Beadle's Dime Library No. 562 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

clared, -montbs ago wearied with the caref of years I 24 —_—_ \ sas City, that wonderful young metropolis of the newer West. ‘* When I arrived in the city a celebration was going on and the hotels were so crowded that the only accommodations'I was able to find é = were at a fourth-rate house on a side street. I Iam going to make a proposition to you, | did not like my quarters, nor the character of mentlenen, ’ he continued. as am going os reed the guests, most of whom seemed, to use the com- ou a chance to go into a scheme in which there | mon saying, to be decidedly off color. is a deal of money, but I must ask that you will | I was not particularly alarmed for my per- pledge yourselves to keep the matter a profound | sonal safety, you understand, for I have always secret from everyone, even if you do not care to acted on the rule when you are in Rome do as go Taga erat efter i opened to you. he yarrim _ do, eee when I travel 1 meee Oe (ds looke a ‘ ract attention by wearing expensive clothes The opinion they had formed in regard to the | but always garb myself Sixties. ; stranger was not a particularly favorable one, ‘Then too I never carry much money with that is, in regard to bis visit and sbarpness, | me, always making arrangements before [ He impressed them as being a good-natured | start so as to have remittances reach me at man, who night get along well enough in the | certain points. : Sido smpenan of tha teouiler ard tokally untitsed |’ eb thecton of tom houas and eheht aisles 8 O e frontier an auly unfitted | up at the top of the house and what I dislike to cope with the knaves and sharpers, adven- | most about the apartment was the fact thata gh Na ager pina Mai to be found on | door led from it into an adjoining Tush ed e skirmish line of civilization, upon the door was only a common lock, no They did not believe that the secret in regard | bolt; still as the door was locked, I presumed 2 sober the hr wae 80 aah prep ec oa that there would not be much danger of any- anything; he had been made a dupe of by | body intruding upon me; and the room was somebody, for that any secret with much money | Hobson’s choice, gentlemen, it was that or none. = a, could be Rit ws foes the Wichita ‘As it happened, on the first night that I ountain region they did not believe. stopped at this hotel I was out late. I attended Still, as far as they could see, there was no | the theater and did not get home until after barm in giving the required promise, eleven, and I sat down in my room to enjoy Each saw this written on the eyes of the other, | a cigar for a few minutes before going to bed. “ Sandy MacAlpine acting as spokesman, x “As ie ae smoking I ipesne Deles d: or in the next room come in, aid from his “Oh, that is all right! If you choose to in- | heavy uncertain tread I gathered the idea that con ay conn to us, Wor sat try apd do cur the oe had been Lae ; t est not to betray your confidence, e stamped about for a few minutes an “But if there is much money in the affair— , then he came and tried the door between the say, twoor three hundred thousand dollars, I | rooms, wouldn’t advise you to trust us with the par- ‘** Aha, my fine fellow!’ said I to myself, ticulars,” the irrepressible Eddie Livingstone | ‘that is no go; you will not get in here.’ And added, unable to resist the temptation to poke a | then, would you have suspected such a thing, little bit of fun af the stranger. ‘‘ For although | gentlemen? The fellow, finding that the door my pard and myself expect to make our eternal | was locked, coolly put his shoulder against it, my sad experience with that worthy I ought not to set myself up for a judge of character, "er the pards laughed, “But Lam going to risk you two in spite of my adventure with Blower Brown,” Whisper- ing Ben declared. ‘ ’ fortunes out of these quarter sections which we | and burst it open witb almost as little trouble as have seeured, yet thatis in the future and we | thongh it had been made of pasteboard instead might not be able to resist a big temptation if it | of wood!” was put in our way.” ‘* That was a startling surprise!” Sandy Mac- ‘Ab, I see that you love a jest,” Whispering | Alpine remarked, as the other hesitated. Ben remarked, smiling, pleasantly. ‘‘I appre- ‘* Yes, a surprise party that you did not ex- ciate the joke, and I can assure you that I am | pect!” Eddie Livingtone added. not at all afraid to trust my secret to your; ‘Gentlemen, I assure you that you could care.” have knocked me down with a feather, as the ‘*We give you our word that we will keep it | big, ugly brute of a man came reeling into my soundly,” Sandy MacAlpine replied in his | reom—a huge, red-faced ruffian, with a fierce straightforward, honest way. black beard, who looked for all the world like ‘Well, gentlemen, it is a strange sort of a | one of the pirates of the olden time that we read story that I am sbout to tell you,” Whispering | about,” Ben began, ‘* By Jove! Mr. Bishop, your story is as good ‘* A kind of a ghost story, a fairy tale, I sup- | as a novel!” Sandy MacAlpine declared. pose!” Eddie Livingstone exclaimed, with a ‘* Wait, my dear sir, until you hear the whole rin. pi of it, and then you willsee how true in this case is ‘Oh, no, it isn’t fiction, itis true,” the other the statement that truth is stranger than fic- answered, appexeciny so innocent of slang tion!” the other remarked, inhis impressive way, not to comprehend the sarcasm of the speech, with a dignified wave of the hand, “Keep quiet, Eddie, and let Mr. Bishop go ‘* IT was fairly rooted to my seat, for I expect- ahead!” Sandy MacAlpine remarked. ed nothing less than to be murdered on the ‘It is truly a marvelous tale, gentlemen, and | spot, but the intruder had no idea of offering bears out the truth of the old assertion that | violence to me, as I soon discovered,” W hisper- truth is stranger than fiction,” Whispering Ben | ing Ben continued. ‘‘ No, in the most friendly declared in an extremely solemn way, manner possible, he cried: ‘Hello, old top! I ‘* Maybe that is so, but we have some cham- | reckoned somebody was on the other side of pion liars in Texas who can be backed to knock | the door, and so I bu’sted it in! Have a drink?” out truth, every time!” Eddie Livingstone de- | Then, without asking leave or license, he took a chair, sat on the other side of the table, pulled a big flask from his pocket, and passed it over to me. ‘Take a good big drink of this ’ar’ liquid lightning, and warm the cockles of yer heart!’ he cried. Gentlemen, the man inspired me with so much terror that 1 did not dare to refuse, and I think the liquor I took was, with- out exception, the vilest stuff I ever tasted!” and the speaker made a terrible face, as though he flavor of the draught still lingered on his ate. pe 1 reckon you have not sampled much Greer county whisky since you have arrived in these rahe, ’ Eddie Livingstone remarked, with a sly wink. ‘* Well, gentlemen, that is the truth,” Nahan Bishop admitted, ‘I rarely indulge in liquor except to use it for medicine,” ‘That is what about one-half of these Texans declare,” Sandy MacAlpine remarked, with a smile, ‘‘ But they usually add to the declara- tion the remark that this is an awful sickly ‘This is no fiction! Listen, gentlemen, and judge for yourself.” CHAPTER XXX. A “FAIRY” STORY. ‘‘As I informed you, gentlemen, my name is Bishop, Nahan Bishop, and 1 am the ruprietor of a large and flourishing scbool for oys located in Tarrytown, in the State of New York, and if you are acquis with the great metropolis of America, New York City, and its neighborhood, you understand that my town is only a few miles from the great city of the Em- pire State.” 3 This speech was delivered with all the flour- ish of the rahe ogue, and the young men were so thoroughly deceived by this accomplished scoundrel that they had no suspicion that he was anything but what be peat toy to be, “T bave conducted my school, gentlemen, as- sisted by a score of competent teachers, whose superiors are not to be found in the country | country.” from Maine to Califorma, for the last thirty ‘* Yes, yes, I see the joke. Well, gentlemen, years, and { am proud to say that, besides es- | after I had taken the drink the big stranger be- tablishing a Sener for my institution equal to that enjoyed by any similar one in the coun- tee I have acquired a fair share of this world’s Ss. came exceedinyly friendly. ‘ W’ot is the use of that durned door being shet? he asked—I am reproducing his peculiar dialect for you to the best of my ability, gentlemen, ‘If that ar’ door is open we kin be neighborly and social-like. I hate to be alone; I dunno how it is with you, stranger, but when I am alone I have all sorts of queer fancies, and when I close my eyes see all sorts of queer things. Take another drink!’ The man was so much under the influence of liquor that 1 feared if I angered him by a re- fusal he might get ugly, so I took another swal- low of the nasty, fiery stuff, which burnt my throat all the way down. Lucky I was able to avoid taking much of the liquor, for as 1 drank directly from the flask, he was rot able to see ‘ t ; : 4 Ve ) - at en ‘Both my pard and myself are well-ac- quainted with New York and its neighbor- hood,” Sandy MacAlpine remarked. ‘Indeed! Well,.gentlemen, I am proud to meet you,” and in his entbusiasm Nahan Bishop shook hands with the two young men, ‘But to return to my tale. A couple of determined to e a vacation and rest my tired brain by traveling. I had never visited the West and so I planned an extensive tour. ‘In the course of my travels I came to Kan- . + , “a «4 Soa, a . a * - Ase Sas Tats 8 4 lb 5S. Pee ote TO rv ok Lone Hand, the Shadow. -_- how much I took, but as it was, in my confusion I neglected to pretend to take a bigger drink than I really swallowed, and the man was not so drunk as not to notice it, and he at once com- plained. ‘** That is no way to b’ist yer licker!’ he ex- claimed. ‘You don’t take enuff to wash the cockles out of your throat! Look at the kind of a drink I take!’ And then, gentlemen, upon my word of honor, I believe the fellow swallowed a whole tumblerful at a draught. ‘*Then he pushed the bottle over to me, and I was careful to take plenty of time about the drinking operation on this occasion, so that the man was satisfied. ‘** Say, do you know that you look something like a preacher,’ he exclaimed abruptly, after looking me all over for a while. ‘*]T replied that I was a school-teacher, ‘¢* Well, preacher or school-teacber, both on ’em are pretty much alike,” he replied, begin- ning to speak now in a disjointed, peculiar way. ‘School-teacher, do you ever see things at night in the dark, arter you git to bed?’ “* The question astonished me and when I took a cautious peep at the man before replying I saw that his eyes were rolling wildly, so I thought best to humor him and answered that I guessed I did, sometimes,” ‘** Leetle devils that dance all over the bed and come and pull the clothes down when you cover yer head up with them and grin in yer face!’ he exclaimed, wildly; then he gave a sudden leap in the air. ‘Thar they are now—arter me ag’in!’ he cried!” ** T see, The-Man-with-the-poker,” Sandy Mac- Alpine remarked. ‘' Yes, sir, delirium tremens, and a frightful attack be had. He roused the whole house and the jokeof the thing was that I was the only man who could do anything with him, and so had to take care of the unfortunate wretch, for as a Christian man I couldn’t leave him to suf- fer. ‘* After the attack was over he became as weak asa child, doctors were called and they gave their opinion that the fellow was not long for this world. I watched by him for two days, hardly allowing myself time to take food and rest. ‘** On the night of the second day as { was keep- ing my vigil by his coack—it was after midnight and everything was still—the man opened his eyes suddenly and looked up in my face, and for the first time since his attack I saw the light of reason shining in them, ‘** How long hev I laid on my back? he asked ina hoarse whisper, not able tospeak loud so weak was he, fs ‘** Two days,’ I answered. ‘¢¢ Have the doctor sharps been to see me?’ **T nodded assent. ‘¢* An’ wot do they say—how soon will I cash in my checks? ‘* Now, gentlemen, I hold that it is not right to deceive a dying man and delude bim with talse hopes, so I repeated to him what the doc- tors had said. ‘¢* Them sharps know their leetle biz,’ he mut- tered. ‘I kin feel that I am going—school- teacher, I won’t never see the sun ag’in.’ ‘*¢ Oh, you may last longer than that,’ I an- swered, ‘‘* No, pard, [ don’t b’lieve I hev got ten min- utes of life Jeft. I’m sick of the game and I am willing to quit, although thar’s a fortune for me in Texas ia the Wichita Mountains if I could only git down thar.’ ‘“Then he told me his story briefly, for his life-current was ebbing fast. He had been a desperado and an outlaw for years, and six months before this time had lteen connected with a gang bere in Texas, and in a certain spot in the Wichita Mountains the gang had accum- ulated over thirty thousand dollars, and were just about to divide it when they were surprised by a band of Texan Rangers, and the ruffian believed that he was the only man of the gang that escaped death, the rest being all killed in the fight, so that be alone knew the secret of the treasure, and that secret he confided tome, He had a rude map of the region, and assured me that I would not have any difficulty in finding the place. _ ‘‘ At first I] hesitated to accept, but he pressed the map upon me, with the assurance that I was the only man who bad done him a good turn in years, and as he had neither kith nor kin in the world, I ought to be his heir.” ‘‘Under such circumstances I should have taken it!” Sandy MacAlpine exclaimed, deeply interested in the story. “You can just bet I would have jumped at it!” Eddie Livingstone assented. “1 tell you, such a sum as thirty thousand dollars is not to be found on every bush!” _ ‘* Nor in every hotel, even in such a wonderful town as Kansas City,” added Mr, Bishop, with a smile. , ‘‘ Well, gentlemen, to bring my story toa close, [ accepted the legacy, and, five minutes after I had put the map safely away in my pocket, the man was dead, ‘*‘ Mystory is told. Of course, gentlemen, you understand that I came down here as soon as possible, The only thing that bothers me is the doubt as to whether I have really the right to ecomicbook atest 225-Leras ———————— Se —*&