New Nick Carter Weekly, No. 8 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

NEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY. 5 for the ornamental face was bruised and battered. i It was of very elegant make. Trim took it to the front window of the room, hoping to get more light there by which to examine it closely. He saw that there was a monogram €l-|. graved upon the face, and after a good deal of puzzling he made out that the let- ters were G. and H. Which of the letters should come first in order he could not make out. “CG, H.,’’ he said to himself, ‘‘or H. : CG. It’ll surprise me a good deal if those are not the initials of his highness. ‘“<Of all the men in this gang whom I have seen, there are only three who would be likely to wear such expensive jewelry as this. ‘“Those three are Schruggs, Ransom, and his highness. , SP eee 2 initials. “Tt isn’t at all probable that they have, for to begin with, any one who travels un- der a false name isn’t likely to carry his disguise so far as to have special jewelry engraved to fit. “Pm thinking, then, that this broken cuff button may prove to bea clew by which Ican identify his highness, if I don’t catch him in some other way. “Captain Pemberton’s men didn’t ‘find this because they didn’t know of the ex- ___.istence of that closet. <2 ya gs and Pa ore = = ah oe <: Nass aia Cee, “TS i jae m 2 ee , oe - ex nn? coh ee . walls one af ‘another. _ e saw a short lever. Gore ¥ —- *. roe care? S 4 crete nj ar ae SO Se 5 ~ “ee <> Ri oth ; cf ee mie pe . a ad ™ ‘‘Now it’il be easy enough to find out at Captain Pemberton’s office whether Schruggs or Ransom has ever traveled under false names that would fit these “Pm more than ever convinced that the road to the hiding place where. his highness have gone 1S) FRE eo: gs eres something. newed his ned the floor to his satis~ the candle so as to light rectly over the panel | It looked | teh of a telegraph or telephone * : Swe bo s . Sh in Og > whether it had something to do with che trap. : - He recalled that both Schruggs and his highness were so much taller than him- self that either one could have reached up and operated the lever without difficulty. ‘“There’s only one way,’’ the young — fellow thought, ‘‘to find out about this, and that is to give the plaguy thing a yank.”’ Thereupon he set his candle down upon the floor of the closet, reached up his right hand and jumped a few inches into the air. He grasped the little lever and found that it turned easily. Itseemed to turn altogether too easily, in fact, for as he came down. and let go of it it whirled around several times with a loud rattling noise as if chains were running over a windlass. At the same instant the panel door swung to with a bang. Trim was in sudden darkness. It must be understood that this hap- pened in that flash of a second while he was in the course of jumping up and coming down—that is, before he had reached the level of the floor. When the lever had whirled the panel door had slammed _ to and the candle had gone out; and when Trim came down he did not land as he had expected to. In- stead he had begun to shoot downward, and it flashed across his mind that the lever had not only worked the panel door, but had lowered the trap also, and that he was now descending into the well that his highness had spoken of as the death chamber for traitors. out his haids inthe hope of clutching _ His fingers scraped down the sindoth surface of the panel door and finally brought up against the edge of the floor against which the trap had rested. his muscles with all his might. ported by his finger ends. : ‘Trim drew a long breath. es - ¢*Phis train won’t stop lorg at this — < _. Of course his first impulse was to reach - He dug his nails into this and stiffened The force of his fall gave his arms a severe wrench, but he managed to hold on nevertheless, and for an instant he y|hung there in the darkness, his feet dang- ling below him, his whole weight sup-_ .¥ - ae . me , + f - 7 — = <> 7 — le ty c - ‘ ie . A Pa q * ei < we,