Detective Bob Bridger — page 48: what you’re looking at

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

_.. DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. 41 that Dr. Macy’s wrath had ample opportunity to spend it- self, they resolved to approach him and plead for forgive- ness. “They returned to find their former home occupied by strangers, who did not even know the gentleman they sought. “The unhappy bride implored her young husband, for the sake of the tender babe she bore in her arms, to appeal to his father, Jean Godot. “ Alfonse wrote to his father, begging forgiveness for the past and asking that a small remittance be sent him to ease his present poverty. ‘The letter was not answered, and only served to hasten — the gloomy fate which had marked the devoted pair for its _ OWN. “Starvation, or the workhouse, threatened the fated lovers. ‘One day as Alfonse, with bleeding heart, looked about for some employment to earn bread for his starving wife, he met a man who spoke kindly to him, but who was no other than Pere Videre, the ‘Squealer.’ ‘He offered to procure Alfonse a situation, and enticed him into a liquor store to partake of a social glass. ‘The liquor was drugged, and when poor Alfonse awoke to consciousness he found himself out at sea in the forecas- tle of an East India bound ship. He had been ‘shanghaied’ on board at the docks, and shipped as a common sailor. ‘‘Pere Videre had used “ Silly’ Billy as his assistant in thus doing away with Alfonse Godot, and afterward Billy was given a home in the Bolard cottage. ‘“‘Bolard and Videre well knew the crazy thief’s tempera- ment, and that so long as he was well fed and kindly treated he would remain quietly at work on the estate, while if permitted to tarry in London he might ‘give away’ the enforced shipment of the miser’s son. “The twain had also stronger reasons for offering Billy a home. “In spite of them, however, he would at times take offense at Bolard’s rough ways, and returning to London, go at his old tricks. “It was during one of these excursions that I arrested him for garroting an old sea captain, for which offense he was flogged when you were in London, Bobe.” ‘‘In the meantime what became of Alice Godot and her babe?” asked Bridger, evidently much interested. “The wretched young woman,” continued the Scotch de-. Eomicbooks (E()