Detective Bob Bridger — page 46: what you’re looking at

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

DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. 39 and the mother died broken-hearted. The boy naturally despised his father as he grew to years of intelligence, and one day, becoming suddenly exasperated, accused him of causing his mother’s death, and struck the old man down. He then fled to London, where he obtained employment as eroom in a gentleman’s stable. - ‘‘Jean Godot, for a time, dwelt alone in the large stone mansion, receiving his meals from the head-farmer’s cot- tage near by. This man’s name was Harvey Bolard, and it was he who banged the cottage door in my face when I had shadowed Billy thither. ‘‘As the miser grew older he felt the need of some one to take care of his collections and accounts, and regretted the absence of his son for this reason. ‘‘However, Harvey Bolard, the head farmer, found a young man who presented ample recommendations, and Jean Godot employed him at a low salary to do this work. “The young man’s name was Pere Videre, and by pa- tiently studying to humor the old miser’s whims he soon gained his confidence, so that Jean Godot was heard to publicly remark that he held his clerk in better regard than he had ever done his own son. ‘“Now, all the while this Harvey Bolard was no other than ‘Iron’ Mike Drugo, a notorious burglar who had for some years disappeared from his old haunts in London, and Pere Videre was ‘Jack Drugo,’ son of ‘Iron’ Mike, a shrewd pickpocket and sneak-thief known as the ‘Squealer,’ on account of his strange ‘piccolo’ voice. ‘‘These persons had shaped their actions and altered their appearance to enable them to play, without discovery, the honest roles they seemed enacting as the miser’s employees. ‘Their real aim, aS may be readily conjectured, was to put Jean Godot out of the way ina manner not to arouse suspicion, and to possess themselves of his wealth. ‘‘Alfonse Godot, the miser’s runaway son, had mean- while become coachman to the gentleman who had em- ployed him in London. Huis employer was a physician pos- sessed of ample means, an Irishman, born in Dublin, and, as in the nature of his race, was hasty in temper. The man had been soured by an. unhappy wedded life, and his house was kept secluded from society. | ‘‘Dr. Macy possessed but one relative in the world—a beautiful girl of nineteen, his daughter, and she was his idol and only joy. ‘‘Alice Macy dearly loved her morose parent, but as a-. maiden buds to womanhood it-is only natural that she co Eomicbooks