Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 488 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

’ * , 4 a . CO ee ee f" > - ; ne re —-— — — ———— a — — — ain’s got a red till my rents comein. Lend us a shiner, Dick.” ‘Come, come, old chap. That’s not a square deal. Where’s your own cash?” ‘*Moll’s got it ail,” returned Joe in a whisper. “Allright, Joe. Here’s for you. It’s a loan, mind.” **Honor bright!” exclaimed Joe, eagerly snatching up the coin which Dick had cast on the table, and hurrying with staggering steps from the room, Dick leaned back in the crazy chair that held him, and gazed dubiously across at his compan- 1i0n, *‘ Looks as if there’s no game in this cover,” remarked Will. “There you are slightly mistaken, my boy. I many ve unezrthed something neat. If I can only follow up the trail I have just broken.” ‘* What do you mean?” ‘‘ To begin with, he stole my ring.” “c He 97° ‘Just so. He has the entry to my house, for reasons I will tell yousoon. Very well. I fell asleep on a lounge on the evening before our Ssupper-party. ‘The ring was on my finger when { went to sleep. It was gone when I awoke.” ‘¢ And you think Joe took it?” ‘‘Tamsure. He isan honest fellow in grain, but would do anything when craving for liquor. He denies calling on me last week, but the very manner of his denial proves to me that he was there, and did a trick that he is ashamed of.” ‘** Tt looks like it, indeed. But what did he do with the ring? Pawn or sell it?” ‘*No. You don’t know what a pride he has, Will, in spite of his boosiness. He would have cut his head off rather than ask me for money, if he’d had a red cent of his own. The chap is hospitable. Very well. He received no money for the ring. @® was wheedled out of it, or robbed of it by Moll, that fair fiend who has done much to make him wkat he is.” ‘Ha! Weare now coming to the woman in the case. So Moll has the ring, and it is she that we need to track. But who is Moll, and what is the mystery which you promised to tell me?” Dick did not answer immediately. He sat with a look of moody indecision on his face. But after a minute he looked up again. ‘*T may as well make a clean breast of it,” he said. ‘‘I can trust you, and it may be best for you to know all. I have spoken of Moll—Mar randon is her full name—as a fair fiend. When I first set out in my wild life, Will, I was something of a lady’s man, I paid attention to several girls, this Mary Brandon among them. She was then a young, strikingly handsome and seemingly innocent maiden, but with the tem- ver of a tigress. IL was not her only admirer. Joe Groggery—then a sober and sensible fellow —was demented about her. He was ready to do anything to win her. The girl evidently eared more for me than him, and he was wild with jealousy. ‘A sweet little affair all through,” muttered Will. ‘* Trouble ensued, as it always does when men play the fool. Joe, in his jealousy, told her of my attentions to another girl. He led her to see it, in fact, and she grew wild with jealous rage. The tigress in her temper woke up. She at- tacked me, indeed, with a violent tirade of fury, I grew angry, and repelled her, perhaps too rudely. at followed? She waylaid me dur- ing an evening walk with the young lady in question. Joe was with her. ou never saw anything quite so like a fiend as she was at that minute. er eyes blazed like two fiery rockets, Ere a word could be said she had drawn a pistol and fired it point-blank at my breast.” ‘‘ Jupiter! That was rough work,” ejaculated Will. ‘ Were you hit?” ‘‘T would have been done for only for Joe. The noble fellow flung himself between us, and took the bullet in his Own breast. Came near dying of it too, He saved my life, Will. I * shall not soon forget what [ owe him.” ‘¢ And what drove him to whisky?” ‘The woman, She played fast ‘and loose with him till he grew wild and desperate. I did my best to break him of it, but in vain, I have iven it up now as useless. He seems bound to ink himself to the grave.’ ‘** And the woman?” ** As dissolute as her drunken lover, I have scarcely seen her since. She hates me as fierce- ly as she once loved me.” ; is moment a wavering step in the pas- sage ¢dmonished them of Joe’s return. He came in through the open door, with a black bottle | Wild Dick Racket. **Meat and drink,” he declared, ‘Thought mebbe you gentlemen mought like a bite. And I’ve got here some prime Bourbon, Just the stuff to warm the wrinkles in your hearts,” He brought the bottle down with a’ crash as he spoke, With too violent a crash, as it proved, for the brittle glass shivered at the concussion, and the liquor poured pitilessly out of the broken bottle over table and Roba. Joe staggered back, the picture of pitiful con- sternation, his hands held up in horror, a glitter as of tears bedewing his red eyes, ‘* Prime Bourbon!” he muttered, licking his lips hungrily. ‘‘ And all goin’ for dishwater! Won’t one of you gentlemen punch me in the snout? Ought to have my head bu’sted,” ‘You stupid idiot!” came a shrill voice from the door. ‘‘To waste good whisky at that rate!” There came a whisk of skirts and the appari- tion of a woman’s form, which darted eagerly across the room and seized the lower half of the bottle which still held some of the liquor. She stood surveying it with eager eyes, a tall, shapely woman, dressed with some pretense to bravery, and with a face that was still hand- some in spite of its marks of intemperance, ‘Pm askamed o’ ye, Moll,” muttered Joe, ‘Acting this way afore company. Don’t ye see there’s an old friend afore ye?” The woman looked up, caught sight of Dick’s face before her, and her look of tipsy fondling over the whisky changed to an expression of in- sane fury. With flashing eyes she raised the jagged glass with its liquid contents, and flung it madly at the head of her old lover, with a hiss of deadly rage. Only a quick bend of Dick’s head saved him from what might have proved a deadly blow. The glass struck with a crash against the wall, and was dashed into splinters, In an instant a look of horror replaced the tigerish gleam in the woman’s eyes. She dropped to the floor in a moaning heap, as if utterly conscience stricken and overcome by her brief paroxysm of madness. At the same instant hasty steps were heard in the outer passage, and the forms of several men appeared at the door of the room, A glance re- vealed that they were officers of the law. CHAPTER IX, A MYSTERIOUS ESCAPF, THERE were three men in the party which had thus suddenly appeared. A glance revealed who they were. At their head was the detec- tive who had been so neatly humbugged_ by Dick in Will West’s house. There was a look of triumphant satisfaction on his face which cer- tainly was not shared by those on whom he had so abruptly intruded. Dick looked as if he had swallowed green persimmons. An oath of sup- pressed spite broke from Will’s lips. Joe Grog- gery, however, advauced toward them with a tipsy welcome: ‘Glad to see ye, gen’lemen. Yedo mehonor! Have a biscuit, won’t ye? Sorry ter say as ain’t got nothin’ wet. The rascally old bottle bu’sted, and split all the ingredients.” He pointed with a sorrowful countenance to the splintered glass. The detective advanced with little heed to this greeting. He faced the two friends with a tri- umphant aspect. ‘Glad to meet you again, Mr. West,” he said satirically to Dick. ‘‘ You made a fool of me once, my dear Mr, Racket, but you had the wrong chap to deal with. Every dog has his day, and it’s mine now.” ‘The upshot of which is,” answered Dick rather sternly as he rose from his chair, “ that you have tracked the fox and are here to arrest me? ‘Just so. Smart as you were you failed to close all the tracks to your den. Iam much obliged to you, Mr. West,” bowing to Will, ‘‘ for calling to-day on your friend. I took the liberty to put a spy on your steps when | found out who my counterfeit coachman really was.” He advanced, as spoke, toward the center of the reom. His two companions stood just within the doorway, burly, determined-looking fellows. Moll had raised herself from ber crouching attitude, and was sidling toward the broken bottle, as if craving for a drop to soothe the fever in her veins. Joe advanced with drunken defiance on his bloated face. ‘‘Reckon ye don t know this is my room,” he blustered. ‘‘A ’Merican’s house is his castle. Git now, ye beats, afore I put ye out.” ‘‘ Slide, you drunken dog,” growled the officer, clinched tightly in one hand, and a plate of bis- | giving Joe a push that sent him down on hands cuit in the other, As va bs and knees. ‘I Lavea warrant for you, Richard « i > z y * s% * a : ae 4 a. Pedra! ¥ . - we oe » aa res: A i SSS Sse —— ee CO - 2 Se NEE eee na 9 Racket. You had best yield yourself up quietly or it may be worse for you.” ‘*T don’t know that 1 bave denied my name or resisted your authority,” Dick sternly an- swered, facing the officer boldly. ‘* But I den our right to come into a man’s room and knoc im down because he claims his rights. You are not a king if you are a policeman.” ‘*T want ncene of your bluster, my man,” an- swered the officer angrily. If you venture to defy me, I will have you in irons before you can wink an eyelid.” | Dick’s eyes flashed. ing angry, ‘*{ tell you this, my friend,” he proudly de- clared. oy am a gentleman born, and claim the treatment of a gentleman. I will take in- solence from no man il! he were ten times a de- tective,” ‘* That’s the talk,” exclaimed Joe as he arose. ‘* Pelt it inter ther peeler, Dick. Ill have the law o’ him, blast me if I don’t!” ‘*One of you kick that drunken brute out of the way,” cried the detective to his companions, ‘*So you resist my authority, do you, my man?” He took a pair of handcuffs from his pocket, ‘* When Ihave robbers and murderers to deal with, this is my way.” ‘When I meet a gentleman I treat him as one,” answered Dick. ‘‘ When I deal with an insolent dog, this is my way.” In an instent he brought the back of his hand with a stinging swipe across the officer’s mouth, sending him staggering backward. With acry of mad rage the latter drew his club and rashed at Dick in a fury. He struck a savage blow at Dick’s head. But he failed to know the man he had te do with. With a quick movement the agile young man evaded the blow, and in an instant had his as- sailant by the collar. A quick surge, a shrewd trip, and down went the officer to the floor with a crash that shook the house to its founda-, tions. Without a moment’s hesitation Dick sprung forward, ‘The two men who had guarded the door had moved a little inward when ordered to assail the drunken master of the room. They now leaped to oppose the escape of the fugitive, reaching for their weapons as they did so. But they might as well have tried to stop a lion. Dick had his blood up now, and his veins puJsed with the strength of a giant. The man to the right had drawn a pistol, but Dick's fist shot into his face with the blow\of a flail, and he went down in a stunned heap. The other at- tempted to grasp the fugitive in his sinewy arms, He did not know he was dealing with one of the champion wrestlers of the State. Ere he could defend himself, he was caught by the middle, lifted like a twig from the floor and flung head- long over the shoulder of the young athlete, _ All this had taken place in far less time than it takes to tell it. Scarce half a minute had elapsed from the moment of Dick’s assault upon his antagonist ere he bad disposed of all of them, and was leaping with the bound of a deer for the door. The detective was the first to regain his feet. With a violent oath be drew a revolver from his pocket and aimed it at Dick, who had just gained the outer passage. The room rung with the keen report. The murderous bullet shot af- ter the fugitive. But it failed to hit him. For at the instant of pulling the trigger, Joe had stumbled, with a tipsy surge, against the officer, utterly disconcerting his aim. “ Scuse me,” apologized the swaying drunk- ard, ‘ Didn’t go for to do it. Got a tangle in my legs.’ ‘‘ Blast your awkwardness!” yelled the officer, furiously. ‘* Up, lads, and after him!” He dashed for the door, the others regaining their feet and following as rapidly as possible. It was a moment of intense excitement. Will West hag sprung tu his feet, with a chivalrous intent to come to the aid of his friend, despite pe consequences, But there was no need of his elp. Within a minute from leaving the room the detective had gained the street. It lay open before him to the right and left. Not a person was Visible except a woman approaching froma distance, He halted an instant in surprise and disa pointment, and then turned hastily back. His two comrades were just descending the last flight. of stairs, ‘‘He has not left the house!” screamed the excited officer. ‘‘ He is in hiding! Guard the doors! The house must be searched! To the rear door, Tom, You watch the front, Harry, I will search this lower floer,” He was evidently srow- Cc 9OOKS.