Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1015 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

2 The Heporter-Detective’s big Pull ; OR, THE WALL STREET SWELL’S SNAG, ee BY WM. PERRY BROWN. AUTHOR OF ‘* BROOKLYN BOB'S BULGE,” ETC, CHAPTER I. “YOUR CHANCE HAS COME, MY BOY.” The telephone in the editorial rooms is ringing. “ B-r-r-r-r-r'’’ it keeps going, until the night editor jumps to the machine and places the tube at his ear as he ealis back: ** Well? ”’ As he listens his face lights up. As he hangs up the receiver he glances at the elock, and turns to a smooth- faced, boyish young fellow, who is at one of the writing tables in the next room. “ Boland.,” calls the night editor through the open doorway between the rooms. Boland came forward at once, tucking his note-book in his breast pocket. “TIT am going to give you a chance, 3oland, or rather your chance has come, my boy, without my aid. I have no one to send but you—see?’”’ **I see.” “Should you make a good thing for the paper out of this, it may lead to a good thing for you. Do you take me?” Wr es Sir: * Now, I want you to go at once to No. — Fifth Avenue. Take the Ele- vated. Ask for Commodore Sutherland.” Boland started. This was the name of one of the financial magnates of the land, ‘* You understand?” asked the editor, sharply. ‘Every word, sir,” returned the young re- porter. ‘*Send in your card and ask for the commo- dore, You must manage to see him, somehow. If you don’t, some other paper will, and we may be scooped, He has been dodging the newspaper menallday. I haveit froma sure source that he has just gone home, Pump him regarding the squeeze in Union Pacific. i suppose you met! kept up with Wall street news, haven’t ou ics Ygs, sir. It is said that the commodore has cleared a million or more. His nephew, De Lancy Leland,a Wall street swell, is reported short on the deal to the tune of five hundred thousand more than he will be able to meet, me that he lays his ruin to Commodore Suther- ap ‘“‘T see. Youll do. Well, get an interview out of the old man, if you have torisk a kicking afterward. This paper has got to dave one— got to—mind you. it looks to you to get it. ow, off you go!” - Five minutes later Thomas Boland, or Tom, as he was usually called, was sharpening his pencil on board the Elevated Railroad. -**Old Briggs seems to think I am still tied to mamma’s apron-strings,” hesaidtohimself, ‘I guess all the fellows do. Well, I hope to show them before long who I am, and what I can. do!” The train rattled on to Fifty-ninth street. Bo- land ran down the station stairs and hurried away. Meanwhile Mr. Briggs, the night editor, began to feel uncomfortable, ** | wish some of the other boys had been in,” be thought, ‘* This Sutherland affair is apt to bea big thing, Don’t suppose there is another aper that knows just where the commodore is. oland is very young, and I fear awfully green. But, hang it, what else could I do?” He sighed, lighted a cigar, then fell savagely with his blue pencil upon a long report of some rally of the Populists, out in Kansas, that day, Tom, in the mean time, turned up Fifth avenue, and walking rapidly for a few minutes, arrived in front of the Sutherland mansion. He led the bell, Noonecametothe door, Then erung again, Still no answer, A third and harder pull met with similar inattention. Then he began to consider what he had best do next, He | d over the brown-stone railing and looked inata window. The gas was evidently turned low in one of the drawing-rooms, for the light within was dim, He could detect tle vague outlines of furniture, and pictures, and rich rugs on the carpeted floor. Under another impulse he rung the bell once more, But it was with the usual result, ** Are they all dead, I wonder?” he ejaculated, impatiently, ‘‘Strange there are no servants about,” People were passing along the pavements, car- riages were rolling by, and thestreet-ligbts shone brilliantly, Tne silence within the apparently vacant mansion seemed almostuncunny, Again Tom leaned over the balustrade, this time fur- ther than before. Suddenly he drew back, while every nerve in him throbbed violently as the blood jumped in his veins. He drew back pale and breathless. ** W hat the deuce shall I do now?” he thought. He seized the door-knob, hardly realizing what he was at, when, to his surprise, the dcor opened at histouch. 1t had been left ajar by some oue! He did not hesitate, but passed quickly through the vestibule into a large hall with doors to the right and a broad stairway winding upward at the other end. In this hall the gas was also turned low, This was a critical moment for young Boland. Should he proceed further, risking he knew not what danger, and possible misconstruction, or should he return and report his lack of success? ** [ must take a look into that drawing-room,” he resolved, and allowing himself no time to hesitate he opened the first right-hand door. A kind of shudder seized him, and tnder an un- governabie impulse, he darted forward to turn up the gas, His foot struck some soft, heavy object and he reeled ioto a richly-upholstered chair, Then, nerving himself anew, he sprung up, turne! on the gas and cast his eye downward. The curdling thrill that had so nearly overcome him was not without cause. ‘* (¢ood God!” he exclaimed, falling back a step or two, CHAPTER II, TOM’S DISCOVERY—AN ARREST. AT his feet was the body of a man, lying face downward, The back of the head was crushed in, evidently by the blows of some blunt instru- ment, . At sight of an actual, tangible cause for his dread, fear gave way in Tom’s mind to his news- paper instinct, Here was a bigger sensation than old Briggs had dreamed of, and Tom’s shrewdness told him that his own chance had come if he managed rightly. A seemingly de- serted house—a murder—the body yet warm, _for he felt to see, though shuddering again as his hand touched the inanimate flesh. Boland was first‘on the ground. He alone, of allthe city’s alert news-gatherers, knew of this thing! Even the police werein ignorance, He must be at once prompt, cool, sure and circum- spect. He thanked his stars now that he had plenty of nerve. He again bent down and turned the head so that he could see theface, Then he once more started back in surprise. He had seen that countenance before on the Stock Exchange, at the Gold Board, ani elsewhere, It was that of a king among men during many a maddening flurry, when millions were at stake upon each revolution of the electric ticker, It was a face well known everywhere in New York. It was tee face of Commodore Sutherland! The tall, portly figure, the abundant gray hair, the white beard, the strong Roman nose were unmistakable, Tom knew that there could be no mistake of identity. He stood meditative- ly over the body with his back tothe ball door, Had he been thinking less intently, or bad his eye been toward the door, he would have become aware of a stealthy opening of another door in the hall, and of a swift, noiseless movement to- ward the front entrance, A man’s form, muf- fled to the eyes, was stealing by the open front drawing-room door, It shota swift glance at the young reporter, then passed on over the soft ball carpeting, out at the street door, down the steps and then swiftly receded from sight. Tom, all unconscious, was making up bis mind how to proceed, Before giving the alarm he re- solyed to investigate a little bimself, for the benefit of. his paper. Ha examined the dead man’s pockets. Money, watch and other con- tents had not been disturbed, It did not seem thxt robbery could have been the motive of the crime. In one of the commodore’s bands he found a man’s scarf pia tightly clutched’, to- gether with a portion of a four-in-hand tie. These, after a brief reflection, heconcealed upon bis own person, Hardly the proper thing to do, perhaps, but as Briges said, Tom was “‘ green” and he was working to help himself as well as ' the public and bis paper. - The Reporter-Detective’s Rig Pull. He began a hurried search of the floor. The carpet was a heavy moquette of an elaborate pattern. Ataspotnear the portiere leading to the back drawing-room, was a damp, discolored oy His hand was upon the carpet instantly. lood | The body seemed to have been moved after the man was strickendown. Why? Obviously so that it could be seen by any person entering the hall. But, what would :e the incentive to such anact? Would it not be apt to be themaneuver of one who knew whut people were expected and when they would arrive? One unfamiliar with the house and its occu- pants would doubtless have allowed the body to lie where it wou'd remain undiscovered as long as possible. Somewhat in this way Tom rea- soned, He now glanced into the hall and saw the commodore’s well-known white silk hat hanging on therack. This he also examived and found that it must have been placed there, after the murder. The rim wag spotted a little with blood. One side had beencrushed in but had been straightened out again carefully. Tom turned bis atteution to the street door, The catch inside was also bloody, as if the murderer, in order that the door might be pushed open from without, had set the lock ac- cordingly. Now, why should he want to do that? The natural theory might be that it would be sup- posed some wandering night prowler, thus er- tering, had done the killing. Yet the real mur- derer, in his haste, had forgotten to rob, or even remove from his victim’s hand the evidence of scarf and tie, thus upsetting the coherency of the plan he had probably devised to throw the police from the true trail. It seemed to Tom as if the criminal, between haste, fear and the confusion of thought, had dons whatever came uppermost in his mind, yet had done nothing with a clear perception of the nature of its probabie interpretation by others, Returning to the drawing-room he began a final search to see if any weapon that had been used were discoverable, Some scattering blvod- stains near a sofa by the wall caused him to look beneath, Then he drew fortha piece of gas-pipe about two feet long. One end was cov- ered with blood and scattering bits of gray hair. After the killing the murderer niust havethrown down the bludgeon, and it had rolled under the sofa, thus further staining the carpet. Boland now determined to give the alarm. He would like to have made further investiga- tion, but he felt that the risk of keeping this hor- ror longer to himself was growing with each assing moment, He turned tbe dead man’s ace back to its original positi6n, but paused to eee the gas-pipe before replacing it under the sofa, At this juncture footsteps were heard outside ascending the steps, Tomistarted forward, un- thinkingly holding the bludgeon in his band, The street door was flung open, and in rana couple of policemen, who were followed by a man in plain clothes, ‘* Arrest that young man!’ exclaimed the lat- ter, pointing to the reporter, ‘‘I saw him in here as I started to enter the house a few min- utes back. He was bending over his victim.” The officers seized Tom, who resisted vigor- ously, ‘“T am not your man!” he cried. “‘l ama reporter,and came here to interview the man whom I founddead.” . But, appearances were against Boland and the — olice were incredulous, ‘Take it easy, young fellow!” ordered one officer. ‘Clap on the bracelets, Mulligan.” As the bandcuffs were snapped over his wrists Tom, perforce, ceased to resist. ‘*‘Mr. Leland, do you say that you saw this lad in bere before you gave the alarm?” asked one of the patrolmen. **T did.” The man in citizen’s clothing look- ed both nervous and excited, ‘‘ l am Commo- dore Sutberland’s nephew, and was coming here to sce him on business. AsI said, when I was aboué to enter, I saw this youth in the drawing- room, He was prowling about, The commo- dore’s body was on the floor.” ‘“Wasn't ye sfeard the bloke’u’d get away while ye rin afther us?” demanded Mulligan, a burly patrolman, Leland acknowledged that he had thought of that, yet he hesitated to venture in on a prob- able murderer when alone and unarmed, ‘‘ Bedad! I’d ’ave Jocked the dure on him any- é a » = 7 : a ” e ne “a ke a aie - w * Pe i: * , : me Mee f . aa a | 7 w i < " +y*- d i P . * - ¢ . 45 5 r os * al - eS / +. * 1 o . » t ae 8 i. 5 ? a? * 4 YY Sale cael PW oy gt. Go My . Phe a : é be a- - ad > a a 4 P) + ee, “ : cw . & a . = . = - ve - . fark “ Aes «* i ns “ ¥e hh, > . - aw = ? “ - = es » Lo * i, uf : > - ~ *~ pts . 4 < i aa a ceed — - ‘ ‘ wo bu 7 ee n> > & oe vo oy * ~" a" « . ~ 4 s.r sae Phd 7 -* tt, , ~ * iy * - se . 3 v, ae ey $3>~ 5° “ae . -. : * =! p= i Ae a Pe one eee? ioe Be — * + how.” was Mulligan’s comment; to which Le- — ; i: ; ; land’s reply wag rather confused. ie & Ge * ap I ee yt ~ vee ~ ~ * ee a eS » le =A eo ae ” ~-