Wildcat Bob, the Boss Bruiser — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

* ae een *% os 10 siza and development, and it was just about as agg that one would win the battle as the er. “Till bet five hundred dollars that Chucky ‘White wins in three heats!” yelled a . _ had recently arrived from Golden City. have got ons thousand “Pll take ye!” cried Colonel Tupper; ‘also I here, in one hundred- dollar bills, that says Wildcat Bob knocks him iiekan.t nid Mision Plovdacod ‘ot Harp: en,” sai jor ) r’s as he disinounted from his horse at thedoor an entered. And so the betting went on till a large number of bets had been ‘ - eorded, and the host had fully five thousand dol- lars at stake when he motioned for the contest to pen Both men accordingly squared off on line, and at a given word went at it. The first round was fought in three minutes, and resulted in the Lalifornian’s favor, Wildcat Bob getting a stinger in the neck that sent him spinning back to the floor. The crowd yelled and shrieked, and many who had bets on Bob, began to-look a trifle dubious, Bob was on his feet in a moment, however, and the second bout commenced, It was short and sweet, for Mr. Chucky White received the first blow in the region of his mouth, and went own. The third round resulted again in the favor of Wildeat Bob, his adversary getting hit and | knocked out of time. The fourth was sharp and flerce, and both men putin some very effective blows. It was fought in five minutes, and as yet no blood had been drawn. This was granted to the: Boss Bruiser in the fifth heat, when sending in an awful blow on the champion’s proboscis, he | caused him to tumble bleeding to the floor. | Time, three minutes. The sixth, Wildcat Bob took a false tumble. The seventh round finished the fight. Wild- cat Bob put in two tremendous hits in rapid succession, one in each of his opponent’s eyes, and the Californian dropped to the floor quite insensible, Anxiously the excited audience waited, and at last the champion groaned and opened his eyes. ** Enough!” he g i—‘‘ Pm licked to suit | me!” And so ended the prize-fight. CHAPTER IX. THROUGH THE FROG PARADISE. who | mainlan planked” and re- | | glaring savagely around. Hades or some other like place. Better not let | | leaves from the lower branches o f ahaa j ‘ ~The New York ‘Library. | | men saw him urge his horse into the water, and | finally reach the shore of the marsh. Then, af- | ter he had disappeared in the high waving wil- | derness of flags, they swam their horses back to | mai a, and divided up, onehalf goingaround _the swamp one way and the other the other way. Here and there one dropped off at an as- en at post, while the others went on. the meantime the land-agent had penetrat- _ ed the marsh on his perilous mission. At first he found a better footing for his | horse than he had hoped for,and was able to | make considerable progress. the best. On every side rose a dense forrest of | flags and reeds, and from their depths rose a _ continual chorus of dismal croaks and ‘“‘ chugs,” as the frisky frog thrust his nose above water to see who was invading his paradise. Vicious | birds flew up from their nests and darted at the trespasser with wild, unearthly screams, and more than one large, green-eyed snake thrust | his head and forked tongue out at him as he rode on, The vengeful land-agent was sure that he was on the trail of the fugitives, for on the brakes in several instances he discerned signs of their pas- sage, and in one place he perceived a bow of ribbon that Amber had worn on her hair. The marsh still continued to stretch away | without visible limit, and as yet nothing had been seen of the two fugitives, though they could not be a great distance ahead. About the middle of the afternoon the land- agent drew rein at the foot of a large cotton- wood tree, that stood alone in its glory amid acres of dense flag thickets, and slid from the saddle. He was tired of riding, and the everlasting croak! croak! of the monstrous bullfrogs, and the unearthly screams of fierce birds, had nearly | driven him crazy. ** Curses on the fools!” he growled, as he stood **T wish they were in me get a shot at them, if they value life!” The tree stood on what was in fact an island, | for a little moat of stagnant water, alive with llywogs and bullfrogs, circled quite around it. While the land-agent was resting, therefore, his steed grazed about and ouerer the green the tree. At last, feeling considerably refreshed, Seton mounted his horse, preparatory to resuming his toilsome journey. “Stop them! stop them!’ shrieked land- | agent Seton, frantically. ‘‘Shoot them—do not let them escape! Five hundred dollars to | the man that brings them to me, dead or alive!” Thus baited, Jim Bings and his followers urged forward their horses, and gained the island by the time the fugitives had landed on the shore of the marsh. Quickly the ruffian leader brought | his rifle to a level with his nose, and fired. There was a yellof agony and the priest dropped dead in his tracks. But before another bead could be drawn Thorpe Bloodgood shook his clenched fist back at his pursuers, seized Amber Seton in his arms, and turning, bounded off into the thicket of sheltering flags and brakes. ** After him! after him!” cried the infuriated | Jand-azent, as he succeeded in gaining the island. | “Fetch the young hound out of them rushes, and kill him—kill ‘em both!” “No sorter use o’ follerin’ ’em, now, Mister Seton,” said Bings, shaking his head dubiously. Ms They've put their snoots in a trap this time, | sure a Explain. What do you mean?” Bings laughed. **I judge they’re done fer, yerhoner. Them | ar’ bogs ar' chuck fuller o’ cuicksands nor a | monkey’s ha’r ar’ o’ lice. "Tain’t possible fer no human critter to git thru wi’ out gittin’ stuck.” “Bah! that young rascal and my girl know on marsh better than But now a new thought struck him. Why not climb the tree and take observations ahead? | Perhaps he would be able to sight the fugitives, and learn how far they were ahead of him. To think was to act, and the next moment he had slipped from the saddle and was climbing the tree, It was a tall one and supplied with | many leafy branches. Half-way up, and the land-agent heard a loud, purring noise, and the next instant a panther shot downward from an overhanging limb, utter- | ing a frightful yell. But, although the fierce beast struck the limb on which Seton sat, he did not catch a hold, and the next instant went spinning on through the lower branches toward the ground. Peering downward the land-a to his horror, that the animal had descended di- rectly on to the back of the horse, who, with a snort of affright, now dashed madly away through the marsh. ‘* Heavens! now I am without horse or food, and night coming on at that. times, on that young devil, Bloodgood, and my daughter!” raved the unfortunate pursuer, as he still continued to ascend the tree. Ten moments later he reached the top, and perched himself on a suitable limb to make ob- servations, From here he could see to the end of the marsh, t perceived W | which was only about half a mile beyond, when you, and they wouldn’t | it was met by a wide stretch of motte-dotted ve gone into it if they hadn’t some path in | prairie. w y which they could get out.” ** Waal, now, I'll bet ye a hand at poker thet | they ken’t cit thra!” | **I shall make no bets. They must not get thro [tell you. You wish to earn five hun- | dred among you: go ahead and chase | down your game, at once.’ Bings turned to his men. But they all shook their heads. The danger | attending a rush into the swamp was too great; | they cared more for their lives than they did for the money. “Til tell you w’at we will do,” said Bings, af- | ter a moment’s thought; ‘‘ we kin circle ‘round the bog, an’ watch Ser em.” ‘* Yes, you can do f, it is true, and while | bine are waiting for them outside, I will ride | to the marsh and drive them out.” “You'd better not try to, Mister Seton, for | mmore’n like’s not ye’ll git yerself into one o’ consarned quicksands, an’ ef ye do, it’s | good-by Suzey, wi’ you, bet yer boots. Better | et st wl I donot fear it. I will drive these | accursed runaways out of their retreat, and ' zaeet you on the other side of the swamp. Bo saying the la gent rode across the tsl- and, a few mc later Bings and his | «the sun now was just setting, proving that it was much later than he had supposed, and the bullfrogs, peepers and night-birds had begun their distracting songs with renewed force and vigor. The denizens of Frog Paradise were evi- dently endeavoring to out-io themselves for the edification of their visitor. Carefully Seton scanned the marsh interven- ing between the tree and the prairie. Nothing of the fugitives was to be seen. But the flags | and reeds were so high that they might be only | a hundred yards off, and he not see them. **They must be hiding somewhere between | here and the prairie,” he muttered, as he kept up a close watch, ‘‘ or else they’ve gone down in a quicksand |” oe i 1is was a possible theory. But, what surety was there that they had perished? None, at all. Even now they might have escaped and be flying far away. ‘*I wonder what has become of Bings and his men? I see nothing of them along the margin flags hide them from my view. Ha! What was that?’ At this aon wag the tree in which the land-agent was sea seemed convulsed with an awful tremor, and But the Frog Paradise was a horrible place, at | Curses, a million | tottered as if it were | gal’s ‘Vol. E | | about to fall, For a moment Seton’s hair stoo on end; but his fears vanished, after a vio~ — lurch, the monarch once more became quiet: | an ive. | “* What could have caused such a tottering? T | can see no solution to the affair, unless, maybe, | it was jarred by the shake of an earthquake. | Yes, that must have been it, though the shock | of an earthquake has not been felt in this sec- tion of country for several years. Ha! a rifle shot, sure as I am living!” |_ It was even so. While the land-agent had been musing the distant report of a rifle came over the marsh from the prairie, on the evenin breeze. Glancing hurriedly in that direction, | he beheld a sight that caused him to utter a cry of ney, o figures—one a man and the other a fe- | male—had emerged from the eastern end of the | swamp, and were flying out over the prairie, when, as a horseman had dashed swiftly in pur- suit, the man while running uns! | and fired a single shot: But as the horseman did not stop, Seton supposed that he -had not | been hit. But in this supposition he was wrong; | for the horse had not gone a hundred yards fur- | = when its rider toppled fromthe saddle— ead. | ‘Heaven! he was hit after all!” cried the ex- cited man, ‘‘and now they will escape on his riderless horse. No! by the furies, they must not! Ican do the rest of this accursed marsh perhaps, ere they can catch the animal, Ha} what means this? Am I dreaming, or drunk? They are now out of sight—the prairie is Se This from my view, and the swamp reeds obst my view, also. Wanat does all this mean? tree seems not half as tall as it was when I first came here. My God! can it be possible that it is sinking?” With a face ghastly white with a horror that was creeping over him, Seton be hastily to descend from his perch, But, te bet not _ far to go before he made the terrible discove : The tree had already sunken @ third of its _ length into the earth, or, rather, into a bed of quicksand, and where had been the island on | which the land-agent had lounged a short time | before, was now a broad sheet of bubbling water, | that, as the tree sunk lower, became larger and pg 954 zs nd thus death stared Charles Seton in the ace! . CHAPTER xX. AWLESS RANGERS—IRIS Woop’s . ‘ the day after old Bill Wood had disposed of the Haunted Claim to Lamonte, he cone uded it his best plan to ride over to Charles Seton’s with the Sear T as the land-agent very rarely visited the and weeks and months might pass ere he would see him, So he saddled up one of his horses, and made realy for the journey, for it would take from dark to dark to accomplish the round trip. ‘Papa, why cannot I go?” asked the tmiller'g rosy-cheeked. daughter, Iris, as she«came ayly into the humble kitchen, all aglow with ay set tiful bloom produced by a morning ramble in the forest. ‘*I would so like to get away from this same tedious monotony, if only for a day.” Bill Wood drummed on ‘the rough pine table, thoughtfully, while he gazed at the ovely face | and form of his child. She was the very climax | of his hopes—the idol of his heart. It was not | within his ower to refuse the gratification of her slightest wish, and consequently she always had her own way. “So ye want to go along, eh? Well, I don't | know's i've got any ’jections to offer, ’ca’se ye’re | @ purty good sorter gal, and deserve to seétnore | of the world. But, you must promise me not to | fall head over heels in love, ag’in, like ye did when I tuk ye to Denver, last fall. ‘Can't hey no ine sich,” is Wood’s face became ve and Mav — t soulful eyes filled Veith tesa “it “I promise, papa; but oh! not riwticor Pp “et how much would I } “Tush! tush! girl. You are ¢ | Hev’n’t I told ye more’n a dozen rhe J not to think of that feller any more? An’ now, heer ye ar’ ag’in, wishin’ ye could sea him. ke oa vA eed ord ee outen your young he'd, iP emp start y. Fast. ; tered skule.” ‘fee: ney, woe “No! no! don’t!” cried the tearful gi J ing her arms about his neck, and kis i rowed brow. ‘Don’t send me way Begley ** Of course I won't, pet:” 1 | rubbed the moisture tem lusccenecs of bis eves, | | oncourse I won’t let ye go. , how, goan | hustle on -yer Sund’y-go-to-meetin’ duds, an’ be | ready by the time I fetch around the young hogs, tris hurried off to attire herself for the ride, | and after she had disar ared, ol the ion to catch and ‘ clink pes ee d Bill lett of the swamp. But, come to think of it, the ere " the cirl’s sad- The gal’s never gj Giveiinta? about feller she see’d in tectver? he m pg tramped plong;. an’ th T "hai much 0’ en inklin’ o’ w’at luy ~ ‘m skeery ‘feared the cotched ix B luck, annyhev. FOMIGD his rifle : | j