The Prairie Detective: Secret Service Series No. 24 — page 172: what you’re looking at

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

170 THE PRAIRIE DETECTIVE. He was profoundly agitated, and his partner no- ticed the change that had come over him. But there was no time for explanations. Robinson called his chief aside, and spoke a few words in his ear, telling him the same story he had told Dick Hatfield about the identity of the men who accompanied him. After that they were introduced, and the chief of the Bloodsuckers received them cor- dially. When his eye met Ryan’s gaze it lingered there a minute, as if in doubt whether the countenance was not more or less familiar to him, But it was only a “momentary hesitation. The party entered the house, and had soon gathered about the supper table. All ate with relish, and the new-comers played their parts like old stagers, giving no look or sign that was likely to betray them. They lingered long at supper. When at last they arose, their host conducted them into an inner apart- ment. The whole house was furnished roughly, and with an eye to comfort rather than beauty. In the room which they entered after supper there werea few wooden chairs and a table. At one end of the place were some scuttle doors, thrown back so as to show a flight of stairs leading down into a dark cel- lar. | ‘*This,’’ said the proprietor, “‘is my lounging room. By keeping those doors open the apartment is ren- dered cool and pleasant the year round. Just sit in that chair, Mr. Alford, close to the opening, and see how you will enjoy the draught. When you build in this vicinity you really must have a place like it.’ Ryan acknowledged, absently, that the air from _ the aperture was quite comfortable in distinction to the hot, close room. .cO comicboo ‘S ny e- yas ’ =~ St