Beadle's Pocket Library (no. 124) (1886 05 26)
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i a Va a SM Copyrighted, 1886, by Bx. Lilies : Vol. X #2.50 Published Weekly by Beadle ol, ' a Year, No, 98 WiLL1AM St., NEW ond Adami, 5 5 Oe ONO, Pods ir OR “ SS
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Judge Lynch, Jr. Judge Lynch, Jr,; THE BOY VIGILANTE. BY T. C. HARBAUGH, AUTHOR OF “NICK 0’ THE NIGHT,” ‘‘ HIDDEN LODGE,” “‘ NIGHTINGALE NAT,” ETC, CHAPTER I. THE GULCH TIGER. Wat, I’m back!” He who spoke thus drew rein in one of the loneliest canyons among the Black Hills. It was near midnight, and the strange silence that brooded over the spot added a vivid super- naturalness to time and place. Back this time to stay !—back on a mission of the utmost importance. The old place looks natural. I saw it all the time I war away, had it kinder photographed on my mind. war just gettin’ things in workin’ order hyar, when war called off. Now what shall I do first— hunt for the youngster, or see if the boys are at their old tricks? ebbe I kin do both at once. I'm goin’ to try.” The man looked like a giant on horseback, There was much about his ‘‘make-up” that gas him an appearance decidedly brigandish. e had cultivated a crop of black hair until it touched a pair of Atlantean shoulders. His eyes, dark, piercing, and restless, were a living index of a nature merciless and bloodthirsty. His hat, a huge sombrero, had been worn from “‘ greaser- dom”* on the head that carried it to Cut-throat Canyon. . The two revolvers that graced the man’s belt seemed his only weapons; but if one had opened his jacket, one would have seen a knife whose handle shone like a silver stick. Among a thousand motley characters of the Black Hills, this man would have been selected for any work that required nerve, bloodshed and cunning. Tom Terror, as he was fitly named, had al- ready made a name which will never be erased from the annals of danger and death that a thou- sand pens have traced in crimson ink. His first sentence told that he had been away. This was true. He had ridden from Custer City, five months prior to the date of our present romance, with a rope about his neck, and in the midst of a score of the most determined men that ever hung an outlaw. But the bird in the hand on that occasion did not prove worth two in the bush. The Vigilantes of Custer had made one mis- take. Tom Terror had been permitted to ride his own horse to the spot chosen for his exit. And he rode it further still. Through the pale moonlight a specter went down the old teaiwacd trail, with a score of yelling demons at its horse’s heels. From the neck of the fugitive a long rope whipped and fluttered in the wind. ; The flying ghost was Tom Terror, his pur- suers, the Custer City avengers, A word to his horse had been sufficient. A wild snort, a leap forward like a startled stag, a dozen pistol-shots, a lot of See. men told the story of how the bird in the back to the bush. And now Tom Terror had returned to the canyon through which ‘he had galloped with a rope around his neck, e had enemies to punish. Had he come back for that purposet Not exactly; but he had a mission which was fraught with death, all the same. He had come back to hunt and to kill! “Hal ha! They’re not after me now,” con- tinued the giant, ‘‘I don’t wear the necktie that they gave me on that occasion,” and his rough hand felt his short stretch of throat. ‘ A fellar seldom wears it more’n once in this coun- try. I’ve had my trial; don’t want another.” The speaker took up the reins which had fallen upon his horse’s neck, and prepared to move on. The full-orbed summer moon was directly overhead; her light came down through the gap like a silver mist. The gigantic walls, tower- ing hundreds of feet above the outlaw, had changed from dark to gray. The wind, too, was rising. ‘* Ho! lm not the only devil out!” fell sudden- ly from his lips. ‘‘ Am I to find the red boys so soon after my return? Thunder and shot! This is luck worthy the gods!” While the gap-seeker’s countenance told that he expected to encounter some person or per- sons whom he would be pleased to meet, he took good care to guide his horse to the foot of the right hand wall, where shadows of Egyptian darkness lay. ** Comin’! comin’!” he murmured, as he waited with a cocked revolver in each hand, “I’m sart’in it ar’ the boys; but I might as well pre- pare for suthin’ else!” A man who carries his vagabondish life in his hands, must hear sounds that would not startle the ordinary mortal. Brigandage had given Tom Terror the hearing of a fox. He kept his dancing eyes turned toward the south, or to- ward that end of Cut-throat Canyon nearest Custer. He was admirably hidden. Ten feet beyond his steed’s fore feet, the moon had spread a sheet of light over the pebbly bed of the gulch. An Indian, keen-eyed and acute, might have passed him and never have seen man or horse. “T war right. The boys are on the old stamp- in’-ground!” he ejaculated. Presently the outlines of six or seven mounted figures came in sight, Tom Terror watched them with eyes that gleamed with eagerness and recognition. He was not startled to see a party of Indians. As he looked his lips kept murmuring: ‘‘ The boys! the scarlet boys!” Tom seemed to experience the pleasure that fills the heart of an exiled chief when he finds himself once more with his men. The Indians were lightly attired. Not one of the party possessed a gun, but each carried a penpcs of death more horrible than the singing ullet, They came on until they were almost direct- and got
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i Judge Lynch, Jr. 3 ly in front of the watcher. Their faces were plainly visible in the moonlight. As Tom Ter ror looked he counted them, to mutter: “Ts it possible that they’ve been reduced to six? By the jumpin’ jingo! somebody’s been here since Pye been gone! What would they say war I to step out an’ say: ‘Wal, boys, ’m back? Gosh all varmints! how they ’d jump! An’ mebbe I'd get the string before they recog- nized their old cap’n!” At that moment the Indians started and look- ed into each other’s faces. Tom looked toward the north. ‘‘T-hear it, too,” he said. By Jove! the boys ar’ gittin’ the strings ready.” The Indians had drawn a dark cord from their belts. As it swung loose a little ball dangled from one end. This is what outlaw Tom called ‘ the string.” If he had thrust his hand beneath his doublet it would have encountered a similar object! As the strings were drawn the Indians disap- peared as if by magic among the shadows at the foot of the opposite wall. The trap was set and the game was about to enter, Down the canyon came the galloping of two horses, “Only two!” murmured Tom, disappointedly, but a moment after he added. ‘‘So much the better for the boys with the strings!” When the game was in sight Tom Terror shrunk instinctively against the wall of the canyon, and uttered a cry which he tried hard to suppress. Instead of two men, he saw a brace of youth- ful figures. Although both were clad in masculine ap- parel the quick eye of the Gulch Tiger detected the dissimilarity of their features, and decided that one belonged to the gentler sex.’ The hat worn by this person could not con- ceal a lot of rich auburn hair, and the garments, revealing a figure whose symmetry was fault- less, served to confirm the tiger’s suspicion. This individual’s companion was doubtless a boy. He was strongly built, athletic and youth- fully handsome. ‘There was spirit in his sloe- black eyes, energy and determination lurked at the corners of his mouth. He did not appear armed, but Tom could not see his right hand, There was something deadly in that. A coil of black rope like a lasso hung at the left-hand side of his saddle. “Thunder an’ shot! I’ve struck all ov’em— the string boys an’ the chap I came back hyar to find. But, whar did he pick thet angel up? an’ who is she, anyhow?” The scrutiny and these half-expressed thoughts were the work of a minute. On came the twain. Tom Terror glanced across the gap, but the shadows told him nothing. “Great heavens! I want the boy!” he cried. “Tf they give ’em the string I'll get nothin’, Now I must prevent that. I—” The watcher was interrupted by a half- smothered cry that came from the throat of the boy’s companion, as she—if girl she really was —went backw: A ery pealed from the outlaw’s lips. The boy had darted to the aid of his comrade. He was grasping madly at the little ball flying swiftly around the fair white neck like a crazy satellite. Before Tom Terror could reach the spot the boy had checked the revolving ball, and the vic- tim of the cord lay in his arms. ‘‘Fiends, you shall pay for this!” he cried, fa! you would finish me, too!” He threw up his right arm as he spoke, and the strange missiles that came from the shadows began to encircle it, Tt was the cord of the Thug! “Hal ha!” rung out a fearless laugh as the arm was held up in the moonlight for a_ brief minute. ‘ What a pitiful rope you use! Mine is twice as strong, and I use it, too. Why don’t your devilish leader come back, and give me a chance to use it on him? I wouldn’t fail like the men from Custer City did!” “He hez come back!” roared Tom Terror at that moment, ‘I’m hyar, you little imp. I’ve got a warrant for you—the kind that we some- times sarve on a knife.” The boy turned upon the speaker. ‘Tom Terror, himself, by the Land of Nod!” he exclaimed, ‘‘ But you will not serve your warrant here. Back! back!” He held a pistol in his hand. ‘ You can find me almost any day in Cut-throat Canyon, I’ve been holding court at Satan’s Tree. Go down and look at the culprits. I’m glad you’ve come back, We will make this gap our battle-ground. I try, condemn, and execute. Dvea kind of traveling court that sits constantly. Um judge, jury, ekg om at- torney, and sheriff. Have a care, Tiger Tom! We need no introduction, but here’s my card, anyhow.” As the boy ceased, he snatched something from a pocket above his belt and tossed it at the Gulch Tiger. It struck him in the face and fell upon his horse’s neck, where it stopped. “Good-night. Follow if you want to, but I hold court in the saddle as often as anywhere, Come, Myra, we must go!” The boy’s last words were addressed to the white face into which he threw a hasty glance. At the same moment the two horses started forward; their speed soon appeared to rival the flight of an arrow. Tom Terror did not follow. Bewildered and amazed, he sat still and looked down the can- on. A He was surrounded by the Indians who had urged their horses from the shadows. They were congratulating him on his return; but he did not seem to hear, “‘Thar’s grit and death in thet boy,” he mut- tered, ‘‘He’s the one I’m after. I can’t be mistaken, but I didn’t expect to find *im sech a match for me. His card? Ah! yes, let| me see, What does the little gopher call ’imself, any- how?” Mechanicaily the Canyon Tiger lifted the card, and held it close to his face. He was not a quick reader; he had to measure letters and mark well their relative position before he could solve any question in orthography. ,
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4 Judge Lynch, dr. But he mastered his present task with unac- customed readiness. He read: “JUDGE LYNCH, JR. , “Court always insession! Villains executed with neatness and dispatch! “Hangings cheerfully attended to at all hours!” Tom looked up at the expectant Indians, and gave a long whistle of wonderment. “Well, this beats my time all holler!” he said, ‘Judge Lynch, Jr., eh? Wal, thar’s one feller what he will never hang!” Never, Tom? We shall see. The Indians crowded closer around their chief. He pressed the hand of each, he listened to their voices; but his eyes wandered often down the gulch, CHAPTER II. THE MAN IN THE STAGE. Tue best road that led to Custer City at the time of which we write ran through Cut-throat; but the depredations committed there by its lawless frequenters rendered travel extremely dangerous, Custer City then was not what it is at the present day. It had few redeeming features; its inhabitants had established a court over which ‘Judge Lynch” presided, and a merciless warfare was waged, as it seemed, on all mankind beyond the precincts of the place. The stage came into Custer City one day with . a dead driver. The heavy lines were still wrap- ped around his cold hands; but around his neck, serpent-like, was coiled the terrible cord, ft was Custer City’s first sight of the Thugs’ dread instrument of death, The stage had been rifled, the mail-sacks cut open, money packages abstracted, and ruin gen- erally committed. From that day, depredations of similar char- acter became of constant occurrence in Cut- throat. It roused the miners; the terrible Vigi- Jance Committee to which we have already referred was organized. Tom Terror, the rul- ing spirit of the canyon, fell into its hands, but he escaped with a rope around his graceless eck, § ill the work of plunder and sometimes of death went on. The Thugs still infested Cut- throat. The men of Custer declared that. their numbers constantly increased, and the Vigilantes redoublel their efforts. They had taken an oath to make the road through the gulch as safe as the street of a country village. They wanted people to settle at Custer; above all they desired female socicty, not the kind that curses many of our frontier towns; but that which would remind them of the mothers and sisters whom they had forsaken for the greed of gold. All at once a strange discovery was made by the Vigilantes during an expedition through the canyon. This was nothing less than the finding of two bodies suspended by ropes from a sharp spur of rock that jutted from the dark wall! It is needless to say that the Thug-hunters drew rein and stared aghast at the hideous spectacle, which the moonlight rendered the more ghastly. A strong wind swung the bodies to and fro. ‘* Shoot °em down so we kin see who they ar’,” was a suggestion which was promptly acted upon, With the cracking of two rifles the bodies shot downward, and fell with a disgusting thud before the troop. Their wonderment was increased, for the well-known cord wrapped about the right wrist of each proclaimed their identity. Some avenger, working independently of the Vigilantes, was abroad! But, who was he? A puzzled troop rode back to Custer, and the news spread like wild-fire. The Thugs had an enemy who did not pursue in vain; he caught and hung, and that from the points of rocks to which the bravest Vigilante ‘would not have climbed. Days passed on. The unknown enemy of the Thugs of Cut- throat. continued his work. The Vigilantes found his victims here and there; but he him- self was not discovered. Such was the state of affairs when Tom Ter- ror came back. Ah! if the men of Custer had known that this human tiger had returned to his old stamping- ground, how quickly they would have sprung to saddle to complete the work which they had in- excusably bungled. Not many hours after t!.c events related in the foregoing chapter, the Custer City stage entered the canyon, Already the long shadows of approaching night were falling, and Cut-throat was fast be- coming the prince of places for road-agents. The man who held the lines was eager to reach his journey’s end. Old Jack Drivewell was no coward; but he did not want to feel that infernal little cord around his neck. The stage was apparently empty. If it con- tained a passenger, he could not be seen; but there were gloomy corners in the old vehicle, large and dark enough to hide a man. **Go on! go on, for your old master’s sake!” cried Jack in a pleading tone, to the horses. + “Pve got the best kind o’ neck fur thet con- founded string! I kind o’ feel it at my wind- pipe, now; it’s the only thing in the world that [I’m afeard ov, One mile more, an’ then—Thun- der and guns! just as I expected!” Instinctively old Jack drew rein, Before him in the middle of the narrow road stood what seemed to be an equestrain statue. To the driver, horse and rider wore gigantic proportions, which were rendered more than half ghostly by the prevailing shadows. “He looks like Tom Terror himself; but—” The right arm of the specter shot quickly up- ward. Old Jack saw the deadly: revolver clutched in the giant?s hand. “Stranger?” he said, in a low tone full of warning as if addressing some one in the stage. ‘Stranger ar’ ye lookin’ an’ listenin’?” There was no reply ‘“Mebbe the chap’s asleep?” muttered Jack 2. A.
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Judge Lynch, Jr. 5 to himself, and then, with an oath for his pas- senger’s ey) the old driver looked at the man in the bed of the canyon. He had moved nearer; he might have touched the lead horse with the fiuzzle of his revolver. “ Hello! Jack!” “ Ar’ thet you, Tom?” “Yes; didn’t [ say ’'d come back?” “Wal, I don’t know,” drawled Jack. ‘ Fel- lars what ain’t wanted ginerally come home.” The driver thought he saw a smile at the cor- ers of the Gulch Tiger’s mouth, “So I’m not wanted here?” “Of course not.” A moment’s silence followed. Thug’s eyes wander to the stage. “Empty, Jack?” ° / “Yes; thunderin’ poor trip. This road’s got unpopular o’ late. Do they know you're back?” “ Guess not.” “May I tell em, Tom?” “Tf Llet you go—yes.” Jack, startled by the Tiger’s words, felt a cold chill creep through his veins. “ Jack—Old Jack it used to be while we sifted an’ panned on Feather River—why ar’ you drivin’ stage when thar’s a gold-mine at yer feet?” “A gold-mine?” echoed the driver, dazedly. “Sartainly, an’ one that beats the Emma King all holler.” “Yer tryin’ me, Tom. I—” “No. I want to see you git into better busi- ness than ridin’ over four wheels at eighty dol- lars a month, Jack, you're out o’ yer sphere up thar. I say come down an’ work the mine that lies at your feet.” The driver began to catch the import of Tom Terror’s words. “ Hush! Tom,” he said, leaning forward, ‘‘T hev got a passenger, I lied when I said the stage war empty; but you see we can’t ginerally always tell—” “When the truth should be told in Cut-throat, eh, Jack?” “That's about it, Yes, ’ve got a passenger, but he’s been asleep fur six hours, leastwise 1 heyn’t heard ’im in thet length o’ time. So ef you've business with me go on, but talk lower. What about thet gold-mine, anyhow?” Jack Drivewell was all eagerness. He had leaped from his elevated seat, and standing on the tongue, was leaning over one of the horses with his eyes fixed upon the canyon outlaw. “T want you, Jack. We used to say that when we struck a bonanza we’d divide.” ‘¢ That’s so.” “Wal, I’m the first to strike it.” “You, Tom?—a real bonanza?” “Bf we work it right we kin buy all the mines in this great kentry.” ‘ Old Jack flung his whip to the ground. “Tm with you, Tom!” he cried. “T thought you would be. But what will we do with the stage an’ yer sleepy passenger?” ‘Oh, that’s easy. I'll] wake ’im upan’ tell *im that I’ve left the busiress. He kin drive the hosses through to Custer.” Tom Terror’s eyes glistened. “The very man I want,” he said looking at the old stage-driver, I Jack saw the Jack, springing agilely over the horse, struck the ground, and turned toward the stage. “Thats right; wake ’im up an’ start ’im off,” said the Tiger. An eager bound brought Jack to the side of the vehicle. As the air was bracing, but not cold, the stage was open, and Jack, leaping upon the hub of the left fore wheel, was about to thrust his bronzed face inside when he sprung back with a cry of surprise, The Gulch Tiger started forward. What did he see? He saw two revolvers thrust from the win- dow, and between them appeared a face illu- mined by a smile of triumph. But the eye eo) eh like a snake’s; they seemed full of eath, “Great Jehosaphat!” ejaculated Tom. ‘‘ Thet’s what Jack calls a sleepin’ man, is it? Wal, in all my life—” He stopped. The lips at the window were talking. “A deuced pretty game you two vermin are laying,” they said. ‘Jack, I'll deal with you Bret. Go up or down! Til give you a minute. If I drive this stage to Custer I'll leave you here with your toes pointing to the stars. don’t waste words. The devil on that horse knows this. Now, Jack, go up or down.” Jack glanced at Tom. That worthy was staring at the face at the stage window. “They've met before,” Jack muttered, “I guess I’d better go up.” The Canyon Tiger glanced for a moment at the driver and then, lifted his head as if to say, “Go up.” Sullenly and with many a muttered curse, Old Jack climbed to his box again. “Tf you attempt a treacherous move, I'll take the lines from you, or rather they'll drop sud- denly from your hands.” Jack heard but did not speak. **Come up here, Tom Terror!” The revolvers which were covering the out- law’s face carried him forward. Jack, expecting a conversation between -the two, bent down. ‘(Now do your duty,” said the man at the window, in a commanding whisper. ‘‘ Do not forget for a moment that if you fail—or if you associate anybody with you—I will flood your brains with daylight. You must do it alone— alone, I tell you! The path is before you; at the end of it is a bonanza, a real palpable one; but between you and it is death—death by he trieger I am touching now!” “Old Jack did not hear all; the sentences that fell on his ears were disjointed, but not alto- gether meaningless. Therefore, he was not startled to hear Tom say in his usual tone of voice: * Jack, drive this gentleman through to Cus- ter.” The old driver nodded to Tom. The next moment the stage was rolling through the canyon, watched with strange curiosity by the individual whom it left behind. ‘Here you ar’!” announced Old Jack as he drew up before one of the young city’s hotels, a
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6 Judge Lynch, Jr. . large wooden structure from which loud voices came, ‘ Here’s the Gold Bug, the house whar all my best passengers stop.” The man was on the ground as Jack re and the next instant was walking toward the hostelry. He entered the bar-room with the air of an old frequenter of such places. His eyes took in the crowd in several restless glances; but, all at once he seemed to shrink from the scene, “Custer doesn’t improve,” he said to himself, “They let Indians frequent the hotels. Why does that young buck eye me so? He looks like Red Crest—by Jove! it is Red Crest! Does he recognize me? No! thank Heaven! he’s turning away. MaybeT should not have come here. If that young Indian wanted to talk there’d be a rope around Deadly Dan’s neck before a _min- ute. But somebody would pass in their checks before the hanging.” He stopped almost suddenly for a hand drop- pod lightly on his shoulder, » Deadly Dan, as the young man called himself, wheeled quickly. He stood face to face with the young buck, ‘ Brother come back!” ejaculated the Indian, his eyes filled with recognition. “Yes, and I’m twice as desperate as the starving wolf. Hold your tongue. If youmove ia oe Tl scatter your brains right and eft CHAPTER IIT. JUDGH LYNCH AGAIN. Ir was plain that the twain who confronted each other in the smoky bar-room had met be- fore. There was threatful defiance in Deadly Dan’s oe savage pleasure and revenge in the In- jan’s. Tt would have been difficult to have told which was physically the other’s superior. As they stood face to face and toe to toe, they looked like men who had parted as enemies at a time not far anterior to the present unexpected rencounter, The young Indian, whose finely-chiseled face prociaimed his tribal identity, did not quail when the white man threw at him the threat with which we closed the preceding chapter, On the contrary, a twinkle of defiance ani- mated his sloe-black eyes. “Brother didn’t expect to find Red Crest here?” ““Ourse you, no! but since we have met—” “We might make one trail, eh, brother?” “Tf that is what you mean, yes!” grated Dan, and the hand that-had rested lightly on his hip glided to his revolver. ; The quick eye of the Indian detected the movement. “Not here, brother,” he said, quietly, but with unmistakable eagerness in his tone, “Too here.” ‘As you please,” murmured Dan. “But I thought that the son of the forest might want to die under a roof like decent white people.” For a moment the young Indian did not re- ply; but when he unsealed his red lips again it ag aa Come!” as he turned suddenly on is heel, Red Crest was moving toward the low- browed door, confident that Deadly Dan was at his heels. ‘Tt is the only card I can play; he turned the Jack on me before I hadg been’ ten minutes m Custer. I didn’t expect to see him here, but we had to meet some time. I must follow him, and—yes, I must kill him!” Deadly Dan sprung forward in u manner that would have attracted attention if the majority of the crowd, which consisted of the Vigilance Committee, had not been discussing the state of affairs which existed in Cut-throat Canyon. Outside, in the quiet moonlight which flooded the earth and revealed the commonplace houses of Custer, stood the Indian. “Brother here?” he said, as the Sport ap- peared, **T never crawfish,” said Dan. me tried before.” Red Crest nodded. “What fight with?’ he asked. bcs Wo FR) “Good!” sententiously remarked the Siowx, thus accepting Dan’s choice of weapons, which was the beautiful but deadly pistol clutched in his right hand. A moment later the two Were hurrying toward the southern suburbs of the mining- “ city.” Red Crest, being the guide, led the way. They left the town behind, and after ten minutes’ walk the Indian halted at what appeared to be the mouth of a little gulch. — “ Here!” he said, whirling upon his antag- onist. Deadly Dan, for the first time, started as if the monosyllablo had exploded a shell at his feet, “Tve been a fool—a confounded idiot!” he murmured. ‘‘ While we were coming down here, I was leaving the golden opportunity slip. I was thinking, but not about the vital interests of the hour—not about the life I was bringing down here to put up for an Indian’s target. No, curse me! If I Lb athe, to business for one brief minute, I would now be going back to Custer alone—yes, alone!” Did the gleaming eyes of Red Crest discern the thoughts that were flittin; through the Sport’s brain? If they had not, why did he say: “Red Crest trusted his brother who might have shot him as they walked.” “And you might have winged me,” Deadly Dan remarked with a faint smile, ‘*One must fear the other, eh, Indian?” ‘Red Crest never fear!” These words were uttered in a tone of con- scious pride, and the young Sioux drew his figure up to its noblest hight as he spoke. **Oh, enough of this. Wecame here to fight and to kill! But first tell me one thing.” “Well, brother?” “Have you seen—the boy?” Red Crest started forward, although he had more than half expected the question, “Boy down there,” he said pointing through the gulch. ‘‘Him making a trail that will live long time.” "A trail? What do you mean?” “ Dan find out if he kill Red Crest.” “You've seen
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as ‘Then, by the gods! I'm going to find out!” said the Sport to himself. ‘Dan hunting boy, eh?’ suggested the In- dian. ‘Who said so?” “The wolf never leaves the trail of the fawn although he loses it fora few sleeps, The wolf that stands before Red Crest found the fawn once; but the red hunter sprung in between and saved it.” “ And I said that I would have the blood of Red Crest for that act.” “Red Crest here!” and the young brave’s hand smote his breast Aen “His blood is flowing before the wolf. Let him spill it—if he can. If the Indian was trying to exasperate Deadly Dan he was not unrewarded, for the white step- ped back, and the click-click of his pistol smote Red Crest’s ears. “Yes, yes, boy down there. know ’im now. day.” “Yesterday! would to heaven I had stood in your moccasins, then.” The light of unrestrained curiosity twinkled the Indian’s eyes. “What is the boy.to Dan?” he asked, ‘* Why does he come back from the far-off cities of the white people to hunt him like a wolf?” “Do you really want to know?” “Red Crest eager.” “Tt is a secret—one that I would not whisper to the winds. But, why need I keep it back when we are to fight to the death—until, pro- bably, both fall dead? I will tell you, Red Crest. I will whisper in your ears the white man’s secret.” Deadly Dan stepped forward with the last sen- tence on his lips. His eagle-like glance had probably detected that curiosity was mastering the young Sioux, “ Now is my time!” he muttered. Red Crest had been thrown off his guard. He even went forward to greet the Sport's se- cret; but the next moment, with the restless bound of the jungle tiger, Deadly Dan shot for- ward, and a hand of death and vengeance was at the Indian’s throat! The yehemence of Deadly Dan’s spring lifted the Indian from the ground, and the next in- stant he went backward, only to fall heavil nearer the darkened mouth of the little gulch with tho weicht of his antagonist on his chest. < The Sport’s eyes flashed like restless balls of ame, “T don’t take such an sdvantage often,” he hissed. ‘* But, over you, Red Crest, I had to do it. The world, big as it is, is too small for both of us. Whén I saw you in Custer to-night I thought that the ghost of vengeance had risen from the graves I made on the Rosebud; but when I found out that I was confronted by flesh and blood, and, most of all, by yourself, Indian, I knew that I had to fight for my life. I came out here to kill, not to be killed. Now, where is the youngster? You say you saw him yesterday.” The steely eyes of the Indian glittered mali- ciously. He ground his teeth till they cracked, but it was behind lips shut like a book, Dan hardly Red Crest saw him yester- Judge Lynch, Jr. Yr “The boy, Isay! The blow will come sooner if you keep those infernal lips closed.” od Crest’s eyes wandered to the terrible- looking dirk-knife now clutched by the Sport’s and, ‘on Dan find boy by ’m by. Red Crest never “Then the checks that you've carried through thick and thin, Indian, you pass in here,” was the mad answer. “Tl go back to Custer alone—” ‘Rope back there for Dan!” ‘““Phunder and the gods! did you betray me before you left?’ * Let brother go back and see.” Despite his nerve, Deadly Dan felt a shudder pass to his heart. His identity was known to the Vigilantes of Custer; the Indian had be- trayed him! “T might have known it,” he said to himself. ‘‘There’s a rope behind me now. I must go forward. Tom cannot be faraway. We will join hands and work together, and we can win the game with less playing.” Then his eye went down to the Indian be- neath him. “You're a sharp red-skin,” he said; ‘ but you've betrayed your last man, Now go and join the brefhren I sent downward from the camp on the Rosebud!” The kmfe flew upward, armed with ven- geance; but the next instant a voice caused Dan to spring erect without having struck the dead- ly blow. “Tf you've no objections, pard, I'd like to take a hand in that game!” said that voice. The dirk almost dropped from Dan’s hand and for several moments he presented a splendid picture of amazement as he stood in the moon- light, staring at the individual who had spoken. Not far away this person stood, and instead of a rough-featured man more than his match, physically, the Sport saw a mere youth at whom he would have laughed if he had en- countered him elsewhere. “The boy, by the cups of Bacchus!” fell from Dan’s lips. This is a meeting most unexpected and decidedly unpleasant. The youngster’s got the drop on me, and there’s no reason in the world why he should let up on Deadly Dan. But he doesn’t seem to recognize me. Maybe—” Tho Sport’s sentence was broken by the sudden spring with which Red Crest regained his feet. “Brother! brother! Sec! see! it is the Wolf of the Rosebud!” the Indian cried, turning to the boy. ‘ He is on the trail once more!” A startling cry came from the youngster’s throat as he sprung forward. vd The next moment he stood before the aston- ished Sport. “Ah! Deadly Dan!” ho cried. ‘Fate brings us together once more. This time the trump ‘card is in my band. Why should I hesitate a minute—a second? Look boldly into the muzzle of this weapon, and behold the ghastly visage of the King of Terrors.” Deadly Dan instinctively shrunk from the re-— | volver which the boy thrust madly into his face, | He was not ready for the fatal bullet,
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———E 8 Judge Lynch, Jr. . **No!” suddenly cried the boy. ‘‘ Brave men die by the pistol; cowards and murderers by the rope. Seize him, Red Crest!” A panther-like bound carried ths Indian for- ward; he fell upon Deadly Dan, tore the knife from his hand and made him captive! “Bring him along!” said the youth, turning away. The Sport did not resist. He seemed to have bewildered him. As he moved along, tlie Indian completely disarmed him; he was at the mercy of the pair. When a halt was made Deadly Dan found himself before two horses that stood in the shadow of the gulch walls. But why two horses? The boy had evidently ridden one to the spot, but who had sat astride of the other? “Ah!” thought Dan. ‘‘The boy and the In- dian were to meet to-night.” “Git up!” said Red Crest, interrupting the Sport’s thoughts, and Dan sat astride of one Orse, The boy was already mounted. Red Crest took his position at the head of the Sport’s horse, his red hand resting lightly on the bridle-rein. “One moment, boy,” said Dan, turning to the strange youth. “I want to know what this means, Tell Deadly Dan what you are going to do with him. I’m the Wolf of the Rosebud again. I can hear anything.” A smile flitted across the boy’s handsome countenance, and he answered by thrusting a card into the Sport’s hand. Dan glanced at it curiously and threw him- self back in the saddle until his body was in the moonlight. Then, holding the card before his eager eyes, he.read: “JUDGE LYNCH, Jr. ‘* Court always in session,”’ etc., etc., etc. The boy and Indian watched him narrowly: but they saw no quivering of the lips as he turned to the former: ‘* Well, what of it?” asked Deadly Dan. ‘ Yes, boy, what do I care for the rigmarole on this card? You are the seif-instituted J udge Lynch, I app z Judge Lynch at your service,” said the boy, doffing his hat with mock politeness. ‘* And I have the honor of informing you, Rosebud Dan, that my court is about to hold a night session.” Before the Sport could reply, the horses started forward, and a moment later the party went through the little gulch. Crest, the Sioux, with his hand at Deadly Dan’s bridle, trotted tirelessly at the head of bis CHAPER IV. MISSED BY A HAIR. “Tmt bonanza what Tom’s struck is no one- hoss affair. I’m sart’in of thet. He's down in Cut-throat now, wenderin’ ef Old Jack’s goin’ to let the opportunity slip. _ It’s emphatically my chance fur a raise—the only one I’ve had in ten ¥, year. Tom come back on purpose to give his old pard a lift. Hyar goes for the bonanza. Jack Drivewell, milli’nnaire, won’t look bad in the papers an’ sich places. Good-by, old boys.” aving made up his mind, Old Jack went to each horse and patted bis strong neck affection- ately. They had been fast friends as beast and master, and there was a warm corner in the old man’s heart for each. He had just unharnessed them from the stage in which he had carried Deadly Dan to Custer City. That personage was still at the hotel, and, as the driver, mounted on one of his led horses, bade adieu to Custer, he (Dan) was confronting Red Crest in the bar-room. The thought of a bonanza was enough to stir Old Jack’s nature. He had carried million- aires in his stage from the States to Custer and Deadwood; he had noticed that their hands were white, that they smoked, talked and looked like other people. And why should he not be rich, too? He felt that his time had come, as he left Custer and urged his horse toward Cut-throat Canyon. He had long believed, in secret, that his old pard Tom Terror was the leader of the Thugs that infested the famous pass; he was confident of it now, and it would be safe to say that, as he rode along, his neck did not itch as formerly. Three hours had scarcely passed since his en- counter’ with Tom, therefore he expected to find him near the spot where he had stopped the stage. Whatever the feeling of security that quieted the deserter’s spirits, he drew his pistols as his horse entered the shades of Cut-throat, and then, applying the heavy Mexican spurs which he had strapped to his heels, he went down the canyon like a fugitive from justice. “Hyar Iam, but no Tom,” he said, drawing rein on the spot where he had had his adven- ture with the Gulch Tiger. “ Hyar’s whar he told me about the bonanza thet beats the Emma King, an’ thar is whar I stood on the tongue an’ listened till I saw Old Jack drivin’ a golden carriage through the streets ov Frisco, Why. didn’t you wait hyar fur me, Tom? You might hev knowed thet Pd come back jist as quick as I could unhitch, an’ say good-by to the hosses. Tom, Tom, pard, whar ar’ ye?” The question went up the cliffs, and came back with a thousand strange echoes. Old Jack was puzzled, and a comical expres- sion of despair came to his face; the bonanza seemed to be slipping through his fingers. He had mentally resolved to go back to his horses when a sound that made him turn, salut- ed his ears. “Ah! Tom, you did come!” he exclaimed, for bo Gulch Tiger sat before him as natural as life. “T didn’t think you would come back,” was the answer. ** Not for a share in your bonanza?’ “*Mebbe I war fooling you, Jack,” The old driver’s countenance fell, ‘“*Foolin? me—Old Jack, yer pard?” the old fellow said dazedly. ‘I’ve left the route, de-
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Judge Lynch, Jr. Se sarted my hosses, turned my back on Custer— for a share in the big bonanza that beats the Emma King—” Tom Terror laughed. Jack gritted his teeth; that cruel cachinna- tion sent the last bird of hope screaming from ne praranous heart. It dissipated his dream of gold, “Tom, you don’t mean all thet thet laugh said,” Jack cried. ‘Is thar really no bonan- za— “Thar’s one for every man, but he must get it for himself!” was the interruption as heart- less as the laugh. “Then—you war—tryin’—me?” ‘* Mebbe so!” . ‘*He’s changed his mind. He wants the hull ov it fur himself; but he’s got to share with Old Jack, or his fingers shall ever touch one ounce ov its wealth. He hes made a tiger outen me, Ef I can’t hev one-half ov the bonanza, he sha’n’t hey a share.” These fierce, threatful sentences did not reach Tom Terror's ears, but his quick eye saw the movement that accompanied them. The rough hand of Jack Drivewell had glided to the revolver that rested at his right thigh, but his eye was fixed on the figure before him, ‘Hold on, Jack! Draw that weapon and you'll hunt for bonanza in a kentry where they don’t hev any!” said the Canyon Thug sternly, as the driver’s hand touched the butt of his pis- tol. ‘‘Go back to the road and you'll strike one some day.” But Jack’s eyes only flashed with a fiercer light ashe answered, “T can’t do thet, Tom, I’ve left the road. From this night I’m Old Jack, the Bonanza Hunter.” The reply of the Gulch Tiger was the lifting of his rig t hand, “Thet’s the signal!” went through Jack’s brain. Ay, signal it was. Suddenly, through the air came the whirr of that deadly missile whose work we have already seen, Jack instinctively threw up his hand, but too late! The fatal coil struck his meager length of throat, and the leaden ball revolving with hell- ish rapidity drew it tighter and tighter at each revolution. Old Jack saw the Canyon Tiger fade into in- distinctness; darkness came down the sides of the gulch like a descending pall; he reeled and tried to shriek, Rising in bis heavy stirrups, he clutched the deadly cord, and attempted to tear it from his throat. But all in vain; he heard a laugh and a series of yells that seemed to emanate from the cay- erns of the lost, they filled his ears as his hands fell nerveless from his throat, and then his body renin to go down, down, as if from some dizzy ight! e had merely fallen upon bis steed’s neck, ena animal, struck by the spurs, dashed for- ward, But a hand shot out and checked its speed, _Tom Terror raised Old Jack and looked into his face, It was turning black, ‘*T hed to cut loose from ye, pard!” he said. ‘*My master made me choose between this and a head with bloody brains, Ill keep tho bonanza to myself, Jack, What! ar’n’t you dead yet?” It was with a cry that Tom Terror started from the man about whose neck one of his Thugs, hidden among the shadows, had flung the terrible cord. No! Old Jack had not succumbed to the grim monster, He was erect in the stirrups again, clawing at the rope, fighting, but unconsciously, for life. Tcm turned away, and several Indian-like figures leaped frem the shadows. ‘** Finish ’im!” the Tiger said, The three Canyon Wolves darted toward the writhing man, and the foremost fired point- blank at him with a revolver. Old Jack’s hands dropped from the cord, and his horse sprung forward. Then bang! bang went two more pistols, as the pebbles were loos- ened by the iron-shod feet, and the victim of the Thugs disappeared from view. “ “Tet him go!” said Tom, restraining the Indians who were eager to follow. ‘ He'll tell Custer and Deadwood that I've come back to my old stampin’-grouna. That string will rouse the hills. The Vigilantes will muster; Maverick Joe and his boys will give us excite- ment, employment, fun!” “But something fall from white man down there!” said one of the red Thugs, pointing down the gulch, ‘« His hat, Lodgepole?” . “No hat; look like ball and string.” Tom started. ‘Go and see,” he said. The young Indian sprung eagerly forward, and snatching something from the ground, came back, “Look!” he said, holding his trophy up to Tom’s gaze. ‘ Bullet shot s ir A “Sure as death!” cried the Thug, seizing the object.“ Curse the bullet that did this thing.” ‘But white man dead. Sundance shoot him through.” “Tf you did that, it is all right. But if Old Jack Drivewell gets over it, there'll be a gen- eral settlement one of these days in Cut-throat Canyon. Now listen to me: we encountered a boy an’ a gal last night, You gave the beauty the string, but the boy got away. He is the chap I am looking for. Mind you, J am to set- tle with him. If you catch him—and catch him — you must—you shall bring him tome. Do you understand?” ““ We hear our chief!” said Lodgepole. ‘ He shall give the boy the cord.” t “That is it! cried Tom, delightedly. ‘We understand each other now.” : ‘“€ And I understand you all, monsters!” Quick as thought every Thug turned his face upward, for the voice had come from the star- kissing cliffs overhead. The next instant a wild cry leaped from the throats of all, and the Thugs dodged shudder- ingly. r¥4 for Tom Terror, he fairly shrieked as he ducked his unhandsome head, and the next second a stone which would have crushed a giant
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Judge Lynch, Jr. azed his hat and was shivered on the bed of e canyon! “Great Jove! missed by a hair!” gasped the Tiger, and the a pat 3 that he administered to his horse carried him many rods from the almost fatal spot. Then, white-faced and gasping, he drew rein, and looked up at the cliffs overhead. “Tt warn’t the boy!” he said. ‘‘The voice didn’t sound like a human one. Id call it a mere if speerits could handle sich rocks as that ‘Whar ar’ the boys with the strings?” ‘* Here, chief.” Tom Terror looked; his band actually sur- rounded him. “We must got away from here, for we can’t dodge sich bullets every time,” he said. “No, monsters! the time is near at hand when they will strike and kill!” “Great Jehosaphat'” ejaculated the Canyon Terror. ‘‘Thar’s vengeance and death in thet voice. I recognize it now, though I only heard it once. It ar’ the voice of *he girl who war with the boy last night—the girl what got the string.” The red Thugs did not answer; but their gaze wandered from their chief to the top of the can- yon wall. CHAPTER V. THE BIG BONANZA, Tue horse that carried Old Jack from the ‘spot where Tom Terror had sacrificed him to the deadly cords of his inhuman miscreants, sorbet through the canyon at the top of his eed, > and bleeding the bonanza-hunter lay, corpse-like, on the strong neck underneath sehich his rough hands were tightly clasped. Out into the soft moonlight beyond the mouth of the gulch, went the animal with undiminished speed down the road to Custer until, having gal- Aloped through the woe-begone suburbs of the min- ing-town, he was checked by several iron hands before the hotel. Flecked with foam, wild-eyed and panting heavily, the steed elicited a thousand ejacula- tions of wonder and surprise.. The excited men, a score of whom belonged to Maverick Joe's Vigilantes, felt that the demons of Cut-throat had sent the horse on his awful gallop, and the marks of the cord, still visible on the driver’s neck, confirmed their belief. But what had taken Old Jack from the stage stables so soon after his arrival? They carried him into the bar-room and ex- amined his wounds. They found a bullet-hole in the right breast and a furrow in bis neck, as if the last pellet had actually cut the fatal string oose. Old Jack was subjected to some rough sur- fery: but it hed the desired effect. He opened eyes in the midst of the rough crowd burn- ing to question him. ‘What took me to Cut-throat?’ he said, “Mebbe I dropped a valuable package from the rn Would ve believe thet?” “No!” said Maverick Joe, a little man, wiry, dark-faced and with eyes full of fox-like cun- ning. ‘‘ You don’t lose freight in Cut-throat, Jack, Suthin’ else took you down thar,” “Suthin’ else did!” confessed Jack, ‘ But I didn’t get it.” ** Who did you see?” “Old Tom,” The crowd started. ‘*He’s come back as big as life, an’ as onery as ever.” Maverick Joo stepped back. were burning like twin stars, “Tom Terror has come back! that, boys?” The Vigilantes had heard, and as they gather- ed around their leader, the air seemed to be- come blue with oaths and threats of vengeance. Maverick Joe walked through the crowd with a determined purpose written on his counte- nance. Twenty eager men were at his heels. “Remember ydur oath, Vigilantes of Cus- ter!” he cried, addressing them. ‘*I have longed for this time. Something always told me that this devil would come back to Cut-throat. Go and saddle immediately.. This time he sha’n’t ride away with the noose over his head.” The men separated, each to saddle his horse. Maverick Joe re-entered the hotel; but the place where Old Jack had lain was vacant. “They took him down to his horses,” ex- plained aman, ‘‘ He's got a bed there, and you know the stable is as good as many a house in Custer. He got delirious after you went out, and raved about a bonanza bigger than the Emma King. It must have had something to do with his trip to Cut-throat, for he mixed Nets Terror and the big bonanza together all the ‘ime, / The captain of the Vigilantes went out, and bent his steps toward Old Jack’s stable. Maverick Joe paused at the door and listened; but, not hearing any noise, he went in. A lantern that hung on an il afforded the light that revealed the in‘erior. It showed the Vigilante the roughest kind of low cot, sitting bolt upright in which was the old driver. Maverick Joe stopped at the sight. Jack’s eyes were bloody, fierce and wolfish; they rolled restlessly in their cavernous sockets, and told the Vigilante that the old man was ati that moment wrestling with death, “Til strike it yet! Afore Old Jack pushes in his last chips, he'll get his hands on two things —Tom’s throat and the big bonanza! Jack Drivewell, the stage-driver, ar’ dead! but outen his ashes, phenix-like, hes risen Old Jack the throat-hunter, and bonanza king!” Maverick Joe saw the madman snatch his coat from the nail on which the surgeon had placed it. He staggered as he put it on, but he succeeded. Then he began to buckle on his pis- tol-belt, “The lunatic thinks he is well,” exclaimed the Vigilante at last. ‘ He doesn’t feel his wounds, It is the death-spasm that con rols him.’ Jack was moving toward the horses with the evident intention of saddling one, when Mave- rick Joe started forward. All at once Jack caught sight of him, and with an oath his hand flew to a revolver; but Joe’s fingers encircled the frenzied arm, “Go to bed!” Maverick Joe said, as he almost shrunk from the eyes that danced in the old His little eyes Do you hear
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driver’s head. ‘We're going down thar to avenge you. We'll find that particular throat, Jack, and you shall have the bonanza at last!” “You do the throat-huntin’, an’ the bonanza business fur Old Jack?—you an’ yer chaps, Maverick?” roared the madman. “ Kin I trust you? “ “T think so,” “Trust twenty Custer boys with a bonanza thet skunks the Emma King? an’ trust ’em_to bring Tom Terror’s throat unmarked to Old Jack? I’d sooner trust a Digger Injun! P’m goin’ to do my own huntin’!” He broke from Maverick Joe’s grasp. ** Ar’ ye goin’ down?” “ Yes.” “So am I,” He tottered as he turned away, but the Vigi- lante started after him. “ Jack—Jack—” ‘ “You don’t want me along!—thet’s it! The bonanza is to be divided, eh?’ the wild man had stopped and turned upon Maverick Joe; but the next moment he leaped forward, and the two men clutching, staggered through an avenue beside the stall and rolled among the horses’ feet. It was a struggle for life in the dark, for the partition of heavy boards that rose between them and Jack’s sleeping-room shut off all light from the lantern, For several moments the two men writhed and struggled there, then the door opened and Maverick Joe came out, ‘“T had to do it!” he groaned. ‘‘ May Heaven have mercy on his soul and mine!_ But nobody heard the rumpus. Never mind, Jack; I'll find the throat you wanted, and, with that big bo- nanza, if it was not merely a creation of a crazy head, I'll build you a monument that’ll make yer speerit. proud.” The Vigilantes’ captain did not tarry. If he had looked into the little room of the stable-home, still dimly lighted by the dusty lantern, he would have seen an inanimate form stretched upon the rumpled cot. “Hyar’s the cap’n!” cried a score of voices, and Maverick Joe, roused by the sounds, found himself in the midst of his Vigilantes. The men had been waiting for their leader, and in less than five minutes Mn placed himself at their head, mounted on his trusted horse Bonanza. “Tm afraid Old Jack’s dead,” said the Vigi- lante captain. ‘‘ Boys, we've got to avenge him. Tom Terror is back: he gave Jack his last dose. Think of this, boys.” He got the desired response, oaths of ven- geance and looks of eternal hatred. The band that galloped toward Cut-throat knew every pebble that lav in the road, The Vigilantes went cautiously into the gulch; they glided among its shadows; they waited for their prey at different places with their fingers on the trigrer. “Nothing hyar!” said Maverick Joe, disap- pointedly, after an hour’s waiting ata certain point. *‘* The game has slipped us for to-night. We must come agin. Lilly, Antenat and Moravy, you will remain in Cut-throat. We will go back and bury Old Jack,” Judge Lynch, Jr. il It was with reluctance that the Vigilantes fell in line behind their leader. They must, perforce, give up the hunt for that night.” “Won't we give Jack a grand plantin'?” Maverick Joe looked at the handsome young Vigilante who rode at his side, “ Ay, we'll plant him well, Harry. I wish we could please im by burying Tom’s throat and the big bonanza in the same grave.” “That bonanza business must have been im- agination,” answered the young man, “Maybe so,” said Joe, half-musingly ‘* But I’ve been thinking since I left Jack. Did you ever hear of that rumor?” * About the girl, cap’n?” “Yes. People don’t talk about it much now, Jack used to talk about it, I recollect one night that he sat up till three—it was in his stable— talking about the woman that he eloped with away down among the States. Old Jack used to be a good-looking young man, and not very long ago either.” “Oh, I never heard about the elopement,” exclaimed the/young Vigilante quickly. ‘‘ What has that to do with the lost girl?” ‘ ‘*A good deal if Jack told the truth. "You see Harry, Jack’s wife was rich—her father Lad lots of the lumps—but she took up with Jack. Of course they had to run away, and the old man cut the girl off and cursed her besides. They had one child—a girl. She was born somewhere in Sacramento Valley. Jack and his wife showed that they could be as contrary as the old man, One day, five years after the eloperrent, a letter came from Jennie’s father; but she spunked up and chucked it into the fire without opening it. What war in it nobod knows. It war the last one thet come. Jac said thet night in his stable thet he would give his right arm—and it war his business arm, too. to know what thet letter said. But the fire had cindered it. To makea long story short, Harry. Jennie died a year after thet, and Jack loane his baby girl to an old pard, who went under the time the Feather River Injuns got on their ears and killed everybody.” “But the girl—Jack’s baby?” “Thet’s the ot hnag Sometimes Jack used to say that his little Jennie war dead, and then he would think that, after all, he would see her ag’in. He would say thet a big pile of mone was coming to her. And now he is dead, . Harry, what is your opinion of that big bonanza which filled his mind at the Jast moments? Mightn’t it mean more than imagination?” The young Vigilante admitted that Maverick Joe might be right. “T really wish he warn’t dead,” and the cap- tain spoke with a deep sigh, * “May be he isn’t,” said Harry, a ray of kope lighting up bis eyes. { “1 cuess all or’ gone—dJack, little Jennie, the big benanza—all! And no man in Colorado | hates it more than Maverick Joe.” The man lcoked up as he spoke; they were nearly out of the guich; a few rods further on and the gray streaks of dawn would burst upon them from the far-away horizon, cloudless and eray. ; But, oll at once, in tones that startled both horse and rider, rung cut a single word;
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* Halt !” Reins and revolvers were instantly drawn. “Form into single rank, an’ come on!” con- tinued the same voice, which came from be- tween two outstretched pistols. ‘*I intend to hunt the big bonanza myself, and the throat of ae Tom is my property; it is not to be let out in shares. [Dve staked my claim, and I’m goin’ to work it alone. Form into single rank, an’ ride by. The first hand that goes up, drops!” : averick Joe, despite his courage, almost fell a his young companion. is followers had also recognized the specter with the pistols. It was Old Jack, the driver, but he looked more like a corpse than a man in whose breast a heart was beating, Single file!” said Maverick Joe, glancing at his Vigilantes. ‘‘ Death is at the old fellow’s heart-strings. He doesn’t know what he’s doin’, Let no man touch ‘im,” At the head of his men, the Vigilante of Cus- ter moved forward, Chilled with terror, they all hugged the canyon wall, nor breathed until they had passed the apparition. Beyond the spacter Maverick Joe drew rein. “ Great rocks and the gods! did you all notice ‘im?” he exclaimed, turning to his men. “ He is dead! stone dead!” said several. ‘‘ Look! there he sits yet! just as he passed ’im. He'll tumble off when his horse moves!” The band looked back, and saw the occupant of the pass, motionless, lik» an equestrian statue in brass, But suddenly the silence was broken. “Now for the big bonanza! Hurrah! for the claim what hes but one big share!” Then the ghostly horse shot forward, and the white-faced men who looked, saw him carry his death-touched rider out of sight. CHAPTER VI. HANGED. To return to the boy Vigilante and his pris- oner. Tho words that we have recorded as they fell from the youth’s lips, told Deadly Dan that his life was in imminent peril. His arms had been pinioned at his sides, and ~~ Crest, the Sioux, trotted at his horse’s ead, “Where is this self-styled court where you are popularly supposed to administer justice?” sneered the captive Sport, unable to curb his feolings and impatience longer. He had turned upon the boy avenger to whose temples a flush of indignation had mounted, “ We are almost there,” wastheanswer. “You are not expecting mercy at our hands?” **T don’t ask any!” was the mad retort. **- You were going to grant me much that night in the camp on the Rosebud when Red Crest 1n- terfered!” Deadly Dan shot a look of anger at the Indian which was returned with interest. _ “Of course not,” he said, answering his young interlocutor. ‘‘{f you know what I do, boy, maybe you wouldn’t blame me for wanting your life—that is; if you were in my place, and had my nature,’ Judge Lynch, Jr. _ The eyes of Judge Lynch, Jr., dilated with as- tonishment; he glanced quickly at Red Crest as if fearful that the Sioux was listening, Butsuch did not seem to be the case, “What do you mean?” he ejaculated, without second thought, but the derisive smile that camo to Dan’s lips quickly told him that he had been too precipitate. “Fa! wouldn’t you like to know?’ whispered Deadly Dan, leaning toward his captor. ‘“ You know that there is some secret connected with your life; you must believe that I am the pos- sessor of it, but I can not think that you are fool —idiot enough to dream that Jam going to di- vulge it. Do you think I will, judge?” The boy could but notice the maliciously tri- umphant twinkle in his piieenss eyes, “ A secret about me?” he asked himself. ‘f This is the third time I have heard such hints,” and while he thought, his look told Dan how wolfish- ly the insatiable demon curiosity was gnawing at his heart-strings. He did not notice that they had entered Cut- throat, so intently was he gazing into the hand- some young face revealed by the soft moonlight. ‘We are here!” fell suddenly from the Indian’s lips, and the boy, throwing a hasty glance around, replied: “Tndeed, we have reached our court, Rose- bud, in all your travels have you ever seen such a temple of justice?” Deadly Dan looked up. Far away stretched the whitened bed of the canyon; on either hand the somber walls rose to a dizzy hight. A dark fringework, hundreds of feet overhead, told him that one of the great forests of Colorado had been divided by the gulch. “ So this’s the spot which you insult by call- ing it a temple of justice?’ he said, calmly. ‘Tf you ars ready to proceed with your in- famous work, Deadly Dan, the Wolf of the Rosebud, is at your service!” These words were couched in the coolest of tones: “T never delay matters,” was the answer. “Throw the rope, Red Crest.” The boy loosened a coil of rope that hung from his saddle, and tossed it at the Indian who dextrously caught it. Stepping from the horses, Red Crest looked up. Deadly Dan’s eyes mechanically did the same, and to his surprise he sawa heavy wooden beam projecting from the canyon wall. Red Crest calculated the distance to the naked beam with the skill of a practiced lassoer, and Dan watched the rope as it shot upward from his hand like some mighty serpent. It proved to bea gallant throw, for the lasso fell over the beam, and the end that came down on the other side was caught by the Indian with an exclamation of satisfaction. He turned upon the boy judge with triumph in his deep dark eyes, * Rope ready!” “So I see, Red Crest.” Then he turned upon his prisoner. ‘‘ Well, sir, do you want to keep the rope waiting?” The lips of Deadly Dan seemed to lose color as they came sternly together. His eyes told Judge Lynch, Jr., that he was ready,
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o- He had no need of saying: “Goon with your hanging. You insult me when you think that Deadly Dan is going to plead for his life.” ‘*T can be as merciless as you are stubborn,” came the quick retort, ‘* More than one rascal, ved and white, have discovered this to t cost. Go on with my hanging, eh? Indeed I will! Here I propose to ay. nge the crimes com- mitted on the Rosebud, “You say you possess a secret concerning my life. Since [ have thought, I am convinced, that it isan infamous lie—one of those mean subterfuges which villains coin for sale when justice treads upon their heels, I am not a person of mystery. I am here to avenge the best blood that ever-flowed from a father’s veins. I shall make this old canyon as safe for travel as the fairest street in lrisco, Did the Custer Vigilantes with Maverick Joe at their head start upon seeing two corpses hang- ing from a beam thrust like yon one into the canyon wall? I had just closed an exciting session of court. Did Old Jack’s stage horses scare at something that seemed to fall from the skies into Cut-throat? One of my ropes, forced against a razor rock by the wind, parted, and let one of my prisoners fall! Such, Deadl Dan, is the vengeance of Judge Lynch, Jr. never try an innocent man! deal only with the guilty.‘ But Red Crest is becoming: restless. I fancy that his red fingers itch to give his old enemy, the Wolf of the Rosebud, the grand coup de grace. Now, Deadly Dan, I pass the usual sentence. You have been already tried and convicted. That sentence I carry out my- self, and may Heaven have mercy on the soul of the Sport, which never knew the true meaning of the word.” Rosebud Dan had listened to the boy with the air of a hardened criminal, who values as naught the reckless life which he had carried so long in his hands. The last words roused him. He started like a captive who forgets that he is bound. Red Crest was standing on the ground with a noose in his hands. Wagerness seemed to be de- vouring the Indian. “Aye you ready, Dan?—no praying—no last words?” “None, but to tell you, boy, that you're hanging a man who can throw at your feet the biggest bonanza that ever existed.” “(oing back to the lie, eh—to the secret you have made up? Ha! I thought you would beg at the last moment!” ** Bez! who's begging?’ was the flashing re- ply. ‘‘Dan Darrell never begged for his life. He has told the truth. As he is shortly to ap- pear some place, beyond this planet—just where is can’t say—but somewhere before a great Judge, he swears that there is a secret con- nected with your life!” Judge Lynch, Jr., bent forward and peered into the man’s face. Honesty was written there in characters which no eye could misjudge. The boy judge trembled; he seemed to feel that he had reached one of the most momentous periods of his life. And he was about to hang the possessor of some important secret! The thought worried m, ° Judge Lynch, dr. 13 “Dan, tell me. It will be the last act of your life, and one which you will not be ashamed to offer to the majestic Judge before whom you are about to appear.” If the boy had tried to id alg these words he would have failed. They forced themselves to his lips. Deadly Dan did not move a muscle, He - merely shot a rapid glance at the gallows over- head, and then permitted his eye to follow the rope to the noose in Red Crest’s hand. ‘For the last time, boy, I say, proceed with the execution!’ A groan of disappointment fell from the young judge’s lips; but it was quickly followed y a stern command, “ Now fix the nonse, Red Crest.” Almost before the last word had left his tongue, the Indian’s hand executed an upward move and the noose of the strong lariat dropped over Dan’s head, and was tightened with a jerk. Then the other end of the cord was fastened to the girth of the horse which the prisoner rode, and Red Crest stepped back, his work evi- dently done. It wasa moment fraught with the most in- tense interest, The young Jeffries looked at his prisoner, and caught his eye. Tt was fearless, defiant, and bright! For several moments the twain fought the silent eye battle, then the boy withdrew from the contest. ““Good-by, Rosebud!” he said. ‘If we ever meet jaeain, it will be when I come after my rope! The next instant the word ‘‘ Avenger!” sharp- ly spoken fell from the youth’s lips, and the captive’s horse leaped forward, startled by the sudden blow of Red Crest’s tomahawk handle. Suddenly Deadly Dan was jerked from the— saddle, and as the horse bounded away he shot up into space like an ascending rocket, actually hung by his own horse! “So perish your foes and mine!” exclaimed the boy judge, glancing at the Indian whose dark skin seemed aglow with triumph. ‘The secret, if one Rosebud had, dies with him, What threw him into my hands, Red Crest? Fate?” “The wolf always hunts the fawn,” was the reply. “But I have played the wolf of late, Some- thing more than accident, as you think, brought Deadly Dan to these parts. We may never know, Red Crest.” ° ; The Indian shook his head. ¥ ‘*But let us go. When we reach the cave yor may go back to Custer, or where you will. will remain here and carry on court, But Maverick Joe and his men? Ihave not had an opportunity to question you about them.” “ All in Custer when Red Crest left.” ‘Ah, they do not know that Tom has come back?” “ No. ”» “So much the better for me. I don’t want those Vigilantes continually raiding my terri- tory. By and by, when my last court is over, they shall have Cut-throat all to themselves, an welcome,” :
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The boy was smiling, and he nodded to the Tndian as he rode forward. “Avenger is awaiting us; he knows his duty!” ot far away the animal, executioner had stopped. Therope that led from his girth to the beam above was tightly stretched, far from the other end hung the body of the Wolf of the Rosebud, -One-half of bis figure was in the moonlight, the rest swayed to and fro in the shadow of the beam, Judge Lynch, Jr., sprung to the ground, and with Red Crest’s help loosened the lengthy lasso which they again made fast, but this time to a larze rock at the foot of the canyon wall. Then the Indian leaped upon the horse just relieved from duty, and the two prepared to gallop away. “A last good-by, Rosebud!” said the boy judge, looking at the ghastly figure above, “ Good-by, trailer!” said Red Crest, waving a farewell salute with his red hand, ‘ No burn- ing lodges on the trailithat leads to the land of the Evil Spirit. Good-by, bad brother!” ** Good-by, devils!” Whence came that voice? Or was it but an infernal echo from the shadows overhead? Instinctively the twain looked into each other’s faces. Both had heard the startling words. “Who is up yonder?” queried the white boy. ‘No! no! ’bis the voice of the dead Wolf! Come, brother. Red Crest has heard the spirits that speak in the gulches of the Rosebud. They foller him here. If we ride like the storm, they eannot catch us.” And the next moment the Sioux urged his horse forward, and left his young companion to follow at his leisure. ‘Somebody has witnessed the hanging,” he said. ‘But, never mind! the deed is done, and the villain who basely attempted my life on the Rosebud, will never lift another knife, or burn another town!” , Then he rode under the suspended man, and rejoined the Indian, he two went down the canyon together. CHAPTER VII. = ROSEBUD DAN’S SECRET, -TuerE was something attached to the peril from which Tom Terror had just escaped that sont a nameless chill to his heart. He had faced aaath a score of times and in as many different shapes; he had looked calmly into the muzzle of the revolver and felt the keen edge of cold steel at the throat; he had even had the rope of the heartless Vigilante round his eck. But never before had death come so near, unex- pected and in such shape. The rock which, according to the terrified man’s calculation, must have weighed a ton, had not missed him more than two inches. It ‘had even brushed the rim of his hat; it had _ fanned his cheek. A long time elapsed before the Gulch Tiger recovered; the voice from above threatening vengeance yet to come, did not serve to quiet his fears, Judge Lynch, Jr. “ That’s the girl who got the string last night. I know it!” he repeated several times. “Phe boy tore it off in time to save her life, though I didn’t think he would, And now she’s turned vengeance-hunter. I fancy that she intends to live away up there, and watch for me, It ar’ a mean, scandalous way 0’ gettin’ even—to stand @: a fellar and throw bowlders down on ’im. A man wouldn’t think of that; but a gal—why a gal thinks 0’ everything.” et us ascend to the top of the canyon, and see the person against whom the canyon free- booter exhausted the vocabulary of raillery. The hands which had pushed the stone over the edge of the wall were small and beautiful. They belonged to a young girl who might have reached her seventeenth year. She was of me- dium hight, rather slightly built, with a fair, fresh skin, and sparkling black eyes. At a goodly distance she might have been taken for a member of the opposite sex, for the garment that reached but a little ways below the knees was fringed after the manner of the frontier hunting-frock. Her petite feet were incased in a pair of Indian moccasins; and her leggins of pliable goods, reached to the strings of these pic- turesque shoes. On the whole, the girl on the cliffs formed a romantic piece of living statuary in the moon- light that fell unobstructed about her. If she was armed, her person bore no evi- dences of it. The weapon which she had just hurled at Tom Terror was one which could not be borne by such slender arms as hers. She had not witnessed the Tiger’s manner of dealing with Old Jack the stage-driver. There were many shadows between her and the excit- ing drama going on below, but the voices came up to her, clear and distinct, without a syllable missing, and she heard Jack’s shriek and the shots of the scarlet Thugs. These sent the hot blood in a lightning-like current through her veins. She fairly leaned over the dizzy hight, and for the first time saw the outlines of the figures below. The moon was now shining in the gulch, “Tho white Thug and his creatures are down there!” fell in angry and vengeful accents from her tongue. ‘‘ They have added another human being to their catalogue of victims, and he Old Jack, the man who once looked at me till { felt my heart beat in my bosom like a bird beats herself against the sides of the cage. Oh, if I had a weapon here! I see the white Thug! I —can’t I send a death missile down among them?” As the heautiful speaker started from the edge of the cliff with flashing eyes, her heel came in contact with a stone which moved so she was almost thrown over it, ** Ah! why cannot a bowlder become a weapon of vengeance?” she suddenly exclaimed, and be- fore the thought could be rejected she seized the rock and rolled it to the edge of the precipice. ‘‘ May justice direct my missile!” she cried, rest- ing for a moment in order to summon all her strength for the task before her. ‘I see him plainly now! The rock, if it strikes yon juttin mass of stone, will be projected into the air att then down, down into their very midst!” The next instant, with a quick, eager ery of om
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not. ill Judge Lynch, Jr. 15 vengeance, the girl pushed the rock from her with great force, and with bated breath leaned forward to watch its descent. It shot down the side of the gulch until it struck a mass of rock that jutted from the main wall, and then, glancing off like a bomb, it ae straight down like a descending cannon yall! The wild cries of the Thugs as they attempted to dodge the singular missile of destruction reached the listener’s ears, and then came the terrible landing on the canyon road, — ' ‘“ Missed!” cried the girl, shrinking back with bitter disappointment written on her face. “Missed by a hair!’ cried that monster of wick- edness, Oh, why did my missile come so near and yet miss the villain? What hand warned him? and why should fate interpose to save a life so worthless as his?” She Jooked again and saw the cavalcade ride from the spot where their leader had barely es- caped with his life, but springing erect she hurled after them the words we have already recorded. “The next time, monster, my missile will strike and kill!” Then, leaving Tom Terror to anathematize her to his heart's content, she hurried away. “ Fal will come to the cave by and by. He will not regret the failure of my attack on the Canyon Terror, for he says that he intends to hang the villain some day.” As the girl glided through the forest that fringed the top of the canyon, the land sloped gradually, and at last she reached a ravine through which a stream had evidently poured its waters in days unremembered even by the oldest red inhabitants of Colorado, Dropping into this fissure the girl crept to- ward the canyon, and disappeared ‘all at once in a dark opening which was almost concealed by a net-work of half-dead vines, : “Tf Tom Terror tracks me he will not find, thanks to this secure retreat which Hal’s sharp eyes discovered,” the young girl smiled. ‘ always feel secure here; but I wish his days of vengeance would end. No rest, he says, until he has cleared Cut-throat of its curses, Somo- . times, when [ stand before him, and hear him talk of the oath of vengeance he has sworn to carry out, I almost wish that Tom Terror and his Thugs. had murdered some one whom I loy- ed, so that I could enter into the bloody cam- pagn with him. But am I not helping? Did not the sight of the monster fire my heart with the torch of revenge, and did I not attempt the life which Hal seeks? Who have I to avenge? Iam a waif who drifted on a stray wave to this place. I never felt a mother’s kiss, and tho strong old gold-digger whose roof sheltered me along time, would not let me call him father.” It was in the cave proper that these musings dropped in audible tones from the girl’s lips, This apartment was lofty, commodious and furnished. A fire, evidently kindled some time prior to the girl’s present visit, burn- ed in the middle of the floor and illuminated the place, The walls gave evidence of encompassing a hoy’s home. There were several rude and ghastly pictures of hanging scenes, and over each hung a dark cord to which a small leaden ball was attached, Beside such pictures as these, six long white marks were visible on the northern wall of the apartment, At the right hand was a long vacant place which seemed to have been left by the artist on purpose to fill up with marks at some future time, ‘Hal has not been here,” said the girl, with- drawing her hand letterless from beneath the pillow of a cot that lay in the mellow firelight. ‘He went down to Custer to meet his Indian friend, Red Crest, but he said he would not be absent long. He cannot remain away a great while. Iam eager to relate my adventure, and yet Lam almost afraid to tell him that I diso- eyed him by leaving the cave,” A few moments later the beautiful young girl lay on the cot with her eyes fixed dreamily on the fire. She formed a sterling picture for an artist; but only a magic brush could have laid in the wonderful colors of the scene. An hour must haye passed away before the girl moved, Then all at once, as if roused by a sound, she left the cot and leaped to a repeating rifle which her delicate fingers cocked as she lifted it from the ground, But a figure came in sight as shesent a glanc toward the mouth of the cave; and, with a cry of pleasure, the girl sprung forward, “You did not think the Wolf had found the cave, Myra?” fell from the new-comer’s lips as he came forward, and revealed himself as the boy judge. “7 did not know who had come,” smiled the girl, glancing half confused at the rifle, ‘TI have been woiting for you, for I have—” She hesitated, for looking into his eyes, she doubted whether he was in the proper humor to listen to the story of her adventure. » ‘*T will talk in a moment, Myra,” he said, pushing by her. ‘‘I have something startling to relate.” He had dropped the hand which he bad taken and Myra, the girl, saw him go forward an halt before the six marks on the wall, For several moments he stood there with an uneasy expression of countenance, then, as if directed by some impulse of passion, he drew a piece of chalk from his pocket, and added an- other stroke to the singular collection, Myra noticed that the last mark was longer thar the others. “ A special enemy!” she said to herself. ‘1 wonder if he met the Canyon Monster? No! /no! he was surrounded by his Thugs!” Almost abruptly the boy Vigilante turned upon the girl; the piece of chalk still in his hand, “One more, Myra!” he exclaimed. ‘* Do you not see that the last mark is the longest one on the wall? Ah! girl, I met an old foe to-night: but—if he had divulged a secret which I believe he held, there would be no mark there, although I hated him with all my heart.” “A secret! a secret!” cried the girl, ‘‘ Whom did it concern?” “Me!” “You, Hal? Why, I always thought I was the best subject for a secret—or some such mys- tery like they have in novels. What do you think the dead man’s secret was?” The boy shook his head; he was troubled, 4
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16 ‘ Judge Lynch, Jr. But the fair white hand of the girl touched his arm, and her bright eyes smiled through the mist that enshrouded them. “Tf there is a mystery concerning you, Hal, time will clear it up,” she said. ‘* Butthe man— was he a Thug?” “No, His name was Dan Darrell. Deadly Dan he was called. I have told you about how he acted on the Rosebud?” “Oh, yes. And so you met at last? Fate brought you together!” “Yes, it must have been fate; but I did not think so when I hanged him. He said that his secret concerned me; he said it with his last breath, Myra. I believe him. Men like Dan Darrell don’t die with lies on their lips.” For several minutes the pair stood face to face, speechless but thoughtful. “T would give my right arm if Rosebud Dan was alive!” cried the boy judge, starting for- ward. ‘ His stubbornness hung him, more than my hatred or my revenge. Look at the legacy he left behind—a tortured, doubting mind. Girl—girl; you cannot know how I have suffered since I left that wretch and his secret hanging together.” ‘* Maybe, Hal—” Myra, the waif, hesitated. “ on.” ‘Once you hung a foe, but the neck was not broken, and he escaped. Are you certain that Deadly Dan is dead?” The boy avenger almost shrieked as he bound- ed forward: “Ah, why did I not think of it before? No, I am not certain that he is dead. Come, girl, it is not far away; there is a certain place from whence we can look down upon the gallows. The voice. Ah! Lrecallitnow. It frightened Red Crest; it even paled my cheek, for on the spur of the moment, Myra, 1 thought it came from the dead man.” The hand of the young Vigilante encircled the girl’s wrist, anda moment later the two were going up the waterless ravine. They seemed to hold their breath as they went on, the boy slightly in the advance, and not a syllable escaped their lips until more than a mile of woodland along the top of the canyon had been traversed. “Here at last!” exclaimed the young Vigi- lante, halting, and then approaching the edge of the precipice. ‘‘We are directly over the beam to which I hung Rosebud Dan.” With eyes full of eagerness and suspense, the boy dropped his companion’s hand, and crept forward. He was almost afraid to look over the cliff. Deadly Dan might be hanging there with the secret locked in a heart as dead and cold as a stone! Earnestly trusting othe wise, the boy lyncher shut his lions, and was about to solve all mental questions when a stern voice rung in his ears. “Hello thar! youngster. Do you want to go over the edge o’ Cut-throat, or die whar ye ar’?” A piercing ery fell from the girl’s lips as the boy Sc back, sprung erect, and wheeled uickly. =i I’ve got ye whar I’ve long wanted to see ye —at the end of my rifle. k at the stars, look at the gal, an’ say yer pray’rs, for my finger’s on the trigger an’ I’m goin’ to send the bullet home!” There was no mercy in his voice, no hope in ne expression of his face that confronted the 0Y. He stood before, and in the power of, Tom Terror, the Gulch Tiger. CHAPTER VIII. TOM TERROR AND THE LYNCHERS. THE boy judge was in a situation of immi- nent ent not only this, but Myra, the waif, also stood before the deadly repeater which the Canyon Terror kept against his shoulder. ‘* He says he has long wanted to catch mo napping,” said Hal, to himself, ‘1s it for the Thugs I have strung up, or does he possess the secret that Rosebud Dan refused to divulge? I need not expect mercy at his hand; but Myra! What will the villain do with her?” “ Av’ ye ready?” came the question that broke roughly in upon the boy’s thoughts. “My rifle ’s gettin’ uncommon heavy, an’ besides it’s gettin’ light in the east.” The young lyncher instinctively looked to- ward the orient, and detected a Yelt of gray along the far-off horizon. : It was probably the last morn he would ever see. When he turned to the wretch who, mounted on a strong-limbed iron-gray horse, seemed to have moved nearer, he felt a hand steal into his, and the white face of the beautiful waif was upturned to his startled gaze. “Hal.” she whispered, ‘‘ the men of Custer— the Vigilantes are below. I heard the voice of Maverick Joe, their leader. Can we expect help from that quarter?” “No! I do not think they would save me if they could. Tve pre-empted their claim, as it were. They posted a notice in the canyon three months ago that they would lynch me just as if I were one of the devil’s Thugs.” ‘There! there! don’t you hear their horses?” said the girl. ‘*Tom Terror hears them, too,” “But he evidently thinks them his infamous bands. Myra—” The boy’s sentence was broken by a startling voice which did not fall from the Tiger's tongue. On the pont it came up from below, and pes followed by the furious galloping of a single orse, ‘Now for the big bonanza! Hurrah for the claim that hes but one big share!” Tom Terror, starting violently, lifted his head, and listened to the tread of the unseen horse. “That roused him!” said Myra, in a low tone. “He seems to recognize the presence of an ene- my in Cut-throat. Quick, Hal, for your life! Now is our-'time. Cover him while he seems be- wildered by the sounds below.” The boy executioner would have acted with- out his companion’s words. Tom Terror seemed unnerved by the noise in the canyon; but he was suddenly brought back to the exciting pre- sent by the aggressive action which the boy as- sumed. “ air play!” cried Hal, as he sprung forward with a drawn revolver. ‘‘ Now, my good fellow, be so obliging as to fling your repeater over the
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Judge Lynch, Jr. 19 wall. Quick! or there’ll be a riderless horse where you now sit,” The Gulch Tiger ground his teeth with rage, and roundly cursed the accident which had di- verted his attention from his foe. He had removed his finger from the trigger; if he attempted to regain it, death might leap from the pistol and prevent. ; “Throw it over!” continued the lyncher stern- ly. ‘*One—two—” Accompanied by a fierce brigandish oath, and the flashing of a pair of evil eyes, the carbine disappeared over the brink of the precipice, ond the boy heard the sound of its arrival on the stony road far below, “That's sensible! now the pistols.” “You can’t deprive me o’ somethin’ I heyn’t got,” growled Tom, Can't? One—” Another savage oath. and two large revolvers drawn sullenly from the Tiger’s belt, followed the repeating rifle. “T yrefer to die on my horse,” said the Terror of Cut-throat, affecting to accept the doom which now seemed inevitable, “ The court decides otherwise,” “The court? Oh, yes. I’ve got thet keerd 0’ yourn somewhar on my person. But you gin- erally hang.” ** Always!” . “They'll hey a precious time hangin’ me,” thought Tom, as he shrugged his Atlantean shoulders and looked contemptuously at the youthful couple. ‘'I hope theyll try; I do so, by the eyes of the gods! Then my weapons will hey company down thar.” As he finished, without any additional com- mand he leaped from his horse, and stepping from the animal, said with a strange display of eagerness: “ Hyar I am, as ready to die as [’ve beon any time durin’ the last six months,” Myralooked into her companion’s face. “You can’t hang that man!” she said. is a per'ect giant—a modern Hercules.” The boy lyncher smiled, *WNerer mind; the rope has been made for his neck,” he said, ‘‘ But he may not feel it there t-night.” Tom Terror had folded his arms on his braw- ny chst, and his head thrown proudly back and lis stalwart figure erect, he presented a picture of strength and defiance, “Til bend that haughty frame!” said the yourg hanger proudly. ‘‘He’s a coward at hear. Now watch him shrink, Myra.” ©’ tell you I'm ready!” ejaculated the Can- yon King as if becoming impatient. ‘If the cout always hangs, here’s the primest subject in (olorado., Call up the sheriff, jedge, an’ let theair-dance proceed,” "he boy’s eyes wandered to the edge of the clif. ‘fm not prepared to hang at this moment, T fact you have caught me without a rope, Tom ‘prror. But perhaps there is one handy, Tl end you after it.” Wisk Why, jedge, I might forget to come c “He “Tl attend to that,” answered theboy. “Go to the edge of the wall where yon rock lies, and look over, If I am not mistaken, you'll see the gallows that I have used on two occasions.” ‘“'The timber in the wall, eh?” **- Yes; you've seen it?” * ‘© Wal, I reckon we've all seen it,” “To you think you could climb down to it to- night, cut the subject loose that hangs from it, and bring the rope up?” Vor the first time Tom Terror showed signs of weakness, “T never tried to go down a perpendicular wall, smooth as glass—” “Oh, there are steps—niches in it,” inter- rupted the boy, ‘‘ Go and look.” A scrutinizing look into the speaker’s face seemed to asswre Tom Terror that no treachery was meditated, and he moved toward the edge of the precipice, rs the young lyncher, followed him with a sme, ‘“He doesn’t expect to find anybody swing- ing from the beam—certainly not his old ac- quaintance, Rosebud Dan. isten and look, girl. You'll see the old fellow shrink from the edge ina moment, and hear him utter a cry of horror.” ? A minute’s walk sufficed to bring Old Tom to the fringe of the precipice, and a moment later, with much of his old courage, he was looking over the dizzy hight. A shade of disappointment came to the faces of the watchers. He was looking down as if his suspicions had been confirmed. “Can you cut him loose and bring up the rope?” asked the boy hanger. “Cut who loose, an’ git what rope?” “Why the man hanging from the beam in the wall,” “ ve're mistaken, jedge; somebody’s fooled e. ““Mistaken’—fooled?” echoed the boy, and he quickly thrust the revolver into Myra’s hand. saying: ‘‘ You can shoot! watch that man and drop him over the cliff if he attempts to fly or attack. Noman atthe beam? Great heavens! what has become of Rosebud Dan?” Springing from the girl’s side, Hal bounded to the edge of the gulch wall, and reached it at a spot a few feet from where the Thug stood. Then leaning eagerly forward, with his heart in his throat, he Jooked down, One moment satisfied him. There stretched the heavy wooden beam which he had thrust into the natural fissure at the peril of his life; the dawn revealed it in all its loneli- ness and nudity, Not a single sign of his last victim rewarded his startled vision! Rosebud Dan, rope, all had disappeared. The boy lyncher shrunk back, for the moment unnerved. His face was colorless, and he glanced at the Gulch Giant who was trying, as it seemed, to fathom his surprise, : He staggered rather than walked back to the girl, who, revolver in hand, had not taken her eyes from Tom Terror one second, ““The Thug was right. Rosebud Dan and the rope are gone!” he said. “ Out down?” ‘Heaven knows. But one thing is certain: If he was not dead the secret may yet reach my
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18 Judge Lynch, Jr. ears, If the lasso slipped from its rock, Deadly Dan will never divnige the secret.” “What do you say now, jedge?” came from the Canyon King derisively. ‘Shall I go an’ hunt the rope, ye thought war on the beam?” But the boy was in no humor for sarcasm. He silently took the pistol from Myra’s hand and looked at Tom. “or the present you can mount your horse and go where you please,” he said. “ Honest Injun, jedge?” “T can’t hang you without a rope,” was the answer. “Tm kind o’ sorry it warn’t on the beam; hate to see you disappinted. If I hed a lasso— ‘*Mount and go!” was the stern interruption. “We'll meet again. Even if you leave Cut- throat—” “Tm goin’ to stay! Now let me put in a few words. I come back hyar on purpose to hunt you. I never beat around the bush, but I go right through it. I tell you, little hanger, that the rope that touches this rough neck *U never run through yer hands. You're a blasted fool for stickin’ to the cord, We ar’ not such fools -as thet. Ye'’ve got the best chance on me thet yowll ever git. Now touch the triggor, an’ ‘don’t plant the seeds o’ wrath above dark Cut- throat.” Once more the Tiger drew his giant frame to its full hight, and struck the attitude which we have already described. But the young Vigilante shook his head. * Thero’s the horse, Go!” he said. Tom Terror sprung forward an 1 mounted his ‘steed with an ejaculation of relief. “So,” he said sarcastically as he took up the “You're goin’ to hang me, boy?” “ec iT am,” “You're a sneakin’ little liar!” came over the ‘gray steed’s ears. ‘* On the contrary, I’m goin’ to make a widow outen thet livin’ doll at yer side, then T’ll leave Cut-throat an’ work a_bo- nanza bigger nor twenty Emma Kings. You heard what that fellow said down in the canyon awhile ago? He war right; the big bonanza ar’ goin’ to hey but one share!” As the man’s lips quivered with the uttering -of the last word, he turned his horse’s head and spurred him away. Hal, the lyncher, gazed after him like a per- -son just emerging from a trance. “Holl try to keep his word!” exclaimed Myra. “Oh, Harry, I do not believe in an indiscrimi- nate vengeance, but you had that fiend in your power, and you let him escape.” “T did—I did!” cried the boy springing for- ward. “Tt is war to the knife now in Cut-throat.” “Tt has always been that; but that is not what I am thinking about.” Myra’s hand touched his arm, “Will you tell me, Harry?” “Then you have not guessed!” he said, wheel- ing upon her. ‘Tom Terror knows the secret that died with Deadly Dan—if he is really dead. My life is sought for a purpose. Oh, Heaven, what is this mystery?” An the boy in the burning anxiety of the situation, looked appealingly to the sky, which each moment was brightening overhead, CHAPTER IX. A TRIGGER TOUCHED, Tuan Lilly, Antenat and Moravy, the three Vigilantes detailed by Maverick Joe to remain in Cut-throat for certain purposes, a trio of braver men never crossed the rushing river of the Great West. There was Creole blood in Antenat’s veins; his companions were American’s, men who had seen rough life in all its thrilling phases, good shots, strong fisted, fearless, careless, in short the best sort of the rough-and-ready characters of the frontiers, The towering walls of the canyon, despite their seeming solidity, offered admirable hiding- places for man and beast. In many places great indentations, and even caves pe and it was into one of the latter that the three Vigi- lantes went after hearing their leader’s com- mand, This cave has been visited before, especially by Antenat, the half-Creole, for on springing from his horse, he ran to a niche in the wall, and took therefrom a little package which, in the light of the fire kindled by his companions, rss unwrapped with a curious smile on his dark ‘ace, * Parbleu! it is here yet,” he exclaimed, as the contents of the packet were exposed to view. ‘*See, messieurs! what a pretty ring! where is the petite mademoiselle on whose finger it used to shine?” Lilly and Moravy looked at the bauble, beyond all doubt a child’s ring, and then turned their questioning eyes upon the exhibitor, —. ‘““Where did you get it, Antenat? they both asked, in one breath, “One day I was sitting on my horse, under the ‘Devil’s Wing,’ when all at once something came down, from the sky, mebbe,and hit me plump on the hand! Sacre bleu! hew I started and looked up. I put my hand oi my pistol but there was nothing over me but the sharp, black rock and the sky, blue as my mistress’s eyes. Then I looked at the ground and there lay something that glittered. Dow: from the saddle went Louis Antenat, and he keld in his hand this, ma chere comrades,” and tie old fel- low held the little ring between thum) and fore- finger, before his companions’ eyes. “A curious find!” said Moravy. hid it here?” “Yos, mon ami,” ‘““ Why not carry it with you, Antemt? The owner—” * Did le infant drop it into my hand¢” inter- rupted the Creole, surprised. ‘‘ Nay! I saw nothing when I looked up.” “Nothing? Not even a kite?” “Sky and rock.” “ Well, it’s a pretty thing. Look her« Lilly; there's a little diamond set onit, and bre are letters on the inner surface.” “ Letters?” echoed Antenat, starting. But Moravy bent forward into the stonger fire-light, and tried to make out'the wod en- graved on the tiny ring. * As near as I can make out,” he said, s he looked, ‘‘the word, ‘Jennie.’ But this i: the queerest place for a baby ring with a clild’s “And you
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> Judge Lynch, Jr. name on it. Just think of angels in Cut-throat, boys.” Lilly burst into a loud guffaw at his com- rade’s attempt at wit; but the lines of thought deepened on Antenat’s face, and taking the ring, he looked at it steadily a long time. * Parbleu! it shall not hide here any more,” he said, suddenly. ‘* When T found it I said I would put if away where nobody would find it, for there are fellows who would sell it for a drink of whisky! Antenat will carry it with him, hereafter. Ah! ma petite Jennie, some day old Louis may have the pleasure of restor- ing your ring.” The two men did not hear the last sentence, for Lilly had leaped up, and darted toward the mouth of the cave. His figure was unseen for a moment, and then it sprung back into the firelight, and beckoned the others to his side. “This confounded old canyon is haunted,” said the Vigilante, in low tones that correspond- ed well with the colorless face he exhibited. ‘“‘Tf the thing hesn’t departed, I want to show you a sight that unnarved me more’n fifty pis- tols Easy, boy.” Antenat and Moravy drew their weapons as they glided away at Lilly’s heels, and when their guide halted among the dense shadows that lay at the mouth of the cave, and pointed forward, they held their breath and looked, “There! a ghost with a rope around his neck!” said Lilly, ‘If we had finished Tom Terror that day I could call the speerit by name, but Tom got off alive, and report says that he's hyar now, and in the flesh. When I got hyar a minute ago I heerd something come stagger- ing down the canyon, and all at once that thing came in sight, and stopped whar it’s been stand- ing ever since.” The canyon at that point was not very wide; a gentle toss would have taken a pebble easily across, and the moonlight fell uninterrupted upon the uncanny object upon which the start- ing eyes of the Vigilantes were fixed. There were scars on the bodies of the trio that told that nothing human could unnerve them; but here was the disembodied spirit of a man who had been hung, for the ghastly rope about his neck was as plainly visible as his figure! Antenat was the first to recover, He stood behind his comrades and their first intimation of his intention was the revolver that crept between their faces, “What? you are not going to shoot it!” ex- claimed Lilly, as his hand seized the outstretch- ed pistol, “ Sacre blew! why not?” answered the Creole, with a malicious grin. “Tf ghost, bullet go through and flatten on the wall. If flesh and blood, parbleu! monsieur will be there after Antenat has shot.” “Let him shoot,” said Moravy. * And bring about a tussle with the Thugs? | We haven't such orders from Maverick.” Antenat’s hand dropped. “That's so,” he said. ‘' Wait, macomrades.” The Creole retreated into the cave, but soon returned with a coil of rope in his hand, 19 “ Antenat lasso Monsieur le Spirit,” he said, as his dark little eyes twinkled, “But he is leaning against the wall,” said Lilly, quickly. ‘* And, besides, your lariat is‘too short. I say let’im go. No good can come out 0’ foolin’ with such a thing.” But the Creole did not listen, and gliding be- tween the two Americans, he went out into the shadows of the eastern wall. “Look! be is moving!” suddenly cried Lilly, grasping Moravy’s arm. ‘‘ He has seen Ante- sat there! see the rope dragging at his 1e0]s. “That's no ghost!” retorted Moravy. ‘“*Speerits ar’ some kind 0’ air thet kin git over ground without noise, but that fellow rattles the pebbles; he staggers, falls ag’in’ the wall, an’ then—bless my heart! his hands ar’ tied! that’s why he can’t pick up the rope. Whar in the name of death! ar’ Louis?” The next instant the Creole answered the ex- cited Moravy, for something long, dark and serpent-like shot through the moonshine, and fell over the head of the object staggering along the wall. The two men at the mouth of the cave darted into the canyon with exclamations of astonish- ment, as the Creole jerked the “ghost” from his feet, and brought him heavily to the ground. . “Flesh and blood, ma chere comrades,” cried Antenat, pointing proudly to his prize as the twaincame up. ‘t Le diable! but he fell heavily! Jasso went between him and the wall like the red-man’s knife,” Mechanically the three men bent over the strange capture, They saw a handsome figure, and a face ee as, death. The eyes were staring wildly into their faces, but they were expressionless in their gleaming, A jet-black mustache drooped over the mouth, and the bands, tightly bound at the sides. were small, white, and effeminate, “The queerest of all our finds!” said Moravy, the first to speak. ‘Ah! look at this rope. It’s the same kind that we found ’round the necks of the two Injuns we shot down from the boy's gallows. This is some more of his work.” “He’s got to hangin’ indiscriminately!” Lilly ejaculated. ‘‘By Jove! we'll put a stop to that soon. Afore long we'll catch the jedge an’ hang the hull court. But what are you goin’ to do with yer ghost, Antenat?” The Creole was answering. He was stripping he ropes from the man’s neck, and then his knife freed the captive arms. ‘He'll tell his story in the cave,” he said, glancing at his comrades. ‘Here, comrades, lend a hand.” A few minutes later the man thus strangely captured was laid upon some blankets in the light of the fire which the trio had built, and Antenat was trying to bring him back to con- sciousness, The little old Creole would not let his com- panions assist his endeavors; therefore, they could do nothing but sit by and watch, “Tt is possible he may succeed,” Lilly took oceasion to whisper at Moravy’s ear, ‘The old fellow is famous for savin’ lives, Ho actually brought two chaps back to life after we had, »
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20 strung ’em up. But their necks wer’n’t broken, of course,” ‘Sartinly not. When a chap’s dead, why he’s dead; and all the Louis Antenat’s in the world can’t do’im a whit 0’ good,” Meanwhile the Creole worked on until at last he looked at his companions in triumph. He had succeeded! Life had come back to the lassoed man, and in broken sentences he lay in the firelight thank- ing his preservers, “Who hung you?” asked Lilly. * PH show you before long!” he flashed. ‘“ By the oath of the gods! I am going to live for vengeance, I will not speak that devil’s name until I can point to him, high and dry on the beam to which he suspended me. There were two of them, and, side by side, the vengeance of > pea Dan will make the sneaking coyotes swing. came to Cut-throat for blood—blood and-a neck! And Dll have both, too. They took me unawares. It shall not matter how I take them; but when Deadly Dan Darrell goes back, the moonlight will fall upon the bodies of the two lynchers.” Wild and excited, the revenger had sprung erect, and he stood before the three Vigilantes ike an avenging demon, while the words shot ike poisoned arrows from his lips. , He talked rapidly and madly, and gave his auditors no time to get in a word edgeways. “ There!” cried Antenat the Creole, as the vic- tim of the noose paused for breath. ‘ Let me putin a word. Don’t monopolize the conversa- tion, Who do you call yourself?” ‘* My name is Darrell.” ** But the nick-name?” “Deadly Dan!” ‘The same as Rosebud Dan?” ‘The same.” Did Antenat’s little eyes flash as he glanced over his shoulder at his companions? “Pm sorry, monsieur, bub you're the pard they want in these parts,” he said coolly to Dan, ‘It arn’t often thet a fellow gits hanged twice in one night. Comrades, the lasso at Na- poleon’s saddle —quick !” Antenat’s hand moved to his revolver as he uttered the command, but the next moment with a startling cry that resembled the hoarse intonation of the tiger, the hanged Sport darted forward. : Lilly had started a‘ter the rope; but he stop- ped and turned to help his friend. The Creole’s weapon had been torn from his hand io the twinkling of an eye, and the two Amprican Vigilantes saw Rosebud Dan thrust the muzzle into his face. * Another rope for me to-night? Never! by tha fires of Tophet! So you, too, would hang the Wolf of the Rosebud? There, Louis Ante- t, take that with my compliments!” he pistol touched the Creole’s forehead as the last word fell madly from Darrell’s lips, and the next moment a dull but horrible report filled the cavern! Lilly and Moravy started back with cries of horror, ani the lifeless body of poor Antenat, released by the Sport’s left hand, fell quivering to the gronnd. “Now lift a finger, my friends, and I'll re- Judge Lynch, Jr. peat the compliment!” thundered Deadly Dan, as turning quickly but coolly upon the Vigilan- tes, he covered them with the weapon sprinkled with the Creole’s blood. ‘‘One hanging is my share! I’ve had that, but it was not enjoyed. I do not intend to furnish any more necks for such entertainments, Keep clear of me! Stand back! I’m still the Wolf of the Rosebud, and there’s death in my right hand!” He moved slowly back as ho spoke, until, reaching the shadow of a rock at the mouth of the cave, he sprung away with a victorious cry and was gone! CHAPTER X. A SHOT FOR THE BIG BONANZA. “Tr Tom ‘error wasn’t under the protection of some unaccountable fate, your missile would have put an end to his life,” ; “T begin to believe it now,” answered the beautiful waif, to whom the boy lyncher ad- dressed the words we have just penned. The pair were going back to the cave in the ravine, after their encounter with the Gulch Tiger, and Myra had related her adventure with the white Thug. **T am rejoiced to know that your bold stroke of revenge did not succeed,” continued the boy. ‘*His words sent my blood coursing like a lava eurrent through my veins. That man came back to Cut-throat for the expressed purpose of hunting me, whereas I did not begin my work until after the Vigilantes of Custer ran him away with a rope about his neck. Deadly Dan, after attempting my life on the Rosebud, now seeks me here. There must be a connection path these two men. I can think of nothing else, The boy judge relapsed into moody silence, and walked, without a word, at Myra’s side. The journey back to the cave was not a long one, and they entered it as the first rays of the sun, flashing over the cliffs of Cut-throat, chased the shadows of night away. They found the fire stil burning on the well- baked floor, and the youth, leaving the girl’s side, sprung forward and halted before the seven marks on the wall. For a moment he stood there in an attitude of indecision; then he raised his hand, and with one stroke obliterated the longest mark—the one made for Deadly Dan. “The others remain,” he said, as he turned upon the girl. ‘‘ But you see, I am not satisfied about the Wolf of the Rosebud!” “Although hanged, he is not dead, That is what you think?” “That is what something indefinable tells me. “And do you think you will wrest the secret from him?” ‘ “T will! I will!” “Why not from Tom Terror?” “First, because I think him but somebody’s tool; therefore, he cannot know all about it, The person who hired the canyon spider to weave a deadly web about me would hardly in- trust him with all the whys and wherefores. This Deadly Dan Darrell is not the person one would judge him upon casual acquaintance, I saw much of him while we were on the Rose- ert or
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Judge Lynch, dr. 21 bud, and more than once caught him ‘off guard,” as they say. Beneath his devil-may- care manners he carries some refinement, and I am satisfied that he came from the eastern cities for some specifi¢ purpose. But unwit- tingly, I am ready to assert, he became a des- perado. We met accidentally, and when he saw mo for the first time I was amazed and uzzled at the expression that filled his eyes, "rom that time he seemed to delight in being near me; but, though handsome and otherwiso attractive, a dislike for Deadly Dan sprung up in my heart. Idid not know then that he was dogging my footstsps; but Red Crest did. Therefore, when thinking me alone he made that infamous attempt on my life, he found himself suddenly confronted by my red-faced friend, and baffied. It was at my request that Red Crest spared his life; but we have put him on trial in the camp, which was quite near an Indian village. The red people never liked him, but he had made some friends among our people, and he was banished from the camp; they tied him to a wild horse, to whose flowing tail they fastened a firebrand, and thus got rid of him.” “Tid he never return?” asked the girl, who had listened to every word of the boy’s narra- tion. “ Ay, but we had departed. He came back with ‘vengeance in his ‘heart. When he left the second time there was no Indian village there. And it was in the dead of winter, too.” “The monster!” cried Myra, ‘And from that time until to-night you had not seen him?” “Not even heard of him. But he is on the same trail that attracted him then, and, strange to say, the first person whom he encountered in Custer was his old enemy, Red Crest.” “ A meeting certainly unpleasant.” “‘Notin the least agreeable, at least to Dead- ly Dan,” answered the boy, with a smile. “ But I will take a bite of breakfast, and then leave you for a season.” A few moments later the strange pair seated themselves before the meal, which the fair waif spread on the cavern floor, and after iti had been discussed the boy took Myra’s hands, and look- ing into her eyes, said: “You will not turn vengeance-hunter during my absence. This little retreat is the place for you. I want you to hear the solution of this mystery.” ‘And Iam burning to hear it, Hal,” was the quick reply, ‘‘ Whither are you going now?” ‘To find Red Crest. I want the Indian near the henceforward.” There was a long look of something more than friendship in the couple’s eyes before they sepa- rated, and Myra’s followed the figure that went away. As the boy judge emerged from the well- chosen cave home, he looked up at the heavens. Overhead the limitless skies wore their gar- mentsof blue, but there were shalows in the narrow ravine, Even at noon they lingered there, and as the orb of day declined they grew longer, until once more the little chasm became cold and dark. An ominous silence reigned over the roughness of nature that surrounded the boy lyncher, and when he stepped entirely from the mouth of the cave, it was to glide down the ravine toward the large canyon, Noiselessly he went on until, with his lithe body half-hidden by a rock, he Ieancd forward and beheld the narrow fioor of Cut-throat two hundred feet below. The gap, looked like a dark and dangerous place, and the boy thought of the many atrocities committed there as bis eyes wandered up and down the lonesome road. It was early morning, and a bird perched on a spur of the canyon wall was filling the gloomy placo with melodious matins. But all at once the carol of the feathered songster grew still, and the well-known tread of horses fell upon the boy lyncher’s ears, “ Maybe theyll entertain me with a drama!” murmured Hal, with a smile, as, stretching his neck forward, he evinced great eagerness to catch sight of the cavaliers. They did not keep the boy waiting, for hard upon his words two horsemen can:e in sight— two men whose figures made the little lyncher draw back and hold his breath for a minute. “They were certain to get together,” he said as he returned to his lookout. ‘They are mag- nets which attract each other; evil gravitates to evil, and it is but natural that Deadly Dan and Tom Terror should come together.” Deadly Dan and Tom Terror! Yes! The boy did not exhibit great surprise upon seeing before him the man whom a few hours before he had hung upou a gibbet higher than Haman’s famous death-beam. He had come to the conelusion that by some miraculous circum- stances Rosebud Dan had escaped death, and that they were destined to meet again, and contend for the mastery, hoas firmly believed. But he did not know while he looked down upon the precious pair that the pistol conspicu- ously displayed in Rosebud’s belt, was dyed with the blcod of the Creole Antenat. “The finest pair in Colorado!” said the youth, sarcastically, as the twain came on. * Both have worn hempen collars, but somehow or other his Satanic Majesty has favored them. They’re not wanted just yet in Tophet. But,” his eyes flashed madly, and his hand unslung the carbine that crossed his back; ‘‘ but they’re go- ing there soon whether they are wanted or not. Colorado, the youngest and fairest of the sister- hood of States, must not be cursed by the exist- ence of such devils within her borders. Shey shall not!” Wholly unaware of the keen eyes that re- garded them from the mouth of the ravine, the border worthies came on and to the boy’s rt lana drew rein almost directly. beneath nim. At the same time the rapid gallop of steeds came from the west. : “The searlet Thugs! They are going to give me the drama!” said Hal, as he waited. Sure enough, he soon counted six horses that eame toward Tom Terror and bis friend, and the scarlet Thugs of Cut-throat, well made but ferocious-looking Indians, sat before him like statues carved from blocks of granite. ‘‘These are the boys with the strings,” said
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22 Judge Lynch, Jr. Tom, waving his dark hand at his band as ho turned to Deadly Dan. ‘TI never saw ’em miss a throwin all my life. They call ’em Thugs down at Deadwood and Custer, and it’s the handle that suits °em. Do you want to see ’em try their hand?” “On my throat, Tom?” smiled Dan. * Bless you, no, pard. Thet neck o’ yourn hes hed its shara o’ ropes; so hes mine; an’ ef the boy keeps his word we'll get somebody else’s share before we go under.” The face of Rosebud Dan grew dark as if the: shadow of a cloud had passed over it. “Naver! by the eternal gods, never!” came up to the spy at the mouth of the ravine. “But the boy says different,” said Tom, with asmile, ‘‘ We'll see some day.” *- ‘Yes, we'll see!” hi sed Dan, “That we will, my turtle doves,” murmured the watcher above So you don’t want to see my boys throw their strings?” queried Tom as the cloud began to leave Rosebud’s face. **On what?” “Onan arm that nover strikes twice!” was the proud reply. The next moment Tom Terror straightened in his saddle, and held up his right arm. ** Go back an’ do your best throwin’,” he said, to his Indians. The red Thugs exchanged glances and moved back until their leader’s voice bade them halt. As they did so they loosened the death-cords that hung at their belts, and rose simultaneous- ly in their strong stirrups. Then at a short Indian command from one of their number, the leaden balls circled about their tufted head until, as if impelled by a single arm, they went forward hissing and writhing like haf a doz.n flying serpents! Deadly Dan’s quick eye followed tho fatal strings, and the next second he saw them wrap themselves about Tom’s sturdy arm! “Just imagine my arm a neck!” smiled the vagabond of tho gulch, turning to Dan. ‘ My hand is almost blood-red; the strings seem to cut the bone. Not for fifty big bonanzas would T hey ons ?round my neck.” Deadly Dan shuddered, and the Indians came forward with pride in their eyes; they were prond of their exploit. “By Jove! I'd like to acquire the art,” ho aid Terror springing erect in his stirruns, pitched forward and completely over his horse’s head! Then, quick as a flash of powder, he turned toward the spot from whence the startling shot had come. It was directly across the canyon, for the white smoke curling upward marked the precise spot. * Ah! you have cheated me out of a neck!” flashed Judge Lynch, Jr., catching sight of the figure on the bank. ‘‘By Jove! you shall not boast of thatin Custer. Hold! my hearty; ono moment and I'll pay you back!” The carbine was at the boy tyncher’s shoulder, and his finger at the trigger when he saw the marksman leap tothe edge of the precipice, and halt in full view of the thunderstrueck band below. “Hurrah! for ths big bonanza!” he yelled, as he swung his shabby hat defiantly at the Thugs. ** Now thar’s but one share to it, an’ thet belongs to Old Jack. Goon, my red neck-hunters; but recollect t' at the big bonanza is mine, an’ Vl chaw up the man what stakes a claim on it, What ar’ ye lookin’ at?- ’mnocomet—I'm only Bonanza Jack, soon tobe the gold bug of the coast.” Then, with a wild half-maviacal launch of tri- umph, the man turned away, and, as he did so, the repeating rifle dropped from the young lyncher’s shoulder, “T can’t kill you!” he said, gazing after Old Jack, ‘Myra says you are mysteriously link- ed to her! Go and enjoy your big bonanza, aes I hate you because you cheated me out of a neck! The ex-stage-driver soon disappeared, and Hal when he looked down into the canyon once more, saw the Thugs and Deadly Dan staring ut the wound ghastly and terrible in tho Tiger’s breast. “Men don’t often recover from such a wound,” murmured the boy. ‘ But he’s got the constitu- tion of an ox, and that’s in his favor!” CHAPTER XT. A WIFE FOR A GOLD BUG. “Tam man what says that Tom Terror ar’ goin’ to pass in his checks lieslikesin! His time will not come till he’s paid the rascal Jack fur this gapin’ hole in his life chest. Don’t lool long-faced an’? down-hearted, pard. DT’m goin’ said. ¢ “Tkin Yarn you. I taught my boys. Thar used to be twelve on ’em.” “ The other six?” ‘* Attended Judge Lynch, Jr.’s eourt,” said Tom. “That boy again!” * Always on top, eh?’ laughed the Gulch Ti- ger, grimly. * But Vl be there presently!” was the mad re- joinder. “ Here’s another!” The next moment Deadly Dan put out his hand which Tom Terror took, and the boy look- ed down and saw the lightning flash of revenge - that passed between his foes, But before that grasp was broken there came a stunning report which drove the boy back from his rock, and he heard a wild cry as Tom f to help you to the big bonanza. Did you ever see such an ugly hole? Why, it’s big enough fur death to drive a four-in-hand into a chap’s heart.” Thus spoke Tom Terror, as with clinched teeth he sat up and looked at the terrible wound which Old Jack’s descending ball had made. His eyes occasionally rolled like a madman’s, and Deadly Dan and the Indians exchanged significant looks but did not speak. It was evident that all thought the gulch vil- lain near his end, “Tt won’t be long afore I kin hold uv my arm fur yer strings, my red boys,” he said, his eyes wandering to the six scarlet faces that looked down upon him. ‘ Did you let that winger go?” The Indians started back, 4 re
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—4 ‘ Judge Lynch, Jr. 23 They had neglected to pursue the man who had stricken the leader. The shot, his fall, had un- nerved them. **No; let ’im go,” continued Tom, seein their gaze turned upon the cliffs overhead. ‘ \Ve'll get ’im by an’ by, an’ then—” He shut his lips, and clinched his white and almost bloodless hands. “But you told me that he was wounded— killed, you once thought,” said Rosebud Dan. “So IT did. The boys gave’im the string an’ Lodgepole shot ’im. But dead men don’t shoot this way, eh, pard?” Deadly Dan turned away. , j “You can’t stay here,” he said, turning again to Tom, “That's so, Help me up on Satan, boys.” Twelve red hands lifted the Canyon Spider tenderly from the ground and set him upon his favorite horse, “They'll hunt for me,” he said. ‘I fancy that the old cave won't do, The boy knows that. The black hole can’t be thought of, fur Maverick Joe an’ his men hev been thar: thar’s whar they caught me nappin’. Ah! I know the pe fur me to rest in. I found it last summer, Lodgepole, you have not forgotten—the cave in the old ravine.” The young Indian nodded and raised his.eyes. “ Ravine up there.” Tom Terror looked up. “By my blood!” he exclaimed, “it is the old place. Thar’s whar we looked into the can- yon, and saw Jack drive the stage by. It ar’ the restin’-place I want. Lodgepole, take me thar.” A few moments later the hand moved slowly from the spot where the Tiger received his wound. The progress made was painfully slow, for the fact that Tom Terror lay heavily upon the scarlet arms that supported him on either side, with his dark eyes hid and teeth glued together, told that he was suffering the agonies of twenty deaths. But guided by the young Thug, the speechless cavalcade finally left the bed of Cut-throat, and ascended to the ground above. Lodgepole had not forgotten the discovery which, with his leader, he had previously made, The httle ravine was reached, and found im- practicable for horses, and the band dismounted, Then Tom was lifted from his animal and car- ried down the cut, which the piercing eyes of Lodgepole were ever scrutinizing, At last a light ery from the Indian’s lips an- nounced a discovery, and the young Thug springing aside lifted a mass of creepers, and displayed the mouth of a cave to the gaze of all. The wounded Thug bestowed a look of grati- tude upon Lodgepole, and eagerly desired to be pea in. A stalwart Indian caught the vines and held them up for the admission of the band. ° “ Rest—then the boy an’ vengeance, pard,” smiled Tom, letting his eyes wander to Deadly Dan. ‘‘My boots ar’ on, ye see; but Pm worth amine 0’ deadmer, Old Jack shot at my heart but I hain’t got any; never had one, ha! ha! Easy, boys, easy! . Now in we go.” He passed the natural portals of the retreat as + he spoke, and in the faint light that streamed under the uplifted vines the Indians stopped to renew their hold on their leader, At that time not a soul of that band dreamed that not twenty rods ahead a fair young girl, suddenly roused from sleep, was listening white faced and with throbless heart to the noise of their coming. “In the name of mercy what wolves havo tracked us down?’ fell from her lips. ‘It is merciless fate that sent Harry off and left me to face them alone. But, ah! he is safe, Heaven, I thank thee for that. Ay, I am glad that Iam alone.” Myra, the waif, shrunk instinctively to the northern wall where the marks of the boy lynch- er’s vengeance were, The fire had died away, but arrows of light, shot by the bowmen of the sun, were penetrat- ing the cavern. She believed that the net-work of vines had been demolished, As the girl stood there, and listened to the sounds made by the new arrivals, she did not allow her bands to tremble at the weapon which they encircled. It was a pretty repeating-rifle, almost small enough for acbild’s toy, but for all that, itlooked deadly, especially when held ready beneath the flashing, defiant eyes of the waif. It was with bated breath, yet eager, that Myra waited for the invaders, ‘The voices which had saluted her ears were incoherent; but she heard enough to know that several Indiaus were not far off. : All at once the light grew dim, and Myra’s quick eyes detected several grotesque heads set on pairs of Atlantean shoulders. For she stood directly before the opening, and the bodies formed dark silhouettes on the far-away back- ground of morning light. “ Ar'n’t we thar yet? This bullet in my trunk hes got to movin’ about,” Myra, the waif, started. That voice had a familiar sound, Six hours had not passed since she heard it behind the stock of a leveled carbine! But what had happened? A bullet in Tom Terror’s body?’ Then the Tiger had enemies be- sides the young judge. . “We must be ip the cave,” said another voice that seemed to come from a white man’s lips. ‘* But there are too many shadows here,” ‘A light, boys. Make a fire, an’ while ye’re at work put me down,” If it were possible, Myra shrunk closer to the hard wall of the cavern, She knew that dis- covery was but a question of time, but she did not wish to be captured in the dark by the Indians. There was a surprise which she contemplated. The light, first a spark, then a blaze, would soon burst upon her eyes, then—why, then she would play her part. The kindling of the fire was not long delayed, the dry splinters of wood scraped together by the Thugs soon blazed up, and for the first time Myra saw her visitors. She saw, too, the strong man on the floor, and in all her life the girl had never seen such a pair of wolfish eyes. ; ‘‘ Why, this place is inhabited!” suddenly cried Y
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24 Judge Lynch, Jr. Deadly Dan. ‘‘ There’s a cot, astool;and clothes hanging on the wall. By my life, Tom, I be- lieve we’ve invaded the boy’s den.” The Gulch Tiger leaped forward like the ser- ent. Pe What's that, pard? the boy’s den did you say? Whar? Why, last summer Lodgepole an’ Islept kyar. We druv nails into the walls an’ hung some skins on °em; mebbe we forgot a f-w pelts an’—” But the bed?” “ Whar?—thet’s what I want just now. Whar’s a nest?” “Tn yon corner.” Tom Terror uttered a cry of joy, and essayed to crawl forward. But at that moment a voice rung through the cavern and startled every one. “Stay where you are, or I'll Jet fire-light into your skulls. The limbs of a murderer shall never pollute the cot where I sleep!” In an instant of time, as if were, the fair occu- a of the cavern had become known to the hugs of Cut-throat. The fire leaping ceilingward revealed her graceful figure, her determined white face, and the deadly weapon in her hands. Deadly Dan Darrell, with a ery of amaze- ment on his lips, started from the sight, while Tom Terror having suddenly relinquished his attempted crawl to the bed, gazed at her in silence, But a train of thought shot through his mind. “The gul thet missed me by a ha’r, an’ this time she’s got the drop onime. A bullet in yer life chest an’ another about to come! Tom . Terror, ye’r’ gittin’ to be rascally unlucky.” It was a strange tableau which the girl had created. She showed no signs of life, save in the spark- ling of her beautiful eyes whica drew much of Rosebud Dan’s attention. “By Jove, she’s a beauty!” ho ejaculated. “What a queen she’d make for me when I get my fingers on tho pile. The boy and she are carrying on business together; but ’m going to break up that partnership, Then she'll be free. She'd shine like a star where [ could take her. Cleopatra never had such eyes; and the figure is Medicean. Do your best, Deadly Dan. You have met your fats.” Thus communed Rosebud Dan with hims2lf as he drank in with beating heart the grace and beauty of the waif, but he was called from such contemplation by Tom Terror’s harsh voice. “What do you want?” queried the ruffian, “What ar’ yer tarms?? ~ We did not expect to disturb any one in this lace,” said the Wolf of the Rosebud, starting orward, before Myra could reply. “ We merely sought an asylum fora wounded com- n ' “111 make tarms, pard,” said Tom, flashing the glare of his wolfish eyes upon the speaker. “ Jest keap yer word-trap shut fur five minutes.” Dan did not continue. “Goon,” he said, in an undertone, ‘Goon and geta bullet in your heal.” By this timo the Gulch Tiger had lifted him- self by a mighty effort upon his feet, There be was supported by two Indians, and in this con- dition led forward until the girl told them to ad- vance no nearer, “You speak of terms,” she said. ‘‘ These are mine. Stand aside and let me pass.” “ They’re easy,” was the answer. ‘‘ We don’t make war on women, an’ I guess you'll never set the world afire if we,do let you go.” Myra’s heart leaped into her throat, They were going to let_her go, and beyond the cave she would join the young lyncher, and tell him where his foes were! But she could not avoid the handsome, eager eyes of Deadly Dan. She had seen him for tho first time; but something proclaimed his iden- tity. This was the man whom Harry had hanged. She felt that he could be none other, “So you accede to my terms?” she said. “TI am to pass out?” “Yes, my beauty.” Dan bit his lips and sent a look of anger at his comrade. “Stand aside, boys,” said the Tiger, to his men. ‘*We don’t want the gal. She’s mado tarms with the rifle, but they’ve got to be kept all the same.” This was spoken in a loud tone, but to one of the Thugs at his side the speaker said quickly: “Give ’er the string, Wildcat. Sho’s the de- moness thet tossed the rock last night.” At Tom Terror’s command, the Indians drew sullenly back, and Myra with alight ery of tri- uuigs sprung toward theopening. As she reach- ed Deadly Dan she heard him say: “ Go straight to Custer, girl. ti kill the man that touches yo.” Myra started at such words in such a place. but did not pause. She was eager to get beyond the flashing eyes that regarded her, beyond the strings of the Thugs. But alas! for such hopes and expectations, All at once something was seen to whirl around an Indian’s head, and Deadly Dan with a mad oath sprung forward to prevent the fatal throw. But in vain} Caught by the swift messenger of death, Myra stopped, and reeled, at the same time dropping the rifle. The Canyon Spider uttered a cry of delight. “Ha! ha! strung, my beauty. Thet’s the kind o’ tarms I give the she wolves, -pard.” But Deadly Dan did not hear his comrade, for he had leaped forward, and prevented Myra from falling to the earth. The Indians, too, had sprung toward her. “Back! you infernal stranglers,” thundered the Wolf, as he turned upon them, a heavy re- volver cocked in his right hand, ‘* Stand where you are with your hands on your cords, but draw one if you dare. This creature doesn’t deserve your strings. From this moment she ismine. Deadly Danis her protector, and he’s going to make her the wife of the biggest gold- bu# in the States!” The Thugs of Cut-throat, almost consumed with rage, were cowed by Deadly Dan and his revolver, ‘Make ’er what you please, pard,” said Tom Terror, breaking the silence. ‘‘Thar mustn’t be any hard lines betwixt us, The big bonanza ——— | |
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—_— = a =3 SEE += ne ae es Judge Lynch, Jr. 25 ain’t found yet, an’ she ain’t the gold-bug’s wife. I call my red wolves off. Now, bring the gal up to the fire. The Indians obeyed their leader, but looked daggers at the man who had cowed them, ““You will pardon me, Tom,” Dan said, com- ing forward, ‘This is a prize a fellow doesn’t draw every day. Permit me to present to you the future wife of Rosebud Dan, the future money king of the States.” Tom Terror grinned as, despite his wound, he bent down to gaze into the finely chiseled face that Dan had lowered into the mellow firelight. “Purty as a picter!” he ejaculated.” “ But what’s that on ker right temple, Dan? Didn't you say that a little mole shaped like a bean—” A startling cry pealed from Darrell’s throat; he thrust his face between Tom and the girl’s, and the next moment, with the wildest of looks in his eyes, he sprung up as Myra fell from his arms. “Thunder and guns!” fell from his lips, as he gazed first at Tom and then at the unconscious weif. “Is it possible that I’ve been tracking the wrong person the best years of my life? Tom, you stare but don’t speak. Can’t you say a word, and confirm—no! dispel my terrible suspicions?” Tom Terror shook his head. **So,” he said, looking up into Rosebud Dan’s startled countenance, “so the baby was a rir)?” 3 Then, as if determined to have the rest and attention that his wound demanded, despite the new and exciting phase the adventure was as- suming, he staggered toward the cot. **T reckon she'll hardly get to be the gold- bug’s wife now,” he muttered, as he fell upon the skin and fixed his eyes on the Wolf. “He'd give an arm ef that mole warn’t on her face. We used to think that it war on some- body else’s.” The next moment he turned away, and shut- ting his teeth hard, tried to kill the groan of agony that came up from his shattered breast. CHAPTER XII. CAPTAIN HARRY. AGAIN we must convey the reader to the wild metropolis of the Black Hills. In the bar-room which we have once visited the Mi may 2 of Custer were again congre- gated, But they were not scattered over the smoke- begrimed premises, drinking or discussing in groups as usual the affairs of Cut-throat. On the contrary, the entire band were gathered about a dark-faced, hard-featured man, whose breadth of chest and massive arms might well have put the stamp of “athlete” upon him. This individual was Moravy, one of the trio left in the canyon by Maverick Joe, and the Vigilantes were drinking in, as it were, the words that fell from his tongue, The guard’s appearance in the room told that something important had transpired in Cut- throat. Perhaps he had seen and tracked Tom Terror to his den. But no! Moravy had a story to tell which sent a chill of horror to the hearts of the iron hangmen who surrounded him, and in rough but eloquent language he told the story of Rosebud Dan’ssingular capture and the death of the Creole Antenat. At the mention of the Wolf's cognomen an attentive listener on the outer rim of the spell- beau circle started as if struck in the side by a dirk. This was Red Crest, What! the man whom he had helped to swing over a beam still aiive, and capable of taking human life with the revolver? The Indian was superstitious; he could not believe all of Moravy’s narrative. A spirit, not a living being, had entered the cave and taken Anteuat’s life. But, thought the Sioux a moment later, the guards lassoed something tangible; they dragged it into the cavern, and it was this person who shot end killed. Red Crest, if that time, woul Dan’s hanging. But the Vigilantes did not bother with him: they declared with one accord that the first cord had been placed around Dan’s neck by the young lyncher, and more than one cursed him for bungling the job. “The Wolf of the Rosebud has come among us,” said Maverick Joe, ‘ate or Providence sent him here, for somebody to hang. The boy saw him first and tried to do the job, but some- thing befriended the fiend. He went from the gallows and stained his hands anew with Ante- nat’s blood. He scattered old Leuie’s brains right and left. Now, Vigilantes of Custer, ou’ve got another tiger to hunt—one that the tovernment curses, for when he burned the In- jun town on the Rosebud, he sowed the seeds for one o’ them nasty little Injun wars thet has cost Uncle Sam dearly. Fer my part Pd ruther catch deadly Dan than Tom Terror, though Heaven knows that I’d sooner pull the White Spider up than open an Emma King. What do you say, Indian?’ Red Crest started as Maverick Joe, whirling upon him, shot the question squarely into his face. Pi Sioux’s little eyes seemed to emit sparks of fire. “Catch ’m by-’m-by,” said the Indian, “By and by? Why not now?” roared tho Vigilante captain. ‘ Where is that chum of yours? Come, come, Red Crest, don’t deny that you’re not cheek by jowl with thet chap who single-handed has hanged more deserving scamps than all the lynching Committees of Colorado.” The heavy hand of Maverick Joe lay on the Tndian’s shoulder; but there was a good-natured twinkle in his eyes, which told Red Crest that he had nothing to fear from the men by whom uestioned about the matter at have told the story of Deadly che was surrounded. “Make the Injun tell!” shouted a dozen voices. “Don’t you hear the boys?’ said Maverick Joe. ‘You're the only red-skin who hes ever been admitted to our councils, We kinder like you, for ef your skin is red, you’ve got the big- gest heart that ever thumped ag’in’ the sides of an Injun’s life-chest.” But Red Crest kept his lips sealed.
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26 Juige Lynch, Jr. For what pu e did these lawless men want to know J nace Leueh, Jr.’s, whereabouts? Time and again they had sworn vengeance against him, they had even hunted him among the sha- dows of Cut-throat. “Boys, thar’s grit in Red Crest,” said the Vigilante captain as he sent a smile among his impatient men. _‘‘ He hesn’t got a spark of be- trayalin him. We couldn’t force it from him with pistol or rope. All honor to this red speci- men of creation for that. But,” and he turned to the Indian again, ‘‘ but what if we want to clasp hands with the boy? what if Maverick Joe and his boys should swear that they wouldn’t touch a hair of his head:—would you take us to him?” , The Indian’s eyes began to sparkle. “Now, boys, listen to Maverick Joe,” cried that worthy, and a great but agile leap took him upon the counter, boots and all, while a wild cheer rose from the rough fellows who clustered beneath him. ‘1’m in for bringing this man- hunt of ours to an end at once, We've hunted up and down Cut-throat night after night, and what have we done? Wiped out one man and ot Louie killed! Exchanged a diamond for a og. Now hyar’s a proposition, and I want Red Crest to take in every syllable.” The Indian, who had not removed his eyes from Maverick Joo for a second, made a sign for him to proceed, , *“T propose that the boy take command of the Vigilantes of Custer—that we swear to follow whar he leads—that we stand by ’im through thick and thin, and let him haag when he wants to. That’s the ticket that Maverick puts into the box. Bovs, [ want Cut-throat cleaned out. When the Mining Commission comes hyar to report on our wealth, I want ’em to rido through that grand old canyon and never feel any o’ them infernal strings around their silken necks. Thar’s Cut-throat, boys, the glory of Colorado—it’s a real canyon of the gods, and I say, put the boy at the head of the Vigilantes of Custer, and change its name to Paradiso Gap, or something else that don’t suggest wip- ing out!” The men with a wild shout of approval on their lins could hardly wait until Maverick Jos concluded, but when he clinched the sentence by a mighty sweep of his arm, a cheer rose that fairly shook the building, “That's the way the men of Custer do bus'- ness!” continued Joe, addressing the young Sioux, whose expression told that he had not al- ' lowed a single word to escape him. ‘ Now go and tell your chum that thar’s twenty-nine men what’ll back up his court, and thet forty arms are ready to pull when he gives the word. Maverick Joo is captain of the death-men of Colorado no longer. He resigns in favor of the A cry of gratitude fell from the Indian’s lips, and on the impulse of the moment he started back as if about to bear the message to his com- panion, Hold on! we'll saddle first,” said Maverick Joe, clutching the Sioux’sarm. ‘“ You can take us to him justas easy as you could fetch bim hyar. He will not reject the proposition.” ‘*No! he does not reject it. He will be proud to lead such men as Maverick Joe commands!” The sound of that voice startled every one, and Maverick Joe, leaping from the counter, sprung toward the door. “Tho boy! The Captain of the Vigilantes of Custer!” he cried. ‘! Men, salute yer leader!” By this time every eye in the house was fast- ened upon the handsome, proud-faced boy who stood in the doorway, viewing with pride the stalwart fellows who were ready to follow wherever he might lead. At Joe’s command every hat was doffed, and wild cries of delight accompanied a score of sombreros to the ceiling. Tt was an ovation which a general might have coveted. “You want me to lead you, men of Custer!” said Harry, the lyncher, as he came forward and stood beside his faithful ally, Red Crest. “T have unintentionally heard your leader's speech. I came to Custer to find my red friend; but I did not expect to be compelled to seek him at_your headquarters. I am at your ser- vice, If you will follow, I will lead, and I swear to you that when we turn our faces west- ward again, we will leave Cut-throat behind, tenanted only by the dead, I shall bind you to nothing. AsI have listoned to Maverick’s words, [know hat I am to by obeyed. There is one man whom I want to hans.” “Only one, captain?” cried Maverick, ‘* Why, thar must be two, at loast—the lodge-burner from the Rosebud, and the fiend who carried off our rope last summer.” “Tam afraid that Old Jack sent his crazy bullet home,” was the reply. “So the old fellow is going around shooting, with death in his vitals?” ‘* He tried hishand on Tom and, I fear, with sterling success.” ‘*Then out o’ thet one hanging, we'll make up for the disappointment. Now, captain, we are at your orders,” For a moment the boy leader’s kecn eyes swept the score of bronzed faces before him. Then he stepped forward. “To saddle!” he said, in a voice of command. “Tho Thugs of Cut-throat are desperate as starving wolves. Let every man remember this. They may not be death with their strings in every instance, but with the rifle and the revol- ver they never miss. So, avengers of Colorado, I grant you five minutes for good-byes to wives and sweethearts.” “T don’t think thar’s a chap hyar who owns any such property!” cried Maverick Joe; ‘least- wise, thar ’r’ only sixty women in Custer, an’ they b’long to luckier fe'lars No kissing when we go to battle, captain.” A smile orem over Harry’s face as he turned away, and two minutes later he sat in the brilliant starlight at the head of that avencing band, some of whom looked uvon tho city of the Black Hills for the last time that nicht. ‘Somebody's going to be hurt!” said Mav- erick Jos, as he leaned over to the stern-faced horseman on his left. ‘‘ But that ain’t all. We are going to know something about that big bonanza that Old Jack is after.* I feel it in my bones, and I want to see the end of his
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es Judge Lynch, Jr. 27 story about his lost child. If I’m not mistaken, we're not a thousand miles from that little one now. Instinctively the Vigilante addressed turned his face to their boy leader whose well-formed figured was admirably posed on his handsome gray horse. “ Halt!” The column obeying the command, stopped before the man could reply to Maverick Joe. The boy lyncher turned to Moravy the guide, and asked: - Can you take. us to the cave to-night?” ” ” ‘Tt will shelter a 1?” “ All!” ‘Now we must muffle.” Thirty-one figures sprung to the ground, and the task of muffling the horses’ hoofs was soon completed, Then into Cut-throat dashed the white aven- gers. Moravy led the way to the cave where Deadly Dan had spilled the Creole’s blood, and all entered. But silence kept before them. Moravy turned pale. “TL left Lilly hyar,” he exclaimed. ‘* He swore to stay; but I do not hear him.” “ Strike.a light,” said Maverick, ‘‘I know Jerome Lilly. Fe is hyar!” The Vigilante’s confidence in Lilly had not been misplaced, as the light of the lucifer revealed, “Didn't I say he was hyar?’ said Maverick, pointing to the body swinging from a sharp rock that jutted from the wall like a buman arm, ‘D’ve“%known ’im fur forty years. He never deserted a post of dutv. But he died at his last one.” Lilly was dead, and when one of the avengers severed the lariat that suspended him in mid- air, one of his tightly clinched hands opened, and some glittering object fell to the floor. “ Ah! what is this?” exclaimed Harry, pick- ing up the object which had rolled to his feet. “Bless me, if it isn’t a ring!” “Ob, yes, -Brown Louie found it in Cut- throat,” said Moravy, recognizing the ring!” “ Well, I happen to know the owner, so I'll see that is gets home,” replied the boy judge, but in his eyes, as they remained fixed upon the bauble, there was a look suggestive both of mystery and discovery. “We're getting near the end,” said Maverick to himself. “If I’m not mistaken, old Jack would give his claim to the big bonanza jest for one look at that yellow toy!” CHAPTER XIII. THE DEPTHS OF CUT-THROAT. ‘“Drpn’t I strike a blow for the big bonanza? I reckon thet I’ve thrown the hull claim into one share. Ha! ha! they can carry the carcass off, an’ stow it away somewhar, for ef Maverick ei his men found it they’d give it the rope any- 10W. With wild eyes, flashing with triumph, Jack Drivewell sat once more on his horse, his hag- gard face trrned toward Cut-throat, fe did not look like a sane man; there was bt unmistakable make-up of the lunatic about im. We have seen how he startled Maverick Joe and his band in the canyon in the first dim flushes of dawn, and again we heard his voico while the boy lyncher and Tom Terror stood face to face, There were stains of blood on his breast; his own mad hands had attended to his wound; pat it was his iron constitution, coupled to a deter- mination that overruled all other considerations, that kept him in the saddle. He had shot the Gulch Tiger in order to put out of his road a claimant to the imaginary bonanza which fired his brain, Now he would goon and possess it, and become one of the gold- kings of the coast. Such were the wild, intangible dreams that filled mad Jack’s brain; but he believed them as tangible as the revolver his long fingers clutched, “ Mebbe I’m goin’ from the bonanza,” he said starting. ‘‘Tom wouldn’t hey come back ef il warn’t somewhar in these parts; he wouldn’t hang around hyar ef it war away off on the coast. Steady, steady, old Jack! hen you've got yer fingers on the yellow rocks, pone bunt: up the baby and mako her the gold queen of Friseo,” As if spurred on by some new impulse he turned his steed, and was soon gelloping back to the canyon. His soft sombrero readyea drop from his head, revealed his wealth of gray hairs, and gave him a half-grotesque appear- ance, “The queen of Frisco!” he repeated, as if his thoughts for the nonce had wandered from the big bonanza to a new audabsorbing idea, “Ha! ha! won’t she shine in a coach an’ four, gold harness and silver spokes? An’ she'll be Jack’s little queen, an’ Jack will be the Honorable Jack from Frisco. All this when I stake off the big claim!” and he laughed gleefully till the woods rung with the discordant cachinnation, A few moments after the shadows of Cut- throat seemed to swallow him, but down amon them the strong stage horse bore his mad old master. If the Thugs had returned to the canyon half on hour after the shooting of their leader, they would have seen a solitary horseman at the tragic spot. His insane eyes were fixed upon a dark stain among the white pebbles. It was’ where Tom Terror had fallen, - And while the man looked, his lips murmured a score of disconnected sentences; but among them were strangely commingled “ gold queen,” * bie bonanza,” and ‘ one share ” Had Jack a lingering doubt of the success of his shot? When he moved away it was to follow the trail of blood which, had he kept on, would have taken him to scenes we have already de- scribed; but seeing that it ascended to the top of the canyon, he gave up the track and rode moodily off. He had a doubt, but, mad as he was, he knew better than to encounter the devils whose leader | he had stricken. So among the shaded caverns of the old can- yon, the bonanza-hunter buried himself; but
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~ 28 when the first star peeped through the blue canopy of heaven upon the earth once more, prim and morose, like death on his pale horse, e came forth, and halting by the dark wall seemed to wait for his prey. He sat there statue-like and stern untila sound startled him, and made his eyes flash. Quick as a flash of lightning he drew his re- volvers and leaned forward. But the next instant he started back and hugged the canyon wall. In that position he sat and held his breath while Captain Harry and his Vigilantes rode past entirely unconscious of his presence. “The boy and Maverick together?” he re- peated twenty times, ‘“ What does it mean? Ah, if I thought they war huntin’ the big bo- nanza, I’d hev asserted my right to the whole claim.” The Vigilantes moved on, their hoof-beats did not rouse the echoes of the canyon; but Old Jack still occupied his halting-place. “The Wolf ar’ on the trail,” he said half-aloud, leaning forward again and trying to pierce the starlight that rendered the pebbles and pieces of rock objects of grim grotesqueness. “Hal these are the Wolves who follow the hunter of the big bonanza,” flashed the old man as his restless eyes discerned the three creeping objects that came down the gapas if on the trail of Maverick Joe and Captain Hurry. ‘ They don’t want the baby to be the goid queen. Hal ha! Old Jack will seo that they never get to break a spoke of the gold carriage!” As he spoke, two pistols crept past his horse’s ears, and then, with a loud cry of rage, he touched the triggers and sent a deafening report through the cavern, At the shots,two half-naked figures sprung into the air and fell back, while the third turned and shot away like an arrow sent swiftly from an Indian bow. “Tm making the claim sure!” ejaculated Old Jack. ‘Two more spokes fur the silver wheels! Hurrah for the big bonanza of Colorado!” He was on the ground with the last word on ‘his lips, and his eyes flashed with a fiercer light when he recognized the figures lying in the star- get, ‘hey were the bodies of stalwart Indians, and from the belt of each dangled a dark cord and a leaden ball! Old Jack, with a saneless laugh, tore the fatal strings away, and held them up in the starlight in great glee. He shook them till they became hopelessly tangled, and laughed to hear the lit- tle balls strike together. But all at once one of the figures on the ground moved spasmodically, and a pair of sav- age eyes became riveted upon the bonanza-hun- ‘ter. This the cld man did not perceive; he ee nothing but the whirling, tangled cords of eal / ““Ha! hal? hoe laughed, in the same strain. The gold queen will astonish Frisco, And Old Jack will run a bank in the heart of the big bo- nanza.” The next moment the gleaming eyes on the ground seemed to leap up like a pair of rockets, and with a human tiger at his breast. It is needless to say that the deadly cords fell ? Judge Lynch, Jr. from his hand; as they touched the ground he eth out his jong arms and grappled with the oe. His madness seemed to lend the ex-driver strength, and as the two combatants swayed to and fro, they seemed almost equally matched. Now against the rocks they went, now out into starlight, fighting and tearing each others’ throats like Kilkenny cats. Once Old Jack gained a vantage and forced his enemy loose; but with the far-famed agility of his race, the Indian recovered in an instant, and his scarlet claws tore open the driver’s jacket, and wrenched the dressing from his wound, Jack felt his heart-strings yield, as 1t were, as the bandages gave way, and the stars seemed to resolve themselves into a golden mist before his es. Mi The Greaser’s gettin’ the one share,” gasped the old hunter. ‘‘ Ar’ Old Jack never to see the gold queen in her carriage? Is—this—the chim- ney—the chim—of the—big bonanza?” His fingers clutched a stretch of bleeding throat, but they dropped away, and he would have fallen from the Tidian's hands if they had released him. A smile of triumph fluttered over the Thug’s face, and a blade of steel, till then unused, flash- ed in the starlight. A moment later it descended like a swift- winged bolt of death, and was buried in the breast of the bonanza-hunter. The reply to that merciless stroke was a groan, and Jack, released, fell at the feet of his horse, the sole living witness of that terrific struggle. But there was another heart near by, at whose strings death was clutching. * The Thug dropped the knife as he drew it from his victim’s Lene. and reeled toward the nearest wall, against which he fell heavily. Old Jack had fought with his hands alone; but they had served him well. For, as the Indian cast his eyes upward as if to take a last, long look at the stars. the hideous gap in his throat was revealed, and the death- gurgle went down the canyon on the playful wind. Then it was that he clutched wildly at the bare rock towering above his disordered crest, and with one loud cry he went backward— dead! Poor Jack! In the depths of Cut-throat, the big bonanza had been wrenched from him, and he would never see the gold queen dazzle the denizens of the coast. CHAPTER XIV. THE SHADOW OF THE NOOSE. ALL through the day which came after the night that witnessed the surprise of Myra, the waif, by Tom Terror and his Thugs, six. Wolves watched with the fatal cord in their hands for the return of the boy lyncher. But he did not come. Back in the cavern proper, with that ghastly coloring which comes to the faces of the dying, the white Thug reclined on the rude cot. His wound had been roughly but well dressed, and
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oy Judge Lynch, Jr. 29 the gentle hands of the girl of mystery had moistened his lips with water. Night came again; the long, gloomy shadows of the bare cliffs that fringed the top of the nay- row ravine darkened the mouth of the cave once more, and made the red watchers creep to the very threshold. Surely night would bring the boy judge back. All at once the fair girl started, for an Indian had leaped to the cot, and was talking in low tones to the wounded Thug. Her heart seemed to stand still. Sho felt that Harry was coming, that he was about to walk into the death-trap which cunning had prepar- ed for him. How she strained her ears to catch a sentence, a word of the Indian’s communication, As well she might have listened for the sound of a zephyr! But she saw the giant’s eyes flash while his hireling talked; she caught the quick nod of approval that he gave, and saw the Thug bound toward the entrance again. Then followed twenty minutes of indescrib- able suspense, during which her eyes remained fixed on the nearest red figure crouched along the wall. Harry did not come. That was exquisite pleasure to the waif’s heart, Suddenly the Indian who had spoken to Tom Terror came back. His breaths were gasps, and he smiled grimly as he held a ‘shattered wrist before his leader’s eyes. The few quick, mad words that fell from his lips made the Gulch Tiger spring from the cot, “ Where’s the use in lyin’ hyar when all my enemies ar’ in Cut-throat?” he thundered. ‘‘The hand of death is at my life-lock, but before it icks it thar shall be a general wipim out down below. So he’s come back after the big bon- anza? Wal, I'll give it to *im before I’m planted, Go an’ git the hosses, I’m still old Tom Terror, the man o’ many tricks, ef death hes staked a claim on my property!” There was something so ferocious and unnatu- ral in that vagabond’s mien that Myra involun- tarily shrunk away. The four Thugs bounded hack as if to carry out the command the chief had uttered. “Why don’t Dan come back?” continued the cut-throat, ‘TI recollect now he left shortly after he saw the mole on the gal’s face. Sut why did he leave her hyar? He’s been buntin’ thet little spot for ten years, an’ it’s cost ’im blood. Now he goes off. Does he expect me to put the big bonanza in his hands?” Myra heard but few of these words, still she heard enough to know that Tom Terror was talking about her. In her eagerness to know more she could hardly restrain herself; she wanted to rush forward and beg him to tell her all he knew before he left.’ For did not Harry say that he knew Deadly Dan’s secret? and was he not going away with death at his heart-strings to encounter foes who would show no quarter? She started when he spoke of the Wolf of the Rosebud. During the day just passed she had not caught a glimpse of him. Once in the night she awoke from feverish slumber to be- hold him gazing down into her face with a great deal of triumph and revenge, and while her startled eyes regarded him, he turned sud- denly away. “T believe he has deserted his companions,” flashed across Myra’s mind. ‘It is I who drove him off. He did not expect to find me here. believe he hates himself for saving me from the Thugs last night, and now he has abandoned me to their mercy.” She was thinking thus when the sound of voices near the mouth of the cave startled Tom Terror and drove him forward. “The time has come!” she heard him say as if the words gave him a sort of wolfish pleasure. “Thar’s to be a good deal of dyin’ with boots on in the old Cut-throat. Whar’s the gal?” “Here, Captain Tom.” answered Myra, and the next moment she stood before the robber of the gulch, from whom a few hours since she would have fled with a shriek. “So hyar ye ar’!” he said, ‘ I’m goin’, never to come back, I'll never pull my boots off ag’in. Stay byar till somebody comes; it won't be me; it won't be Deadly Dan. But, somebody will come an’ take you away. You're the biggest bonanza in Colorado, ef you ar’ but a mite, One 0’ these days you'll be a gold queen, Dan got on the wrong trail. an’ now he’s run awa. from the right one. Run cff an’ left the work for my boys with the cords. I told ‘im to give you the strings Jast night, but I’m kinder glad thet Rosebud interfered an’ saved yer life.” The old fellow dropped Myra’s hand, and started toward the mouth of the cave where two bronzed faces waited for him; but the girl bounded forward, , “You haven’t disclosed anything!” she cried. “What you have said makes me curious, Whose child am I? Captain Tom, will you not lift the vail of mystery that has hung before me solong? Who is the boy?” “The boy?” and Tom Terror grated his teeth. ** Oh, the young ’un what has carried on courtin Cut-throat for six months?” ‘Yes, yes!” ** He’s nobody in particlar. Youre the mys- tery, gal. Thar!” The Gulch Tiger tore himself away, and ‘as he bounded forward he left the waif standing in the firelight, a beautiful statue of bewilder- ment, ‘“Me the mystery? she cried. ‘‘AmTI about to see somebody who is able to tell me who I am? What did he say about the gold queen! Oh, he did not know what he was saying. That awful wound has turned his head. He is going out to die—to throw himself in his rage perhaps upon Harry, and—then—then—” The thought of the terrible scenes that might soon populate the chasm rushed upon the girl's — mind faster than she could speak, They came like the pictures of some mighty panoran.a, and when in one she saw Harry, the avenger, struck down by the man he bad sworn to hang, she reeled away with a cry of horror. : When she recovered, the cavern was still. The fire burning brightly on the stone floor told her that she was the only tenant of the cave. The silence was oppressive. ; “Can I not see something from the rock?? she exciaimed. ‘It would kill me to remain here while the last dread encounter was taking =f
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30 Judge Lynch, Jr. ee in Cvt-throat. I will go! Heaven grant hat harm may not come to them! But did Captain Tom not say that, even when Old Jack fired that shot he had a bullet somewhere in his own breast?” The waif of the gap hurried from tho cave, and a few moments later shé was gliding through the shadows of the ravine with which she was thoroughly acquainted. Clutching the rock already mentioned, sho leaned over the wall and cast her eyes into the depths of the canyon. ‘That deathly silence is ominous,” she said. ‘“* They are somewhere down there, lying in am- bush like tigers for their prey. This awful sus- ense will not end to-night. I must wait longer ‘or the solution of the mystery. Maybe Harry will come, and then—” The girl sprung back with a startling cry; the thunderous report of firearms had broken the si- lence and the flash almost blinded ner. Again and again the shots sent her warm blood like Inva through her heart; she heard oaths, cries, the wild struggling of enemies in deadly combat. They had met! But who were the white men whose voices as- sailed her ears? Ah! Tom Terror and his Thugs had encoun- tered Maverick Joe and his Vigilantes; not the boy lyncher, Myra took hope at this; she once more re- turned to the rock; she leaned forward; but the ager of that short battle was blown into her ‘ace, The Vigilantes had conquered; their voices told her this, and she wanted to send down to them her approval of their success, But something checked her, Those men hated the boy lyncher. They had even hunted ‘him, and she—she could not admire such men. “T will go back and wait,” she said. ‘‘ Harry will come now. I wonder if they slew Captain Tom. Why, of course they did. Maverick Joe and his men are merciless! They are fiends.” Myra turned from the rock, but the next in- stant she found herself face to face with a figure that brought a cry to her lips. “ Here you are, my beauty! By Jove! they’ve been settling matters down in the gulch. I thought you were gone when I found the cave empty; but here you are, the girl to make the gold queen of the Eastern coast.” The waif saw the glitter of the man’s eyes; she listened half-dazed to his triumphant words and drew back when his hand touched her, “Not so fast,” he hissed, springing forward. “Now that I’ve found the right trail, I propose to profit by it. I’m Deadly Dan out here; but back among the nabobs of the Atlantic coast I’m the cultivated society beau, who, by one stroke at this minute, could become a million- aire! Don’t look at meas if you’d dagger me with those pretty eyes, girl. You'll get used to Dan Darrell when I have made you the gold queen of New York.” “You?” gasped Myra, ‘‘Must I owe the so- lution of the mystery to you?” “Tho mystery?’ he laughed. ‘ Yes, there is amystery. We all thought the lost baby was a poy; but here ends the trail. I stand before the eyes we have hunted so long. The little mole on your forehead is worth more than one mill- ion, Jennie.” The waif uttered an ejaculation of amaze- ment. “Jennie? That was the the ring.” ** Ah, you have it, then!” “No. Ilostit. I dropped it from the cliffs into Cut-throat a long time ago.” Deadly Dan’s countenance fell. ‘*But the mole will prove enough,” he said. “Come, my golden bird. Some of those booted fellows down there might interfere with my oer Thunder and guns! it was a desperato vattle. The Thugs waited for Maverick. They gave him the strings, and then opened upon the ranks with their revolvers. I never saw such shooting; it outdid our famous fight on the Rose- bud. But they won’t hang Captain Tom; that’s certain.” “Are you certain about your own neck, Deadly Dan?” The villain stopped and dropped the hand that he held; then his revolver leaped upward, but the report which followed quickly upon the question, caused it tofall as suddenly. “Draw again and I'll spoil your face!” said the deadly marksman. ‘) have just closed one session of court, and now I will open the last one I shall ever hold in Cut-throat. Stand where you are! This time Red Crest and I will see that the noose is properly adjusted. Jennie —Myra—go on into the eave; there’s somebody there who wants to see you.” The girl sprung forward with a parting look at Deadly Dan. That villain bit his lips; the prize for which he had trailed and shot for ten years was gilid- ing from his grasp . “Now, devil, Iam ready,” he said, fiercely, his eyes turned upon the boy captain. ‘I know allnow. Ive been on the wrong trail. You've won the prize, but be careful lest they eucher you out of itin New York. We will not parley about a secret this time, eh?” “ No!” The boy turned as he spoke, and several fig- ures came forward. “So you have some men left, Maverick?” ex- claimed Rosebud Dan, recognizing the Vigilante captain. “Only thirteen!” was the grating answer. ‘¢ TTeavens! how they shot!” “ve seen shootin’ in my time, Rosebud; but Tom aw’ his Thugs war worse nor a,dozen Gat- lin’s!” and the hand of the speaker fell on the human wolf’s shoulder, He was doomed to the rope once more. me engraved on CHAPTER XV. A GOLD QUEEN AFTER ALL. . “ Way did I come back to Cut-throat? War thet what ye asked me, Maverick?” asked Tom Terror, as he looked down into the Vigilante’s face from the saddle to which several of the red survivors of the gulch battle had helped him, bleeding froma fresh wound. ‘I see no harm
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a Judge Lynch, Jr. . 31 in tellin’ the why an’ wherefore now. A big bo- nanza brought me back. Deadly Dan knows more about it than [ do; but I know that a mil- lion or more is tremblin’ in the balances on the Atlantic Coast. He sent me back to find an’ to kill; but he thought he’d better come, too. Ha! ha! I’m afeard he'll never tech the rocks, for it turned out to be a gal.” Captain Harry started at the man’s words. ~ i girl!” he ejaculated. : : “Yes; your sweetheart. Did you think it war you?” and the wounded man smiled grimly. *“Tast night Rosebud found an’ recognized her.” * And did his work?” “No; he ran off. But, mebbe he’s back by this time. He’d rathersee her the gold queen of the cities than use his knife, for she’s purtier’n all creation.” The Vigilantes looked at the boy. ““We can’t talk here,” Harry said. ‘ Are you ready, Tom?” ““My boots ar’ on. ready.” Red Crest leaped forward at a sign from the boy, and the strong noose fell over the Tiger’s drooping head. “By Jove! you said you'd string me up some- time,” he said, lifting his heavy eyebrows. “But,” with a bitter laugh, “ef you don’t hurry up you'll hang a carcass.” In less than a minute’s time the lariat was thrown over the beam to which we have several times referred, and, as the horse, struck sharply, started forward, the body of the Terror of the ep sprung into the air. But vain, almost, was that long-delayed ven- geance, for when the death noose tighted around Tom’s short stretch of throat, the soul the ruffian had gone to be judged. ‘* Now for Myra!” cried the boy. Tharfore, Tom Terror ar’ A scene totally unexpected greeted the eyes of the girl waif when she re-entered the cav- ern. Stretched on the cot drawn close to the fire lay the body of a man whose face was haggard in the extreme. His eyes beaming with expec- tation, glittered intensely as the fair one ap- peared, “T knew it!” he exclaimed. ‘Ef I hev lost one big bonanza, I’ve found another; an’ one, too, all in one share. Jennie! Jennie! come an’ tell me thet the long-lost claim hes come back to Old Jack!” The girl did not hesitate, and the next mo- ment her gentle face was pressed to the rough cheek of the old driver. There was no mad light in his eyes now; in its place beamed the tender and subdued look of fatherly affection. *“T knowed it would come,” said Maverick Joe, feelingly. ‘‘Old Jack has found the big bonanza, Captain Tom would have hired him to hunt down his own child, ef Rosebud hadn’t interfered.” It was a scene from which the rough Vigi- Jantes withdrew, and when the lest one had departed, they left the twain there with lip glued to lip. Sterner scenes called them away. I feel that I need not describe what followed. It would be but the story of how a man who had staked his all on the throw of the dice went to his death with a courage that is seldom imi- tated. But this let me say: When the long arrows of dawn penetrated the recesses of Cut-throat Canyon, they fell upon two human bodies swinging side by side many feet above the whitened pebbles. And beneath them, chalked on the somber wall, was the following: “NOTICE! “The court, which has been continually in session here during the last six months, is adjourned sine die. Jt has pursued, tried and executed, without show or favor. There are no more criminals within its juris- diction to punish. And it decrees that Cut-throat Canyon be hereafter known as Paradis» Gan, “Jupar Lynow, Jr.” The change of name, as the reader no doubt suspects, was a suggestion from Maverick Joe, and three cheers echoed through the bloody gulch as the boy drew back to survey the no- tice. When the party returned to the cavern they found Jennie—Myra no longer, that being the name by which Captain Harry knew her— seated beside the cot holding the dead hand of Bonanza Jack, her father. His tale had been told; she knew all, and she told Harry that with bis last breath he had thanked fortune for preserving his life until he had found his child. After all vicissitudes she became a veritable gold queen, for the property left by her grand- father fell into her hands, and the conspirators, when at the threshold of success, found them- selves baffled. But here was one—the chief of tke plotters— who would not pursue the heiress any longer. For when the vengeance of Judge Lynch, Jr., overtook him in the great canyon of Colorado, he met his doom, By one rope—his former miraculous escape from a similar death he stubbornly refused to explain—the crimes of the Rosebud and Cut- throat were summarily expiated. Here we must put aside the pen; but not un- til we have informed the reader that Maverick Joe, now a veritable gold-bug, has just arrived from the West to witness a wedding ceremony, and to give the blushing bride away. And if somewhere in the fashionable assembly the interesting face of a young Indian is seen we may be sure that he is the galiant Red Crest, of our canyon romance THE END.
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32 OCTAVO PAGES, eNO Dic ae eee ceee POCKET LIBRARY. BDHBGHRADGDRRBADHADGDHRGRHHDHHDARAHH Deadwood Dick, the Prince of the Road. ward L. Wheeler. Kans: « King; or, The Red Right Hand, fro Bil, The Flying Yankee. The Dou ble DaRRere By Edward L, Wheeler. The Two Detectives, By Albert W. Aiken. The Prairie P lot. By Buffalo Bill, The Butfalo Demon. By Edward L. Wheeler. Antelope Abe, the Boy Guide. By O}] Coomes. Ned Wylde, the Boy Scout. By “Toxas Jack” Buffalo Ben, tho Prince of the Pistol. By Edward L. Wheeler. Ralph | Roy. the Boy Buiceanser, By © 1. Ingraham. Nick o° the rht. By T. C. Harbangh, Yellowat ek, By Jouauh £, Badger, Jr. Wild Ivan, the Boy Claude Duval. By E. L.Wheeler, Diamond Dirk. ‘By Colonel Prentiss Ingraham, Keen-Knife, Prince of the Prairies, By 01] Coomes, Oregon Sol; or, Nick Whiffles’s Boy Spy y. By Capt. J ©. Adams. Death-Face, the Detective. By E. L. Wheeler. Lasso Jack. By Oll Coomes, Roaring Ralph Rockwood, the Reckless Ranger. 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