Detective Bob Bridger — page 237: what you’re looking at

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

230 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER.. Being only guided in his work by touch, he was careful to make the imitation as perfect as he could. He buttoned his vest about the stuffed shirt, buttoned his under-coat over that, and his overcoat over all, taking care — to stuff the arms of the overcoat with earth, and. bend them naturally under, so as not to discover the absence of hands. The hat with the bundle of mortar in its crown he care- fully pinned to place on the overcoat, and bent down its soft border so that it might require a close observation to perceive that there was not a human head beneath it. When he had satisfied himself that the “dummy” would answer the purpose intended, the sleuth-hound placed his revolvers in the band of his drawers, the ‘‘big diamond” and his money wallet in one of his socks, and knife in hand, returned to his work on the wall. He found it so much easier to climb in his stocking feet that in a very few minutes he had ascended to a height of twenty feet from the earth. Here he made a number of deep cuts in the soft mortar, forming a perch in the corner where he could rest at ease with his back against the juncture of the two walls, and have his hands free to use his pistols if occasion required. Again descending to the trap’s bottom, he placed the mortar which he had removed beneath the ‘‘dummy,.” He then smoothed the earthen floor from whence he had taken the earth as best he could. Then taking his watch from his vest-pocket, he placed it on the earth as far from the ‘‘dummy” as the length of the chain would permit. Having thus shaped his plan to resist the evident inten- tion of the burglars, he awaited their coming, listening at one of the interstices in the wall. How long he waited in damp and darkness, hearing nothing but the squeaking of the rats, the plashing of the sewer, and the dull hum from the bar-room above, he could not have determined at-the time. Hours and even days seemed to pass, and he became chilled and shivered with the cold. To warm himself he began to trot to and fro along the wall. . At length he became desperately hungry. He took a cigar from the dummy’s pocket, and, biting a piece from it, began to chew it. “What,” he thought, “‘if it should be Goucher’s purpose ~ to starve me here,” comic poke - £7 bl S70 ‘ bile. Cae ae | a ta