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Deadwood Dick, Jr., Branded.
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“Then you desire to escape him now?”
“Heavens! he would murder me now,
after what I have done. Yes, yes, I de-
sire to escape; I want you to protect me.’
“Enough said,” agreed Dick, giving
her another. embrace and releasing her.
-“T'll try and do something in return for
the risk you have taken for me, and to-
gether we will hunt him down.”
“At once?”
.. “No, we will let him feel secure for a
‘time, and the blow will be all the great-
er when it falls. But—”
“What?” '
“Are you to be depended on?”
“To be depended on? I do not under-
stand you, sir.”
“Call me Dick. I mean, will you hold
out to the end, when it comes to the
test?”
“Will I hold out—”
“Perhaps your love wil! rekindle, and
you will balk my revenge when it comes
to the hour—”
“No, no, a thousand times no! My hate
is even more intense than was my love.
No, no, I will not falter; I am now yours,
if you Will let me be yours, and our pur-
pose is one.’
“Tt is a bargain,” said Dick.
is my hand, little pard.”
The girl placed her hand in his.
“Hands up! both of ye!”
The voice was so near that both were
startled, and Dick felt a gun behind his
ear,
It was so sudden that Dick obeyed be-
fore the: thought came to him to resist,
but‘perhaps it was as well, for that might
have meant his instant death.
“It.is Booth!” cried the girl in dis-
may. ““ We are lost—lost! ”
“Bet yer life ye are,” said the man.
“Ye forgot to reckon me, I guess, Et
took me a-good while to worm up
into that peak by the crevice inside and
take this galoot by surprise, and et has
_ took me a good while to git down
: again, but hyer I am and hyer you be,
“ Here
oe "And what do you expect to do with
us?” asked Dick, grimly.
~* Take ye straight to Captain Joaquin,
of course.”
“Never!” said the young woman,
“T’ll show ye. You turn— Ugghh!
Deadwood Dick’s foot had suddenly
caught. the fellow in the middle, and
over he went with a grunt terrific.
No sooner had he fallen than'the girl
was upon him, and. her knife was buried
in his breast, straight and true, and the
cutthroat stiffened out to rise no more,
“There is one less,’ she said, ristng.
“TJ never killed a human before, but I
would kill a score rather than be taken
back to that man. Thank heaven, we are
free yet, Dick. Do you want further
~proof of my devotion to you? Can you
ask it?”
“JY did not ask anything more than
your word, Susana. You are a pard worth
having. We will hang this fellow to the
tree where they hanged me, and should
they comfe this way again they will be-
lieve that Deadwood Dick is still there
where they left him, and the surprise
will be all the greater when ‘the blow
falls, as fall it must.”
- CHAPTER XV.
“BANKER BROWN OF POWDER POCKET.
Meantime, Captain Joaquim had gone
straight to the cabin. -
He believed that Susana would go
there to gather up some effects before
trying to rum away.
- Of course he knew, or “believed, that
the shot had been fired at him by her,
and that only confirmed the suspicion
he had formed against her.
Had he‘caught her, a horrible fate
would have been hers. Smarting under
the wound she had given him—for the
bullet had lodged in his shoulder—he
was in the right mood to wreak ven-
geance,
But he failed to find her.
There was no sign of her at the cabin,
no indication that she had been there—
in fact,.the servants declared that she
had not been there.
Back he started, and had gone but a
little way when he met his men coming,
‘and he scattered them all to look for
the missing young woman, with orders
to take her dead or alive.
They went out by the various trails—
rather possible avenues, .for there were
no trails proper there, but they failed to
find her. And when Captain Joaquin and
two of the men came out at the place
where Dick had been hanged, they found
his body swaying to and fro in the breeze.
Nor was she found. And when, later
on in the night, others of the band came
in in haste with certain intelligence con-
cerning the sheriff and his posse, Cap-
tain Joaquin deserted his cabin and took
to the hilis, and was not seen in that sec-
tion again.
cabin was discovered. and looted and
burned, but the birds had flown.
Meanwhile, Deadwood Dick, with Su-
sana, was making his way to the south,
keeping to the hills in order not to be
discovered,
Dick wanted it to appear that he was
dead,
’ He learned enough from Susana to give
him a suspicion as to what Captain Joa-
quin would do, and. he felt that he could
afford to give him time.
They crossed the border into Mexico,
where Dick quietly rested for a season to
recover his full measure of health and
strength, and where Susana was his de-
voted slave and companion.
Inquiry was being made in every. di-
rection for Deadwood Dick.
It was known that the last case he had
undertaken was the hunting down of
Captain Joaquin, or the Red Rover, and
it was feared that he had met his death
at the hands of that cutthroat and his
band.
Dick remained in hiding, and thus Cap-
tain Joaquin, wherever he might be,
would be lulled into the confirmation of
his belief that’ Deadwood Dick was no
longer to be feared. In fact, that worthy
was’ chuckling to himself, whenever a
newspaper item concerning Dick met his
eye. He believed that he alone, and those
of his men who had. been in the secret,
could solve the mystery.
And so time passed on. .
Powder Pocket was a roaring camp.
It was at the top notch of the biggest
kind of a boom,
It had been a paying camp from the
first, with rich mines on every hand.
New finds, too, were being reported al-
most daily, and people and money were
flowing in as freely as water flowed down
from the snow-capped peaks.
The newest institution of which Pow-
der Pocket could boast was a bank. It
was a private concern, had been opened
on a grand scale, and was being con-
ducted on a paying basis. Money could
be had in almost any amount, on big in-
terest and bigger security.
The head of this institution was one
Sigmund Brown.
He had come to Powder Pocket about
six months prior to the time of this in-
troduction of the camp.
.
On the following day the.
Settling down quietly, he had rented
one of the best buildings in the place, re-
fitted it in fine style, and one morning
his sign was found adorning the front—
S. Brown, Banker. :
He had a game in contemplation.
He had money, the other fellows had
the property. They could not do any-
thing without money.
His money was on call, as said, but
every loan was vouched” for by an ‘jron—
clad mortgage, and it was his boast that ~
in five years he would own the town.
The interest was high, the loan was.
not sufficient, in most cases, to develop
beyond the mere beginnings, and on the
day when the interest could not be met
nor the principal paid, he would fore-
close,
He was there to double—to treble his.
pile, and he made no secret among his
intimates of his means.
One day a miner entered his private.
office in an excited state.
The private office was always open ‘to.
those who came on particular business,.
and this man had announced that his.
business was of the utmost importance..
The cierks in the main room had seen. .
his kind before, often, and he was readily
admitted. He was, undoubtedly, a man.
who had struck it rich and was eager
to mortgage and. begin working the |
claim,
He was a bearded fellow, roughly clad,.
and was begrimed from hat to boots with
mud and .clay,
“You aire Mr. Brown? " he eagerly
demanded.
“Yes, sir, I am Mr. Brown. What cam
I do for you, sir?”
“T have struck it rich—so all-fired
rich that it has ’most turned my head.
I want you to look at my find, which -L
have registered all correct, and Jend me a.
loan on it so I kin open et-up.”'
“That so? I congratulate you. Where
does it lie?”
. “Hardly out of gunshot from the
camp, and it is the prince of ’em all, I’m
bettin’,’
“Tt will be a pleasure to me to look at
it, the first opportunity, and if it is what
you think, there will be no trouble about.
your getting a loan, I guess.”
“No trouble at all, I’m bettin’.
will open yer eyes when ye see et.”
“What do you consider it worth?” >
“Seventy-five thousand, if a cent.’
“And how much of a loan would you
want?”
“Pw enty -five thousand—” y
“Whew
“ What’ s the matter?” . ,
“That is steep. I have never gone over
ten thousand into the best of them.”
“But I tell ye this is the best of the
bunch. You will say so when ye see it,
and you won’t hesitate a minnit to fork
et over, either.”
“T must see it first of all.
twe t .
“Can’t wait. I am in a fever. You
must come with me to-day—right now!”
“Impossible; I can’t—” :
“T will pay ye, boss. Why,
up bigger’n that Castleville Bank shelled
out a year ago, and Tain’t hardly cracked
the ground yet.”
The banker had become suddenly pale,
He was a man with long hair, and wore
a mustache and goatee, and was alto-
gether a good-looking man.
“What do you’ mean?” he asked,
huskily, striving hard to remain com-
posed.
you suppose I know about any bank busi-
ness at Castleville7’”
“Castleville? Why, they closed the
bank, you know, and. set out to remove
In a day or
You
it opens
“Where is Castleville? What do -