | ‘i have calculated every move, and I know,” ** Yer looks fer her this-a-way soon, yer says? When did ther packet sail from New York?” ** On the morning of the eighteenth,” was the reply. R Then I opinions she’s bin in Injinoly for =— time. Dye reckon ther gal air thar till yit ** She is there if nothing has happened, or else she is nowon ber way to San Antonio. It is my anxiety in meoard to her safety and welfare, having heard, while in New Orleans, that her brother had been lost at sea, that has brought me here. _“lam the young lady’s nearest living rela- tive, besides being her father’s heir. What e True-Heart Pards. more natural, and at the same time more ' thoughtful, than that I should hasten hither to see that she is not exposed to any dangers or an- noyances in her sad and unprotected condition?” ‘‘Tsavey,” said Pink. And then he added, admiringly, ‘‘ Waal, ’'l] be durned!” ‘“*T fancy [ have struck the right vein,” con- tinued Endicott; ** but as dangers and that sort of thing exist principally in the imagination of women and tenderfeet, 1 haye come to the con- clusion that my best play is to create something of the kind., Do you tumble?” Prairie Pink looked the very personification of unsuspecting innocence. James Endicott went on revealing his plot more fully to his companion, who sat drinking it all in. The unprincipled schemer felt that he had fallen in with the very man of all others who could arrange and carry out the plan he had in his mind. The acquaintances he had formed up to this time, since his arrival in San Antonio—such fellows, for example, as Monte Max—were none of them of the caliber to engage in the kind, of work that he contemplated. As to the boys in buckskin, whom he had now and then seen around the Menger and other hostelries, his knowledge of human nature told him at a glance that it would not be healthy to approach any of the proposals that he had to make. But here was one who seemed to fall readily into his scheme, who, in fact, met him half way. With all the insight, however, that James Endi- vott had into the character of his fellow-men, and with the great deal more that he fancied he had, he was completely deceived in the man be- fore him, No one ever played the part of a de. tective more successfully. Prairie Pink had gained his knowledge of his kind partly by long experience in the ways of the divers sorts and conditions of men that are to be met with in border life; partly, strange to say, of a man like him, by imagination, which enabled him to put himself into their exact cir- cumstances, anc partly by a keen sensitiveness of feeling, which was hidden under his stolid mask of indifference. | He would have known anywhere, and no mat- ter how he had met him, that he could have nothing in common with a man of the stripe of James Endicott. From all that Butternut Ben had told him he had been ready to hear of a pit against some young man who was now on his way to Texas, if not already there, In a brief interview he now learned that the individual] in question was already dead—had met, he could not doubt it, with foul play—and that his sister now daily looked for in San Antonio was to be the victim of the wretch who stood confessed of complicity in his taking off. ‘*T’ve struck a mint of low-lived, murderin’ whelps since I hes bin on ther trail,” Pink mut- tered to himself as he left the presence of his would-be employer, with a promise to bring a pard of his that night to the ‘‘ Three Brothers” to receive the final instructions from Endicott, ‘*T has seen a a in my time, but of all the condemned cowardly cusses [ ever run in on, this hyer sweet-scented night-blooming serius takes ther rag offen ther chaparral, durned ef he don’t! **He’s a nice one ter’pear suddenly in ther kerracter o’ ther Pes persarver, ther dog-goned no count cowar cut-throat! I kinder mis- trusted thet Pard Ben mought bea little mistook in opinin’ thet ther sneakin’ kiote war plottin’ ag’in’ ther young man on ther packet, but, durned ef he see’d half-way through ther ladder what ther cuss put up. ‘Ther young pilgrim didn’t never git away from York, bit "pears now; an’ bow he come ter his eend, Lord above knows. Ther gal must be now somewhar Injinoly ways; but whar in thunder ar Texas Thad? ** Dog’d ef he warn’t a nice -posey for Ben ter ut on board thet packet ter watch fer squalls. ut mebbe so, Thad went up same time es ther young tenderfoot; hit seems ther onliest way ter ‘count fer his not comin’ ter tine. He can’t be hangin’ out in Injinoly till yit, lessen he’s ‘tendin’ ter fotch ther piece o’ kaliker through ae Antone an’ air waitin’ till she gits ready. e 4 must see what Butternut Ben kin ’splainify on thet p'int, though dog’d ef I don’t s’prise him inter ther middle o’ nex’ week with ther ‘Sociated Press dispatches what I got outen this cuss Endi- cott, an’ hedn’t ter pay fer them, nor ter pump him neither!” and Prairie Pink became lost in deepest reverie. CHAPTER XVII. FLEEING FROM THE FOE. | \ THE declaration of the stranger Vivian Fair- fax that James Endicott, the man whom she so loathed and feared, was daily expected by him in Indianola, was to Dolly Davenant co a- tion of her worst fears. In some way, it was evident, this man who seemed thus bent on persecuting her, bad learned of their destination after leaving New York, and was following them. He cane even have heard before starting— there had been ample time for him to have done ~ \