The Safe Breakers' Gang — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

THE LOG CABIN LIBRARY. 7 sympathy for her gets the upper -hand of your good judg-| boldest chief of the boldest safe-breakers’ gang in the ment.” country !” “Much obliged, Rex, for the advice—ana you ought to} “Yes, but that isn’t the odd part of it. You see, she know. But this isn’t to the point. I followed the girl, and| wasn’t shy about showing me the watch after she knew know where she puts up. That isn’t all—I got a glimpse|I wasn’t a thief. In other words, she was not afraid of of the watch, and a word with the girl.” me as a detective either for herself or’on account of Jep- “T suppose there is something significant in the fact else| worth. Now, with your long head for solving riddles, tell you wouldn’t have mentioned it?” me the meaning of that circumstance ?” ‘You may gamble on it, Rex.” Rexford Hunt stroked his chin meditatively while the The: young man wasin a more secretive mood than| two men gazed keenly into each other’s face. usual. There seemed to be something which he was con-| ‘Let me save this one pull on my brain,” said Hunt, at sidering whether it were best to disclose to the older man/last, “and give me your hypothesis, for I see you made at this stage of affairs. one.” “Come, Quimby, you had better let me have it!” said; “Allright,” smiled the other. “It isn’t so very blind, Rexford Hunt, with a keen smile. as Llook atit. This pretty girl who takes Jules Jepworth’s “Just as you say.” watch out of the soup doesn’t dream that Jules is the The young man let go of the door which he had been on | crookedest crook in Crookdom! Whatever she may be to the point of opening and dropped into the nearest chair. | our safe-breaker, she doesn’t dream that he is what he is. “The girl,” he resumed, speaking with uncommon de-|The girl may be his wife, or daughter, or—well, just his liberateness, “ was, as I said before, very pretty. And her/girl. You know Jimmie Hope married a nice woman, and face wasn’t of the ordinary wish-washy sort, either. It|she did not find out fora long time what his business And at last, when she did find out, she did what No. 194 was a strong face, and when I overtook her just as she| was. was about to enter the miserable rookery where she evi-|most true women will do, under the same circumstances dently makes it her home, she turned on me with a flash|—sbe stuck. I don’t say that this Lenais the wife of like a young bolt of lightning. Jules Jepworth—I hope she isn’t. But, as I said before, “<Bee pardon,’ says I. ‘But I would like to look at she doesn’t dream that he is chief of a safe-breakers’ that gentleman’s watch which you just took out of pawn, gang.” ; at Gopher’s. It is an uncommonly pretty watch,’ said I. Rexford Hunt listened to the young man’s speech with “She stared at me a moment, and then demanded, just the closest attention. He was coming to place more and as imperatively as she could have done if she had put a} ™0°F® confidence in the hypotheses of the genial, alert pistol to my nead : young’ Cesective. “¢What do you want of the watch, sir? To seize it and Jules Jepworth with his gang of safe-breakers was run off, I dare-say ! becoming a scourge among the banks and all institutions Wha - { ; c | ‘val ] . “Oh, no,’ said I, with the most killing smileI could where large amounts in money or valuables were stored More than one safe in railway stations had been opened muster. ‘I can get all the watches I care to make time for hes ok] t] Se an Rie: sos q : ..|as quickly as though it were buta simple wooden box me by buying them in the regular way. But, you see, it | witha ordinacy lock eo aie TOs a Bie LO a Wee, 2 Sack Guar: Few of the safes or vaults broken into by this gang ters as these to ame eRe ULL oe Nace PRS hag were blown open in the ordinary way, with the attendant deemed at Gopher's. et AR risk from noise. “In aminute I saw tears spring into her eyes. That Many were opened by means of the combination locks touched the soft spot in my heart, but you may gamble on ? it ae I didn’t sii ee ea ragtaia poi a as look | 28 though the burglars were acquainted with the magic acdava symbol by which they were closed. an id : Others were so quickly and thoroughly riddled with “*Tf the watch is yours, all right; if not, just tell me a/pojo, by means of a powerful, swift-acting burglar’s drill, straight story, and it may be allright. I’m a detective, |that the locks were fairly removed from the door, and and a man has lost a watch something like that.’ the safety-vault practizally ruined. “She didn’t wilt—not at all. She looked at me sharp as Many safes and money-vaults-in the city of New York a hawk for a minute and then said : had originally suffered from the depredations of the mys- “*Let me see whether you are a detective or not!’ terious gang. But later, when the police became so thor- “I showed her the piece of tin inside my coat and then oughly aroused in the city that the hazard of working she whipped out the watch and said : there was too great, smaller cities and towns began to “*Look atitif you want to—it isn’t stolen property, and I’m not ashamed to have all the officers in the city see whose it is.’” “Well, you looked at it?” said Hunt, as the “sandwich” of the firm paused. “T looked at it, Rex.” “And found a name, or something engraved on it?” ‘““A name on the inside of the case.” ‘“‘And it was a name you recognized 2?” “Tt was the name of Jules Jepworth !” “Whew !” Rexford Hunt took a turn about the room, and brought up again facing his partner. “Then your pretty girl is something or another to the suffer, at no great distance from New York, however. What was yet more peculiar, was the fact that safes were broken open simultaneously, even to the moment, in several places quite distant from each other. Jules Jepworth himself was well known, and he had a faculty for committing the boldest and most unexpected crimes in his line. Then he would audaciously flaunt his success in the very teeth of the police. | Although Hunt, Hall & Hyde were apprised of the vari- ous successes of the safe-breakers’ gang, they did not begin to work on the case until about a week before the date at which our story opens. Since the regular police had failed to capture any of the ” - * [. © - Sues Mages go 0 Rb As ie ese x aie. <,. es .) # ¥.Ué dl a * . 4, rs 4 a ~ ; “ bh > Se - ~ — t . > ee Ce Se Sets <7? te ha et ey a aan a4 *%\ “o ~" ‘ ~~ X, ° . | ; é “ ono allt 4 iy: - - » ‘ ‘ ak Ret, aa paz il ” to . - ‘ .) ee Ss ‘ ~ » © € aa 7 an .- 5 Aan i >" % 4 nts ‘ - ‘ght BA “ Scr q ei = 7. Nee DOSE vin : am tee qt: = et yt <<”, Ss —~ Oe p. i} ks.com