Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 512 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

—_ - ew a . *—. x . oa: je, : ef af el Set a cry. ~~ — These latter proceedings were watched by a boy who lay at full length on a lot of baled cot- ton, which evidently had been his bed, for the night had been pleasant, and the morning breeze, as it came cityward over the waters of the bay, seemed to have been shorn of its usual chill, ‘‘ What has Old Fix found now I wonder?” queried the hoy, when he saw the patrol sergeant, whom he recognized as one Frederick Fix, a man for whom, from his manner of speech, he did not have the kindliest feelings. Nobody saw the boy on the bales, and when the patrol bad secu the picked-up boat, they vanished in the morning mists. ‘‘That makes the second event for me since I occupied this cotton-bale hotel,” the wharf lad went on to himself, and a moment later he scrambled down from the bales and moved to- ward the boat. In stature he was about as large as boys of sixteen usually are; his build was good, and his face had much expression. His eyes were dark, not black, and keen, and his movements denoted unusual agility. His garments were not of the best, as a mat- ter of course. Boys who sleep on the wharves and piers do not dress like those who ropose on so't beds; but the clothes were whole and com- fortable—much better than those of the com- mon street vagabond. ‘‘ That is the same boat! I’d bet a hundred on it!” he exclaimed, leaning over the guard of the dock and scrutinizing the prize of the patrol. ‘* A while before midnight I saw three persons leave this very pier in that boat. Now it comes back in the hands of the harbor cons, picked up somewhere out yonder where their lanterns find lots of strange things. What became of the three who went out in the craft?” The boy seemed eager to get to the bottom of what appeared to him a mystery. He lowered himself over the wharf and dropped into the row-boat. It gave forth ample evidence of having been overturned, for considerable water was yet in it. The boy began his search at once, and it did not occupy much time. Under a seat in the stern he found a mass of cordage, which had been wedged in there so tightly that it had not fallen out while the boat remained capsized. He drew it forth and began to look through it in the light just then breaking over city and harbor. ‘‘ Hello! what is this?” he cried out, diving at something that glittered in the mass. * A ring, as I live!” and he held up in triumph a small ring whose set, if he was a judge, was a solitaire diamond, not large, but unusually fine. The wharf lodger wondered how the ring found its way to the cordage, but he went on with the search, which produced nothing else worth taking. He transferred the “ find” to his pocket, and stuffed the cordage back under the stern-seat, then climbed nimbly upon the pier and disap- peared. Some boys would have carried the ring to Police Headquarters, but this boy, known all along the water-front as Dodger Dick, did noth- ing of the kind. erhaps he thought that whatever he found was his, especially after it had escaped the eyes of Frederick Fix, the man whom he did not re- gard with any kindly feeling. Half an hour later the lad came suddenly into the presence of a woman who occupied a small room in a wooden tenement, some distance from the river. She was about fifty, with a thin, sallow face, and eyes that told her disposition. “A” pretty time to be getting in!” cried the woman at sight of Dick, and in the voice of a rpetual scold. ‘It’s a wonder the cops don’t ake the likes @ you and send you to the Island! One o’ these detys I'll be pulled for harboring a boy whose only occupation is prowlin’ around 0’ nights. You ought to have some respect for me, Dick Sly.” The semblance of a smile a red at the cor- ners of the boy’s mouth. e had heard the same whine before. and the manner in which he treated the woman told that she was not his mother. ‘¢ Well, wherever I was I had a good bed!” he declared. ‘I tell you it isn’t everybody who can sleep on a ten-thousand dollar—” ‘Qn the wharves egain!” interrupted the woman. “Under the stars, tra la!” laughed,Dick, be- ginning to dance about the room, while his eyes rkled. “PThe woman watched bim with an expression between anger and contempt. claim. . . » —_ ri Sie? bn ~¢%, On of se — *S All at once Dick ceased his antics, and came toward the old woman. partially lost in the depths of a pocket. “Tt is sometimes profitable to sleep by the river. Look bere!” and he held up the ring, whose glitter at once caught the woman’s eye. She almost left her chair in her eagerness to inspect the prize, the value of which she seemed to determine at a glance. ‘‘No, you don’t,” cried Dick, drawing back, but still keeping the ring in sight. ‘* What's mine is mine. If I had slept here, or at the Fifth Avenue last night 1 wouldn't have found anything equal to this.” “Tt is shoddy, as anybody can see with half an Fer replied the woman. ‘Then you don’t care about handling it; ha! ha!’ was the retort. ‘‘ Where did you find it?” she now asked, ea- gerly enough. . ‘‘ In the most unlikely place in the world.” ‘* Tell me.” ‘In a boat which the harbor cops brought in early this morning.” ‘* And you?” ‘*] was lying awake on some cotton-bales on the wharf.” ‘* Playing spy, eh?” ‘* Waiting for some kind of fish to come into the net.” ‘‘Well, a gold-fish came, I see,” and the wo- man looked at the ring longingly, and then she added, with a laugh, as she thrust forward a hand, ‘‘I believe it will just fit one of my fin- gers.” ‘‘Phere’s not the least doubt of it, but we'll not try it just now,” retorted the boy, as, much to her disappointment, he put the ring back into his pocket. ‘© Of course you'll hunt the owner?” she went on. ‘© Of course I will do what I think best, Mother Sturgeon,” was the response, and Dick went to- ward the door. ‘* Don’t you want any breakfast?” ‘‘T breakfasted on daylight awhile ago,” and, a minute later, the door had closed on the night- walker, and Mother Sturgeon was the only oc- cupant of the room. ‘Don’t I know that that ring is worth mone me cguee | a hundred dollars?’ she murmured, ‘¢ He was very careful to tell me that he found it in a boat at the dock, but did he? Day by da I see that boy slipping through my fingers. He never has been of much use to me, and now, when he has reached the age when I could use him, he wants to be a wharf shadow. He won't take the ring to the police. I know him too well for that. When he comes back [ll show him a piece of strategy which he cannot resist.” As for the boy, Dick Sly—Dodger Dick—he was moving down a Side street with a good deal of agitity. The new day was fairly on, and the great city was wide awake, Suddenly Dick darted into a little alley and rung the door-bell of a plain, two-story brick house. | In a moment he was admitted by a young irl who passed him in with a nod of recogni- Son. and the lad darted up-stairs without in- quiry. Rushing into a certain room without knock- ing, the ‘‘wharf rat”—as such boys are com- monly denominated—sprung to a bed 1m one cor- ner and bent over it with a light cry. “Ah! here you are, Dovald! Get up; Pve got something to show you!” The next moment a young man of twenty- two, with clear blue eyes, raised himself on his elbow and looked at Dick, “You're always me something, but you never find much,” he laughed, ‘‘ How is this?” and the boy produced the ring. ‘‘Mother Sturgeon calls it shoddy, but what does the future editor of a great newspaper say?” tn an instant the eyes of _the young man, 4 newspaper reporter, got a rich sparkle. He held out one hand for the ring and Dick surrendered it, | ‘‘Tt is a genuine stone,” the reporter said. ‘‘T never saw one of its size so brilliant. And a lady’s ring, too! In Fortune’s name, Dick, where did you get it?” Then followed the story of the finding, and with it a mention of the three persons who had taken the boat out before midnight. ‘¢ What a splendid chance to work up ‘ sensa- tion,” the young reporter was impelled to ex- ‘But you don’t want to, Donald,” protested Dick. ‘See here! I want to try my hand on 7 “ei ber i 4 Bh) fe Melle oot :' > wt i” Oded ns - « od é 7 - ee ee ee "Ce % a ~ ee = S* FF. ~ = oie ey Tee Spe avi ot 1 4 . ' a { v< yD ai ate bk . ‘Dodger Dick. hag ae f this case. Itis the fir-t real mystery that has $f One of his hands was | dropped into my lap.” Sys b oo ‘‘Tt may be the easiest thing in the world to = — clear up. The ring may have been in the boat = Ch for weeks. Who knows?” pete Aa “I propose to know!” declared the boy. “Only you keep it out of the papers, and lend so me vour head when IL want to use it.” ult ay si an do it, Richard the Dodger.” ‘¢T knew I could bank on you, Donald. Mebbe my hunt will secure a better ring than this for Rosa’s wedding finger!” Ba, 7 The young reporter colored deeply, we es Belts CHAPTER II. es. iS IT A TRAP? mith te DONALD DustTIN was attached toa morning {| pape ieee. e was a young reporter with a good deal Y § of of natural shrewdness, and was always on the ch: is lookout for items. It was during one of his visits to the docks in search of something for his paper that he first encountered Dick Sly, who passed much of his time in the domain of the wharf rats. aw Dick was discovered cuddled upamongalot | of bales waiting for shipment, and from their | first acquaintance a strong friendship sprung up between the pair. More than once had Dick supplied the reporter with timely items, and once or twice had put him on the trail of a dock sensation which had helped Donald in the graces of his employers. Donald had discovered %he relationship exist- ing between Dick and Hannah, or ‘‘ Mother” Sturgeon. The woman was the boy’s guardian, or so pre- | tended to be, though she did not exercise much care over him, She explained that Dick’s moth- er, Mrs. Sly, in dying, had left the boy to her to bring up as she saw fit—a story which the young dock detective rejected for several good reasons. While Mother Sturgeon was nota bad woman, as the eyes of the law saw her, Dick did not like certain things he saw about the tenement, and his observations alienated him from his guar- dian, and sent him to the free and somewhat hazardous life he led around the water-front. He seemed to know by name the hundreds of strange people who lived by hook and crook under as well as on the wharves and piers. | More than once he had penetrated tothe dens > of the river thieves, those dark, dismal places ~~ beneath or at the inner end of the piers. He could go anywhere, and so well did he cover his tracks, that the wharf rats never suspected that he might be, what he sometimes was, a police spy. It was the night after the finding of the dia- mond ring that Dodger Dick entered Mother — Sturgeon’s abode, the first time since we last saw him there. As he entered the woman threw a quick glance toward a small door which opened intoa ward- robe, but she instantly turned upon the boy. ae ‘‘ Well, Dickey, you turn up veryseldom of & late,” she called out, in a pleasant tone, ‘I have been waiting for you to come home to tell you thut a gentleman has been here to see you,” ‘‘ What sort of a gentleman?” asked Dick. ‘* A real nice-looking man he was, looked like he might own a block on Broad street, or some good lots on Broadway.” ‘‘ Are you real sure he wanted to see me?” ‘** He said so.” ‘‘ Did he leave a card?” ‘‘He sat down at the table there and wrote you a note.” ‘* Well, let’s have it.” | Mother Sturgeon went toasmall clock that adorned a mantle over the mock fireplace and — fished a bit of folded paper from behind it. This she gave to the boy. ‘He is a gentleman sure enough!” decided Dick, when he saw thet the back of the paper uJ bore the inscription, ‘‘ Richard Sly, FEeq.,” a title “93 of courtesy which had never been bestowed upon, him before. Esquire! That was immense! ‘pee ‘That's what l’ve said,” remarked Mrs, Stur- | geon, and then she began to watch thelad who was reading the letter, which ran as follows: = = ‘“RicH«RD Siy. vet, Beis: ‘‘My Dear Str:—When you receive this,no mat- ter at what hour, I wish you would at once repair to my office, right-hand door, second floor, No. — Beek- man street. I have a matter of business on hand — which I desire to intrust to a shrewd person ig Ps _ The directions given above will enable y idee e ~ ‘ae age find me at any hour, day or night. Please consid mg im oe = confidential and come at once to_ re. oO. — sae ; ' 5 Pe, "Very trul ee : rae SILas SELDON, Je.” ‘When did he leave this?” asked Dick, looking ” — tye ? % ' > a . * yw ea hea h- r . ant i. a ‘? Vo» - on . ria - — ~~ Ss £26H-