Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 543 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

yer with her hands tightly clinched. * You ean’t hold these city eels nohow,” she went on. ** had one of ’em at my door awhile ago, but he got away, and that when he was thought to be unconscious. No, Chubb Copeland, I take no more boarders. Take your victims elsewhere. 1 don’t want to get into trouble along with you or no one else,” CHAPTER XVII. TONY TED CUTS LOOSE. THERE was a very private consultation at Norris Gibbs’s house bright and early the next day. it was bad by two important characters of our story—Copeland, the lawyer, and the broker himself. Cuopgland told Gibbs that he thought he had a eertain clew to the documents that had been taken from his office safe, and the broker urged him to follow it upand obtain them by all means. ‘‘ What about the girl, Lucy?’ eagerly ques- tioned Gibbs, — ‘¢ She’s nothing to catch,” answered Copeland smiling at thought of the discovery he had made ‘concerning Lucy’s whereabouts. ‘ But had we not better get the papers first?” ‘* Tf we can,” ‘“*T have but to watch the movements ofa certain boy a little while.” . ‘* A boy?” ‘Yes, the gutter rat who picked my safe combination in a manner most mysterious to me. I’ve got onto him and bis motive, and I won’t fail either.” ‘¢ Wor fortune’s sake do not.” “The police are still completely baffled. I mever saw anything like it,” “What chumps they are to be sure!” and Gibbs laughed and took up a fresh cigar. ** Without proof that we did the work nobody will believe Lucy if she attempts to fight us. Her lover may urge ber to assert her rights, but I would soon show up the interest he has in the manner and that would cook ‘his goose. You want to run the documents down. That done, we can play the last card and laugh at the foe. Don’t you see, Copeland?” The lawyer replied that he was thoroughly ac- uainted with the situation, and when he left orris Gibbs, it was with an assurance that he would bave the missing documents within the next forty-eight hours. On the afternoon of that same day Dodger Dick, while watching two men sauntering through the Bowery with their heads close to- gether, was gertly touched on the arm by some one who came up from behind, and a moment later his eyes grew bright at sight of his young double, ‘I guess you’re not looking for a chick, like me,” began Ted, smiling. Dick acknowledged that he was not. ‘* What progress have you made?” And Tony Ted drew nearer and lowered his voice as he assumed an important air. “Pd be quite likely to tell you, wouldn’t I?” bantered the Dodger. ‘‘ We don’t communicate with the enemy in time of war.” At first the boy double showed signs of resent- ment, but the cloud soon left his face and his eyes got a twinkle of jolly good nature. ‘So I’m ‘the enemy,’ I presume,” he ex- claimed, drawing back a step, ‘‘ Do [look very formidable, Dodger Dick?” 6s Not very, Ted.” ‘¢Tet’s form an alliance,” The Dodger stared at his double and could not believe that be was in earnest, ‘*T don’t think I want help, Tony Ted,” said he, “Are you that near the prize, or have you givenupthe chase?” ‘*T am still on the trail and as for being close to the quarry—that is a matter of my own con- cern which you understand.” “Allright. By the way, the two pards you were shadowing when I came up have got out of sight.” Dick threw a quick look in the direction of the center of the street where the identical men were just boarding a Bowery car. = caught sight of them at the same mo- ment, | ‘*Let them go,” he cried, holding Dick back as he was about torush away. ‘‘They’ddo you no good now if you were to keep at their heels, You reject my proposition, then?” ‘¢ Wor an alliance?” ¢ Yes,” ‘¢ You are not in earnest, Tony Ted.” A smile wreathed the lips of the boy double. ‘‘ 7] was never more in earnest,” was the re- ply. “lam loose-footed now,”* Dodger Dick’s Double. — ee ee ee ee ‘*In what way?” ‘*T am in no man’s employ. I have cut loose from the two pards, and they know that they can command me no longer.” ‘*From Foxcraft and Noxie?’ cried Dick. ‘** From giant and pigmy.” There was candor in the boy double’s tones. ‘‘We are near my quarters, Let us go to them,” he went on. Three minutes afterward the two boys were the occupants of a small back room on the second floor of a cheap boarding-house, and Tony Ted was talking rapidly. ‘*T eouldn’t bear Ferdinand Foxcra‘t’s in- solence any longer,” he remarked. ‘I never learned what they were really after until, under their instructions, I paid a visit to Chubb Copeland’s office and got into his safe.” Dodger Dick could pot keep back an ejacula- tion of surprise. ‘* How did you get onto the combination?” he exclaimed, ‘*T did not get onto it at all. When Chubb Copeland shut his safe that night a bit of paper got between the doors somehow, and he thought he had it locked when he went to bed. Tt is an old safe and has been in use a good many years. All this was very fortunate for me, for, if it had not been so. I would not have seen the in- side of that treasury. I got just what I was sent after though—the papers which were taken from Norris Gibbs’s house on the night of the so-called mysterious burglary. I delivered them over to the two pards, my employers,” ‘* And they have tnem now? ** Yes,” ** What is their game?” ‘Of course they have never told me, but the links I’ve picked up now and then form a pretty conclusive chain. Foxcraft is Lucy Luxens’s own uncle, and that’s how he came to know so much about the girl. The papers in the case are those which Lucy’s father left in trust to Norris Gibbs. They are deeds and bonds, but the broker has made way with'a good deal of her property. Lucy was to have had those papers on her eighteenth birthday, but they showed rascality too plainly for Norris Gibbs to give them up. Don’t you see? If he could lose them he never need pay the girl back, for she does not know how much the documents are worth, Foxcraft and Noxie want those papers, They intend to hold them over Gibbs’s head, or use them some other way to enrich themselyes— and allat Lucy’s expense! By Jericho! Dodger Dick, it is the most infamous scheme against a girl [ ever heard of. Count me out if you please, for I won't assist the rascals another minute. They know it, too.” ‘*'W hat do they say?” ‘* Foxcraft laughed, and said he’d like to know who'd believe a gutter detective. When I told him that the papers would show rascality, he replied that no one knew where:they were.’ ‘*{s that true?” asked Dick eagerly. ‘* He thinks it is.” ‘‘ What do you think?’ ‘¢ Of course they will try to keep the documents to themselves,” answered Ted. “They are playing as cool a hand as Gibbs and his lawyer are, Row, Dodger Dick, what do you say?” A short silence followed the boy double’s last sentence, and then the young dock spy put out bis band with an expression of confidence. “Tf you want it, take that hand,” said he, “I told you once that we should not be enemies. We've been rival sleuths; but circumstances made us so ” ‘ “Certainly,” cried Ted, taking the hand, ‘It won’t be to your discredit if I help you a bit at this stage of the game. Ill give you all ‘the honor of the catch.” ‘¢T"l] take no more than my sbare.” ‘*] want to pay Lucy Lukens for the wrongs she’s endured, 1 have helped to keep her cheated out of her own, for if Poxcraft and Noxie suc- ceed, she’ll never touch a dollar of her fortune. Do you know where the girl is?” [ve known ever since she left Norris Gibbs,” replied Dick, with a smile, ‘*T have on a that all along, for every now and then 1 came across your track on the trail, and I almost knew that some of them could not have been made without communica- tion with Lucy. I propose an expedition now,” “* Well?” ‘The two pards have gone to a certain i of the city and will be absent several hours from their capone This will give us time to take @ yr? or the ahr “Do you think they are there?” ** We can look.” : ‘*I om ready.” Not long afterward the young detectives 15 were on their way to the quarters of the two men, Every now and then pedestrians, struck with the resemblance between them, would give them glances of astonishment, until ‘Tony Ted broke out into a laugh. ** We'd frighten Mother Sturgeon out of her wits if we were to invade her room without notice,” fe ot not Bowery Bess, Tony,” answered ick, “That tigress? No! Ugh! I feel her fingers at my throat whenever I think of the time she mistook me for you, I promise you that she'll not get a chance to repeat that blunder! One of these days, Dodger, we'll get even with the old Jezebel for her kindness,” And at Ted’s display of sarcasm, both boys laughed as they turned into the street where their next adventure lay, CHAPTER XVIII. RECOVERED. CHUBB COPELAND left Bess Bullion’s domicile somewhat chagrined over his last interview with that woman. She had flatly refused to take any more ‘“ boarders” at his bands, and he was obliged to hunt another place for the one he had in his mind’s eye. This “boarder” was the girl Lucy herself, and the lawyer had concocted a shrewd pee for getting her away from the house in which she had taken refuge after her flight from Nor- ris Gibbs’s dwelling. Lucey would be a dangerous witness against the two rascals if certain arrests took place, and they wanted the girl completely in their power. Besides his scheme against the girl, the law- sharp had another that looked toward the speedy recovery of the important documents which had been taken from his safe. As we know, he bad promised the broker that be would get possession of them during the next OES hi hours, and he intended to work to that end. As we will soon witness the outcome of the lawyer’s schemes, let us now go back to the rival detectives whom we left on their way to Foxcraft’s quarters, on the most important mis- sion connected with the trail. ‘‘Here we are!” Tony Ted exclaimed as they entered the apartment hired by the Hercules and his pigmy friend. ‘‘ We will soon see what this room contains.” They had no difficulty in entering the quar- ters, for Ted, in separating, had kept the key allowed him by the pair. The search was begun at once, and was prose- cuted with vigor. ‘Leave nothing uninspected,” said Dodger Dick. “This is a hunt for a fortune, and for the righting of the most infamous wrong ever perpetrated in Gotham, It means happiness and ease for Lucy Lukens if we suc : if we fail, the girl will be persecuted by some of the greatest villains on earth.” With this thought to goad them on, Dick and Ted worked with a will, The boy double was familiar with the prem- ises, and led the search into some singular quar- ters, ‘“T’'m afraid we're at the end of the string,” at last exclaimed Ted, pausing in the middle of the floor and giving his companion a look of disap- polntment, They had looked everywhere, had sounded the walls aud inspected the chair-boards for a secret vel, ‘They may have the documents with them,” suggested the Dodger. E Not they! Ferd Foxcraft is not going to carry papers of their value on his person. ere are pickpockets in New York, and nobody knows it better than the City Hercules.” “Then you think the property to be some- where in this room?” “*T do.” ‘* Another trial, I say. We must tackle ceil- ing and floor,” ; ‘The floor! the floor!” cried Ted, starting forward as his face brightened. ‘‘I recollect seeing Foxcraft rising Frotn the floor in one corner when I once entered this room abruptly. It was in yon corner, too.” | The next second the two beys were on the spot designated by Ted’s finger, and ina jiffy the ur pet was raised for an examination of the oor. “Look!” cried Dodger Dick, his eyes dilatin as he spoke, ‘* The boards have been tamper with here. One has been sawed across, en out, and replaced.”