Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 523 — page 26: what you’re looking at

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

26 had followed Raymond to Red Jack had re- turned. The return meant something. The detachment, thirty strong—old com- yaigners under a boyish leader—had come back instead of riding to Fort Meade with tbe terri- ble report of the massacre in the Gulch. ‘*Thar they ar’—back ag’in!” growled a man who stole up behind Faverell while he was con- templating the moving figures on the Plaza. ‘* Tt means something desperate.” ‘** Desperate, eh?’ “Yes, Captain Faverell. The young captain who went off with his head full of vengeance ag’in’ the Injuns don’t say nothin’ about ’em now. An’ the men—they stick close together an’ don’t visit the ranches as they did before.” ‘** But they’ve just come, Dick?” ‘*So they hev, but we kin see that they’ve changed in their ideas, I'll stake my head that you cxn’t get one to say that the Injuns are guilty.” Faverell said nothing for a moment, ‘* How many are there all told?” he asked. ** Thirty-one.” ‘* Where’s the captain?” ** [ don’t ses him now.” At that moment a figure walking from the middle of the Square toward the El Dorado at one side happened to cross the Titan’s line of vision. ‘* You know that man well enough, eb?” ex- claimed his companion. ‘ Yes ?? The man thus singled out was Solid Sam the scout, avd Faverell’s eyes became riveted upon him as he approached, and watched him with a darkening glare till his figure vanished. Sarcy had already communicated with the soldiers! The man who bad beaten ‘‘ Judge” Powers’s court and who had rescued Don Dia- mond’s foe was preparing for another play, ‘‘ Captain?” suddenly asked the man at Faver- ell’s side, ** Well?” ** Don’t you think there ought to be another a to bold our own?” ig Faverell looked into the face of the man whose lips trembled with the last words and caught the fire that blazed up in the speaker’s eyes. "This ou ready for work of that sort if we order it?” ke ventured. ‘‘ Try us!” was the quick response. ‘‘I guess all of us hate blue-coats as Talbot hated’em, and we've got to keep tbe Vulture Gulch secret at all hazard. Pass the word along, cap’n—issue the unwritten mandate—and thar’ll be thirty- one empty saddles more in Uncle Sam’s mount- ed legion.” Faverell with a look of promise moved on, following in the footsteps of Solid Sam who had just left the soldiers, : ree he came to a halt and then drew ack. The door of a cabin had opened, and he was almost face to face with the very man he was looking for. But Sarcy the scout was not alone. The porvel still open, contained the face of a man who evidently had just been in conference with the scout. ‘* Back, and with the soldiers!” cried Faverell, staring at the new face. ‘‘ He must have taken the other road—the one no one thought he would take, He’s found the soldiers; he told what he knows, which is a good deal. He has changed the captain’s mind. Darrell wants to get even. He burns to step between me and the beiress of the Red Jack bonanzas. I know the boy.” Fortunately Faverell had halted in time to prevent being seen, and when Sarcy and the young man in the shanty had separated, he whirled and went straight to his own cabin. He dashed open the door, and reached one corner with a single bound. Stooping there, he found near the floor in one of the logs a metallic button, which he grasped with eagerness, The following moment he was pushing it in and out, and the noises thus pro- duced resembled the clicks of a telegraph sounder, After a while Faverell stopped and placed one ear near the button. A lengthy silence ensued, then a dozen clicks at short intervals reached his ears, ‘What's that? Played one of his hands, eh? Great God!” and the Hercules of Red Jack bounded up and rushed out like a madman. CHAPTER XXXV. CORAL’S NERVE, SOMETHING unusual had brought the soldiars back, and fate bad decreed that they should ar- rive at a crisis in the history of Red Jack. The young captain, who had been hoodwinked by the well-spun stories of Don Diamond and his minions was willing to believe that the das- tardly outrage at Vulture Gulch had been per- trated by the Indians, but there were men in his command who did not share his opinion. These soldiers, after consultation, had agreed to keep their suspicions to themselves till the ar- rival of the company at Fort Meade when they Reynard of Red Jack. intended to throw off all restraint and express their belief to the commandant. f But affairs were to take another and sudden urn, The command was halted in the mountain by a man who appeared suddenly in the mountain trail, and in a moment young Darrell was pour- ing a startling story into the captain’s ear. The dutachment drew up in close order for council, and there was but one desire expressed, The murder of their comrades seemed to send a burning flame through the soldiers’ veins. They clamored to be led back to Red Jack; they were ready to drag Don Diamond from his house and shoot him to death in the center of the Plaza. The youthful captain now saw how he had been deceived and when some one sug- gested that they might be riding into an am- bush as disastrous as the one which had settled the fate of Raymond and his men, he gave or- ders for the retrograde march. Darrell who in riding back with the cavalry- men had escaped the masked desperadoes wait- ing for him in the mountains managed to reach his cabin home unmolested and Faverell on pens of Solid Sam had been the first to discover m, The troops had come back without any show of resentment. They rode quietly into the uare and bivouacked as before, but the cap- tain bad cautioned them to be on their guard. As for Ford Faverell, when he saw Darrell back in Red Jack, and realized that the scheme against him had failed, he went, as we have seen, to his own cabin and ticked a message in great haste. The reply had startled him. Hardly waiting for it to be finished, he rushed from the shanty, and a second later fell headlong into ‘‘ Judge” Powers’s cabin, ‘*Ha! some of these soldiers can’t keep a secret,” laughed the judge at sight of Faverell, ‘* They’ve given away the game,” Big Faverell stood in the middle of the room his eyes swimming in excitement. ‘* What is the game?” he asked huskily. ‘‘A coup within an hour,” was the res ‘*They are going to arrest certain parties.” Faverell seemed to draw back, **Am I one?” ‘You are.” ** And Don Diamond?” “The major and his Honor,” laughed the judge, striking his breast. ‘*The young cap- tain has heard something. There is a traitor among us,” ‘‘Not so much traitor as SPY. You don’t know who came back with the soldiers?” sk No.” ** Darrell.” Powers gave utterance to an ejaculation of surprise. ‘Where is the young scamp?’ he cried. “Fetch him before my court! Let my jury have a chance at him.” “This isn’t a case for Phot jury,” observed Faverell with a smile. ‘‘ We can on Dar- rell’s crime without a shadow of law and that is just what we will do, But first of all the pre- paration for the battle. We are now confront- ed by more than a lot of army detectives, We bave Reynard in his true character against us, then, we find Solid Sam on the opposite side, and lastly we must meet the friends—the mine slaves—of Zeo the Enchantress. You see it is no one-sided battle, judge. It is a death-grap- ple for existence. The crisis of Red Jack’s life bas come, Wemust stand together.” ** Judge ” Powers looked closely at the speaker a moment before he replied. ‘*This man is working for himself,” thought he. ‘*Don Diamond bas passed me every time tofavor Faverell. Why put my head into a noose to stand by him? [ve got enough to an- swer for besides doing this, I am for ‘ Judge’ Powers first and last. I guess I know where my head is the safest.” Faverell saw no signs of such reasoning for he looked over his shoulder at the ‘‘ judge” from the door,and said significantly and solemnly, ‘* Remember!” and was gone, Meantime Don Diamond had remained in bis house, and most of the time in the famous au- dience room where the fate of more than one human being had been determined with the cool cruelty of a devil. Half a dozen times he had manipulated ametal- lic button in the floor, butas he bent toward the carpet and listened he heard no response, *\ Where is he?’ he cried driving the button into the board with his heel. ‘‘ [ told my visitor that I had telegraphed his doom beyond the wallsiof this house, yet I have heard nothing which confirms the boast. They have not failed me? No! I have Faverell at my call. bave all the rest; they are as much my slaves to-night as when they took the oath which made them mine. I wonder if the accursed camp is asleep?” He dashed from the room and went to the front door. As he threw it open the clear notes of a cav- alry bugle crossed the space between him and the mountains, and he listened like a man in a nse, maze. ‘* Can the troops have come back?” grated he, _ seen eer i a seen eee ee eee SN a ae a “Must I deal again with a lot of uniformed bloodhounds? ell, they will find Don Dia- mond keen and merciless,” He went back to the room with rapid strides. As he crossed the threshold he heard a foot- step behind him, and in a second he found the eyes of Coral fastened upon him, ‘* The soldiers have come back,” said the girl. **Their bugle has just announced them, What does it mean?” | He regarded her searchingly a few seconds, like a person who attempts to read one’s thoughts by the eye. ** Coral, you want them to come back, don’t you?” he asked, ‘*T?” exclaimed the young girl, starting. **T would think so, after the band you have played. You liberated the young spy from the dungeon; you sent him away to betray me and my mines, and it may be your band that called the army bloodhounds back to give us trouble.” Coral lost color before the mad look and cold eyes of the man who spoke thus to her. ** What is Darrell to you, girl?’ he went on, closing in on her with a suddenness which she could not resent. ‘‘ You thought enough of bim to lasso him from the dungeon.” Tdi.” ‘* He is more than friend, one would think,” Coral’s color changed toa tell-tale flush and Don Diamond grasped her wrist asif he feared that she was about to seek safety in flight. ‘*Tell me now, for this is the time,” he went on. ‘* Do you love Darrell?” She drew back the length of his arm, but straightened proudly there. ‘** T love Darrell!” she answered, courageously giving him look for look, Don Diamond dropped her hand and pushed her away. ‘Poor girl!” laughed he, ‘If you knew all ee Darrell—if you could hear the story of his irth— ‘“‘The narrative would not lessen my love!” cried she. ‘* You laugh at what you have often called bis obscurity, and yet you give me toa man whose past is as black as the night which bas hidden some of his deeds. You make this man your partner, your confidant, and, with- out consulting me, you give me to Faverell, the vulture of Arizona, What if I were to tell you that my hand is not yours to bestow?’ Major Diamond’s face grew @ark. ‘*Not mine, eh?’ he laughed, leaning toward her. ‘' What pretty insinuation is this?” ‘‘ Read it as you wish,” was the answer. ‘* You are the interpreter, not I!” The autocrat of the gold-camp stepped back and gazed at the girl whose courage, assumed so suddenly, had rendered ber more beautiful than ever. ‘*Not mine to give away, eh?” he suddenly cried. ‘‘I accept the challenge. Walk into the room, Coral. I want tosee you a moment in sacred privacy.” At the end of another second Coral stood face to face with the Nabob of Red Jack in the room so well known to the men of the camp. Don Diamond waved her to a chair which she took, and then seized the cord which dangled from the ceiling. _ The summons was answered by the servant who had taken Sejio’s place. Go out and find ‘‘ Judge” Powers and Cap- tain Favere]!,” exclaimed Don Diamond at sight of the man’s face. ‘‘As you go along ask whether there are soldiers in Red Jack, and how many. But don’t come back witbout the judge and the captain.” Then, as the factotum’s face disappeared, the king of the mimes turned toward spell-bound Coral and smiled, ‘“What were you saying about not being mine to dispore of?” he asked. ‘‘ You have just heard my command, You ought to be able to interpret it.” There was a slight start on Coral’s part, ‘‘There! keep your seat, child,” continued he. ‘‘I am only going to teach you that I am master here by making you the wife of the Vulture of Arizona!” CHAPTER XXXVI. SERVED TOO WELL. THE heiress of Red Jack broke from Don Diamond’s touch, and in an instent was on her feet. Her bosom rose and fell like tumultuous waves, her brilliant eyes looked more brilliant than ever, The king of the Dakota mines stared at ber and wondered what she would say, ‘‘ This is the game, is it?’ cried Cora],. ‘‘ You are paying me back for taking Darrell from the underground trap.” ° ‘‘T am only disciplining you, girl,” was his reply. ‘* You need a master, and I assure you that you'll find one with a mailed hand in Cap- tain Faverell, my partner. Go back to the chair. The door is locked and will not be open- ed till the judge and the captain come.” He turned to the table without another word, and appeared to forget at once tha! Coral was in the room. She watched bim with a half contemptuous, half-defiant smile, now with her A Eomicbooks on ~ co m ' ; HE 4 —= a. Tim E