Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 598 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

’ ; : : a ee ee ee ee der the chin, and he reeled backward against the gunwale with a crash that jarred him from head to foot. ‘‘That’s what we used to d’ale out to the bhoys, in ould Tipperary, do you moind,” yelled Dennis, as he skipped about, ready to renew the combat, his long ulster flymg open and actually displacing the fog in his vicinity. iper was a second or two before he recovered his scattered wits. Then, with that sneaking movement of his hand to the inside of his ulster, he flew at the Irishman. ‘* Oh, howly saints! Oi’mcut. Sure I’m kilt entoirely,” cried Dennis, as be grasped his assailant under the arms, and whirled him around like a kitten. ‘* Curse you! Let me go!” wheezed Piper, as he tried to use his dirk knife again. ‘Quit yer foolin’, vou shpalpeen. You've nearly cut the armoffme. But for me ulster I’d be dead!” Ezra managed to get his right hand free, and the knife flashed dangercusly near Dennis's throat. ‘Take that, you Irish hound!” hissed the ie as he tried to bury his knife in the other’s neck, ‘‘ Well, indade, thin, Oi’m not takin’ ony- thing from you. But you just git!” With a superhuman effort, the Irishman lifted the other from his feet, swung him around in the air, and threw him clear over the side of the boat into the boiling sea, A scream of horror from Blanche, and then a laboring man, with spots of whitewash on his clothing and on his long, dark mustache, sprung forward, and thrusting Dennis aside, - jumped into the water and struck out for the drowning man. CHAPTER VI. PIPER PLAYING A LONE HAND. ‘¢ MAN overboard!” ; A deck-hand had seen the splash as Ezra Piper dropped into the water, and a moment later the plunge of the laboring man. Ropes and life-preservers were thrown over, and directly the laboring man was seen clinging to one, while with his left hand he held the hair of Piper in a tight grip, thus keeping his head above water. Ezra, incumbered by bis heavy ulster, could hardly have saved himself, even had he been a good swimmer, which he was not, His rescuer, on the other hand, bad thrown off his overcoat and in acomplete suit of blue overalls, seem to be quite at home in the water. ‘* Catch hold of this,” he whispered to Ezra, pushing the PH seep Se toward him, Piper, hardly knowing what he did, benumb- ed with the cold, and half choked with water, obeyed mechanically. There was a line attach- ed to the preserver, and with a ‘* Yo-heave-bo!” he was dragged to the deck of the boat, and hustled away to the engine-room to be dried and warmed, Almost as soon as Piper had been dragged aboard, the laboring man, assisted by a dozen willing hands, had leaped to the deck and was also hustled toward the engine-room. Piper had been taken to one corner, where he was temporarily rigged out in some old clothes of one of the firemen, while the laboring man was similarly accommodated in another part of the room. Neither of the involuntary bathers could see the other. It was perbaps as well that this was so, for the appearance of both bad so materially changed as the result of their ducking that there would undoubtedly have been an awk- ward recognition had the two men found them- selves face to face. The heavy mustache of the laboring man had been washed off, showing the features of ‘* Git Thar” Owney. As for Piper, his mustache was gone, the rouge had been rubbed off his face, and his flabby cheeks looked baggier than ever as he shivered and cowered with the cold, that seemed as if it would not be expelled from his system. It is useless to say that the detective had known Piper from the first, though the recog- pition had not been mutual. The heat of the boilers was soon sufficient to dry the clothes of the two men, and by the time the ferry-boat had worked its way to Jersey City, the two men were once more arrayed in their own clothes, Piper sneaked out of the engine-room as soon as he was dressed, and made his way into, the ladies’ cabin. The fog had lifted a little, and it did not take him long to satisfv himself that neither Blanche Rogers nor the Irishman were in the cabin. He Sy ettn pe ee etter a eM hh ee . a* - Flute, the Singer Detective. walked forward, and as soon as the boat reach- | ed’the slip, leaped ashore and disappeared. He did not go into the street, but turning to the right, walked with a crowd of hurryin people into the waiting-room of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad. He took a seatin acorner where he could watch everything that took place, without be- ne Sah as, peep himself, e had lost his mustache and cheek-pads, and stood confessed as the Ezra Piper whom we first met on the stage of the Euterpia Theater. For perhaps five minutes he sat m his corner, looking furtively about him. Then he arose and walked briskly across to the restaurant that adjoins the waiting-room., Tne colored waiters were busy serving break- fast to the passengers of incoming and outgoing trains, and the cheerful clatter of knives, forks ane plates resounded through the room unceas- mgly. _ Piper seated himself at the counter, and, hav- ing ordered hot rolls and coffee, leisurely ate and drank, while watching everybody and everything around him. He had just finished his meal, when a voice whispered in his ear, ‘‘ Come.” Without turning his head, Piper got off his stool, paid for his meal, and strolled carelessly out of the restaurant and into the street. He turned into a street to the teft of the depot, whose houses faced the river, and from the win- dows of which one could look straight at the deck of the Cunard steamer that lay in her dock with her bowsprit almost overhanging the street. Into this particular house Piper walked with an air of proprietorship—the door being un- fastened—and marching straight up-stairs, un- locked the door of a bedroom. As he opened the door and stepped inside the room, he found himself in the company of Nor- man Roundel, Shutting the door and bolting it inside, the latter placed his back against it, and looking in- quiringly at Piper, said: ** Well?” ‘** Nothing!” was Piper’s enigmatical response. “Why?” ‘*Slipped away from me, that’s all,” an- swered Ezra sulkily. ‘‘ Dumped me into the river, too.” ‘* So I heard,” said Roundel carelessly. **Oh, you did? Well, it doesn’t-seem to trou- ble you much.” ‘‘ Not much,” assented Roundel, ‘*‘ Bat we must do something about that fellow, Owney. You don’t happen to know that he was on the boat, and that he was shadowing you, and me, too, for all 1 know.” ‘* Wh-a-at?” Piper fairly shrieked. Roundel sat on the side of the bed and smiled. ‘“‘Ha! You think you are a pretty smart fel- low in your line, 1 don’t doubt!” he sneered, ‘* but you have something to learn yet.” ** But—but—” stammered Piper. Roundel lighted a cigarette and allowed the blue smoke to curl from his nuse with that air of enjoyment always affected by cigarette smokers, ‘* Are the people in the house here of a prying disposition?” he asked, after a pause. “No. This is a regular boarding-house, and as long as the board is paid, and boarders look decent and behave respectably, there is no _ par- ticular inquiry made into their private _affairs, I am an opera singer, engaged at the Euterpia Theater, you know.” ‘* Exactly.” The two worthies grinned at each other sig- nificantly. ‘‘ Now,” went on Roundel; ‘‘as I happen to know that Git Thar Owney is shadowing us, I think the best thing we can do is to lie down here and get a few hours’ sleep. If we move around on the street or go up to the crib, we shall be pretty sure to have him with us, He’s off the scent now, I know. I had him following me about the depot, until I saw a good chance to slip through the baggage-room and leave him. The last I saw of him, he was dodging about the other side of the waiting-room like a cat in a strange garret while I was keeping you company threugh the wagon-gate to the street.” The speaker chuckled, and Piper joined him with great enjoyment. Sly you see Blanche on the boat?” asked Roundel looked at him curiously. ‘T am afraid,” he said coldly, “that you are losing whatever business sense you have had, on account of that girl, Yes, I did see her, and saw you making a fool of yourself, and spoiling our whole ‘lay’ on her account. If the girl wants to come over to Jersey City at eight ' o'clock in the morning, it is none of your busi- ranma i ee ness, nor of mine either.” ‘You don’t think—” ‘That she is shadowing us? No, I certainly do not,” was the sarcastic reply. ‘‘ What does she know about our business [’m afraid your brain is getting softer than ever. Perbaps youn ee this morning soaked all the sense out of it.” “Or froze it out. It was pretty cold, I tell ou. ‘‘ Undoubtedly. Well, now lie down.” Without another word, Norman Roundel threw himself upon the bed, and turning bis face to the wall, seemed to be asleep directly. The flabby-faced tenor, leanirg against the manfle, stood looking at him vacantly, with an expression tKat told as plainly as words, that his thoughts were elsewhere. For at least fifteen minutes be stood in a brown study. Then with a start he came to himself, and, glancing once more‘at Roundel to satisfy bim- self that he was sound asleep, be noiselessly opened the door, and slipping quietly down the stairs, made his way to the street. There was no fog now, and the clear air was slightly warmed by the winter sun that now shone in all its splendor, and made the dingy old city look almost cheerful, Piper walked swiftly, with an unhesitating step, as of one who knew his way, until he reached a quiet street in the upper part of the city, where a row of frame houses, each in its own small garden, betokened that they were the residences of well-to-do mechanics, or storekeep- ers in a small way of business, A knock at the door brought a bright-looking servant-girl. ‘* Mr. Roundel in?” asked Piper. “< Ho, ein” ‘* How long will he be?” ‘© T don’t know. He went out early this morn- ing, before I was awake. He often does so! He does not sleep well, and be goes out for a long walk to freshen himself up.’ ‘Hum! Tl waitfor him. He expects me. Can you let me wait in his library?” The girl, an innocent, unsophisticated, country damsel, yet hesitated a moment, for Ezra Piper’s appearance was not very prepossessing. He pushed past ber, however, and almost before she knew what had happened, he was sitting in an easy chair before a cozy fire, in the front parlor that he had referred to as the li- brary. He evidently knew the house as well as the owner himself, for he had not sat more than a few minutes before be suddenly arose, and, with a careless glance out of the window, went to the cupboard below the bookcase, and cpened it by touching a secret spring. ‘Ah, there they are. Beauties, too!” He took from the cupboard a steel saw, a small crowbar, and a complicated mass.of shin- ing steel, which soon showed itself to be a chisel, worked by a lever that could be applied by a slight pressure of the thumb, the whole ap- paratus being hinged so that it would fold up into a marvelously small space. A full set of burglar’s tools! Piper examined each one carefully, and then closing the door, resumed his seat in the easy- chair. He was thinking, 4g og a He looked at his watch. It had stopped at half-past seven, the time when he fell into the water, A small clock on the mantle-piece showed tbat it was now balf-past eight. “Time be should be kere. If Roundel will only be kind enough to stay where he is for an hour or two, I think I can arrange this busi- ness, He’s safe enough, 1 guess. With all his smartness he is no match for Ezra Piper. He took one drink from my bands, and that was enough. He will sleep as long as I want him to do so. Hallo, there be is, by Jupiter!” There was a ring at the front door, He opened the dcor of the parlor, and inter- cepting the se! vant, who was on ber wey to the front door, directed her to shcw the gentleman into the parlor. ‘‘Mr. Roundel is not here, but I can transact the business with this gentleman, We were to mect him together, Hurry!” Before the girl could collect her scattered wits, Piper had pushed ber toward the door, and had retreated himself to the library. The girl opened the door, and saw a tall, dig- nified gentleman, with gray bair and whiskers. ‘‘T had an appointment with the gentleman that lives here for this morning,” said the stran- ger. ‘“ Who do you mean, Mr.—”