Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 523 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

18 Don Diamond took the lassoes and restored them to their pegs. ‘“ Having found the means, we want the traitor,” said he, speaking through clinched teeth as he wheeled upon Faverell. ‘If I had made the discovery a little sooner I might have -.Jaid hands op him.” ‘Ha! you think you know him?” “Tdo, It was Sejio.” ‘“ Your servant? the man who told you about Zeo?” cried Big Faverell. “The same. My traitor this time has a yel- low skin, but if I bad him here, by the eternal beavens! he’d have a black throat!” ‘‘ What linked him to the prisoner?” ‘‘ Heaven knows.” ‘‘ Who told him that the young spy was in the dungeon? He did not see—” ‘“ Nobody knows what his sharp eyes may | have seen!” broke in Don Diamond, “It is enough to know that the pit is empty and that | Sejio is gone. He had access to this room, he knew the length of the lassoes and he selected | the right ones for bis purpose. I discovered the | release by the merest accident. I saw the first lasso I gave you curled at one end when I knew it had not been left thus when last used. I ex- amined it closely and then with my brain in a whirl went down to the dungeon and inspected it with the help of the magic fireballs. Let us go back and discuss the matter, but more than this: let us act!” ‘When was Sejio seen last?” ‘‘ He served me last night.” The two men went back to the private room. There was rage and vengeance in Don Dia- mond’s eyes. Ff ‘‘ Sejio when in the house never failed to obey my call,” said he, reaching up and graspin the green cord hanging above the table. ** Now I could eall till doomsday and the villain would not come.” ; Don Diamond jerked the cord violently to prove his assertion. ‘‘ Somebody’s coming,” remarked Faverell. The nabob turned toward the door too puz- zled to reply, aad with his eyes riveted upon it seemed to hold bis breath. The Hercules of Red Jack looked in the same direction and when the attention of both" men was focused on one spot the door opened and in stepped—Sejio! on Diamond uttered an exclamation of as- tonishment while a smile settled around Faver ell’s mouth. Sejio advanced in his usual manner, but when he caught the accusing eyes of the major he seemed to lose a trifle of color. | “This is the man who tied lassoes together,” | an Don Diamond with a glance at his part- | ner. ‘ What have you done with the man you have befriended?” Sejio fell back a step, bis eyes nearly bursting from bis head, and bis lips trying to stammer a response of some kind, “Don’t talk if you intend to lie!” commanded Diamond. ‘Open your mouth with a false- hood and Ill let you sweep up your own brains.” During SE his speech Don Diamond had quietly opened a drawer at his left and taken outa handsome silver-mounted six-shooter which he placed on the table in front of him. — ‘‘ Where is ths man?” continued Diamond, ‘* What man?” ‘¢ Innocent!” smiled the nabob with a look at Faverell. ‘ What man, my yellow liar? Why, | the one you let out of the trap.” ‘“] liberated no one,” answered he growing bolder as his courage came back, Don Diamond laughed sarcastically. ‘You did not splice the iassoes hanging in Go away.” the museum? You did not lower them over the | wall of the underground dungeon and bring up | a man whom you found there?” Sejio made a cross on his breast. ‘7 did nothing of the kind!” said hesolemnly. ~ Diamond was rather perplexed by the sanctity involved in the declaration, but for all this he put up his hand and touched the revolver at the same time looking coldly at the silent man be- myown. Captain Favere fore him. “> serve me well is to erjoy life,” said he, ‘“‘to betray me is to die!” ‘‘T have not betrayed!” ‘Do you say that you have no knowledge of the two lassoes being absent from the museum within the last forty-eight hours?” Sejio made no reply. “You know they were, traitor!” cried Don Diamond. ‘* Your tongue treacherous as it is re- fuses to lie in my presence when I pin you down to your guilt. The ropes went from the museum through this room to the underground corridors, did they not?” ‘T have not said so.” ‘No, and you will not say they did not.” Up came the revolver, the band of Don - Diamond grasping it firmly, and his merciless black eyes glittering behind the barrel, ‘‘ By the Holy Mother! I am going to kill you the agreement.” where you stand!” continued the major, address- ing the man who stood barely five feet away + watching his face and the six-shooter at the drew it back as if ‘““Do you want to settle your ac- » the bone, same time. - servant's wake and locked the door. | | i i ; | Reynard of Red Jack. counts with your Maker with a lie on your | tongue? Is this the way you want to quit my | employ, eh? Do as you please, Sejio. Fall | against yon wall with your lie repeated, or | drop dead with the truth confessed, I give you | five seconds for reflection.” Five seconds of time left for confession! The lips of Sejio were seen to twitch, One of the hands till then hanging at his side came up till it was above the table. ‘‘T have not betrayed Don Diamond!” cried he. ‘My heart is as true to himasever. But I will net break the oath I have taken. I will not betray any one!” ‘Listen! No traitor and yet he knows!” ex- claimed Major Diamond, ‘“ You are oath- bound, Sejio.” Jem.” ‘‘ You refuse to break that oath to save the life at hangs on the pressure of a trigger?’ Don Diamond threw a rapid glance at Faver- ell. The Hercules of Red Jack sent no advice across the table, and the king of the mines went back to bis servant. ‘‘Here!” cried Sejio suddenly tearing open his bosom and exposing bis yellowish chest to the lamplight. ‘You see over my heart a circle with a star in the center. I ain the only survivor of a league which came into existence years ago. Beneath the star beats the heart of Sejio. Send your bullet through it, Don Dia- mond, Spare the face in honor of the mother who loved it.” ‘Spare the innocent and deal with the oy rung out a voice that dropped the up- ifted hand of the Yellow Hills nabob, and the figure of Cora] the beautiful flitted across the room and halted between Sejio and Don Dia- mond. ‘“* Are you the guilty?” cried the major. ** He is innocent!” repos the girl, touching the servant’s arm. “If you want a life for the escape from the dungeon take mine! Darrell is far from the trap into which the hands of Cap- tain Faverell lowered him, and lam here to an- swer for the crime if crime it be!” CHAPTER XXIV. A QUICK EXIT. Masor Diamond bounded from his chair ere the last word left Coral’s tongue, fn you are the cause of it, are you?” he ———— ‘‘T am the cause,” answered the girl, firmly, giving him look for look. ‘‘And the dog beyond you was willing to keep the secret! Let me show him that we deal sternly with traitors in Red Jack.” But Coral threw up her band and interposed it between Sejio and the madman whose eyes seemed to emit sparks of fire. ‘¢T silenced him first with a threat,” she went on, ‘Sejio wanted to baffleme. He followed me to this room for that purpuse, and at yon door I turned on him with the lassoes in m band, and rendered him powerless with a loo and some words. Don’t blame your tool, helped the half-dead | feign out of the trap.” “Then, let the yellow conspirator get out of my sight!” cried Don Diamond, ‘“‘ He is forever dismissed from my employ, and if he gets off thus easily, he may thank his lucky stars. Go!” Diamon‘i’s trembling hand pointed toward the oor, Sejio looked at his master and hesitated. ‘‘Not a word!” thundered the Nabob of Red Jack, his hand moving toward the revolver he had dropped on the table. “Go!” said Coral to the man, and her eyes added, in language not to be misunderstood: ‘‘You are not safe a moment in Red Jack. I Sejio moved off and ina moment had put a door between him and the man he had scorned. Don Diamond crossed the room in the yellow ‘‘ Now,” said he, coming back with his eyes fastened on Coral who quietly awaited him, ‘‘now, my girl, since you have played this cool band of your own ees I will play one of | , take the hand of your future wife.” canta tL LLL LT —_ Pn a Ra The Giant of Red Jack stepped toward Coral who had started back and was giving hima look of defiance and remonstrance. ‘‘Ha! don’t you want to touch the captain?” cried Diamond, reaching out and clutching Coral’s wrist. ‘‘Do you think I intend to give you away tothe one you have let out of the trap? My child, I bave a higher place for you to fill, Captain Faverell, here, is full partner in all the mines save the Yellow Witch, and we'll own that bonanza ere long. Here, cap- tain. This is the hand I have bestowed upon the Hercules and continued: ‘* You have but to touch the hand. 1t makes her yours, and nothing remains but the cere- I give her to you officially, and swear Sere f besides to carry out to the letter every clause of you.” He dragged the white-faced girl toward | | The next moment the big dark hand of ell fell on Coral’s white member, and the girl Di the touch had burned her to ‘It is done!” laughed Don Diamond, releasing the girl so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. ‘She is your betrothed from this moment, and at the time agreed on you shall claim your bride in open marriage.” ‘* The time agreed on?” echoed the girl, who, | in the middle of the room faced the two men with a look she had not shown before, ‘* Yes, my child. The date bas been fixed, and even now you stand at the threshold of the eventful day. But leave us now. Captain _Faverell and I have business of importance to transact.” It was so cool a dismissal that it sent the hot blood to Coral’s temples, coloring them the hue of the rose. ‘*Ts your business concerning the trail of the Lost Detective? Or, does Captain Favere!l de- liver his report of the massacre in Vulture | Guleh?’ Coral uttered these words with a coolness that nedrly sent Don Diamond horror-struck to the table. He looked at the camp Hercules, ‘*T will retire,” continued the girl, ‘* Not for the world would I break the force of the cap- tain’s narrative by remaining. If you think that the red innocents are to suffer for the sian guilty, I think you reckon without your ost. ‘* In God’s name, what does the girl know?” exclaimed Don Diamond, when Coral, having quietly unlocked the door, had passed out, There was a singular smile at Faverell’s mouth. ‘‘She knows enough to give us trouble unless she is silenced,” was the answer. ‘* Silenced? You don’t mean—” ‘‘No, not after the manner in which we silenced the _ soldiers,” broke in Faverell. ‘‘’Tnere is another way just as effective. Settle the whole matter at once, Give the girl entire- ly to me, and, as Mrs, Faverell, I assure you her tongue will not rattle on to any body’s de- struction,” ‘* T believe you, captain.” ‘‘Try it,” replied the Hercules, Don Diamond went back to his chair. ‘‘ Darrell, by this time, is far away, but not out of reach,” said he. “We must stretch out and gather in this young man, If he really knows by whom the work at Vulture Gulch was done, and you know what he had _ overheard when we caught him, he will go to Fort Meade with bis secret. He knows nothing of the secret trail which cuts off twenty miles, and taps the regular road this side of Cut-throat. Faverell, you know what is to be done, and at once.” Ford Faverell bowed. ‘“‘Start the men at once,” resumed Don Dia- mond. ‘*Let Talbot carry out the orders I have given him. If the man he has seen be Reynard he will finish him with tbat needle- pointed knife he carries, You need not go out on Darrell’s trail in person, ‘You will take Zeo to her mountain cage unless—” Don Diamond looked toward the door as if a footstep had fallen on his ear, . ‘You need not finish,” responded Faverell, leaning toward hiy master, ‘‘Zeo, the En- chantress, will soon be on her way to Captain Double Fist unless she sells the Yellow Witch at our own price.” “ That is it!” exclaimed the nabob, ‘ Unless she signs the title-deeds you will present, she goes to the old bandit of Arizona, You know where to meet the woman with the knife. Play your best band, and play it well, Then come to me.” Faverell of Red Jack went from the nabob’s mansion with a flash of triumph in bis eyes, “I'm getting on well,” he chuckled to him- self. ‘* This isn’t so_bad for a man who a short time ago couldn’t call an ounce of dust his own, So Talbot is to find out and finish the man he took for Reynard. I don’t believe he came back, for if he went into the Gulch with Raymond he is there yet. Coral played the very hand I thought she would play in the event of her dis- covering the man in the dungeon. I know that Darrell caught her with bis younger face and manners, but I am the man who wins the game, Gone to Fort Meade to throw down some as- tonishing cards, has he? The major is right. There is a shorter trail, and I can send to it half a dozen swift horses and twice that number of deadly hands. The next catch will mean more than a dungeon underground.” Five minutes afterward the Giant of Red Jack accosted a man on the street and talked to him a little while in quick and lowered tones, ‘At once!” he said at parting. ‘‘ Take the best horses in camp and don’t spare ’em either,” ‘‘ What if he took the short trail?” ‘‘Tt is one hundred chances to one that he did not,” answered Faverell. ‘‘ You have your in- structions—they come from the major himself— and no appeal must soften your hearts.” At this moment there rung out the loud report of a pistol-shot, and when the two men turned they sawasurging crowd in front of the El Dorado. For a moment or two they gazed in speechless aver- | silence at the scene, and Faverell was about to turn again to his companion when a man walked from the crowd with a revolver in bis hand, ‘* Who is that man?” asked Faverell. i (e(e) mi€bOOKS: 7 e t+ 545 = bE