Detective Bob Bridger — page 215: what you’re looking at

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

208 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. At the stair-way leading beneath the burglars paused, listening. All was quiet, and they cautiously stole down until they stood at the door of the room in which was the safe. Green burglars, like landsmen on a whaling voyage, are the most venturesome, and Ted, the bartender, and *“ Jack, the Fork,” again took the place of honor in advance at the door. Goucher and “Tom, the Frog,” remained aside upon the stair-way, and when Goucher perceived that the men were in right position, he shut the slide over the lantern’s eye, and all was dark. A ray of light streamed from the keyhole of the door, and it seemed-probable that Moses or Sammy Muggins, or both of them, were within. Placing his ear to the keyhole, Ted, the bartender, heard the heavy breathing of a man in sound slumber. On learning this Goucher commanded a quiet wait. Half an hour passed, and nothing had occurred. Suddenly the voice of Moses Muggins within was heard to say, in a subdued tone: “Sammy, ho! Sammy; vas you asleep? Do you hear me? Vas you asleep and sound, I say?” It seemed that Moses had become satisfied that Sammy was in that condition, for, a moment later, the patter of his slippers was heard as he crossed the carpetless floor from his writing-desk toward the safe. The miser was going to feast his eyes upon his hoard, and assure himself that he was rich once again before retiring for the night. The click of the combination came plainly to the burglars without, as he turned the safe’s knob, and then the heavy door of the Jew’s treasure-house was heard to swing open. A moment later Goucher reached forward, and tapped lightly on the door. Instantly the safe door was swung to, and locked. Then the patter of the Jew’s slippers sounded as he ~ again hastily crossed the floor. On the instant the ray at the keyhole vanished, and it tie evident that the cautious miser had turned out his amp. comicbooks.com —