Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 581 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

**I don’t know. It vas gone. I see von leetle Hight. but now—” e shrugged his broad shoulders as a sign that he did not know where to find the light that had led him to seek for the thieves that he felt sure were in the vicinity, and coolly turned the boat around that he might get back to his ship. “So much for this adventure,” said Dick, putting his revolver out of sight. ** Yaw; it vas too bad.”’ Mynheer looked lovingly at his large, clumsy pis- tol ere be hid it under his vest, and then nodded to his men to increase their speed. In a few miputes they were all again on board the De Ruyter. **Hist! What’s that?’ exclaimed Lionel Lacey, as he turned to look over the side of the vessel upon the broad river glistening in the fitful moonlighr., Mynheer followed the direction of his finger, and then, with rather more haste than usual, gave the order to lower away the yawl again. His stolid crew did not express any surprise or impatience at this unexpected command, but low- ered away in the same maiter-of fact way that they carried out all their duties. Mynheer Van der Straten meanwhile kept bis eye fixed on the river, smoking furiously from me.e force of habit, but evidently deeply interested in what he saw. The boat ready, he slid down a rope and took his seat in the stern, ‘*Wecan both come, I suppose, mynheer?’’ ques- tioned Dick. ‘* Yaw. Queeck.”’ Dick and Lionel were soon in the boat, and then, obeying a sign from the skipper, the two oarsmen pulled vigorously down the river. The water was still agitated as the result of the late storm, There is always a strong tide running in the East River, and now it was rather more no- ticeable than usual. “It is getting closer to the wharf, I think,” re- marked Lionel, addressing Van der Straten. “Yaw! agreed the skipper, as he pulled on the starboard rudder line and turned the boat a little nearer to the New York shore. ' A few minutes more of hard rowing, and then the object of 05 which the eyes of Lionel Lacey and the captain had been fixed since the former saw it from the deck of the DeRuyter was plainly visible to Dick Worth, who had not n able to make itout. - Tt was the pole fuce of a corpse bobbing up and down over and between the waves. ‘Some sailor.murdered along the docks or on board some foreigao vessel, and thrown into the river for J al I suppose,’’ remarked Dick, * Yaw t"’ “Quite a common thing, I suppose, in your ex- repeat. eh, mynheer?”’ The skipper spokein his usual phlegmatic tone, tut he kept his eye steadfastly on the dead face, , ‘*Kasy! Back wasser! Dot’sright. Yaw!” The boat was alongside the corpse, ‘‘Heavens! Look, Dick!” exclaimed Lionel Lacey in wild excitement. *“Double-Curve Dan!”’ Dick Worth, as he uttered these words leaned over the side of the boat and seized the coat that was floating loosely on the water, and tried to pull the body into the boat, Mynheer Van der Straten, withcut saying a word, and still with his sbort clay pipe between his teeth lent his assistance, With considerable effort the body of the young ener was lifted into the yaw! and lajd flat in the om, * Dead?” asked Lionel Lacey, in a choking voice, as the skipper gravely felt the pulse and placed his hand over che heart. * Tay.” There was sympathy and regret in the monosylla- ble. simple as it was, and in the round face garnish- ed wiih the short clay pipe, could be read deep pit for a young fellow thus cut off in the prime of his outh. ; % Many were the surmises of the two yo men as to what concatenation of circumstances had brought Dan Manly to a watery grave so soon after he had been the actor in a game at the other end the city. yf muppoee we had better notify the police,” sug- orth. “There is an officer standing on the wharf over Sper. I can see his buttons glittering in the moon- t It was Lionel Lacey who spoke. **Pull on,” commanded Van der Straten, briefly. The officer “ost aah to the edge of the dock as the boat approached. ** Where is the nearest police station?” asked Dick, **We have picked up the body of a young man, whom we identify. e want him removed to the station for to-night. To-morrow we can try and find his friends.”’ | “Thought you said that you identified him,” said the officer suspiciously. ‘‘I shall have to take you "He took his whistle from his e < his w e from ocket as he ke and put it to his wine rs um ‘Wait a mivute before you whistle. We will all go with you. We can soon show that we are re- spectable citizens. This is Captain’Van der Straten, of the Amsterdam schooner De Ruyter. I am Richard Worth, Captain of the New York Base Ball Club. This is Lionel Lace , of the same club, and these two men are part of the De Ruyter's crew.” ‘** Who do you recognize the body to be?’’ ** Daniel nly, of Albany, and—” “ Wha-a-t?” screamed the officer, forgetting his 11 The officer evidently meant what he said. His ad- Double-Curve Dan. suspicions and everything else in the intensity of his agitation, * Daniel Mant . Let me see him.” miration for the young detective was unbounded, He jumped from the wharf to the boat, regardless ; Dan fell back in the boat atter he had spoken to. of the risk of such a proceeding, for he nearly went | the officer, but another application to the are overboard, and kneeling down by the side of the re- | bottle revived him, and he lay peacefully in the bot- cumbeut figure, said, sadly: tom of the yawl not troubling bituself about any- ‘‘Gentlemen, he left me not more than an hour’ thing as the two sturdy sailors rowed back.to the ago, and told me to wait till he got back. He went | De Ruyter. = on the hunt for a certain crook, and he hadtwo other ; “* What next?’ asked Dick, as they reached the people with him. He must have had trouble with © deck of the schooner, Dan having been almost car- them and they murdered him and threw him in the , ried up the ladder by the two sailors, sea,”’ * Bed,’ was Mynheer Van der Straten's brief an- ‘*An hour ago, you say?” remarked Dick Worth. | swer, and bed it was, ‘Yes, sir. He told me to go to the station and Dan Manly was completely exhausted, and when take off my uniform, and come back.” the kind-hearted aoa ¢ ipl helped him into his own ‘* But you are still wearing your uniform.” bed, and taking away the young man’s wet clothes, “Yes, 1 made two arrests of disorderlies, and I | eat him a blue woolen shirt to wear that woul haven't had time to take it off. He would have | have held two people of his size, the young detec- called me down on that, I know, for he was very | tive could only press the large fat band of mynheer strict about having his orders obeyed.” in token of gratitude and fall into a deep, refreshing “I don’t understand you quite,” put in Lionel | slee Lacey, ‘What had he to do with giving orders to you?” , ‘* What had he to do with it?” repeated the officer. —_—_-_-__--o. i, 3 | ' , . Vaw, dot is goot. Dot young man vill shleep | now. Dot schnapps did it.” | | He then led Dick Worth and Lacey to another ‘*Didn’t you know that he was a member of the | cabin, and. in spite of their protestations that on New York Secret Service, and that he stood pretty | must go ashore at once, 80 as to be near the ball ground in the afternoon, made them get each into a bunk, where they, too, were soon sound asleep. | Then he filled bis short clay pipe again, and went up on deck for a stroll, and to enjoy a smoke, as he one, an by the hand of some one-horse | told himself, though he had never stopped puffing: crook that wouldn't be worth the rope it took to tobacco since he opened bis eyes in his bunk on the hang him.” | morning before. ‘A detective!’’ exclaimed Dick Worth. ‘‘I should | It was high noon when the three young men awoke never have thought that, I knew he was a splendid | and sat down to the breakfast that Lisa had pre- ball-player. That double-curve of his would have pared, Mynheer Van der Straten, looking content- commanded almost any salary for hire,” ed and unconcerned as usual, laid aside his pipe re-: ‘**Yes, | know he was kind of gone on base-ball, wy, to partake of the meal with them. but [never knew him to let it interfere with his | Dan Manly felt almost entirely recovered from business,’’ saii the officer, looking down into the the effects of his 1: juries, bis strong constitution. pallid face turned straight up to the moon that’ only requiring a night’s rest to enable bim to re- Sailed peacefully in tbe sky behind a beautiful _ cuperate from almost any strain upon him. fleece of clouds, | * Havel slept al) these bours?”’ asked Dan, in sur- Mynheer Van der Straten was kneeling by the side | prise, when he learned that it was past 12 o’clock, of the body, smoking his pipe and Apparently taking Yaw,” auswered mynheer, com one no notice of the conversation, while his two sailors | ‘Well, lL thank you very much for all that you: rested on their oars and stolidly waited for orders, | have done for me, Had you not gone to hunt those. ‘**Ach!”’ suddenly grunted the skipper. | river thieves of which you speak | might have drift- ** What did you say?’’ asked Lionel. ' ed out to sea and been drowned in earnest. But the captain of the De Ruyter did not answer aw.’ him. He was feeling in one of his capacious pockets ‘* By the way, what did you see that made you for something. He emitted another runt of satis- | suspect thieves in the neighborhood? faction as he brought forth a small bottle, and gave ynheer lighted his clay pipe and took two or it a loving shake, three whiffs, ere he answered: high in it, too, for all he was so young?”’ ‘1 certainly did not.” ‘“*Well, you know it now. Though,” shaking his head mournfully, ‘‘it makes but little difference. He is “What's that?’’ queried Dick. **T saw a light.” ** Schnapps.”’ **Ha! Where?” With this laconic explanation Mynheer Van der “Up by dot dock,” Straten poured some of the liquor into the hollow of ‘* Yes,’ his hand and rubbed it hard on the forehead of the “Then I heard a noise, like a man shouting, corner: und I t’inks it vos time for me to take a handt,’ “What are you doing that for?” asked the police- “es.” \ ' map, ‘Don't you think he is dead.” ‘But ven I got mein boat near der place, I look. * Nein,”’ replied the ree. er calmly, | me oudt, und I. heard no more noise righdt avay,. “Not dead?’’ cried Dick Worth, as he dropped-on | und I lost der place,”’ his knees by the side of Dan Manly’s inanimate body ‘*Yes; but don’t you think it would be possible to | find SS es in the daylight?” a e i, | The young detective sat wrapped in thought for afew minutes, Then, suddenly arousing himself, or ten minutes they tried all the remedies known | he ; to them for reviving the apparently drowned, and ‘IT must go ashore, CanI have the use of your’ mene <n aie rewarded by hearing a faint gasp from cy carry me to the wharf?"’ the patient. * YOW,: ‘* Hurrah!" yelled Lionel, in pera ‘*We will go, too,” added Dick, ‘‘ Mynheer, we: ‘*What’s this? There is blood on him,” said Dick, | have had a very lively visit here this time, but I any “Yes, here is the trouble. He has been cut on | sorry you have had so much trouble.” and placed his hand over his heart inside his shirt. ‘*No, by heavens! I can feel his beart beating.” ‘Rub some of dis on his heart,’ suggested the skipper handing the bottle to Dick, . the arm in two places—not very deep. though, in ‘Nein. It vas not drouble—it vas foon.”’ either, fortunately, We'll soon fix this.”’ ‘* But you have had no sleep.”’ The policeman was speaking an.i tearing up-his ‘**Ach! I goes to sleep und I sleeps two, three pocket handkerchief. the while. He bound up'the | days alreaty, ven you vas gone. I can sleep ven it: ' cuts which Steely Williams's knife had made, and | is all righdt, und I can stay avake ven it vas all. which had been kept from Dan’s heart by the inter- | righdt, sure.” ' position of his arm «t the critical moment, ynheer Van der Straten replaced his pipe in his: When Steely had pushed him into the river, as he . mouth and puffed away quietly, with the air of a. supposed to certain death, Dan had managed to : man who had the best of the argument and did not cling to a log that had happened to floac by, and | think it worth while to talk any longer. though he had lost consciousness, had instinctively |; ‘' Here is the boat,’ said Dan, who had been im- held to it and been carried out into the civer with his cant watching the deliberate motions of the mouth and nose above water. , o sailors who were getting it ready. *‘ Come, boys; It was a narrow escape, and one that Steely Wil- | let’s get ashore.” liams little s:ispected, ‘*We shall have to use Al Cratty to pitch this: ‘How are you now, Dan?” asked Dick, at last, as | afternoon, I suppose, as you say you have business. the young detective sat up in a dazed condition and | to attend to to-day,” observed Dick Worth, as the: looked around him, three stood on the wharf watching the sailors row- Mynbeer Van der Straten put the bottle of | ing with steady stroke back to the schooner, w here schnapps to Dan’s mouth, and the young fellow re- | a cloud of smoke rising from the eo r’s pipe ved wonderfully. ; could now be plainly discerned in the still summer e seemed to get his ideas together and to realize | air. - : “Yes; I should like to have pitched the game for you, but—I cannot. As you have seen, I have another profession besides that of rtd 5 and trergendous interests are involved in the task I have in ‘ ‘‘ A big robbery, eh?’’ ae Teste annden hyd i ** Murder?” ‘*'Yes; but, never mind. I will see you this even- ing, after the game, and I wish you success.” “Thank you. I hope you will have success in: our undertaking, whatever ib is.” said Dick Worth, eartily, for he had taken a strong fancy to the- young detective. . ‘*‘Amen!"” was Double-Curve Dan’s solemn re- nse, Res "ie thought of the fair young girl in the house of mourning, and how he bad promised to aid her in thcroughly where he was, for looking at the police oficer who knelt at his side, his brows contracted a vee, and he demanded, in a weak, but displeased voice; ** Why didn’t you obey orders and take off your uniform ?” | CHAPTER XII. DOUBLE-CURVE DAN NONPLUSEP, Tus officer turned toward Dick Worth with a | ante of triumph oa his face as Dan Manly chided m * What did I tell you about his discipline? Ain't he adandy. I tell you, he is business all through. Just fancy a man being brought back from the grave, as you may say, and then going for me_ be- cause | hadn’t exactly obeyed orders. I guess he'll have me suspended for a couple of days, or some- thing, Ishouldn’t be at all surprised. I don’t care if he does He's the best man in the detective ser- vice, and everything that he says goes with me.” repeated to himself: | ‘Amen, witb all my heart!” He could not talk about it, and he had not ever: | 4 : | <S ‘ boo (ECO ANKE securing vengeance for her brother’s blood, and he — 1 . Ph ; ; | ‘ a ¥ q