Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 513 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

with a sneer, * The Demon Doctor. ““Why don’t that door shut?” he asked, angrily, of Oscar. ‘Faith, Vil shet it for yez,”” interrupted Mike. ** Anything to be agreeable,” Barney Didar gave the Irishman a savage look, but did not say anything, while Oscar, handing his revolver to Barney, climbed up to the opening, and with a dexterous movement closed the door, which fastened with a spring. ‘* Begorra, you've shut aff all the vintilation,’’ ob- served Mike, *‘ an’ the gas gives out h’ate enough to froye eggs.” ‘Pll fry your head over itgif you don’t keep uict,’’ said Barney Driver savagely, as he pulled up the trap and disclosed a dark hole, up which a cur- rent of cool air rushed with force enough to dispel all Mike Carroll’s apprehensions concerning lack of ventilation. “‘Get down. here!” commanded Barney, looking at Lawrence Sinclair, who had stood perfectly still, since the tables had been turned on him, waiting for an opportunity to catch Barney the Blacksheep d his men off their guard. ‘* What is that place?’ he asked, as he tried to peer into the blackness of the pit. “Never mind. Getin.”’ ‘** Does that mean murder?”’ ** Perhaps.” Lawrence Sinclair made a movement as if he would fly at Barney's throat, but the threatening pistol in the hand of Oscar, the negro, held him in check, though the sarcastic grin on the face of Driver goaded him almost to madness, ‘* Now, see here,”’ he said, as he choked down his resentment with a mighty effort; ‘‘what is your object in making me a prisoner? for I suppose that is what you intend.”’ “What is my object,’’ repeated Barney Driver, L hat’s pretty good from you. What are you doing here at all? What have you been we ger 3 me through the mines for to-night, and by what right are you in this—this—cellar,’’ hesita- ting for a suitable word, “for whichI pay rent, and which I use only for lawful purposes—to work out an invention that I am anxious to keep from the world until it is properly protected in the Patent Office?” ‘Is that what you use this place for?’ asked Law- rence, innocently. ‘Certainly itis, What else should I be doing here in the middle of the night?” . ‘“Sorra a man 0’ we knows,” put in Mike Carroll. Stoodyin’ Ashstronomy, loikely.”’ . Curly Bob looked threateningly at the Irishman who was not in the least disturbed by it, how- ever. ‘** You say you are here fora lawful purpose,’’ con- tinued Lawrence Sinclair to Barney the Driver. ‘Then what are you doing here with the young lady?” pointing to Lucette, who with an expression of deadly fright on her face, was sitting behind Lawrence, listening intently to the conversation. Barney Driver stammered as he tried to invent a lie that should suit his purpose. Then he said, “The young lady lost her way in the mine, and I brought her here for safety until I can take her back to her father. He and she were examining some peculiar marks in a perenne of it near their house, which the Doctor thougiat was gold. She became separated from him accidentally, I happened to meet her on my way here and brought her with me. She is so excited and frightened that she does not trust me, I ain afraid,’’ but I am telling you the truth.”’ ‘‘And now you are holding me a prisoner to fur- ther your own wicked ends,”’ broke in the girl, pas- sionately, ‘‘ Oh, Lawrence, save me!” she threw herself into the arms of the hail man, who pressed her to his bosom passionately. He felt that he would die for the helpless girl, whose fear of Barney the Blacksheep had impelled her to reveal a secret—the secret that she loved the young man—which could never have been dragged hrough the wall of her maidenly reserve by any less exigent circumstances, **Quit that,” said Barney, peremptorily, as he stepped forward, and seized Lucette by the arm. th the strength and fury of a lion Lawrence Sinclair hurled Barney across the room. He could not bear that the Blacksheep’s sacrile- gious touch should rest even for a second on the in- nocent young girl who had unwittingly confessed that she looked to her lover more than to any one else in the world for her future happiness. ane attack took Barney Driver completely by sur- prise. , He reeled against Oscar, who in turn fell over Mike Carroll. ; ‘* Bad ’cess to yez, Lawrence. What are ye doomp- ing all your roobish over me for,” said 8 as, with a quick movement he tried to wrench the negro’s re- Vv iver from his hand. , Oscar resisted. and in doing so knocked Barney Driver backward, so that he slipped partly down the hole from which he had removed the trap-door, one of his legs being suspended in the opening, while the other was doubled under him on the floor of the room, With a bound, Lawrence Sinclair was kneeling on the chest of the prostrate Barney. ‘Mike.’ he cried, ‘help me, and I'll push him down here. Quick)!” * Begorra, how kin I, with this muriherin’ naygur standing Over me Carcass wid a goon. I'd break the jaw off uv him, if it warn't for that!" . Curly Bob, who had at first been too much aston- ished to do anything but stare, now recovered bim- self and dar:ed to Barney Driver’s assistance. - 7 Seizing Lawrence by the collar, he pulled him back and threw him flat on the floor. Before he could recover himself, Curly Bob had helped Barney to his feet, and Lawrence Sinclair was on his back, with Barney’s knee on his chest and Barney’s clutch on his throat. For one moment the ruffian seemed determined to kill Sinclair by choking him to,gdeath. Then he changed his mind. He arose, and beckoning to Curly Bob, the two suddenly rolled the young man ov rand over, and threw him head-first down the trap into the darkness below. To STOP OO 4 surprise he was not much hurt by the fall. So much of the soft shale and dust had accumu- lated under the hole, that though he dropped on the top of his head he felt hardly any sbock, and beyond a slight twisting of the neck, did not suffer any in- convenience from what might have been, under other circumstances, a fatal plunge. He quickly gained his feet, and looking upward, at the square patch of light outlined by the trap, saw that he had fallen about seven feet. There was no possible way Of reaching the open- ing from where he stood, and he tried to pierce the gloom on every side for some avenue of escape. *‘Och! Be gob, now, ye’re no gintlemo., let mé tell yez, Muster Barney, to have a naygur bustlin’ me around widout sayin’ as much as by your l’ave,”’ gaid Mike Carroll’s voice, in comical indignation, as the opening was darkened by the form of the little Trishman, who, with a foot planted firmly on each side of the hole, resisted the efforts of Oscar to throw him down to join Lawrence Sinclair. “Quit fooling with him, Oscar,” said Barney Driver, suriily. ‘*Pitch him in headlong if he won't jump down.’ **Foolin’, d‘ye be callin’, it, eb? Be gob! I’d have yez to know that I don’t allow no naygurs to fool wid me, so TI don’t.” ‘*Get down, with you!” said Barney, savagely, at the same time kicking Mike's right foot from beneath im. **Faith an’ I will,’? said the Irishman, as he invol- untarily obeyed the command by tumbling in a heap by the side of Lawrence on the plle of rubbish. ‘Well, I guess you’re down now,” said Barney. ‘“‘TIndade an’ I am. Good avenin’, Barney. Tell the b’yes at the Star Mill that I'll have to lay off the day. I’m goin’ to a picnic wid me fri’nd, Mr. Sunclair, and be the same token—”’ Crash fell the trap-door, and Mike Carroll and Lawrence Sinclair found themselves in an Egyptian- like darkness. ‘This is a pretty fix we’re in,”’ said Lawrence, as he clinched his fists in impotent rage, ‘* and to think | of Lu—Miss Le Fevre—being in the power of that villain. Oh! I shall go out of my mind, I believe,” he added, in agony. ‘‘A murtherin’ vill’in, so he is,” said Mike, “ but I don’t belave as he'll harrum the young leddy, It’s a koind of a blackmailin’ schame, Mr. Sunclair— that’s phwat it is, an’ be jabers, we'll eucher him at that, an’ don’t yez forgit it,”’ The good-natured little Irishman felt in the dark- ness until he found bis companion’s hands. Then he shook it with such a hearty clasp that Lawrence Sinclair-felt comforted by it, in spite of himself. ‘“* Mike, you are a good fellow.” ‘Thank ye, Muster Sunclair, for the good char- ackter yez be givin’ me, but I’m too fond of a thaste of the whisky to be very good, an’ it’s meself as knows it.” “* Listen,” said Lawrence. ‘ What are they doing up there?’ “Sorra a wan uv me knows, What d’ye think they be at?’ *‘I thought I heard them taking that bar down from the door? It makes a peculiar noise when it is moved. I noticed that when I was up there,” re- turned Lawrence, “That shows what a moighty foine thing eddica- tionis. Sure you noticed all them things because te paw book-larnin’, an’, be gob, I belave you’re alice Carroll listened intently. Then he burst O : ‘“Yis, sure enough. They’re all goin’ to git out, There, listen to that, will yez?”’ as the sound of a slamming door reached the prisoners in their dark prison. **What do you make of that, Mike?” **Phwat do I make of it?” ate By ‘*Phwhy, past this. I belave they’re goin’ to take that young leddy away t> some safe place, phwere they can keep her out of soight, d’ye moind, and where eople ain’t as loikely to find her, as they would be in the moines, and that they'll leave us to foind our way out the best way we can. There's my vardict, gintlemen of the jury. An’ yez can make the most uv it.” Mike evidently considered that he had distin- guished himself by a flow of oratory, and he waited for Lawrence to speak before he said anything more. The young man remained silent for at least half a minute. Then he quietly asked Mike if he had a match in his pocket. “Dunno, Dll go through the clothes uv me an’ tell yez.” Mike fumbled in his pockets, talking in his charac- teristic way all the time. Another loud cra h was heard in the room above, and then there was the scuffling of feet, as of some- ¥ moving ab ut on the trap-door. ““Howly Moses, phat’s goin’ on? That must be some wan else coomin’.”’ “Hush!” said Lawrence, listening intently. “I i ' | One is deep and can hear the voices of two people. The Demon the otheris soft. It’s— By heavens! Doctor and the boy. Frank Trenton!” ‘You're roight!” said Mike, excitedly, as he, too, tried to catch the words of the unseen persons above them. ‘‘Hallo! Hallo! Whoop!” he yelled at the top of his voice. The people in the room ceased speaking. They had heard the cries, but could not determine from whence they came, ** Where are you?”’ sounded Frank Trenton’s voice in the distance. ‘Here! Here!’ returned Lawrence Sinclair. ‘*Father! Father! Help!” It was Lucette’s voice, and it came apparently from some portion of the mine on the same level as Sinclair and the Irishman. Lawrence Sinclair started and fell against Mike in his excitement, **Phwat ar’ yez goin’ to do?” ‘*I Con’t know. ButI must get out of this place somehow. Haven’t you got a match?” ‘“*Sorra a wan.” “Father! Father!” “It is ber v ice! Where can she be?” cried Law rence, excitedly. ‘‘ And I as helpless as a baby!” ‘Father! Father!’ for the third time. “My child!” said the Demon Doctor. Again the sound of the bar and bolts, a few hasty steps, and all was silent above the young man and his companion. ‘‘Heaven help them to find her!”’ said Lawrence Sinclair, fervently, “even if we never get out of this fearful hole alive,” , ‘** But. be gob! we wull git out alive, Mr. Sinclair,” said Mike. “So yez can make up your moind to that, avourneen!”’ CHAPTER VIII. A TERRIBLE CHARGE, Tue morning after the eventful night, that had witnessed the abduction of Lucette aid the impris- eS i of Lawrence Sinclair, broke light, sunny and mild, Though the month of December was nearly a week old, there had not yet been any severe weather, and people were still wearin: light clothing and standing on street corners, as is the custom of Pitts- burgers whenever the temperature permits, The three beautiful rivers that environ the city, were rippling like silver and gold in the sunlight, while in the trees that fringe the Ohio just below the gloomy mills and warehouses, a few birds that had overstaid their time from the South, were twit- tering their surprise at the lingering of autumn into the last month of the year. Lucette Le Fevre heard the birds when she awoke from a fevered sleep and tried to think where she was, The light streamed in through a small window barred with iron, and curtained with a square of muslin close to her head, while the rippling of water just outside, indicated that she was near the river. She was lying on a small cot-bed on a sort of shelf against the wooden wall, and one comprehensive glance around her convinced the girl that she was in a boat, in a small cabin, Besides the cot, or bunk, in which she lay, the only furniture was a small table against the opposite wall, a dilapidated chair, and a low wooden stool. Afew theatrical thograpns were tacked on the Mea, and were the only attempts at decoration to e seen. The boat was quite still, unless, indeed, it was moving very, very smoothly. For a few moments:the girl strugeled bard to re- member how she had been brought to this place, that, though basking in the broad s: nshine, was too evidently as much her prison as the gloomy under- ground chamber in the heart of Mount Washington, ft was useless t» try and think. Her recollection carried her back only to the mo- ment when she was led through the doorway from the secret room of the mine, with Barney Driver's powerful hand on her arm, and the colored man and Curly Bob, each carrying a small bull’s-eye lantern, following. She had a hazy idea that she cried for her father to assist her, and she almost fancied that she had heard his voice answering. This she dismissed, how- ever, as nathing more than a hallucination induced by the excitement through which she had passed. Lucette stepped to the window, drew aside the curtain and looked out. The river lay before her, with steamers and barges passing and repassing, while across on the other ank the city of Allegheny stretched in regular blocks of buildings and terraced hills. The craft in which she was confined was a shanty- boat—one of those half-cabin, balf-ferry- boats that are stretched along the shores of the south side from one end of the city to the other. : The lawless character of most of their occupants are well-known, and an occasional raid upon them by the police, resulting in the arrest of several and the rebuking of others, is the only thing that makes their existence tolerated at all. Lucette had heard enough of these shanty-boats to know that it was possible to use them as prisons from which there was little hope of escape. There was a small, narrow door, at one end of the diminutive cabin, sloping, as doors so often do on & ship or boat, to accommodate itself to the “run ” of the craft. The girl turned the wooden knob and tried to open the door. c To her surpris®, it yielded, and she passed through the doorway into ahother room, larger than that in which she slept, and which was in darkness boo ee se.