Beadle's Dime Library No. 51: Red Rob, The Boy Road-Agent — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

_all recognized in him a, terrible foe. »ery of horror as he passed them, and with the desperation of 10 Beadle’s Dime Library. sion of her mind. Knowing how treacherous the savages were, she felt that it was no more than probable that the one beaten in the race would bury a tomahawk in her brain. With eyes swimming in tears of agony, she watched the group of savages. She saw the chiefs mount their animals and turn, facing down toward her. She saw the savages part on either side of their men; she saw the renegade step out to one side and elevate the muzzle of a rifle in the air. She saw a little cloud of smoke puff out from the weapon— s sharp, splitting report crashed through the air—a savage yell followed, and the racers shot away over the plain! At the same instant a terrible yell of surprise and the dis- charge of rifles told the two racers that something was not right behind; but they would not, they dared not, glance back to inquire the cause of the alarm. One movement—the turning of the head—might lose either one the race. But they were not long to remain ignorant of the cause of the wild confu- sion which they knew was not occasioned by their excite- ment over the race, for close behind them a yoice, mingled with the clatter of other hoofs than their own animals’, sud- denly rung out, clear and distinct: ““ CVar the track, smoky-skins, for hyar we come a-boomin’ /” The next instant a horse and rider shot past them like an arrow! The man had dashed from the grove behind the savages, the instant the signal for the start was given the chiefs, and The chiefs uttered a madmen urged on their ponies, The race was not now be- tween the two savages, but. between the: savages on the one side and an implacable foe on the other. This foe was a person .,well advanced in years, with.. a small, lithe form, clothed in the, buck-skin of a borderman. ‘His bearded face was thin and wrinkled; and his sharp chin and long, Roman nose lacked but a hair’s:breadth, so. to speak, of forming a natural. bridge over, a wide, bearded mouth: The horse this, man bestrode was,as antiquated in, looks as himself; but its speed was,something wonderful to behold, Tampin’ tigers! gal, and you're safe! peg it down, Patience——seat /”” As the man shot by the astonished chiefs he turned. his face, that was clotled in,a, broad, comical. smile, and gave utterance to a defiant. shout, He reached the tree,a hundred yards or so. in rt of the savages, and, drew up by; Octavia’s side. ‘* Stiddy, gal, stiddy!” he exclaimed, whipping out a long knife. ‘‘ I’ve won the,race, ar’n’t 1? You're mine, by the Up here, now; you're free|—yuick, my good There! away, old mare. Into. it now It had required but an instant for him to cut the captive’s bonds, unother to lift her toa seat before him, and then away he went, while the Indians, with a fearful war-whoop, thundered on past the tree, in pursuit. ** Good-by,» smoky-skins,”,, the , reckless. old’ borderman shouted back to his pursuers; ‘‘if you ketch us, you'll be the fust that ever laid it across, ole Dakota Dan, the great. Tri- angle, jist fresh down from the crisp Nor’-west!” CHAPTER VIII. THE NEW MASTER OF THE CAMP. THE ranger’s words were all lost to the ears of those they were intended for, but to Octavia’s ears they were as tidings of joy supreme. “* Dakota Dan,” she repeated, as though she might be mis- taken in the words; ‘‘is it possible that I heard aright?” “Yes, mum, I’m Dakota Dan, jist down, fresh as a new- plucked flower, from the Keya Paha; and proud I be of the name, and the man, too, Miss. Come, Patience, ole mare, sail into it—show the gal yer bottom! Smoke of Jerusalem! didn’t I play it skinflintically to ’em smoky varlets? I war hid in that grove behind ’em, and when I sees what war up, I says: ‘Dakota Dan, now, ole triangular, primp yerself and try yer nerve.’ But they’ll be more keerful next time. Whar d’ye live, gal—up to Conejos?” “I belo. g to an emigrant train,” replied Octavia. **Say ye do? How’s it yer down yer?” Briefly as possible, the maiden narrated her adventure from the time of leaving the train till her capture by the two ‘chiefs. ** Judea!” exclaimed the old ranger, “‘then that’s what made that thunderin’ racket up that way. Thought it war “worry one bit ’bout me. (pores of the skin. a hurricane or a volkaner—got a cannon, hain’t ye? Licked the red-skins, didn’t ye?” Octavia scarcely knew which question to answer first, rhe was so delighted over her miraculous escape. However, she answered her interlocutor’s queries as far as her own knowl- edge extended. ‘‘ Well,” replied the reckless old rADget, times are a leetle frisky down this a-way now, and one’s got to keep a-bobbin’ to dodge all the dangers.” By this time the old borderman had placed nearly half a mile between him and the pursuing red-skins, who were now directly behind him, coming on a straight line. It was the desire of the ranger to get back to the grove from which he had burst so suddenly upon his foe; and, in order to accom- plish this, he began bearing gradually toward the left. Ina few minutes he was going directly north. The enemy could have taken the ‘‘ near cut” across and gained considerably on him; but, believing he was endeavor- ing to draw them into an ambush, they relinquished the chase altogether. This was contrary to anything the ranger had anticipated, as well as to the usual dogged patience and perseverance of savage vengeance. This turn of affairs enabled the ranger to slacken the speed of his animal, when he dismounted and gave the mare up entirely to Octavia, he walking at her side with all the elas- tic spring and sprightliness of youth. The maiden protested against this self-sacrifice in her be- half... It seemed to her that she was as well able to walk as the old man. ‘‘ Bless you, little ’un,” the ranger responded, ‘‘ you needn’t I’m growin’ younger in spirit ev- ery day. My hair will git white, though, and ole Time will swear furrows into my face; but I reckon, that’s all owin’ to the climate one’s in, and the condition of his blood. -up in the cool regions of Montana, one’s vital fluid gits purty cloggy-like-thick, ye know. "Way But come, down this way into Dakota and Nu-braska, und it begins to thin up a leetle, and one steps friskier; but, come on down here into Nu Mexeko, and one’s blood gits so thin that it runs right out at the Nothin’ but a good coat of dirt will keep a northern man’s blood in him down here; then the sun bakes that on him, and he looks fur all the world like a Mexekin, That's what’s ailin’ me, Miss, but I hope you'll excuse my looks, But, here we are, little "un—back to the very grove that I went bulgin’ out of when the race com- menced. . Lor’, but it does me a mortal sight of good to think how I waxed it to ’em smoky-skinned centipedes. But then, I’ve fooled red-skins a million times in my life— it’s my forte, I sw’ar it is, to foolish red-skins. Foolishness of one sort or another allers did run natural-like in the Rack- back family, and if one wasn’t a fool, he had the knack of playin’ it to a demonstration, and then—” ‘* Bow-wow!” It was, the sudden and deep bay of a dog, coming from the depths of the grove before them, that cut short the ranger’s speech and forced a cry. of surprise from Octavia’s lips." _ ‘* Scorpions!” exclaimed the ranger; stopping short. The next moment a dog came bounding through the shrub- very, and leaped upon the ranger, and “frisked and capered around the horse in an excess of joy. ‘‘ There, now, gal,” said Dakota Dan, with an air of whim- sical satisfaction, ‘‘ there you behold Dakota Dan, the great triangler red-skin extarminator. That’”—thrusting out his fin- ger at the dog with manifest delight—‘‘that is Humility, my dorg. I left him here to watch my gun and accouterments while I sailed out and raked the ante at the hoss-race,” and the old man went off into a fit of hearty laughter at the thoughts of his own conceit. ‘““'You see, Miss,” he continued, ‘‘I’m simply ole Dan Rackback alone, but hitch in Patience, my mare here, and Humility, my dorg thar, and you have the ‘ triangle,’ Dakota Dan. We're a kind of livin’ clock-work—one part can’t operate well without t’others: and when we git set a-goin’— buckle right down to the work, Lor’! then bounce, red-skins! away, buffaloes!, howl, varmints, and you, ye peraroes, dust! You see, Miss, that dorg has a mortal sight of man gump- shin. That bow-wow was a challenge, which, translated to English, means, ‘ Who comes thar?’ ‘ Scorpions,’ war the counter-sign, or whatever ye call it, and then all war dis- tinctly distinct. es, a nob.e pup, are Humility, my dorg, -thar., He’s a wonderful tooth for red-skins, and can foller the trail of a bird through the air. He’s jest as good as ever scratched gravel from an Alpine peak, or dug snow for —s% q = Gomichbooks E(©) >