Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 608 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

ll son of my old friend, the young man whom I ‘“* Halloo, doctor, how are you?” exclaimed Slicker with a smile, looking over the shoulder of the girl at the doorway behind, She turned to greet her father, and before she realized that she had been the victim of a ruse, found herself disarmed and in the hands of the two strangers, ‘** Hyar, this ll do!” said Slicker, as he picked up an apron that Dr. Horne was accustomed to wear while makiug some of the experiments that entailed dust. ‘* Hold her while I fix it round her mouth. Women allusdo so much squawkin’ when they git ther chance.” In an instant the dirty apron was secured around her mouth, and then the two ruffians looked about to see how they could secure her. ‘*Thar’s ther thing! Thet glass box, whatever it is. Ther dooris thick enough fer er jail,” suggested Slicker, spelen! to the cabinet, in which Dan, convinced that he could not escape, had sunk into the chairin despair, thus being out of sight of any one looking into it through the half open doorway at the back, The captors of the young girl dragged her across the floor toward the cabinet, Barker seized the knob already referred to and pushed itup. He did not understand its exact purpose, but be took it for granted that it was a fastening, and that to open the doorit was necessary to push it up. The door yielded to his pull, and without look- ing to see whether there was any one inside, they thrust the young girl upon the chair, and closin the door with a slam, pulled down the lever an secured it. CHAPTER VII. A PASSED BALL, ** HALLOO, so the young fellow got tired of meen * eh? I wasn’t so very long, either, Sit down, Dick, sitdown. Ill be here directly. I just want to speak to Clara a moment.” Ir was Dr, Horne’s cheery voice, and he was ushering into his laboratory, Richard Scott. Having seen the young man seated in his own chair the doctor left the room, talking all the way down the hall. Dick leaned back listlessly and appeared wrap- yes in thought. He had a bandage around his ead, held in place by a black silk handkerchief. His face was even paler than on the day before, when Dan had remarked his lack of color and spirits on the ball- field. ‘*T feel quite faint,” he muttered, as he put his hand to his forebead. ‘‘ That blow on the head has not done me any good, Iam afraid. I wonder whether the doctor has any ammonia in his laboratory. I suppose he has somewhere.” He pulled open the glass door of the bookcase, which Slicker had not troubled to fasten, and searched among the bottles fora certain four- ounce bottle of peculiar shape that he now re- membered to have seen in the doctor’s hands on a previous occasion, and to have noticed bearing the label “‘ Aqua Ammonia,” He rattled the bottles about and pearly i a am ar, in which a baby, preserved in alco- hol, held out its arms asif asking to be taken out,tin such a natural manner as to be calculated to disturb weak nerves, ‘* What ghastly toys doctors keep in their cab- inets,” he grumbled, ‘‘The more horrors the can get together the better pleased they are, it seems to me. Where is that ammonia? thought he kept it somewhere on these shelves,” His eye caught the drawer in the desk, pulled out a little way. ‘‘ Perhaps it isin tlese. You never can tell where Doctor Horne is likely to ly things.” He knelt down and opened wide the drawer. ‘“‘Halloa! Here are some loose gold coins, a bank-book and a bundle of canceled checks, I must have dropped upon the doctor’s strong box, surely,” ‘* Clara!” cried Dr, Horne’s voice, and at the same instant the doctor himself entered the room, He glanced hastily at Dick, and a frown wrinkled his brow, ‘sé Di bP | ** Halloa!” ‘* What are you doing there?” Without waiting for a reply, the doctor step- over to the drawer, before which Dick Scott was still kneeling, and looked in. One glance was enough. ** Richard Scott, I have been robbed!” He spoke in quiet, measured tones, but it was evident that he was holding back an explosion of wrath only by determined effort. ** Robbed? “Yes, sir; and I find you, Richard Scott, the The Pitcher Detective’s Foil. expected to be my son-in-law, in front of the drawer, which has been broken open,” ** Doctor Horne—” ** Silence, sir!” interrupted Dr. Horne, sternly. ‘**T do not wish to hear any explanations from a thief, You have not been away from the room, and the money is about you. Take it out of ap pockets and putit back. Then, before you eave this house forever, tell me how much your difficulties are, and how much you need to put you straight with the world. Then--” ‘* But, Doctor Horne—” ‘* Silence, I say. Let me finish. I will give you what xn need, and on your promise to let this, which I believe is your first crime, be your last, I pledge you my word not to expose you. But, understand, you must not see or speak to my daughter again,” Dr. Horne’s usually jolly red face wore a look of grief that told how deeply he felt the supposed villainy of the young man. Hecared nothing for the money. He wasarich man, and the loss of $50,000, though it would cause him con- siderable embarrassment temporarily, would not affect him permanently. He had dozensof mill- ionaires in his list of patients, and his services were often required in New York for cases where bis fees were almostfabulous. But, as he always said, when the subject of heavy fees came up in his presence, there was only one Dr. Horne of Albany, and his price was so much. If the patient thought Dr. Smith, Dr. Jones or Dr. Brown, would do as well, let him get those gentlemen to attend him. Dr, Horne did not care, But when he named a fee he should insist upon it. ** Doctor Horne,” burst out Dick Scott again, and this time he took no notice of the old gen- tleman’s demand for silence, ‘*‘ I am not a thief, and if you were not much older than I, and one whom I respect as much as I do my own father, I would knock you down for the word you have applied to me.” ‘*Not a thief? Didn’t I find you kneeling known in front of my money drawer with your hands inside it? Didn’t I catch you in the very act? And then you tell me you're not a thief?’ The doctor was losing control of his temper. Dick Scott, standing straight, with his arms folded, returned the doctor’s scornful glance without answering. ‘‘Empty your pockets, sir!” thundered the old gentleman, mpty your pcckets, I say! a will not.” i “* You refuse?” ‘*T do, emphatically.” ‘And you are not a thief?” with a sneer. ‘*Tté is because [ am nota thief that I refuse ~ do what only a thief should be compelled to 0 ‘‘ Very well, Then Ill send for the police, Vl make you prove your vaunted innocence at the station-house. The officers will not let you em ty your pockets, They will do it for you.” ir! ‘**'Yes; you have refused my offer to extricate you from this scrape. I suppose you think that for your father’s sake I will not go to extremi- ties, but I owe it to society to give up a danger- ous criminal to justice. You are a dangerous criminal, because your outward conduct has been that of a gentleman and an honorable young man, and you can thus the more easily deceive unsuspecting people, as hitherto you have me,” As he spoke, the doctor crossed the room to the telephone and rung up the Central Office. With the receiver to his ear he waited for the answer, while his glance roved around the room mechanically. Dick had Sropes into the chair before the desk and buried his face in his hand. He knew that his innocence could be proved when the proper time came. Suddenly a thought struck him, **Doctor, who was in this room when you went out? Norah said there was some one here with you when she came to fetch you to ban- dage my head, but she did not notice who it was. She was too much excited about me.” Dr. Horne dropped the receiver with a jerk, and whistled softly. ‘* Dick, perhaps I may be mistaken after all. That young fellow that bras the game yes- terday—Double-Curve Dan, as they called him —was here. I left him in that chair when I went out.” ‘* Double-Curve Dan?” ‘e Yes,” ‘* He is not a thief.” ‘‘Hey-day! What d’ye mean? Do you think $50,000 walked away by itself, and that it broke open the drawer to let itself out? Why isn’t that fellow the thief? It lies between him and ou, and since he has vanished, and you are Dick Scott, there isn’t much doubt in my mind. I beg your pardon, Dick, for suspecting you for an instant,’ . ‘‘Suspecting Dan Manly is as bad,” replied Dick, doggedly. ‘* Oh, docther, dear! Docther!” Norah O’Connor, breathless, rushed into the room, and clinging to Dr. Horne, panted and shook her head violently, and could say no more, The irascible old gentleman took the girl by rae shoulders and shook her till her teeth rat- t ao ** Oh, docther!” “There, there! I beg your pardon; sit down, I don’t know what I am doing,” said the doctor, as he pushed her into a chair, and hastily pour- ed some brown fluid from a bottle into a wine- glass. “ There, drink that.” ‘ ‘* Phwat—is—it?” panted Norah, ‘“‘Sure it isn’t p’ison, now, is it?” ‘* Drink it!” was all he answered. The girl did as she was told, and the liquid seemed to assist her in recovering her breath. ‘*Now, what do you want?” ‘‘Oh, docther—Mr. Dick—two men kim to the house beyant, an’ sez, sez they—' We want to see Misther Dick.’ ‘He be out,’ sezI. ‘We must seo him,’ sez they. ‘ You can’t,’ sez I. ‘Phwere is his room? sez they. ‘On the third story, but it’s none o’ yer business,’ sez I, ‘We want summat: outer it,’ sezthey. ‘The deuce yedo! If yer donot go wis! this instant, Vl call the po-lice,’ sez I. ‘We want a black sachel,’ sez they.” ' ‘“A black sachel, did you say?’ interrupted Dick, eagerly. ‘Faith I did. That’s phwat they said,” re- turned Norah. ‘‘ Rut let me finish me shtory.” ‘‘ Yes, go on, for gracious sake, and let’s get to the tod of your infernal sez they and sez I,” put in Dr. Horne, testily. ‘* Well, as I wuz a-sayin’, they asked for @ black sachel, phwat we call carpet-bags in the ould counthry—I guess ’cause they are niver made of carpet—” “Get on with your yarn,” interrupted the doctor, whose patience was quite gone, ‘Yes, tell us about the black sachel,” added Dick Scott. ‘*T told ’em they couldn’t go up ther stair wid- out they walked over the corpse of me, an’ wi that one of ’em, a phwisky-drinkin’ kind of man, wid a big red nose, and phwiskers all around the gob of him, give mea shove that knocked me off me feet,” Norah stop to fan herself with her apron. The recollection of the shove overcame her. ‘“ Well, well? Go on!” from Dr. Horne. ‘‘ Thin they both rin up the shtairs, wid me a- peltin’ after em. They got into the room, and, divin’ under the bed, they brung out the black bag that you took from the American—” She stopped and put her hand over her mouth. ‘‘ What's that?” asked Dr. Horne, looking from one to the other. ‘‘T don’t know,” faltered Dick Scott, as for the first time be seemed afraid to meet the doc- tor’s eye. ‘‘Thin,” went on Norah, recovering herself, ‘they made a jump for the stairs, and d’ye know thim ork eres actooally got clean away wid the sachel. Oh, my, to think that robbers should break into the house the very fu’st day I wae there. I wish I’d stayed at the botel, so I 0!” The girl was evidently in real distress, the more so as she realized that she had perha harmed the young man to whose family she owed the fact that she was prospering in America instead of starving in the old cabin in Ireland, ‘Oh! What’s that?’ suddenly exclaimed the doctor, with a little shriek, as he put his hand to his face, ‘‘Sometbing hit me on the cheek, It’s some of those confounded boys out there in the vacant lot. It is always the way. A gen- tleman cannot even have his windows open on a July morning without some of those young ras- cals throwing stones into the room, It’s a dis- grace to the city—with the the State capital building witbin a stone’s throw, too. Hang me if I do not have a hill. introduced into the next session of the Legislature making ‘ beaneys,’ catapults and things of that kind unlawful. Viu—” ‘Oh, docther, here’s some paper ’round the shtone!” cried Norah, interrupting the old gen- tleman’s tirade. As she spoke, she picked from the floor an ob= -— ye ee oe Sn -