Diamond Dick, Jr.: The Boys' Best Weekly — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

li DIAMOND DICK, JR. OUT OF SIGHT. “We know it. At any rate I ain satis- fied of it myself, but one or two of the others seem to think that jou had a deeper motive in coining here than has yet appeared.’’ ‘Well, perhaps I had.”’ “Tt is. that doubt that settles your fate.’? ‘‘And what is my fate to be?”’ ‘You are to be held here until you can do us no harm.’? ‘CAnd how long a time will that prob- ably be ?”’ ‘“‘Well, a year at least; maybe two or three or four.”’ “Why not kill me at once and done with it?” “We are not killing... If you want to commit suicide that is another thing.”’ “And I am not committing suicide elther.”’ . ‘As to escape, that is impossible. You might, possibly, break one of those glass plates, though I don’t believe all your strength could crack one, without a sledge. But if you did succeed, the water would rush in upon you with such force that you could never get out alive. You _are welcome to try it if you want to; no one will hinder you.”’ “No, thank you,’’? said Bertie. ‘‘The water Jooks wet, and it would be uncoin- fortable to say the least.’? ‘Ha! ha! Yes, I think it would, too. And so, you see, we have got you in a tight place, and there we intend to keep vou—in fact, we are obliged to do it for our own protection.’’ “Which is proof enough that you have something to conceal here at the Hermi-_ tage, something which you do not care to have made public. All right, Iam not coinplaining; but if you want to keep your secret, just be sure that you keep me, that’s all.”? “(Then you would not swear not to te- veal what you know ?”’ ‘“No, sir.’’ “We know that well enough, and hence there is no ray of hope for you. Here you must remain, as I have told you, until you can do us no harm, when, perhaps, you will be set free.”’ ‘Vou have got it all your own way; I ain out of sight in it now.’’ “Ves, right you are.”’ ‘‘And my prison is certainly a com- fortable one. Ican’t complain on that score.” “Tam giving up my own under water quarters to you, and you ought to feel grateful accordingly. All your wants will be supplied, and you will be waited upon.”? “hen you can get food in here to mie >?” “Oh, yes, certainly.”? ‘And cigars ?”’ Ves, +) “Then it isn’t half bad. I have been iil worse situations, inanv a time, and lived to tell about it.”’ “And you may live to tell about this; that will be for you to decide. If you eat, drink and take good care of your health, you may live to gain your freedom when we no longer have reason to keep you here.’? ‘‘And you are about to take yourself off ?? ‘Ves, I will now leave you to your own] amusement, as I have other imatters to attend to. Clever fellow though you are, you fell into my trap easily enough. I told you I had other surprises in store for you, and this was one of them. Ha! ha! Be kind to yourself!”? “One moment.”?’ ‘*What is it?” “In what way am I to make my-wants known ?”? | ‘The iman who brings your meals will attend to everything in that line. For the present, au revoir.’”? With that, aud a wave of the hand, the so-called mad millionaire turned and walked away through the room he was in, passed behind other curtains, and was see] 110 more. | Diamond Dick, Jr., took a careful look around. Within, all the ease and comfort; with- out, water and mud and slime, and swim- ming and creeping things. Remembering his stispicion respecting the passage by which he had entered this room, or chamber, he went to that side of the room to verify it. He was not disappointed. There, too, he was cut off by water, so that there was no escape. Stepping back into the room again, conniclooolks CO