Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 543 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

° tn tre emt gti ee . pony “You don’t want to make a fuss, my young rat. Ive got it in my power to throw you into an almighty strong pickle. Socome along, and keep a still tongue in your head.” ‘*T guess you’ve ea big mistake.” ‘** Not by a long shot.” “Who am I?” “Oh, it's not necessary to repeat your name. You may have a dozen for aught I know, Come with me.” ‘* Are you an officer?” ““What if lam not? I’m connected with the courts and I guess that’s enough. You'd better have kept close to Hercules: that’s what you ‘You ’ should have done.” ‘**Ho! ho!” laughed Copeland’s bird. think I bave a big friend, do you?” ‘* Never mind what I think. There are some things I know,” was the rejoinder. ‘** Tl] call the police!” ““Try it!” and the lawyer’s clutch tightened as he spoke and the boy was pushed into the mouth of a narrow side street almost as dark as an alley. There, before he could resist, he was dragged forcibly toward a door which opened promptly, in answer to several peculiar signals by the toe of Copeland’s boot. * Well, you’ve brought him, I see,” exclaimed a voice, unmistakably a female’s, “TI told yon I would,” answered the lawyer with undisguised glee. “‘Get a light if you want to get a peep at your boarder.” ‘* Fetch him into the back room.” Copeland’s prisoner soon stood in a small room and a large and rather good-looking woman of forty was holding a lamp close to his face. ** ve been lying low for this very chap,” sud- denly exclaimed the Bowery fortune-teller, look- ing oy into the lawyer’s expectant face. ‘You have, eb?” “Yes. Don’t ypu see by his look that he knows me?” ‘* Don’t I, Bessie Bullion?” cried the boy, step- ping back and looking fearlessly into the wo- man’s eyes, ‘I guess 1 don’t know enough good about you to give you one feather for your future seraph pinions. So you've been lyin low for me, have you? Well, Chubb Copelan ought to receive your thanks for fetching me to your den,” ‘**You heard what he said?” and the woman’s eyes fairly flashed as she turned upon Copeland. ‘This house of mine is a den according to his impudent estimate. Won’t I show him that a tigress inhabits it before he gets out?” ‘**T hope you will. This young chap is an in- voluntary boarder, but I want you to keep your part of the agreement,” Copeland turned and with a final triumphant glance at his prisoner walked away. ‘*Once more, Chubb,” called the boy, and there was a mischievous twinkle in his eyes which tbe gravity of the situation could not suppress. ‘I'd like to have you tell me in plain ree who you think I am.” e lawyer stopped and gave the boy a stare of amazement. ** Why do you want to know that?” exclaimed he. “Do you think I’ve been watching you nearly allthe afternoon without knowing what I was about? I’m no chump, am I, Bessie? Ha! ha! ha!” ‘* Oh, well; think what you please, “‘ laughed the boy. “If you haven't caught the wrong igeon In your net I hope I may never see Mother Sturgeon any more.” ‘The wrong pigeon, eh? I guess not.” There was no response by the young prisoner, and when the lawyer left the room he was fol- lowed by the fortune-teller, who caught his arm in the hall just beyond, “ Realty, haven’t you made a mistake?” asked Bessie in a voice whose seriousness impressed the city sharp. ‘Of course not, woman, The boy in there is the very one I bargained for you to take, If you have been lying low for him, as you say, I Suppose you don’t object to my little play.” ‘Who is the boy?” “Tony Ted is one of hisnames. He may have half a dozen others.” i dropped the lawyer’s arm and fell “That boy in there Tony Ted, the‘amateur boy sleuth?” is exclaimed. f Weil, he isn’t, and Pil wager my head on it!” Copeland’s eyes dilated with wonder. ‘** Maybe I don’t know who I’ve caught?” “If you call your prisoner Tony Ted, you don’t.” ** Then who is he?” ‘‘Podger Dick, the young detective of the docks,” > { vy SS SS SSS sss lst SSS Dodger Dick’s Double. *“*T see; it’s a case of mistaken identity with | ‘*'You will | ed through Union Square about the time of you, Bessie,” responded the lawyer, old that boy as Tony Ted, but if you wish, you | Dodger odger Dick, | house at the hands of Chubb Copeland, the law- can treat him as you would treat whom you don’t appear to like.” ‘Like him? I should say not! Less than a year ago he put the police on a scent, for which | who was 'T ony Ted, stopped an 7 In a strain like this mused the boy who stroll- ick’s entrance into Bessie Bullion’s er, ‘* Hello,” called a voice near by, and the youth, waited for the trick [ said { would pay him back if I had to | speaker to come up, live a hundred years to do it. He may be Tony | ‘‘ | thought you were going to Bessie’s house?” Ted to you, Mr. Copeland, but to me he is quite | the man continued. another person, and you couldn’t please me bet- ter than you have done,” ** Hold him fast. We'll make it thirty dollars a day, Bessie. You're mistaken about the | ‘So I am,” ‘* W hen?” ‘* In a little while.” The boy double’s companion was not Fox- youngster being Dodger Dick, though, but never | craft, the City Hercules, but the stout-built lit- mind that. him fast!” Don’t forget my injunction. Hold | tle man called Noxie. He joined the ferret near the Square, and the The woman replied with a look anda smile | couple walked on in silence for a few moments. that were answer enough for Norris Gibbs’s yartner, and he left the house with a light | you know t leart. ‘*Can I be mistaken?” thought Bessie, going back to the room in which she had left her new boarder. ‘*Don't I know the two boys apart? I can settle the vexed question in a jiffy, and Vl do it before I proceed a step further.” Half a minute later Dick heard the click of a Ted,” suddenly cried Noxie. ‘* Do vat the broker’s ward, Lucy, has decamped—left the ranch as it were?” Tony Ted showed some astonishment, ‘Tt is not for good, Noxie?” he replied. ‘* I think so,” ** How did you find out?” ‘*T picked up Bob Blandy to-day.” ‘Ah! the young man who found Norris ‘* See ecigh key in a lock and Bessie of the Bowery stood be | Gibbs bound and gagged in his chair the morn- fore him, Her intensely eager eyes were fixed on him from the first, and she came forward with quick strides. ‘*Take off your coat!” she commanded, bend- ing over the astonished boy. ** ‘What for?” ** Never mind. Take off your coat, I say.” For a moment the boy’s eyes seemed to glisten with resistance, but he quickly shed the garment. Bessie watched the operation with a great deal of impatience. ‘* Now roll up your right sleeve.” The command was obeyed, and the’ woman caught the lamp from the table and leaned for- word with it in her hand. ‘*T told him so, but he would not believe it!” she muttered, then she caught the boy’s eye as she looked up. ‘*You are Dodger Dick, aren’t you?” she cried, ‘““Il’'m no one else, Bessie,” was the prompt confession, ‘‘ Copeland caught the person he wasn’t looking for. I tried to tell him so when he played his hand, but he would not let me.” ‘** Pm glad he would not, Mister Dodger Dick, I guess you know why!” | here was a moment of silence between the air. pe He calls you Tony Ted, but he couldn’t fool me,” continued the woman. ‘“ You two boys are as much alike as two straws, but the test I have just applied settles the question. Ted_has a curious-looking scar on his rightarm., You have none, you see,” ** Tf [had you would have called me Tony Ted, wouldn’t yout” oon, “This is what comes of having a double,” mused the Dodger aloud, with a smile. | ing after the robbery?” “ The same fellow.” ‘* ve been looking for him, He keeps dark as if he is afraid some of the detectives wlio are after the reward might question him too close. He told you that Lucy has gone away, did he?” ** He did.” ‘* Well, the girl has to be found.” ** For what she knows?” ‘Partly for that. If she left without the broker’s consent, he will try to hunt her up. Did you ever play detective, Noxie?” The little man drew back and looked at Ted with an amused expression. ‘*T never tried my hand at the business. I'd make a sorry man-catcher. Foxcraft’d do bet- ter, I think.” ‘*1'd like to know what Norris Gibbs thinks about Lucy going off. He wouldn’t give me an opinion, for I got no information about the rob- bery when I went to his house for the express purpose of pumping him. If you could drop in on Gibbs about this time, the hour is early, and intimate that you saw Lucy somewhere to-day, I think you could pick up some valuable infor- mation,” "’ Do you really want me to do this?” « ‘IT do. Norris Gibbs doesn’t know you. I would get fired out before I had a chance to open my talk-trunk, Why, you could play the band to perfection, Noxie.” The boy’s remarks seemed to inspire the little man with confidence in his abilities, ‘*Pve half a mind to try it,” he answered. ‘*We must know what has become of Lucy Lukens. Without this knowledge our game will amount to nothing in the end. By Jupiter! Ted, Pll risk the venture.” Not long afterward the two separated, the boy double directiug his steps to Bessie Bullion’s house, while Noxie walked toward the broker’s ‘Yes, your counterpart has thrown you into | domicile, trouble. You don’t expect me to treat you like a prince, Dodger Dick—not after what you did less than a year ago?” The young dock spy could not mistake the in- tentions of the woman as revealed by her eyes, He had fallen into the hands of a person who had cause for hating him. The fatal resemblance had worked him in- calculable mischief, ‘Ah, you see it is my chance to get even!” the fortune-teller of the Bowery wenton. ‘I haven’t had to live a hundred years to pay you back for vour dastardly trick of a few months ago. You don’t know Bess Bullion, Dodger. You may have heard a good deal about her, but you will learn soon that the half was never told you. This house is a den, sure enough, and the tigress stands before you, my young sleuth of the slums!” The following moment the boy ferret was pounced upon with all the fury of a wild beast, and he found himself lifted clear of the floor in the iron grip of Bessie Bullion. Oh, that fatal resemblance! tien ca to put a speedy end to his last trail. CHAPTER VIII. A LIE FOR A LIE. ‘‘T RECKON the Dodger didn’t get much out of me, He knows that he isn’t going to have fair sailing for the five thousand, and maybe he will find out something else before long.” 4a « We will follow the latter. Noxie was shrewd, but not very agile. He was too short and stout to move about with mucb nimbleness, and when he came in contact with agility he was forced to acknowl- edge his failing. He reached Norris Gibbs’s house a short time after Separating from Dod er Dick’s Double, and jerked the bell with much impatience, He was answered by the same young man who on a similar occasion had barred the Dodger’s way into the house. ‘¢ Ts Mr. Gibbs in?” asked Noxie. ‘¢] think not.” ‘©T wish you would see,” The servant walked into the library and shut the door after him. Noxie took a long step down the hall, and leaned forward in listening attitude, Norris Gibbs was writing at a desk, 66 tc man wants to see you, sir,” began the outh, arr Another detective?” ** He doesn’t look like one.” ** What is he like?” ‘* Short and stout.” ‘* A business man, think you, Harry?” ‘* He doesn’t look like one, sir.” ; The ex-broker put some papers back into a drawer, and whirled his chair. ‘* Show the gentleman in.” Noxie bad heard every word of this conversa tion, thanks to his keen ears and a loose tran som, : » ’ : we ON - J be, a3 f + Pad . ‘ - tw ’ icbooks. * ". ft ’ bege’ ‘ Lhd uF , J | \ Kew