Detective Bob Bridger — page 209: what you’re looking at

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

202 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. tender flame that possessed his breast, and observing Bridger’s condition, awoke him, and the two went to bed. CHAPTER L. THE BURGLARY PLANNED. At ten P.M. on the evening of the day of Goucher’s dis- appearance from Alton that gentleman arrived in New . York. Going at once to his den on Delancy street he was made the recipient of a right royal thieves’ welcome. A motley throng of “crooked” people, some ragged and dirty, others attired fashionably, pressed about and grasped his hand, as if he were a newly elected alderman. Their congratulations were noisy, and garnished with slang. Goucher testified his appreciation by frequently order ‘ing drinks for the house. His liberality was responded to in like manner by every one present whose financial condition permitted him to SO distinguish himself. The bar did a thriving trade, and as fresh gangs of “crooks” dropped in the place at length became so crowded that Ted, the bartender, facetiously remarked that if the jubilee continued to boom it would become necessary to remove the paper from the wall to make room. Nevertheless the drinking went on, songs were sung, and dancing indulged in, until far beyond midnight. At length the more orderly persons present began to depart in twos and threes, and at three in the morning only those remained who had fully succumbed to the seductive influence of the flowing bowl. Of these there were two-score men and women. They had bestowed themselves in every conceivable shape on chairs, tables, and the floor. “ They are all as peaceful as the denizens of the morgue,” quoth Goucher, on conceiving the completeness of whisky’s victory. ‘‘So turn down the ‘glims,’ Ted, my boy, and we’ll go up stairs, the four of us—for I have something of in- terest for the interior portion of your private ears.” The king of the ‘‘ken” as he spoke stood flanked by his trusty “pals,” “Tom, the Frog,” and ‘ Jack, the Fork,” and - oes the burly barman, at the word, set about lowering the ights. -comicbooks co