Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 434 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 Jim clinchin’ nails soon’s they’re driv’. Don’t blame him, neither. Oh! ef 1 was down in Middle Alley, ter see my gal, Botts, wouldn’t I pour ther luv inter her ear, tho’! Bet I would! Botts ain’t like Taylor’s gal fer good looks, but she’s a stavin’ good washer, tho’, an’ s’ports her sick mammy like a man, an’ nee everything clean as wax. Ther only thing l’ve got ag’in’ Botts is, she will go barefooted, an’ ef her feet keeps on growin’, they’ll be as big as ther Chi- cago gals’, w’ot you read about in the paper. But now, I s’pose I must meander along after Taylor an’ his gal, an’ see ef they do really it spliced. Ther’ won’t be no further use o’ my frailin’ him then, fer he’ll most likely put up wi’ his mammy-in-law, bein’ ignerant an’ not posted about ’em. He wears his hair cut cluss—that’s one good thing!” And atter them Spider glided, as they wended their way out of the park. CHAPTER V. HAZEL. LET us now follow Jim Beak, For he felt it his duty to shadow the vailed woman, and see that she did not do harm to her- self. He would have shadowed any woman, of course, under the *same circumstances; but there was something else that impelled him to watch over the movements of this vailed woman —some intuition that he was about to make an important discovery. s he rounded the corner of the theater at Ninth and Walnut, the woman was some dis- tance down the street, and walking rapidly. Reaching Washington Square, she turned into it, and became seated upon one of the benches. He also entered the grounds, and took a seat a short distance away from her, and drawing a paper, Beak pretended to read by the light of the gas lamp above him, Her movements upon the settee showed that she was nervous and excited, and she several times buried her face momentarily in her hands. ‘* She is either off her mental base, or else she wants to get rid of herself, and don’t know whether to try it or not.” At first the detective was sen fa to go for- ward and inquire as to the cause of her apparent distress, but a second thought warned him not to. She would most likely repulse him, or else be frightened, and he would find it a Harder matter to follow her. So he sat still and waited. The moon came up, and cast its early beams down into the square, at sight of which she ap peared to give a start. She looked quickly around her; then rising left the square on the Walnut street side, and walking down to Fifth street boarded a car, going north. There happened to be another car close in the rear of this, and Beak took this and the chase continued, without much opportunity thus far for her to be suspicious of pursuit. He could see from the front window of the rear car where and when she got off. At Noble street the car stopped and let her out, and she lost no time in hurrying eastward toward the river. Part of the way, as she neared the river, the lamp-lights were few and far between, and the surroundings of anything but a refined char- ‘acter. Butghe seemed to pay no attention to them, nor to those whom she met and passed, When she at length reached Delaware ave- nue, she halted and looked up and down the street. Business generally is suspended on this thor- oughfare at an early hour of the evening, and being in the wholesale quarter, the close of busi- ness leaves the street deserted, with the excep- tion of the river-front police, and now and then some belated or straggling pedestrian. The policeman was moving away toward the other end of his beat, when the woman reached the avenue, across which, and before her, on the river front, was Noble street wharf, a place of no little notoriety of late years, on account of the numerous suicides that have been commit- ted there by drowning. A private watchman ponerse does duty along the wharves of the neighborhood, but even he was nowhere to be seen just then. So the woman glided across the street and out upon the wharf, which was empty of freight- age, with the exception of a couple ef empty fruit-crates, Carrying one of these to the front of the Beak and Pal, Private Detectives. wharf, the woman sat down upon it and gazed steadily into the dark, flowing waters, they ap- pearing to have a strange fascination for her. Even the blowing of the whistles and clangin of the bells of the ferryboats, that moved to an fro across the river, appeared not to attract her attention. ‘** How cold and pitiless the waters look!” she said aloud after a few moments. ‘‘ As they lap against the wharf, they seem to laugh at my misery. Oh, God! why was I ever born, to en- dure this torture? This cruel, cruel letter—oh! I cannot live and know he loves another!” She clinched in her grasp a crumpled letter, as if she were afraid it woul mane her; then, by sudden impulse, and with a reckless laugh, she attempted to throw it into the river. The wind caught it up and blew it back over her shoulder, however, a fact that she appeared entirely unmindful of. ** Yes; he does love another, for he wrote me so,.and stated his surprise that [had any affec- tion for him more than passing friendship. He appears even to forget—but, my God! perhaps he even does not suspect the truth, does not know that I have a mo upon him, stronger than any one else would have! I have never seen him, since that night—he may not know that a—a ceytificate was handed me. Oh! Heaven, and that too is destroyed—lost—lost— and [am powerless to save him—powerless to prevent a living crime! Oh! I cannot—I can- not endure it. will end my miserable life at once, and may God in his mercy forgive me!” She arose with a wailing cry, and no doubt would have pees into the river, but a firm grasp seized her shoulder, and wheeled her part- ly around. ‘* Stop, madam!” the stern voice of Jim Beak ordered. ‘‘No more suicides from this wharf, when I’m about.” She trembled violently, and tried to free her- self, but there was no breaking from Beak’s grasp. : ‘* Let me go—oh! let me go!” she pleaded faintly. ‘‘Oh! sir, I do not want to live any longer, so let me go—please let me go, sir!” ** TH do nothing of the kind, and if you don’t Kani down and act sensible, (ll walk you off to the station-house.” ; **Oh! no—no! do not do that, I beg of you.” ‘** Then come along with me, and as we go, tell me what is your name, and what is your trou- ble. Iam a detective, and perhaps I can help ou.” ‘* A detective? Oh! you were not sent by—by my father I hope?” ‘“No! I followed you simply because you were bent on taking your life. Tell me your name,” ‘*Oh! no; 1 cannot go home again, and if I cannot die, I must never use my own name again, for they would find me—the officers—and take me home.” ‘* And why can you not go home?” ‘*T wouldn’t dare, sir. Father is very stern, and he would scold me terribly.” ‘* Indeed, he ought! You were very foolish in attempting to take your own life, my dear lady. But, | overheard what you said, while on the wharf, and know you have some great trouble. We will go to a public square, sitdown, and you must make me your confidant of every particu- lar, and I will do all in my power to prove my- self your friend; for you are young and beauti- ful, and I believe I can tell you your name.” ‘*Indeed, sir, you are very kind; but how should you be able to guess my name?” ‘* Because the letter you threw away, floated back into my hands. You are Hazel Hurst.” ‘* Yes, but oh! sir, you will not betray me, I beg and pray of you?” Indeed no! We will go to the square, and ou can tell me alj your trouble, and depend on it I will be your friend. I know your father, and his daughter shall not find me less than a friend. Come.” ‘*No! no! Not to a public square. be seen and recognized, there.” ‘* Then, to my office, where you can go with perfect propriety, and without hesitation.” ** Then, there, if anywhere. I must unburden my mind, or | shall go crazy!” So, they set out at once, for Beak’s office, go- ing the greater part of the way by street car. n less than an hour’s time they were seated in the detective’s apartment, with a table between, and Beak with his pencil and pad in hand, pee for jotting down Hazel’s story. ‘*How do you come to know my father, sir?” Hazel asked, when he had signified his readiness to hear her. ‘* He called upon me this afternoon, to engage my services.” I might ‘*Ha!—to hunt up an important document, which he claimed had been stolen from him?” ‘* Yes. Do you know what it was?” ‘‘No. He merely said it was an important document. But go on with your story. We will talk about the document afterward. What put the notion of suicide into your head?” ‘*T was wild with despair, and grief,” Miss Hurst said, raising her vail, and revealing her face,.‘‘ and did not care to live. But you will not understand, until I tell you all. “At a social gathering, some months ago, I met a young gentleman of prepossessing appear- ance, named Terrol Taylor, and he was so courteous to me that he won my love, then and there, and through my invitation, we met at parties frequently thereafter, and I grew to worship him, and was blind enough to believe that my girlish affection was reciprocated. I never invited him home, for he had told me he was poor, and I knew my haughty father would pry into his affairs, and then forbid me to see im, So we met only at social gatherings, and I loved him as I can never love another man. ‘‘ Finally, one night we were at a champagne party, and there were games, and such things, when it was finally proposed to have a mock mar- riage. Every one hailed the idea with delight,and I was selected as the bride-elect, and a number of the company coaxed Terrol to act as the groom. I do not think any one in the room had any idea that it was more than a farce—I know I did not. So a gentleman, a stranger to me, married us, and we were laughingly congratulated. ‘* Later in the evening, Terrol received a tele- gram summoning him away, and I have never seen him since. After be had gone, the gentle- man who had married us, appeared and handed me a paper, then Ss ‘** There, Mrs. Taylor, is your certificate, and allow me to wish you much joy.’ ‘*T took it, laughingly, never suspecting it was legal, until my father came, later in the even- ing. Heheard of the marriage, and coming to me, said we would go home, at once. I then be- gan to suspect the truth, and was not sorry— no! I was happy to believe it was true that Ter- rol Taylor was really my husband. ¢ ‘When we arrived home, father told me the marriage was valid, and I was the wife of a pauper, and oh! sir, he went on at a fearful rate. He told me he had pledged me to a maml detest, one Gilbert Guion. He, then, forced me to give up the certificate, and afterward told me he had burned it. I told him I would never give up my husband, but he swore if I didn’t and didn’t marry Gilbert Guion, I would end my days in an insane asylum, Oh! he is a terrible man, even though he is my father. I have not been permitted to step out of doors since then, until this afternoon, when I escaped. ‘*‘ A few days ago, I wrote to Terrol, that if he had any love for me at all, he would give some exhibition of it, by calling to see me. In reply—oh! God, he wrote back that he did not love me, and was surprised that I should suppose he did, as he had never given me any cause to; that bis acquaintance had simply been of friendship, and, in conclusion, said he loved and soon hoped to wed a gir] of an humble sta- tion in life. Oh! sir, that letter nearly killed me, for I loved him so, and all the world looked cold and cheerless to me, and I resolved to put an end to my unhappiness, by drowning. ‘‘ Terrol said plainly enough in the letter, that he loved another instead of me, and yet, as long as I lived, he could not legally, or honorably marry her. So, that he may be happy—he whom I love much better than life itself, I was willing to commit suicide. Oh! sir, you were cruel to interfere, when I was prepared.” And burying her face in her hands, Hazel Hurst wept, bitterly. Jim Beak, detective, not accustomed to such scenes as this, felt rather unncrved. ‘*Pray, do not cry, Miss Hurst,” he said, ey ‘*Be calm, and let us see what we can o in this most unfortunate case. Taylor is not already married to this girl?” **Oh! sir, I do not know—I do not. All that E know is that he is mine, and I love him, and cannot live to endure the thought that he is the husband of another,” she sobbed. ‘Well, Pll see Taylor and knock this matter in the head. If he is your husband, and the cer- tificate can be found, Pll guarantee he will not marry girl number two, quite yet!” - td the certificate can be found?’ Hazel gasp- ed. * Why—” ‘Listen. Your father never destroyed the certificate, but kept it locked in his private sec- retary. ‘Thank God!” ‘‘ According to his statement, the certificate - “- = - — LD —— ee Se —— ee !