Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 512 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

i o én we ; . | | + : ; ‘“‘ Mebbe you'll find him at his poardin’-house, an’ mebbe not,” snapped Solomon. ‘“‘ Ain’t you ashamed o’ dot report you published apout my fire dot time, eh? Der custom you ruined for me almost sent me to der almshouse.” Donald discovered that the Jew merchant was determined to go back to his fire, and believing that he could get no information from him con- «cerning the ex-clerk’s present whereabouts, he began to withdraw. “Dot young man never comes pack to me!” suddenly cried Mr. Strauss. ‘* Why not?” ‘“Veeping Rachel! he spends money like water!” was the reply. ‘“‘ Every night he puts his money on der cards, an’ talks play mit der eustomers in der store. Mebbe it vas not all his money dot he spend. Vat you think, Mister Dustin, hey?” “Why didn’t you find out, Mr. Strauss?” ‘“‘Ven I only find out day before yesterday apout his habits? Ven I begin to talk he asks for a settlement, an’ we quit. He buys studs, diamond rings an’ all dot stuff on twenty dollar “month! Only yesterday I see on bis finger a lady’s gold ring mit a blaziu’ diamond in it. I thought it vas paste, but I now know dot it cost dot young rascal two hundred dollar.” Donald did not wait to hear more from Solo- mon Strauss. A strange thought, or a com- parison, flashed across his mind as he hastily bade the Jew good-night. ‘‘ Dick says that one of the three persons who took the boat last night was a woman, and Larry Lang when he left wore a lady’s diamond ring!” murmured the young reporter, CHAPTER V. DONALD AND DICK. A STARTLING revelation seemed to burst upon Donald’s mind as he walked from the store of the Baxter street shark. Were there tivo diamond rings enveloped in mystery, or but one? he question puzzled the young reporter while he pushed down the street. Suddenly wheeling about he began to walk rapidly in another direction, Vhen he came to a halt he was at the foot of the stair leading up into Mother Sturgeon’s quar- ters, ou Greenwich street, and a little later he stood before Dick’s self-constituted guardian. Donald was on hunt of the young wharf spy, but Mrs. Sturgeon told nim that Dick was not at home, and added in the same breath that she did not know where he could be found. The reporter did not disclose his business with the boy, though Mrs. Sturgeon threw out sev- eral hints for it, and he soon left the woman to berself again. By this time Donald had associated Rosa’s strange disappearance with Larry Lang, and when he thought that the girl, his best friend, had fallen into a trap spread by the oung rascal, his indignation almost mastered —_—_——— m. Dick Sly had found a diamond ring in a boat which had been picked up adrift by the harbor police, and only the day before Larry had sport- ed a ring that answered the description of the one found. He had not pressed Dick for a close descrip- tion of the parties who had taken the boat from the dock earlier in the night. If he had he would have been poorly rewarded, for the boy from his bed on the baled goods did not recog- nize them. However, Donald was very anxious to find Dick, and thinking to do so soon he went from Mother Sturgeon’s to the docks, It was now post the time that witnessed Dick’s interview with Jack o’ Diamonds in the office on Beekman street. The night was warm and beautiful, and the arching heavens were studded with stars, Nobody recognized the busy young reporter as he pushed along, but he saw several faces which he had seen before in the police courts. “ Hello!” suddenly exclaimed a voice at his elbow, and the next moment he was looking into the face of the very perscen he wanted to find, Dick Sly. ee wave utterance to an exclamation of JOY. , “Look over your right shoulder at the two figures in the shadow of the boxes,” whispered Dick, as he touched the reporter’s hand signifi- cantly. Donald looked and saw the figures without trouble. . ‘* Well, what of them, Dick?” he asked. ‘They ane two distinguised gentleman who should reside in Sing Sing,” wad the reply. « Ahj you know them!” Dodger Dick. ‘‘Yes, Ihave just had an interview with the fellow nearest us. He calls himself Silas Seldon, Jr., but I saw in his head the eyes of the famous Jack o’ Diamonds.” The reporter could hardly suppress a cry. ‘‘ He is no one else,” continued the Wharf Spy Detective, casting a covert glance at the two men who did not seem to be paying the slightest attention to them. ‘His pal is Red Reynard, a fellow not so shrewd as Jack o’ Diamonds, but a man well known to the police. Red.is the man who cleverly outwitted my old friend Frederick Fix a year or so ago.” ‘Are they watching us, Dick?’ whispered Donald. ‘‘They are doing nothing else,” was the reply. ‘‘They have followed me for the last half hour, Jack o’ Diamonds alone at first, then in company with Red Reynard. Let us move ona piece.” The two friends walked up, the wharf and after a time the crooks left their station and did the same. “Tt is plain now!” ejaculated the young re- porter. ‘* What is their game, Richard?” The boy spotter smiled. ‘‘ They want to get ahead of Dick Sly!” he ex- claimed, his briluant eyes ina twinkle. ‘‘ Jack o’ Diamonds is very anxious to recover a ring that was found in a boat last night.” ‘*The diamond ring?” cried Donald. ‘* Yes,” ‘Tt is on account of that ring, or another, that I’ve been hunting you. Rosa has mysteriously disappeared.” “Not our Rosa?’ cried Dick almost loud enough to be heard by the two men pot far away. : ‘‘Our friend Rosa,” answered tbe reporter. ‘* She left Mrs. Hartwick’s last night while the widow was at a friend’s, having been called away by an alarm of strange voices at the win- dow. Ihave discovered several things connect- ed with Rosa, but nothing that gives me a clew to her absence,” ‘‘What have you discovered, Donald?” asked the boy quickly. ‘Go on.” 9 ‘*She was once persecuted with the attentions | of one Larry Lang, a young fellow who clerked | for Solomon Strauss of Baxter street, I think Rosa’s rejection of his attentions angered him. Well, yesterday Larry quit the employ of the Jew merchant. Solomon discovered that the young man was spending too much money on diamonds for the counter salary he was drawing, and so they dissolved.” ‘‘He gave Larry the grand bounce, did he? cried Dick. ‘That is about it. Larry was not at his boarding-house all day yesterday. During the day he wore a ring like the one you found in the boat, You have never seen Solomon’s dis- charged clerk, I presume.” ‘‘T know him quite well!” exclaimed Dick to Donald’s surprise. ‘‘ If I bad known he was in Solomon Strauss’s employ, I coul dhave warned the Baxter street shark long ago.” ‘* How so?” ‘‘ Near here is a place Larry used to patronize. Everybody has free entrance, and I drifted into it as a matter of course, We call it Hawk’s Hollow, because it is a trap set back a little from the main buildings. Some people have queer tastes, and hither Larry ng in his good clothes used to come and get rid of somebody’s money. He could play here without being found out by bis employer, for no Jews patron- ized Hawk’s Hollow; at least I never saw any there. Shall we goup? We might find Larry there.” Donald assented to the proposition, but not with much hope of finding the discharged clerk. Once more he threw a look over his shoulder in search of Jack o’ Diamonds and his friend. They were not insight. ‘Our night-hawks have given up the game!” he exclaimed, returning to the boy.. 3 ‘‘ By no means,” was the quick response. “I see the top of Jack’s hat over the bales yonder, and you may be sure that the keenest eyes in New York are under it, and wide awake, too. They won’t follow us into Hawk’s Hollow, for they do not want to be inspected in the light. Jack thinks I am going to lead him to the ring found in the boat, Ha! what a fool the fellow is for once! He tried to fill me with an adroit story about a recent robbery, and wanted me to believe that the diamond ring, if produced, pat into his hands, you know, would enrich me y two hundred dollars, Something is up when Jack o’ Diamonds wants to give that sum of mo- ney for the prize I fished from the abandoned boat. And nohody knows that better than wharf rat Dick Sly!” Several minutes later the young ferret led Donald into a frame house which stood a little back of its neighbors, The hallway was dark at first, but soon light was produced by the opening of a door some dis- tance ahead. The figure of a man advanced to- ward the pair, and then Dick exclaimed, ‘‘Is that you, Spotty?’ the man stopped and wel- comed the friends. Dick and Donald passed into a room half-filled with smoke. There were half a dozen tables in the place, and at each one men of all ages were drinking and indulging in coarse conversation. “This is not Larry’s quarters,” whispered Dick, with a glance at Donald, and the two went upstairs and entered a room where one table ac- commodated all the players. ‘‘Ho! here is the king of the wharf rats!” called out a burly man, at sight of Dick. ‘‘T am here, Goldenrod,” laughed the boy, and then as the man’s eyes drop to the game be- fore him, the young detective said to Donald: ‘That is Goldenrod, the man who never frowns. He is always in a good-humor. He covered me with his coat one night when I was asleep on the docks, and since then Goldenrod and I have been friends.” ‘‘ He looks jovial,” remarked Donald, ‘‘ May- be he knows something about Larry.” ‘‘ We will see,” cried the boy, and the next moment he leaned over the burly man‘s shoulder and talked in low tones. ‘‘ What has become «! Larry?’ he asked, ‘‘Oh, the Baxter street prince? He’s given us the good-by! He will never come back any more,” “Why not, Goldenrod?’ ‘‘T don’t know. He acted kind o’ mysterious. He dropped in here yesterday, and singled me out to say that he was about to leave New York, that he had tapped a fortune which would in time fetch him the wealth o’ Vanderbilt. He talked about going to Europe—” ‘To Europe!—Larry?” ejaculated Dick. ‘‘ Across the pond. He wanted to sell me @ diamond ring he wore, just as if I owned a bank in Broad street.” ‘‘ Did you examine the ring, Goldenrod?” ‘‘He forced me to do so.” ‘“Then you would know it?” ‘‘ Among a thousand!” cried the man, confi- dently. ‘‘ But why allthis, Dick! Did the fel- low get the ring off on you?” _“T know where it is,” replied the boy, sinking his voice to the lowest whisper. ‘* When can you get away from here?” ‘* At any time if you want me.” ‘“‘ Then join me on the pier within twenty min- utes. I will have a friend with me, my old friend Donald, the reporter. Something im- portant is in the wind, Goldenrod.” ‘“‘Pll be there,” replied the jolly man, as he went back to the gee and Dick withdrew. ‘* Come,” be said to Donald as he rejoined him. ‘‘ We'll have a clew in a little while.’ The two friends left the house, and as they emerged upon the dock a certain hand closed on a certain arm. ‘‘ Yonder they go, Red!” exclaimed a voice in a whisper. ‘‘ That young wharf rat is the pest of the scheme. Watch him! don’t let him give us the slip. By Jupiter! I could throw him to the fishes with a laugh!” ' CHAPTER VI. A DOCK-RATS’ ‘‘ NEST.” IT was the night after the events with which we have just closed the foregoing chapter. The hour was verging on to twelve when a boat ran noiseless up to one of the docks of New York. It contained two men, but only one handled the pliant oars. ‘‘ This is the place, Red,” said one of the men to his companion as the boat ran in between two piers where the waters made no noise. ‘ Wait for me here, or come tack in an hour.” The speaker left the boat and drew bis body up into a dark opening almost on a level with the surface of the gloomy water. When he disappeared the person remaining in the boat rested awhile, and then put Lack, to be lost in a little time to human eyes. Let us follow the man who has crawled into the wharf rats’ retreat. He was a person very like in figure to theman who had insnared Dick Sly in the Beekman street office, only, instead of a full beard as that person wore, he sported a heavy mustache which entirely hid his mouth. The man seemed to be at home in the dark space between the heavy timbers that formed the pier. He had to crawl on his hands and knees for a JNA com (él oo xe)