Detective Bob Bridger — page 241: what you’re looking at

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

934 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. The Scotch detective, true to his appointment, had en- tered the office of the hotel at the hour of one. * He was surprised to find Bridger absent, for he had always found him as prompt as the clock before. As the afternoon wasted on by two, and then by three o’clock, and Bridger came not, the Scotch detective became alarmed. Hastening to the Bower Detective Agency, he was the more dumfounded at learning that Bridger had not been there. But when Detective Bower informed him of the Muggins’ burglary he suspected Bridger’s whereabouts at once. Hastening to police headquarters on Mulberry street, he stated his fears to the superintendent, and that officer at once dispatched in his company a trio of detectives and a squad of policemen to ‘‘pull” the Goucher den. As the officers entered the den, Ted, the bartender, dropped behind the bar, and warned Goucher and ‘‘Jack, the Fork,” through the tube. The next moment the bartender and “Tom, the Frog,” were made prisoners, and the search of the house began. The Scotch detective procured an ax, and led directly to the ‘‘sawdust den.” The door was burst open, and then the ax was used upon the trap-door. A few well-directed blows,. and it fell, as we have seen. ‘Too late! alas, we’re too late!” exclaimed the Scotch detective, as his eyes fell upon the life-like ‘‘dummy” prone on the trap’ s bottom. “By no means, Fandon; you’re just on time, ” called back Bridger, brandishing his pistols, in his perch in the corner, to attract the attention of those above. The Scotch detective and the line of officers glared at the red sleuth-hound on the wall in astonishment. They could hardly believe the evidence their eyes pre- sented. ‘‘Make no mistake,” said Bridger, perceiving their sur- prise, and striking his breast with one of his pistols. ‘‘This red thing here on the wall is Bob Bridger, and that dead man stretched out below is a stuffed dummy !” Realizing the situation, the officers burst forth in a hearty cheer. . ‘ Goucher and “Jack, the Fork,” also bounded to their eet. “Steady there, .Goucher. Steady, ‘Jack, the Fork,’ ue warned Bridger, leveling his pistols upon the two men comicbooks.com