Detective Bob Bridger — page 36: what you’re looking at

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

i. ». 7 : - — we ~ y - ; A / . x. J ~ . roy i ~ ; y . . wi 4 ; > ’ a ; ' - 4 : + , ua - . ' sd , = tt “ . ) ; a : > 7 te , ¢ . w ' . ; Pd = . 7 a, . al . f 2 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. | 29 “As I have intimated, I have charge of his ‘spotters’ on this line.” “T thought you said Scotland Yard work brought you here 2?” “So it did. Jam killing two birds with one stone.” “Explain.” “You remember ‘Silly’ Billy, the gar “roter ?” “See-ree-go? How could I forget him ?” “And the dream of the pretty girl waddling at his side in a rivulet of blood on which gold coins seemed to float?” 66 Yes. 2D] “Well, the dream’s out.” “And has proved—” “True.” “And where is ‘Silly’ Billy ?” “Well, as I that day promised him, I tried my best to get his term in prison shortened.” “And how did you succeed ?” | “Badly. He became unruly one day, and tumbled about a dozen keepers as if they had been babes. The result was that instead of his term being shortened he got a year more.” “That was bad for Billy.” “Ay, but good for my purposes.” “ How so ?” “Some months past I had my attention drawn to a haul of odd trinkets which had been made by burglars from a pawnbroker’s shop in Petticoat Lane. In looking the stuff over I came across a gold locket attached to a lady’s gold chain. There was something quaint in the jewel’s appear- ance which took my eye. On one side was engraven ‘AI- fonse,’ and on the other ‘Alice.’ What was my astonish- ment, Bobe, on opening the locket, to find that it contained ~ the miniatures of a dark-eyed young man, and of a beauti- ful, blue-eyed young woman—the very picture of the fair maiden of my dream !” “A marvelous tally !” “True, Bobe, and the discovery assured me beyond doubt that the dream was of the same prophetic nature as that by which I tracked down my father’s slayer. I at once purchased the trinket from the pawnbroker, and endeayv- ored to trace it back to its original owner, but at the time failed. My only hope then was to fall back upon the infor- ~ mation vouchsafed by the dream, and await Billy’s exit from prison. : On the morning he was liberated from Millbank jail [ Eee 7 | : Eomirebooks:..con Oe ya - . we = a oe — a