Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 571 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

=z x 3 = ae at I = ~~ . : ——— r, — = . . - ee GEE Sr > is , _—_ 10 ae ar eS The men were at the bar, and when the detec- wag went up to the register he heard one of them ask: “Has word of any kind been left here for a Wallington?” ‘“Yos,” was the answer of the barkeeper, ‘‘ here is a letter left here fora person of that name,” and he handed the letter over to the stranger. The stranger took it, opened it, and threw the envelope down upon the floor. “Well, what is the word?’ asked his com- anion, ‘‘ Tt is all right,” was the response. ‘“That is good,” was the comment. Without further words, the two took chairs and sat down, and entered into the conversation of those around them; and any one who paid any attention to what was said would have set the two down as commercial travelers, or “* drummers.” | . The detective bought a cigar at the bar; then stooped, in a careless way, and picked up the envelope just thrown down by one of the strangers; carelessly he tore it open, and with half of it lighted the cigar, throwing a piece of it back onto the floor. ut, at the same time, he very cleverly managed to retain the super- scription. alking around in rather a fussy way for some moments, Hooper finally engaged a room, and sat down not far from the two strangers and pretended to read a paper. He now had an opportunity to study the di- rection on the envelope. Thename was written in a bold, running hand, and the detective rec- ognized the writing at once—it was unmistaka- td that of Stewart Lyman, the cashier of the ank! Now it was for him to shadow these men until he found out what their business was. He had once before seen them at West Plain, had followed them to the City of Marysville, and, there learning that they intended to return again to West Plain on this night, had followed, or rather preceded them—to learn definitely what they were after. The detective listened to their conversation, but overheard nothing of a suspicious charac- ter, and, at last, was obliged to admit that they were what they seemed, drummers, or else were sharp enough to play a misleading game and play it well, As for the other two men, the ones who had met the strangers at the station, they seemed also to be strangers at West Plain, or atany rate were not citizens. And they had less to say than the new Arrivals. Presently one of them rose and said; ‘* Well, shall we take a little walk out an‘ see the town before we retire?” ‘‘ Pretty late for anything of that sort, isn’t it?” = age nem another. “What time do you close, landlord?” asked et another. ‘‘ Midnight,” was the brief reply. “Plenty of time, then, for a little look around,” declared the first speaker, “‘so come One of the others arose to go with him, but the other two declined. _ ** We ean see it all to-morrow,” said one of them, “‘ and prefer to take it easy now.” ‘Well, we will be back presently,” promised the two who insisted upon going; and with these words they set out. The detective knew not what to do; ought he to follow the men, or remain there and keep his eye upon the others? He decided to look after those who had gone out, and when he got out into the street he saw them at a little distance away. They were walking slowly, and he had no trouble in keep- ing them in sight without suspicion, At any rate, that was what he thought. These bad not been long gone from the hotel, when the remaining two decided rather sud- denly that they too would go out. Before going, however, one of them stepped to the bar and called for a sheet of paper. This being handed him, he wrote a brief note, which he gave to the barkeeper, with a few words of explanation, Then they set out, and were soon lost to sight from the botel. For quite a little time the two whom the de- tective was following walked about the streets in an aimless manner, and Hooper was half- inclined to think that they were just what they had pretended to be, and that he was on a blind trail. They seemed to be simply taking a view of the town by lamplight, and clearly bad no definite objective point in view. Sotbe detective thought, but had he known Air-Line Luke, the Engineer Detective. eee -- ——— ee et —_— that he was being cleverly duped, he would have been more wide awake. He was fighting against men who were his equals, if not superiors, and who were up to every trick in the profession. But Hooper was yet a young man at the business, and there was plenty that he could yet learn. And this he was ever willing to own. He dia not claim to be agreat detective, but still in his own mind he thought that he knew quite a few tricks—and he undoubtedly did; but there are times when the best of them will get left on a turn in the game. The men he was shadowing gradually worked their way out of the lighted streets into the more shadowy ones, and the detective kept on after them like a tireless sleuth on a trail of vengeance, But he began to tire of so unimportant a task, and was just on the point of giving it up when a remarkable thing happened. The two men disappeared! And their disappearance was as sudden as though the earth had opened and taken them in. The detective stopped short and gazed at the point where he had last seen them, in open- mouthed amazement. He paused only an instant, however, and then he went on to the place where they had dis- appeared, He did not hurry, for that would have “given away” the fact that he was fol- lowing them, did hy happen to be on the watch, as he now might suppose them to be. When he came to that pomt, however, he could see nothing of them, and in order not to let his own game be known, he walked rigbt on up the street at the same slow pace, and so back to the hotel, to discover that the other two had disappeared. He was both surprised and chagrined at thf, and more so when the barkeeper handed him a note that had been left for him, and still a ee deal more so when he opened the note and read it. CHAPTER XII, IN HARD LUCK, Wiison Hooper awoke to the fact that he had been over-reached, and in such @& clever manner that he was almost at loss to see how it had been done. The note read as follows: ‘* To DETECTIVE HOOPER:— “You are a wide awake young man, but you are oung. You will learn more as you grow 0 der. Do not think that you can catch old birds with salt, for it can’t be done. You will not see us at West Plain again, so you may as well give up the case as a bad job. Yours truly, “Tom, Dick AND HARRY.” The detective saw that he had been duped in the neatest manner possible, and vowed to him- self that he would bring “Tom, Dick and Harry ” to grief, if he could possibly do it. What puzzled him most was how they had | managed to detect who he was. He had felt that his disguise was almost perfect, since Air- Line Luke had failed to recognize him. Surely some one of the three must know him well. What should he do now? It did not take him a great while to decide. There was a train back to Marysville in about twenty minutes, and his mind was soon made up to take it and return to that place, which he did, but to return the vext morning to West Plain in another disguise, and was once more prepared to take up the case. This time he appeared upon the scene asa book-agent, He had sacrificed his mustache, and wore a ir of glasses such as are worn by persons suf- fering from weak eyes, These changes, taken with others in the way of attire, gave guise that was next to perfect. Of course the men of the previous night were not to be found then, but he had a clew, and that clew was that the cashier of the bank was the person who had left the note for them at the hotel. The thought came to him that perhaps it was the cashier who had warned them that he was a detective, and had told them to outwit bim and get away from him if they could, which—and the detective bad to smile as he thought of it— had not been a very bard matter to accomplish, Reflection, however, told him that the cashier eould have bad nothing to do with it, and there appeared plenty of reasons to support that the- ory. "When he arrived at West Plain on that morn- ing, he went again to the same hotel and spoke for board for a week; and, having settled that, started out to sell his book. im a dis- A SSS SS SS And during the entire day he gave his atten- tion to nothing else. | No genuine agent could have worked harder ' or more earnestly than did he, And his only object was to throw suspicion off, if any at- tached to him, as being a detective. And be confined his operations to the stores and business houses, explaining that after he had gone the rounds there, he would then at- tack the residences; and in this connection he warned those who refused to buy that he would | certainly give them a chance to reconsider the | matter, The subscriptions he took were honored, for | he turned the names over t0 a friénd who was in | that line of business. In the course of the day he called at the bank. There, however, he met: with no success so far he did strike oi] in another direction, He had not asked to see the president of the institution, and wisely, too, for if the cashier did suspect, would he not have an eye upon any one who might come to see the president in pri- vate? So the detective reasoned, and he confined his attention to the clerks, Of course he could hardly expect to sell a book in the bank in business hours, but, never- theless, he went in, and while he was there an- other man came in and presented a check at the eashier’s window. , Nothing unusual was there in this, but the de- tective allowed nothing to escape his eye, and he noticed everything about this man that could be noted. Had he noted a little more it would have been better for him, but he did not observe the slight start that the man gave when his eye fell upon the pretended agent. If he had noticed this he might have taken it for granted that he was recognized, and have been on the lookout for danger. But perbaps that would have made no difference in the events that followed. One thing that the detective did get, was that there seemed to pass some talk between the cashier and the man at the window that could not relate to the simple business of cashing a check, And as he, the detective, was going out, he caught the words: ‘¢Yes, at nine o’clock.” This was spoken by the cashier. Hooper went on out, and continued right on at his new business until night, when he went to the hotel, and, to all appearances, settled down there for the night. But settle down he did not. A little after dark he came down from his room, and eye the house by a rear way, passed arouud and out upon the street. ' And he wore yet a new disguise. This time he appeared as a rather royghb-look- ing fellow, and ane who was just a trifle under the influence of the ardent. . Having learned where the cashier lived, and being intent upon following him for an evening, he went at once in the direction of his house, and when near it stopped, waiting in the shadow of a building for him to appear. Having been on the case for a week, he knew more or less about the habits of all the em- .ployees of the bank, and he had figured upon the cashier’s dinner-hour as the proper time for him to set out to watch him. And he was right. In a short time the cashier made his appearance, and came down with rapid strides toward the place where the detec- tive was in hiding, And seeing him coming, Hooper came out and began:to stagger on in the game direction, allowing the cashier to pass him after a little. Lyman paid no attention to bim as he passed, and as any one would have said, Hooper paid no attention to bim. But this was not the case, The detective looked him over Closely as he passed, The cashier seemed to be troubled. And in truth he was. His mind was far from easy up- | on the matter of the previous night. He sents have given much to know that Jack Hogan had died without naming him as being concerned in the attempt at train-wrecking. He walked ov with head down, and the detec- tive could follow bim without any great effort atsecrecy. . The direction was taken toward the station, and as that was on the outskirts of the town, the street became nonely as they went on. At length the cashier met a man and stopped, and the surroundings at that point were such that the detective found no difficulty in approa ch- ing near enough to hear what was said. And at the same time his own presence Was | as the selling of bis book was concerned, though ° ¢ : : as" 900kS.com...