Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 543 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

2 ET, a 3 ‘er Oa e- Cee ee a — et sya Legal = RRR NESEON —e east, OT, OD odger Dick's Double. *“*He doesn’t want to see everybody, I per- ceive,” he ejaculated. ‘“‘ But he is going to ive me audience. Iam short and stout, and I on’t look much like a business maneither. Ob, well! it takes all kinds of people to make upa world, and I’m one of the odd specimens.” In a moment the servant was back in the hall, and Noxie walked into the library promptly on the announcement that Gibbs would see him. In crossing the threshold he struck the sill in an awkward manner, and but fora lucky re- covery in the nick of time, he would have land- ed unceremoniously in the broker’s lap. Norris Gibbs laughed at Noxie’s misfortune, but an instant later his countenance assumed a stern seriousness, and he coldly waved the would-be detective to a chair. ‘‘What is it, sir?’ he asked. ‘‘ You wish to see me, Iam told. On business, of course,” ‘** Yes, on business,” echoed Noxie. ‘I over- heard, SIH b understand, a conversation which led me to believe that the young lady who has been living with you has gone away without your knowledge.” ‘* You did, eh?” exclaimed Gibbs. ‘s Yes, sir.” ‘‘ When did you obtain this information?’ ‘* About an hour ago.” ** W bere?” ‘In Battery Park.” ‘* You are certain of this?” Noxie flushed, He did not like this rapid fire of questions, ‘*T generally retain what I hear,” he retorted, with some sharpness. ‘“‘I thought you might want to receive the benefit of my information, and as the parties whom I overheard, seemed to rejoice over the young lady’s departure, I con- sidered it my duty to report to you.” ‘*My dear fellow, rm obliged to you, but the young miss is hon e,” Noxie almost fell from his chair. ‘* At home at this tinie?’ he cried. ‘‘At this time,” said Gibbs, coolly, crossing his legs. The reply seemed to take the little man’s breath. ‘‘She was gone for a season, but not without my consent,” the broker went on. ‘‘I don’t keep runaway girls about me, Mr,—” ‘* Mark Truxton.” ‘‘ Ah! yes, Mr. Truxton. Your disinterested- ness is very pleasing, but really, as you see, I have no use for the news.” Noxie was perplexed. 4 Norris Gibbs did not ask after the men who had rejoiced over Lucy’s supposed flight; nothing about their exact conversation either. Why was he not anxious for information of this kind? There was an embarrassing silence after the broker’s last words. Noxie twisted uneasily in his chair. ‘‘A bad box and nothing in it, besides!” he mentally ejaculated. ‘‘I’m going to get away from here as soonasIcan. The boy may have thought there was something bere for me, but there’s not an item. So the girl has come hack? I wonder if she came without being hunted up?” The little man broke the pause by picking up bis hat and stammering an excuse for inter- rupting the broker at his private business. Gibbs replied in the blandest of tones that it was no interruption at all, and Noxie was dis- missed with killing courtesy. ‘*He got no gold in this mine,” laughed the broker, dropping back into his chair. ‘ He is the companion of the big man, Who was so cool in Copeland’s office last night. I knew him the moment I got my eyes on him, and I was deter- mined to watch him, I guess I came out of tue tussle slightly ahead, He was staggered by my reply that Lucy was at home. Y. u have to meet a liar with a lie sometimes, and if I can’t do it when it becomes necessary, you need not callin any une else.” By this time Noxie was moving down the street still bewildered by his passage at arms with the New York broker, **T feel like shakmg Tony Ted out of his shoes,” he growled, ‘I wonder if Norris Gibbs knew me. No! how could be? But it wasn’t a very successful play, Some—how—or—other I can’t help feeling that it was not.” No, it was not successful, for the broker had recognized the sharp, and his quick wits had fashioned a falsehood which had done its work in anu admirable manner, If Noxie had lingered near Norris Gibbs’s house he would have seen the figure of the broker descend the steps shortly after his de- parture, when he moved off, but there was no probability of the men meeting on the street, The broker went straight to a certain little office above the golden-leaved trees in Union Square. e was eager and anxious, In a flurry of excitement he burst sang into the presence of a man who greeted him wit an exclamation of pleasure. ‘**] told you I'd catch the young reynard! It is done, and the crap he is in opevs only at our command!” exclaimed this man, ‘* That is good news of the sort,” replied Gibbs. ‘“T have just bad a visitor—a stout little man—” “The giant’s companion!” interrupted the other who was Copeland, the lawyer. ‘‘ Was he at your house?” ‘ Yes bP) ‘¢ What did he want?” ** He was anxious tc tell me that Lucy had run away.” ‘‘Ho! And you told him, what?” “That she had come back. I staggered the fellow.” ‘‘T should think so, A bolt like that would have knocked me down.” ‘* They are up to something,” and a shadow of momentary fear crossed the broker’s face. ‘‘ The little man knew of Lucy’s flight, and he was wrobably aware that she is still away. Luke Wovell, the detective, thinks he has a clew to the two men who gagged and robbed me,” ‘* Does he? shrewd fellow!” laughed the lawyer. ‘*Took here, Gibbs. The mystery is bound to take its place among the police puzzles of New York. One of the best sleuths of Mulberry street told me only yesterday that it was insolu- Be, I always said so, you know, by Jove! ha, a! Norris Gibbs rubbed ‘his hands with evident satisfaction. ‘*So the boy shadow is actually safe?” he asked. ‘Or course. Bess Bullion has a new boarder, I guess that is enongh, eh?” ‘You know the woman and must take chances with her. I would like to look at that package again.” ZS Which one?” ‘¢ Number two.” The lawyer left his chair and went to the safe. ‘*T had to get an expert to open this safe this morning,” he said, ‘‘I must have mixed up the old combination with something elJse, my head is so full of important matters now.” Norris Gibbs watched Copeland nervously while he ‘worked with the nickel knob, and when he swung the heavy door open he let out a sigh of relief. ‘Package number two?” remarked the lawyer unlocking a small inside drawer, ‘* You shall have it with pleasure.” The next instant the Union fell back as if a rattlesnake ha the drawer just opened. Norris Gibbs jumped up and darted forward, and Copeland with a ghastly face pointed to the drawer, It was empty ! CHAPTER IX, STILL IN THE NET. LET us go back to Dodger Dick, When the young sleuth felt himself in the grip of Bess of the Bowery, and saw the light that burned fiercely in the woman’s eyes, he realized more fully than ever before that he had fallen into very bad hands. He had no right to expect any mercy at the woman's hands, for had he not but a few months before put the secret police on a trail which had given Bessie considerable trouble? ‘*{ don’t want your life now, No, that would not do!” cried the infuriated woman, whose fin- gers seemed to burn their way to the bey’s bones, ‘‘ I’m not here to kill some people as I ought to. But you are going to feel the ven- geance of Bess Bullion, just the same!” Dodger Dick expected to be hurled against the wall by the infuriated woman; but all at once he was released, and Bessie drew off and glared at him with the rage of a panther. ‘ll see you again!” she suddenly cried, and then, without giving the young ferret a chance to answer, she whirled and flashed out of the uare law-sharp sprung out of apartment, ‘* That’s better than I expected,” muttered the Dodger. ‘* The wall and [ did not have a col- lision, and IT have no broken bones, I ought to congratulate myself that it is no worse, for wild beasts seldon drop their prey unhurt.” He kuew he was a prisoner in the room, for he ‘po and he did not go forward to inspect é lock. ‘*‘ Chubb Copeland will open his eyes if Ted Tompkins, my double, serves bim a neat trick of some kind,” thought the boy. ‘‘ He was a little too positive to-night. The resemblance is almost perfect, but I have no scar on my right arm as ie says Tony Ted has.” To be imprisoned in a room in the Bowe house when he wanted to be out the worst kind, was not a pleasant situation for the wharf de- tective. He did not know how soon the woman would return with some dark plan in her head, and he had no desire to await ber coming, ‘“T must get out of bere!” was the thought that constantly filled his brain. ‘‘ No trap has ever held me very long, though lve been in some pretty tight ones. I must get out, I For some time after the woman’s departure, silence reigned throughout the house. Dodger Dick went to the window, ard by close attention heard the noise and rattle of the Bowery at night. He made a thorough tour of the room; he climbed to the transom above the coor, but it was protected by iron bars, and was fast. At last he heard human voices beyond the door that opened into the hall. One was Bessie’s, ‘¢-You don’t think as much of your old friends as you used to,” Dick heard, “Yes, I do, but I don’t tell everything I know. You know how I make my living, Tompkins.” Dodger Dick could hardly suppress a rising ery as he started. His double was out there! ‘¢T don’t want you to tell me all you know,” persisted Ted. ‘‘I merely asked you if Lawyer Chubb Copeland wasn’t here to-day.” ‘‘ If that’s all you want to know, he was,” was the reply. “ He’s got a job on his hands. I know that, and so do you, Bessie.” ‘“*T don’t know anything.” Dick imagined that the aggravating reply angered the boy double, for he cried: ‘Don’t know anvthing and yet you talk!” with a laugh. ‘' You’re a queer one, Bessie, Keep your secrets, I don’t want you to betray the law-sharp. He has a perfect right to como here,” ‘‘ You're tracking for somebody.” ‘‘ Do you think so?” “You are. Your questions give you away, Tony Ted.” : “Very well. Enjoy the discovery if it promises to do you any good, Copeland is a cool, shrewd fellow, but his cunning will not save him.” “What have you against him?” ‘Truth for truth, woman.” “No! I’m no traitress, You come to the wrong place for information. I don’t betray.’, a ‘i right. Ill just get out and let the police in.” ‘‘Into this house?” almost screamed the woman, and Dick fancied there was a spring, for he heard a quick step. ‘* No insinuations, Tony Ted. Intimate that you will fetch the cops here, and I will show you that I am not de- fenceless.” ; Eager to see what was going on Dodger Dick mounted to the transom by the assistance of the dcor-knob. The hall was before him, and by pressing one of his cheeks against the iron bars he could see to the front door, Under the lamp in the hallway stood Tony Ted and Bessie, The woman exhibited the degree of anger in- dicated by her tones and his double stood pacing her with one arm partly raised as if to ward off an attack, ‘‘ What a photograph they’d make just now!” exclaimed Dick as he watched the pair. “‘ Sar- ony ’d give a bonus for the tableau just as it stands. If Ted plays another bold hand he'll find himself in the clutches of the Bowery tigress. I would advise you not to test her claws, Ted. They are terribly keen.” ‘¢ Mebbe you're in with Lawyer Copeland, but I don’t care if you are,” continued the boy double, backing toward the door. ‘‘ He would like to lay bands on me, I fancy; but he’s not used to catching foxes. I guess I'll say good- night Bessie, You don’t like to see me here just now so I'll not interrupt the even tenor of your existence,” Dodger Dick saw the FB seeress MOve forward quickly as Tony Ted threw one back and touched the knob, ' ante oe om : es EE Gibbs was not very far behind the little man} he had beard a key click as Bessie shut ’ ~~ —eCOMICDOOKS.CcCOm \ : ; [ s ¥ - od he whe Oboes Save eae es ‘eo ee Ee e oe ee. =