Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 523 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

12 I break you all up with a business proposition. I thought I was dealing with a man of nerve.” She drew back and looked at him. ‘Woman, you don’t know what you’ve asked!” cried he, **T do. Dve asked for the contents of Luis Lopez’s valise, but I don’t want them for noth- ne. Fair exchange is not robbery. The Yellow itech—the mine you have coveted ever since it has been opened—is within reach,”’ ‘*T repeat that [cannot buy it at the price you’ve named.” Yeu cannot, eh? won't ?” ‘* You intend to have it so, I see,” was the re- ply, and Diamond seemed to bite his lips, ** Just as you please. I withdraw the Yellow Witch from the market. It will never be offered again while grass grows and water runs. A mine for an old valise; think of it.” ‘*Madam, you have forgotten your wine,” smiled Diamond, feeling that he had obtained a oe and that be could afford to banter her a little. ‘*So I have!” exclaimed Zeo, catching up the bottle and pouring out a full glass, He watched her narrowly. The single ring on her hand sparkled like the rare old vintage she raised to her lips. As she was about to taste she caught sight of the major’s face over the goblet’s rim, and the next moment she set the wine down undrank. ‘“ As this wine comes from Ranch Lopez, it may contain the blood of the Mexican,” said she, ‘*T will not taste, at present,” and she raised the glass for the purpose of emptying its contents back into the bottle, but Diamond’s hand closed on her wrist. ‘“No! not your touch, Don Diamond!” she ejaculated, breaking loose and spilling the wine over his sleeve. ‘‘ You are boss over all Red Jack but Zeo and her possessions, You will not purchase Yellow Witca Bonanza, therefore you need not touch its owner. Look! where the wine has kissed your cuff there isared stain— like the blood of Deon Lopez of Lariat City!” “Gv on,” he laughed. ‘I shall invite you to my house whenever I want some good acting.” Zeo lost every vestige of coor under this piece of badinage. **Play your hand out,” was the retort. ‘‘ You have played so many cards in your time, Major Diamond, that you know just what ones tothrow and when. The soldiers have gone, eh? They were looking for the trail of, the Lost Detective and the old stage. Whydo all the detectives come to Red Jack when they are out for game of this sort?) Why don’t some of them go down into Arizona and begin there?” * “You talk in riddles again, madam,” an- swered Red Juck’s master, ** Do 1?” cried Zeo, coming forward again and steadying herself with one hand on the table while she leaned toward the man in the chair. ‘*T talk in riddles to the man who knows who made the strange trail through the chaparral! I mention Don Lopez and his black valise, and/be knows nothing! I speak mysteriously to the man who had two comrades when Lariat City was at the hight of its fame. Isee day by day going to the Bulldog Mine and‘coming back those same two comrades, a little changed 1n appear- ance, but the same in disposition and everything else, They weren’t Faverell and Tough Talbot then. A change of residence bas produced a change of name but their blood remains the same. Come, Major Diamond, say I know nothing. Laugh to scorn my knowledge of events in{Lariat City, now in ruins,but haunted by the ghosts of crime and despair. Drink your wine and I'll drink mine. We don’t meet often, and I seldom have mine tosell. 1see that you don’t want to pay the price I ask. Look out if I do not get my price some other day.” Zeo turned from the table and walked haught- ily across the room, followed by the eyes of the man in the chair, ** She’s more lioness than I thought,” muttered Diamond. ‘I did not know I had such a rival, What does she mean when she says she will get her price, some day? She puts me on my guard, this woman does, She will find herself doused in hot water by that tongue of hers, I think you’ve set a trap that has caught'yourself, Madam Zeo.” By this time the hand of the Enchantress was on the knob and she was looking a mock ‘ good- gy, 240 over her her shoulder. jor Diamond leaned quickly toward the table, caught up the glass he had filled some time before, and raised it to a level with his eyes. ‘**Suecess attend you in disposing of the Yel- low Witch,” he spoke, with a bow. Zeo’s hand fell from the door, and with her magnificent figure drawn to its true hight, she watched him drink off the contents of the glass. ‘“‘If success attends the sale, where may you be, Don Diamond?” she suddenly cried, her out- stretched finger covering him. ‘*A man rode through some chaparral once. He was not alone, neither did he come back when he was expected. If I had a memory like yours, Major Diamond, I’d sell it for a thistle. But perhaps you area man withouta conscience! k among the dregs you have Jeft in your glass. Don’t you see there the Don’t you mean that you Reynard of | Red af: ack. bleached bones of a man ina canyon? And yet justice waits! My God! I know now that the goddess is blind!” A moment later the Croesus of Red Jack was again the only occupant of the room. The door had closed softly behind the visitor, and he had not heard her go down the corridor and out the front entrance. He did not leave his chair, but sat still like a man who has been faced by a terror and left un- nerved, At last he reached up and jerked a green cord dangling from the ceiling. The yellow-skinned servant reappeared. “Ts she gone?” asked Don Diamond. You.” ‘*Take the wine away and lock the front door.” The man grinned, but did not fly to obey the command. “What is it, Sejio?” inquired Diamond, see- ing that the man wanted to talk and. only waited for permission, ‘*She hasn’t ehanged much,” was the reply, the grin rh peg La, “What do you know about her?’ demanded the mine king. ‘‘ When did you see Zeo before she came to Jack?’ Sejio was about to drop into the unoccupied chair wben Don Diamond with a word ordered him to stand, ‘*T used to see her in Monterey.” ‘Who was she then?” "a Onez —the Woman with the Knife some called her. ‘* Then, she is part Mexican?” aS Me Diamond poured out a glass of wine and ushed it toward his servant. He knew how to poe a tongue when he wanted words to flow freely. Sejio pounced upon the wine like a mountain hawk, and Diamond smiled at the avidity with which he carned it to his lips and gulped the whole down at a single swallow. The effect was magical. Sejio’s eyes got a beady syaene which appeared to delight Don Diamond. ‘* Well,” said the nabob, impatiently, ‘‘ what about Zeo the Enchantress?” ** She left Monterey suddenly,” was the reply. ‘* Between two days, Sejio?” ‘* Between two days,” ** Was she a faro queen, or something of that sort?” ‘* No. She was too free with her knife.” ** Aha!” ejaculated ace Diamond, settling back in his chair. ‘‘Were you there, then, Sejio?” he servant bowed and eyed the bottle wist- fully. ‘*Take another glass,” said Diamond with a gesture, and the invitation was promptly ac- cepted. rf Yes, I was there!” exclaimed Sejio. ‘She did not recognize me when I came in to-night but I knew her after a second look. To me all along she has been Zeo; but here I saw her as Onez, who made one stab too many in Mon- terey. A ar eager cry from Don Diamond. ** Who was her vietim, Sejio?” exclaimed he, ‘** Her husband,” ‘* By Jupiter! I will get a grip on this beauti- ful viperess yet and stand on an equal footing with her!” thought the mineking, ‘* You don’t want to make any foolish charge against Zeo,” he said, aloud, addressing his servant, ‘* T swear by the Holy Mother to all I speak!” was the response, and Sejiosprung up and raised his hand, ‘‘ Her husband was found dead in the suburbs of Monterey, and with the body was a knife which was known to have been hers,” ‘*So this is the woman who wanted me to come to her terms, is it?’ laughed Don Dia- mond. ‘* By heavens! she may yet come to mine. Is that all you know about the owner of the Yellow Witch, Sejio?” ‘* About all. She never came back to Mon- terey.” A third glass of wine, ‘Sto keep the others down” as Diamond suggested, was proffered and accepted and be struck the table with his fist in a thrill of glee as Sejio vanished, ““*Now, what time is it?’ he cried, jerking out his watch, and then continuing aloud: ‘Twelve! and all is over at Vulture Gulch, I have killed one snake to-night, and hold an- other under my heel. So she was once the woman with the knife? It was a lucky day for me when I picked Sejio up. I did not know he was going to turn out a very gold mine of information, I am now armed against the owner of the Yellow Witch. What does she want with the contents of Don Lopez’s valise? Never mind. I hold a cold deck on her now, I will make my own terms, and before the week is out Pll hold a title deed to the rival bonanza. Killed ber husband, did she? And yet she called me a man without a conscience!” Don Diamond went to bed, laughing over the cards he thought he held against the En- chantress. In another part of the house Sejio was sleeping off the effects of the wine, and over the mountains toward Red Jack rode Faverell, the Titan from Vulture Gulch, _ $$ CHAPTER XVI. HAWK AND DOVE, YES, Faverel], Don Diamond’s right bower, was coming back, The giant of the Yellow Hills was well mount- ed, and his horse was bearing bim bravely over the rough mountain trail, As he swung round a curve and saw far away in the first flushes of a new oy the scat- tered roofs of Red Jack, a smile played with the lips under tbe dark toustache, and his look, a little weary till then, became fresh and ani- mated, ‘*T call it a pretty clean sweep,” said Fave- rell to himself—the Titan had a fashion of talk- ing aloud when alone. ‘‘ There was but one accident, but we can afford to put up with it, seeing what we’ve accomplished. Nobody left to tell the tale, and things left in sucha che that’ll make the Injuns foot the bill! It ll be long before Uncle Sam sends another company o’ cavalry a-hunting a secret that is not for the service to find out. Mebbe the Gov’ment won't try it again.” Talking thus, Faverell rode on now down the mountain, and over the lower trail, which at last brought him to Red Jack, which he entered quietly, taking his well-blown horse to the stables without exciting oy attention. He was the first man back from ill-fated Vul- ture Gulch. The others were behind him, just where he did not know, They were not likely to come in soon, Some would wait till night, and then sneak in under cover of darkness, like men who stain their bands with buman blood. Faverell walked through the early light to Don Diamond’s house, He was promptly admitted by Sejio, who had seen his stalwart figure from one of the win- dows, and guessed that his master would be de- lighted to see his henchman. Faverell went to the private room and found it empty. The man bore evidences of hard riding, and there was a black-and-blue spot on one of his cheeks. ‘* Tell the major ’m hyer!” said Faverell to Sejio, who awaited his pleasure at the door, hen he went to the sideboard and found something that suited his taste. At any rate he drank heartily of what he found, and threw himself into Don Diamond’s chair, where, with his dusty boots on the table, be made himself at home.” He was not disturbed for five minutes. Then the door opened and he found himself face to face with—Coral! With a little exclamation of surprise Faverell jerked hig feet down while Coral who had taken several steps forward before recognizing him fell back losing color but staring at him in amazement, ‘*[?m anearly bird, Miss Coral,” pepan Big. Faverell his eyes already devouring the fres young beauty of the girl whom he looked upon as his bride in prospect, **So I see,” answered Coral looking at the marks of his journey visible everywhere, ‘1 thought father was here, You are waiting for him, aren’t you?” “iT am,” responded Faverell. A strange light seemed to leap into existence in the girl’s eyes. She lost color under its in- fluence as it were, and her hands shut tightly as if in emphasis of some sudden resolve. The next moment she had crossed the room and was standing beside the big tough who was looking up into her face wondering what had actuated the girl. ‘** { want to talk to you—a minute—not longer,” she went on with hardly a breath between her start toward him and the halt, ‘I don’t intend to deceive you orany one else, I know what has passed between you and Don Diamond,” Faverell noticed that she called the Dakota nabob py the name by which he was every- where known. ** You are half partner,” she continued. ‘He says that he could not think of me having a husband not my equal in point of wealth. He did not think of anything else, | presume.” ‘*T don’t know,” answered Faverell for want of something better to say, for, to say the least bs girl’s frankness had somewhat bewildered im. ‘*T am not here to question your part in the transaction,” Coral proceeded. ‘‘I shall tell him by and by what I will tell you’now. I do not approve of that part of the covenant which disposes of me, Inother words, Captain Faver- ell, 1 reject the clause which gives me to you for your wife,” The Titan of Red Jack nearly bounded from his chair, for the cool words of the heiress of the Yellow Hills went through him Jike an elec- tric bolt. He, big rough that he was, never thought of Coral opposing Don Diamond’s will. It was like a lamb resisting the commands of a tiger. ae girl gave him a smile for his astonish- ment, : ‘You might think differently on reflection,” ventured Ford, when he caught second breath. **T have reflected. all night,” rejoined Coral, Gomme JOOKS (Eo) i fn A 306 hte» Hw