THE MYSTERY OF THE BLUE GOOSE 



203 



was a strange fellow who swore that he 

 would have nothing to do with the 

 cursed estate of his family, not because 

 he was afraid of the penalty of the in- 

 heritance, for as near as I can find out 

 he feared nothing", but because his fam- 

 ily would not allow him to wed the girl 

 of his choice. Of course he was not 

 old then, he was not yet twenty, but he 

 had a will of his own and would marry 

 in spite of threatened disinheritance, 

 when, sorry I am to record it, the girl 

 declined love in a cottage and gave 

 poor Bob the mitten. 



As soon as the lad understood the 

 state of affairs he added his own curse 

 to that of the widow of ancient times, 

 and shaking the dust of New York 

 from his feet, especially the Van Linkle 

 dust, he started for the wild Western 

 forests; there he buried himself in their 

 shade. In my search for some of Bob 

 Linkle's heirs it occurred to me that I 

 might also look for the Patrick Mullins 

 rifle, and this was the reason that I so 

 readily agreed to the old man's proposi- 

 tion. To tell the truth I had little hope 

 of succeeding in either case ; but I did 

 expect to have a good time in a real 

 wild country, for at that time there was 

 still plenty of big game to be found in 

 the West. 



While the buffalo were even then 

 very scarce, there were a few stragglers 

 to be found here and there. It was not 

 difficult for a good hunter to obtain 

 goat and big horn sheep and the bear, 

 wolves and coyotes were still abundant. 

 There were also at that time many 

 places which no white man had yet vis- 

 ited, and although these places were 

 comparatively small in area, neverthe- 

 less they .consisted of as truly unex- 

 plored country as was the interior of 

 Africa before Livingstone and Stanley 

 made their way through the heart of 

 the black settlement. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE WILD HUNTER. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a "bad man," 

 and there is scarcely a doubt . that, in 



the effete civilization of the Eastern 

 States, the hangman's rope would have 

 been around Big Pete's neck — and 

 what a pity that would have been. 



Big Pete Darlinkle's neck was full 

 and round and rose in a massive 

 column from its base of brawny 

 muscles. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a "bad 

 man," but you are not to understand 

 by this that he was unkind, for a better- 

 natured fellow never got down on his 

 hands and knees to play horse for the 

 little naked Indian children ; a more 

 generous fellow never cleaned out a 

 saloon in a mining camp, broke a faro 

 bank, or "staked" a friend in need than 

 Pete. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was undoubtedly 

 a "bad man," but the signs of his evil 

 nature were not in his face, for that in- 

 spired immediate confidence. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a "bad 

 man," but the children who knew him 

 loved him ; the few women who knew 

 him adored him ; the army of men who 

 knew him swore by him ; nevertheless 

 he was not only a "bad man" but a 

 "killer," "Bad man," as here applied, 

 means that Pete was a bad man to fool 

 with, and "killer" means that several 

 graves have already found occupants 

 from the ranks of those who, not con- 

 tent with Pete's fame, desired to make 

 a personal investigation, and found to 

 their complete satisfaction that he was 

 fully entitled to and had well earned 

 his reputation as a "bad man" and a 

 "killer." 



When Big Pete Darlinkle once put 

 his large muscular and well-shaped 

 hands on the butts of his glistening re- 

 volvers he kept his guns "a-barking" 

 until there was no further occasion for 

 a waste of ammunition. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a "killer," 

 but he would unhesitatingly have 

 turned his spangled weapons on his own 

 breast and there let them "bark" his big- 

 heart out before he would have adopted 

 the tenderfoot's method of first robbing 

 by law, then killing by starvation. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a "dude;" 



