Old Shadow Shot — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

NAT SINGS AGAIN. |. “Don’t fight, my birds!” he said. 27 “Yes,” and the bandit turned to a group kin clip yer wings in less than no time, an’ | at one of the fires. if you lift a hand, by giminy! I’l) give the word what will do it. Drop the shootin’- irons, an’ we'll take charge of ye fur the cap'n!” Violet looked at her companion as the mention of his commander fell from the out- law’s lips. Did he mean Captain Dave? “Aren't you goin’ to give in?” he said, after a moment’s waiting. The reply was the dropping of Nat’s cheek upon the rifie-stock. The Vulture saw the movement and fell forward on his steed’s neck; but, as quick as he was, he was too late, for with the crack of the rifle his fingers slipped from the reins and he fell to the ground at the feet of his horse! A cry, startling in its ferocity, greeted the young ranger’s death-shot, and like a missile hurled from a catapult the Vultures darted forward. Violet sent a ball among their ranks; but it succeeded only in wounding a horse and failed to break the force of the charge. _ In the twinkling ofan eye, as it were, the young couple were prisoners! They had fallen into the clutches of the band of fiends whose deeds of daring and ferocity are still told throughout the“ Badger State.” - “To the cap’n, now!” said the new leader of the bandits. “These birds ‘ll make him open his eyes. Bless me! if they ain’t worth ten trains. . We'll get the last bar’l open for this.” The Vultures were not long in riding from the spot, and their gallop took them rapidly towards the south. The captives, separated, seated on differ- ent horses and closely guarded, had no chance to converse with each other. After rapid riding for several hours, the forest pirates reached a spot illumined by several fires about which human figures were distinguishable. The scene soon assumed the look of a camp, and the nfght-riders drew rein in the ruddy light. “Whar’s the cap'n?” demanded the burly leader of the raid. “Thar!” was the reply of a white man, who pointed to a hammock swaying gently beneath the boughs of a tree. The leader turned and advanced. “Cap'n,” he said to the ghastly but anxious face that looked over the edge of the suspended couch—“cap’n, we must open the last bar’l to-night, fur we’ve brought in two important pris’ners.” The eyes in the hammock flashed fire. “Prisoners!” His yoice was husky. “Bring up the birds!” he said. “Oap’n Dave wants to take a squint at the leetle ones !” Almost instantly Nightingale Nat and Violet were led from the group, and the eyes of the man in the swinging-bed became riveted upon them. In order to exhibit them plainly to his gaze, one of the freebooters carried a torch in the van. Captain Dave, for he was the man in the hammock, shut his ashen lips and kept his fiery eyes fixed upon the captives. The Pause scenes of the past few days had told terribly on the once handsome leader of the Vultures. His cadaverous face, the deep-set, bloodshot eyes, and the nervous twitching of the finely-chiselled lips told of mental and bodily anguish. Violet did not recognise him until she was at the very edge of the hammock. It is not a wonder that she started back with his forest name on her lips. “T am Captain Daye!” he said, looking at her. “Gurl, I owe much of my present awful situation to you. I have madly loved you, girl that you are. But there is a man abroad who is hunting you. Do you know what you are worth to him?” Z The fair avenger shook her head. “Fifty thousand dollars!” was the reply. “T never wished to claim it—the reward, I mean. He never will, I am sure. I wish I had that shadow-man here who sent a bullet into my lungs.” The eyes of the girl sparkled with the triumph of revenge. “Shadow-Shot did not shoot you,” she said. “It was my rifle that dropped you on the neck of your horse. Captain Dave, you slew my father and his people in this very wood, and for five years you lived a lie to me, and kept me from the path of vengeance. Do you believe that I had no right to shoot you when I discovered that you were the leader of the Vulture band? I would have shot you in the midst of your men even if I knew that death should come to me a moment later !” The girl talked in a firm tone, looking straight into the eyes in the hammock. “And so it is your bullet that I carry with me!” “Tt is mine!” His bloodless hand crept over the edge of the bed, “Darcy,” he said, to one of the scourges, “give me your pistol!” The weapon, one of the old-fashioned kind, was jerked from the outlaw’s belt and ‘eGoOm (E(0) thrust into the chief’s hand. : CloOOKS