Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 583 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

tlie = ee A EN - ee eee eee eee a . Wrestling Rex. 3 Plainly, no one had taken them with any good motive. Five Points Phil, after a few moments’ inves- tigation, seemed to be impressed by a certain fact, and he finally took Rex aside. “You say nobody seen that pestiferous robber enter the house?” ** No one did.” ** Nor go out?” “Nor go out,” ‘*That strikes me ez odd—cornsid’rin’ how this ‘ere house is put up arnd imhabited, it strikes me ez bein’ decidedly odd, by ginger!” **T thought of that,” ‘* Rex, is thar a way ter git onter the roof o’ this hyar royal palace?” “Yes.” ** Kin we go up?” **Of course. We are on the top floor now, and Mr. Toffling—Umbrella Eph, they call him —has the rooms near the scuttle, I have a room with Toffling, so I am at liberty to lead you to the roof. Come on!” He led the way, and they were soon upon the house-top, The building was high, and there was rather an interesting view from the roof, but Five Points Phil did not look about to see the thousands of other buildings grouped around it. He had one idea in his mind, and he proceeded to follow it up. On one side the adjoining building was much lower, and it interested him but little, but on the other was a tenement-house which reared its head exactly to the level of that they stood upon. Phil noticed, too, that there was a scuttle in the roof, ‘* Who lives next door?” he asked. **Great Scott! don’t ask me! It’s full of folks, like this house,” ‘* Honest?” Rex shrugged his shoulders. ‘* We get a little of everything around here; for variety, give me the Sixth Ward. We have every ne except the aristocracy here. Hon- est? ; Well, some of them are, and some are not. ‘**That’s a pecooliarly explicit arnswer, by ginger; it’ll apply ter nigh about ev’ry house o’ size in this ward, But see hyar, x, d’ye know anybody in that pllatial edifice?” **Oh! yes. There’s Sam Connor, who lives on the top floor; and Pete—” ** Who’s Sam Connor? How old, et scattery, ter use the pure, onadulterated Italian lingo?” ‘Phil, you’re a caution!” declared Rex. “Will you never give up your old, queer ways of speech? With your education there is no reason why you shouldn’t talk like other folks,” - ay b’loved corntemporery,” Phil gravely replied, ‘‘ don’t hurry the torchlight procession, Ontil school begins I’m a Five Points product; arter that, Pll talk only Greek, arnd ’sociate only with the perfessors o’ Columby arnd Yale Colleges. Assooredly! But erbout Sam Con- nor ‘*'He’s a friend of mine, about twenty-five years old, He lost his place last week because of a fire, and is now doing nothing.” ‘* Le’s go arnd see him.’ They went. When they neared the top floor of the other house they heard some one talking in a loud, excited voice, and when they reached the upper hall Rex saw his friend, Connor, and the landlady. His first idea was that Connor had in some way incurred that lady’s wrath, for she certainly was very angry; but a few words enlightened him. *T leave it to you, Mr. Connor,” averred Mrs. Sparks, flourishing both hands, ‘‘if there isa meaner thing in the world than to beat a poor woman out of her due, and rents away up in the air. You wouldn't do it, Mr. Connor!” ‘* But Pfeffer may come back, Mrs, Sparks,” ** Pfeffer will not come back, Mr. Connor. He has erred, and he owes me five dollars for rent, and all I have to show for it is that dilapi- dated old trunk, filled with bricks!” **Tt’s bard, Mrs, Sparks.” * Tt’s awful hard.” Five Points Phil had whispered to Rex, and the latter now advanced. ‘‘ Excuse me, Mrs, Sparks,” he said, ‘‘ but I have by aecident heard a part of what you have said. lam sorry you are in trouble.” {t's @ mean man who will run away and cheat a r woman out of her rent!” declared the landlady, shaking her fist at the imaginary man, ‘* Who was this Pfeffer?” ** Who was he? A murderer, I do believe!” **A murderer! Has any one been killed?” ** We've found no one, but it wasn’t bis fault. Rather than pay me my rent he would have kill- ed me—yes, sir; he would have slain me in cold blood. t man was a villain!” Mrs. Sparks sawed the air still more with her arms, but Rex managed to calm her sufficiently to get her story. it might have been made a brief one, but she was not miserly in the use of words; she made it a long story. A man giving the name of Pfeffer had hired a room of her four weeks before. He had paid one week in advance, and she believed that he would be a good lodger, but that payment was the last. During the three weeks which followed he paid nothing, avoiding it by means of plausi- ble excuses, and she allowed berself to be satis- fied that all would be well because he bad a heavy trunx. Finally she grew impatient, and he promised the money at a stated time, without fail. That was On this day, and she bad come to the room to see him, He was not in the room, but there was a note upon the table which told her to look in the trunk for her pay. She looked, and found it filled with paper and bricks. She had been badly ‘‘ sold.” ‘* This comes of trusting perfidious man!” she tragically said, in conclusion. ‘‘ No good ever comes of such a thing, and [ ought to have known it. This man, Pfeffer, was the worst of the lot. Mr. Connor, there was something mys- terious about that man!” CHAPTER III. A MYSTERIOUS LODGER, THE last words did not escape Five Points Phil’s attentive ears, and he moved forward a step. Pires, Sparks, mum, you hev my fvllest sym- athy in this ere case, fur it is plain that you 1ev be’n wronged by a pestiferous villain. Now, I’m sorter in with the p'lice, arnd I may be able ter help ye. Assooredly! Allow me ter arsk wharfore Pfeffer was myster’us.” ‘*T believe he was a thief.’ ‘* Thart a fack?” 6s Yes ” ‘* Hev you lost money or jewels?” Phil put the last question with some hesitation for it. was not at all likely that Mrs. y eee had: any jewels, and she might think him impudent, but she saw fit to be pleased and looked that way. P: No, but I know he would have taken them if he could.” Mrs. Sparks looked as determined as though she had irrevocably proven the man a thief, ““T'll tell you all about bim,” said she, as she sat down on the ladder that led to the scuttle, When he came here he was mighty polite and nice, ‘** Have you rooms to let? says he. ** *T have that,’ says I. ‘** *T want one,’ says he. ‘* * Happy to accommodate,’ says I, and I led the way to the second story front, ** * Don’t like this,’ says he: ‘not that I object to the room, for it is a dandy '—he actually said that—‘ but I have a'theory that no one can be healthy in the city unless he is well up where the air is pure. I want a room on your top floor, marm., “‘T was surprised, for he was quite well dressed, but I didn’t say a word; I led the way up. I had one vacant room on this floor; that one there,” ‘Not the one he finally took,” remaiked ob- servant Five Points Phil, ‘No, and there comes in something queer, He looked at the room, I told bim the price, and he said that it was all right; adding that money was nl0 object, but he didn’t justly seemed satis- fied. He wandered out into the hall. “¢1d like that room,’ says he, pointing. ‘* “Tt’s not a nice room,’ says. _ ‘¢ *Tts a rear room, which If like,’ says he, ** * But it’s occupied,’ says i, ‘‘* Perhaps the other party will change,’ says e. ‘¢ ¢T don’t think so,’ says I, * for the rent of the front room would be beyond his means.’ ‘Just then in comes the other party—Mr. Schiebeck—and we had a talk. Mr. Schiebeck would be glad to oblige, but he really could not pay the rent of the front room. ‘* *See here,’ savS that miserable Pfeffer, ‘if would from choice pay the rent of a nice room and take a poor one; while it isa fact that the back room 1s very baa,” She arose and opened the door as she spoke, and Five Points Phil eagerly improved the chance to see the room, It was small for a ‘* square” room; the ceiling was very low, and the single window looked Riout as much like the entrance to a bird-house as it did like what it purported to be. More than this,the room was very poe furnished, indeed. ‘* This is the room he took in preference to my front room, willingly paying double what I asked for this one.” So saying, Mrs. Sparks crossed the hall and showed them the other room. ‘This, too, had a low ceiling, but it was a neat, bright, pleasant room—a strong contrast to the other. Rex and Connor expressed their surprise at hearing of Mr. Pfeffer’s choice, tut Phil said nothing. He had noted one peculiar fact; the room which Pfeffer had been so anxious to get was nextto that of the Austins in the next house. This, taken in connection with other things, seemed significant to bim, ‘*So Pfeffer got the room, did he?” Phil at last asked, as Mrs, Sparks began to wander In her remarks, ‘* He did that. Of course Schiebeck was glad to change, and the result was that Pfeffer came here, wish the Old Nick bad bad him before he came—the Lord forgive me, if I am wicked!” ‘‘ He was a quiet lodger,” ventured Connor. ‘Too quiet and modest to pay his rent,” sar- castically observed Mrs, Sparks, Phil had been looking elsewhere for a few moments, and he now asked: ‘‘ Where does the sound o’ them voices come from?” ‘* rom the next house, likely.” ** What! kin you hear through?” ‘‘'Yes, This house an’ the next is all one really; there is no brick wall between. I could always hear from one to another plain, and since the plastering came off there it is more so,” ‘* When did that ’ere plast’rin’ come off?” Phil asked. ‘** I forget—it was while Pfeffer was here.” Phi! nodded sharply, and then stepped to the point in question. A piece of plastering as large as the rim of his hat bad broken away, and as he stood near it he could not only hear voices in the other house, but with care, be believed that he could overhear what was being said, And that room had been Mrs. Austin’s, The young detective’s suspicions grew stronger. The man. Pfeffer had come to Mrs, Sparks’s, shown a strange liking for one certain room, though it was a miserable one, and he said money was no object with him, and bad hired it under peculiar circumstances, Just after he entered the room a portion of the plastering broke away—though supposed to be tight be- fore—and after this hole was made in the wall voices were quite distinct from Mrs, Austin’s room, Phil wondered if Pfeffer had ever taken the trouble to listen. : ‘The chap was a queer brick, assooredly,” he said, sympathetically, ‘* Was he inquisitive?/— int’rested in other folkeses’ biz?” ‘* No.” ‘Never ketched him peekin' inter key-holes, nor the like?” ONO: Dil say that for him.” ‘Nor list’nin’ at that bole in the wall whar the plasterin’ is off?’ Phil bluntly added, ‘*Nd—though now you mention it, he hada ueer fancy of sitting right there a good deal. He said that the hole in the wall was a means of ventilation, and that it purified the room. He had queer fancies.” ‘‘ Assooredly—pestiferously queer!” returned Phil, who bad no doubt that Pfeffer sat there to play the listener. The boy gave his head a short, quick nod, and then, still in pursuit of information, he con- tinued: ‘*He liked fresh air, did he? Ever go up on the roof, ter git the odor o’ roses arnd butter- Supe from Paradise Park?” he sarcasm of this reference was lost upon the landlady, who saw only the practical part. ‘He was up there once, to my knowledge. It was in the evening, and [ came up unexpected, and he was on the roof. He seemed quite dash- ed, and apologized, but I told him it was all vou will change I'll pay the rent charged for the | right if he would fasten the scuttle after him ront-room, and you pay just what you’ve been paying. ‘**Mr, Connor, when he said that I opened my eyes that wide that you wouldn’t bave known me,” the landlady declared, ‘‘ Blessed few men > a Ag im, | when he came In again.” | \ ‘‘Perhaps he run away that way,” suggested Connor. ‘¢ And flew into the air,” added Rex, smiling. ‘*T am in earnest,” said Connor. a “ef ~ ( 1 yt *. ‘* Now that; books ad , oe -e Z ree ‘y: - = col >, +, ‘ be -