Beadle's Dime Library No. 807 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

ee a = as his surmise that Captain Valdos would act mobly, adding: > ite planned weli, sir, and was driving the Indians savagely when the reinforce. nents arrived. ‘‘He gave the order to sound the retreat, fighting back, but discovering Mad Eyes, the great chief, he made a desperate attem pt to kill or capture him. ** Whether he ordered others to follow him, wr dashed alone upop the group, I cannot by many bullets and arrows,” ‘‘ Brave fellow, yet reckless, **Did you secure his body?” asked the colonel.» ‘‘ Not until the second day, sir, when I buried all those who fe)l, and a list of whom I have here. sir; but, the bodies had been eruelly mutilated by the Indians, even more so than by the teeth of the coyotes after they retreated. ‘Captain Lane and Lieutenant Cole made desperate attempts to rescue Captain Valdos, butin vain, and I tried to secure the bodies the next day, but the red-skins moved out ta meet me, and not having my third force near I dared not attack, so when we did get the bodies they were beyond identification,” ‘*You have done all that could be done, Major Canfield, and deserve the highest praise. : ~ “JT will acquaint my daughter with the sad news Of Valdos’s death before she hears it from others.” ‘Pardon me, father, but 1 have heard all, for I confess to being an eavesdropper, as | was sketching in the next room when Major (Canfield entered, and. anxious to know the ‘truth I did not make my presence known,” and Marcelite Monastery came forward and offered her hand to Major Canfield, who asked with some surprise at her calm man- ner: “But, did you hear the Sad tidings I bring, Miss Monastery, df Captain Valdos?” “That ne 18 dead, yes ‘He died as a brave soldier should wish to die, and it is better so.” Both the colonel and Major Canfield re- ii garded her with surprise now, for her man- ner was perfect)y unmoved. 4 ' My child, I fear you hardly realize the sad situation, for you were the promised wife of poor Valdos, as 1 may say in confidence to Major Canfield.” ’ Yes, father, his pledged wife to fulfill a duty toward him, toward myself, though Wi} ‘the love I had once felt for him, or rather for MAL ‘what I believed him to be, has vanished, | yes, long ago. | —:s ‘* =#is death*is a gallant one, and it sets me free, though I am deeply pained for him, his untimely loss, as I feel also fér the others who fell by his side.’ : Calm, pale yet very dignified, very beauti- ful, Marcelite stood before her father and. ' | Major Canficld, her hands clasped upon the back of the chair she leant gracefully upon. OF ‘‘If so you feel, my child, it is better that Vaidos met the fate he did,” said the 4 colonel in a tone of slight reproach, and bowing in silence Marcelite left the major ‘with her father. , After some further conversation together |} Major ‘Canfield took his leave, and Colonel Monasteray sat alone, buried in deepest _ meditation while the shadows of night dark- ened the room, | As the last glimmer: of sunlight was fading away the orderly entered and said Ap “The chief of scouts, Wild Bill, sir, has #@) returned and begs to see you.” .#0—™C~*C* Light, thee amps and show him in at | ence, orderly,’”’ was the quick response. fe as A few moments after a man over six feet qq _ Muckskin, top-boots and dove colored som. . | in height, of splendid physique and clad in a ero, entered the room and saluted pc a | y |i Pon But Colonel Monastery raed, pa quick - “th edingla and grasping his hand said carnest a Reds “Wild Bill, 1 am glad indeed to see you Hig back, ant by a strange coincidence I have quent learned of the death of Captain Adrian ’ Valdos, who was, killed a week ago at the heal of hiscommand.” — | * You are mistaken, Colonel Monastery, for Captain Adrian Valdos returned to the fort with me,’’ was the scout’s impressive re- | sponse, | he “-_ La Ae + | . - f discover; but he shot and cut his way to the | very side of the chief and there fell pierced | SO RE Ee SR A AE NT cM On tea I te ty tT Te At a ye Si ea go la Wild Bill, the wild West Duelist. CHAPTER Vill. THE STORY OF WILD BILL. Tue words of Wild Bill were misunder- stood by Colonel Monastery, who said quick- ] re ‘‘Then Vaidos was not killed after all, 'and escaped from the Indians?” | **He did not escape, colonel, for he could not, but I rescued him.”’ | ‘* What? you have been then among the | Sioux?” ‘No, colonel, I am just up from Texas, and rescued Captain VYaldos from the Co- | manches, though not by force of arms, sir.” | ‘My dear man, we are both on different | trails, it seems, for Captain’ Yaldos was killed nt the head of his command one week ago in la battle with the Sioux, and now you tell ;me he is with you, having been rescued | from captivity among the Comanches.” ‘*Ah! | understand now, sir, that the offi | cer here, whose record you sent me to trail | down has been lately killed?” | Ye Fes, exaethy:”” | ‘It is well he has, sir, for otherwise you would have had to hang him.”’ “What do you mean, Wild Bill?” ‘*Simply, Colonel Monastery, that the one you have honored here jis a fraud and not the real Captain Valdos, orrather Lieutenant Adrian Valdos, whom you had appointed to the army for valuable services rendered,” — [oo You astound me, Wild Bill.” | ‘‘T was myself astounded, sir,” ‘There is ng mistake? | ' None, alr,” Who then ig he” “The oné Wno is with me?” ‘* No, the one who was here.” ‘‘His name is Elmer Valdos. sir, oncé known as Elmo the Mexican Raider.” “Ta! that outlaw chief?” ‘Yes, sir, the brother, twin-brother in fact, of Adrian Valdos, and go like him that no ove seeing them together could tell them apart, By ambush, disguise and frontier detective work I have run him to earth,-. a. ‘Yes, Captain Valdos told me in eonfi- dence of this samié twin-brother, told me how he had suffered through him, even to being mistaken for Elmo the Butcher. ‘You have the outlaw chief with you, Wild Bill, and the real Captain Valdos has just been killed.” Wild Bill looked staggered for a moment at this, but rallied quickly and replied: ‘* Colonel Monastery, both Captain Valdos and I expected to find his impersonator here, sir, for 1 left him here. *‘ It is fortunate that he was killed, rather than Jive to be hanged, for his brother had consented to no longer attempt to save him from the punishment his many crimes de- serve, as he has time and again.” ‘‘ Where did you find the man you have with you?” . | ‘‘In the main village of the Comanches, the prisoner of the old head chief, who had just died when I arrived, leaving my friend, for he is the one I found on the trail, with a wound that would have killed him, and took to the Valdos ranch.”’ ‘‘ Lremember, Eagle Wing,a young chief?” ‘* Yes, sir, now the head chief, and who at once set free Captain Valdos, who had been placed in the care of his predecessor asa pris: oner, when the false Valdos came to tke fort ape claimed the rank offered to his twin bro. , ther.” | “ Tam becoming moreand more mystified, Wild Bill, but to your story,’’ “In a few words, sir, | went from here to the Moonlight Mining Camps, with Miner Turpin, and then on to Texas alone. ‘“{ went to the Old Mission Ranch of Adrian Valdos to get the bottom facts of his record from the cowboys there. ‘ T got the truth from Rio Grande Raiph, the cowboy chief, that then boss had a twin brother, and who and what he was, ‘‘He was the triend of the Comanches, who protected him in his raids for the plun- der he gave them, and he was in the ranch the day Miss Monastery carried Adrian Val dos his commission, when under Major Can- field's. protection on her way north to join you here.” “Yes, yes, Tremember.” “The outlaw brother heard all, from his secret hiding. place in the Old Mission, for he was visiting Adrian Valdos there, and go os.) = a — i — ——— + - -'--' rr Ov--'--"000—000—0—0— eee eee eee SS *e Ps np Sa oe YY a a ae | : =e. | truthful Vers 5 plotted to be the one to benefit by his com- mission. ‘* He left the ranch, went to the Comanche village, arranged with the head chief to keep his brother a prisoner, and when the latter started for Fort D-—-— to report for duty, he ambushed him with half a dozen warriors and made him a captive. ‘With his clothes, his papers, commis- | Sion and money, he went himself to Fort Db—— and got orders to report here to you. | ‘* He came in due time, and, a counterpart | of Adrian Valdos, played his cards well. ‘*He deceived you all, and, a brave man, he even won promotion under false pre- ‘tenses, while, not daring to kill his brother, | he left him a captive among the Comanches, _ hoping he would die while ip their hands. ‘*Forging his brother’s handwriting, he wrote to Rio Grande Ralph and received _his remittances from the sale of cattle and horses, in fact, he played his part so well that, if 1am not greatly mistaken, he would soon have become the husband of your beaw tiful daughter.” . “My God! Wild Bill, you speak but too ly, and from what a fate have you not saved my child—from what misery have you not saved me?” and the colonel was ‘4eeply moved, After a slight pause, Wild Blll continued ‘* We secured the prisoner through Eagle Wing’s friendship for me, went to the ranch for Mr. Valdos to recuperate, and then came northward, stopping at Moonlight Mining Camp with Mr. Purpin, who sends you this letter, and wishes his daughter to come there and join him, as he will be detained for some time, and i promised, with your per- mission, sir, to be her escort there,” Certainly, but I fear Miss Sue will flad it rough living there.” ‘* Ob, no, sir, for Miner Turpin is comifor- tably fixed up, and you know her earlier years were passed in the mining-camps and she is used to it.” " “ You are right, and of course she must’ go; but now to the man you have rescued from asad fate, the one you seem to justly claim to be the real Adrian Valdos?” ‘‘ He is in my quarters, sir, and I shall bring him here at your pleasure, sir.” ‘* At once, and have Major Canfield come also.” ay CHAPTER IX, THE CAPTIVE OFFICER. ConoNEL Mark Monastery confessed to | himself, after the departure of Wild Bill to return with the one he had rescued from captivity that he had never been in such a quandary before in his life. The officer who had been killed had con- fessed to him the erring of his twin brother, and this. made the mystery more clouded, with the chances in his favor. But then the nature of that same officer, after his coming to the fort, had seemed dif- ferent from the Adrian Valdos they had known as the Texas ranchero. In height, bearing, form, voice and face they were counterparts, so it was indeed hard to distinguish the fraud from the real, the outlaw from the honest man. a, But the story of Wild Blii seemed to lend truth to the claim of the man whom he had rescued, and Colonel Monastery impatiently awaited his coming. vig At last the orderly ushered in Major Can- 4 field, Wild Billand withthem the manwhom pointed toas the real Adrian circumstances Valdos. Colone! Monastery greeted him, gazing up- on him the while as though he were looking upon one raised from the dead, for, except- ing that he was not in uniform, he was iden- tically the one who h few days before to from which he had never returned. Mog. ‘Major Canfield also looked upon the coun- _ >. ‘ . 7 lerpart ofthe one he had known as Adrian i Valdos, and the two could hardly realize that two persons could be so alike. Ss ‘My dear sir, I bardly know what to say to you, so thorough has been the deception of your brother toward us all. Ve ‘* Have you been told of his fate?” asked Colonel Monastery, evidently emburrassed at the situation in which he found himself. “‘I know only, sir, that he is here at the ah fort representing himself as Adrian Valdos, and I do not wonder that_yo have been ecomicbooks ys ° ? . ~~. =_—— if ov) é ) } . wel 4 ‘i a4 > ae 7 - 4 My + ~~ ¥ *?* a - a , & _ i. =a < % Sad * ! d left hisquarterssome = Bo upon an expedition — cm