The Halfpenny Surprise, Vol. I, No. 20 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

THE RIVER “No, they’re in a belt round my waist.. Now let me warn you I have more thana presentiment that Charles Holmes, your step-son, did not perish in the River of Death. I scent mischief in the air, Percival. Don’t fold your hands and sleep in a kind of fool’s paradise, but be up and doing.” “Why. will you persist in harping on that topic, Richard?” asked Sir Percival, fretfully. “Because I have convincing proof that human, not supernatural, agency produced the series of frights we received recently.” “Look at that,” producing the document signed ‘a message from the dead,’ “ ghosts don’t do such things as that.” “Where did. -you find it?” asked the baronet, shuddering visibly from head to foot. “In my bedroom on the night of the fire.” “Tf he’s alive why doesn’t he come forward and prove his identity ?” “Because he lies under more than a suspicion of ‘murder and robbery, and knows that as 1 am in England he would be likely to be extradited to stand his trial in Africa on the capital charge.” “Perhaps he can prove his innocence?” “Pshaw! the hangman’s noose is sure to encircle his neck if ever he’s caught. But we won’t wait for that, Percival; if he’s alive, and in England, he must be removed. ‘There must be no bungling over the job this time, and won’t if I’m allowed to have a finger in the pie, brother mine.” “ How can we discover whether your suspicions are correct P” “Write to Frank Lister, and ask him to meet you here. When he comes assert your claim to your step- son’s share of the wealth amassed at the goldfields. If Lister is in the switn with Holmes he'll be likely to let out the truth, especially if you threaten him with legal proceedings.” “T’ll do it,” cried the baronet, resolutely. “This sus- pense must, and shall be ended. You'll stick by me, of eourse, Richard P” “Yes, at a price, Percival. You have behaved rather niggardly to me, so far; you'll find treating me generously will pay better in the end though.” If Sir Percival Greene—who, in his way, was as great an evil-doer as his brother—could have read Flinter’s thoughts at the moment he would have recoiled from him as though he were a serpent. Having disposed of his nephew, he, as next heir, was anxious to get rid of Charles Holmes, whom he shrewdly suspected was not dead. That done, he fondly sup- posed that the lad’s fortune, which Sir Percival had obtained by fraud, would descend to him, for by enticing the baronet out to Africa he meant to get rid of him, once and for all. As a plotter, Dick Flinter stood unequalled ; and, as yet, somebody’s luck and his own had attended his nefarious doings. : Frank Lister received the baronet’s summons with a strange smile. “I must go well armed,” he solilo- quised, after reading the letter. “ Flinter, who is hand and glove with his brother, Sir Percival, is at the bottom of this.” Thrusting a revolver into his pocket, and hailing a cab, he was driven to a palatial hotel in Piccadilly. Having given his card to a servant he was ushered into the presence of the baronet, who was in deep mourning, befitting his recent bereavement. “What is your business with me, Sir Percival?” asked Frank Lister, coldly. “ Charlie had given him an account of his stepfather’s villainy, and now that he was face to face with the man lie scarcely knew how to be civil to him. “You were my step-son’s partner at Hagerstown, I believe ?” “Yes; you have been rightly informed.” OF DEATH. Il “He had money standing in his name at the time of his death P” “Twenty thousand pounds and odd!” The baronet’s eyes lighted up with the unholy fire of avarice. “You are prepared, of course, to pay over that sum to me, his heir?” he said, eagerly. } “Excuse me, Sir Percival, but you are not his heir,” replied Frank icily. “Who is then?” he asked, with a look of hot malignity. “am!” “You; impossible.” ; ** Listen to me, and then claim his estate, if you dare! I have seen a copy of the will at Somerset House, which you put forward. Even if it were not a bogus will—a fraud, a forgery—a later will, by some months, duly signed and witnessed, puts your claim out of Court.” If a basilisk-like glance cotd have slain the intrepid speaker, then assuredly Frank Lister’s days would have been numbered. “You dare to accuse me, a baronet and a justice of the peace, with being a forger!” “I do; and a bigamist to boot, Sir Percival Greene. Your first wife was alive when you married the widow of General Holmes.” “Tt is false!” hissed out Sir Percival, turning deadly pale, and trembling in every limb. “It is true! You gave her a drug which sent her into a trance, and inhuman monster that you were and are— you see I do not mince words with you, Sir Percival— you hurried on the funeral and had her buried alive! Your infamous brother, Richard Greene alias Dick Flinter—swindler, blackleg, nay worse, murderer— aided and abetted you.” “You insult me because I am an older man than ‘you. Have a care, or you will find me a dangerous man,” said Sir Percival, menacingly, as he thrust his hand sharply into the pocket of his dressing-gown where he kept a loaded revolver. “ Intimidation is not my forte, Sir Percival,’ sneered ere Tis “if you carry a weapon in your pocket, so do I. * Probably your brother is in the next room and listening at the keyhole, and waiting for a chance to assassinate me; but I’m ready for him and yon, too. Besides my clerk knows I have come here, so that should you or he succeed in murdering me, the crime of murder —one only out of many—wonuld be bronght home to you.” ** Are you drunk or mad P” gasped out the baronet. “Neither, and you knowit. Your brother kept a diary in cipher. When he was driven out of Hagerstown it fell into my hands, and after months of hard study in my leisure moments I discovered the key to it.” “Really you are covering yourself with ridicule, young man,” said Sir Percival, recovering his sang froid, because of the difficulty in bringing home guilt to him from such a source as a diary kept im cipher. “This is mere bluff on your part to evade the issue at stake, the restitution of my step-son’s money.” “You'll find it anything but that,” retorted Frank, warmly. “Your brother’s diary is complete up to a certain point in the strange story. I can supply the rest.” j “You mean you can invent it P” “Oh, no, nothing of the kind. Is it not true that your first wife’s brother arrived in England from the Cape the very day of her funeral? To show you that I know what I’m talking about, I'll tell you his name— Ephraim Lewis.” “Charles Holmes supplied that piece of rubbishing information,” observed Se Percival, scathingly. “No; I heard it from the lips of Ephraim Lewis himself; but whatI am about to relate will startle even you, Sir Percival. Shall I proceed?” ‘Order at once, No. 21 of the “Halfpenny Surprise,” containing the powerfully-written Story, “Phe Four Conspirators,” comiclbooks.cormn