Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 637 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

= a a ee | a 7 ee ee a ‘ a —s — ers: —. NN te by - mir-door, and glide up a flight of darkened steps in her stockinged feet. The woman kept on until she reached a door on the second floor. Lifting the latch of it without the least noise, she slipped across a chamber and bent cver tbe figure of a young girl, as it lay beneath a window, in through which came the soft light of the midnight stars. ‘*T told ’im so,” murmured Mother Scammon, drawing back from the couch. ‘She always drops asleep as soon as she touches the pillow, She knows nothing of the catch to-night, and our secret is safe no matter how the episode ends,” Mother Scammon left the room, and went back to the man waiting for her in the apart- ment down-stairs. ‘*It’s all right,” she whispered, with a smile of triumph. ‘** The girl is sleeping like a log.” ‘“*That’s good,” was tke answer. ‘*‘ Now we can make the most of our game. It is all in our hands!” CHAPTER VIII. MAD MEG, From the moment of his return home, Custer Kingdon, as. he was called, was the lion of the hour, He was besieged by reporters who wanted to know everything about the life he had led dur- ing his absence, and his portrait was taken for the illustrated papers, The youth was well built, good looking and intelligent, showing that bis education had not been neglected, and many of those who remem- bered the little boy of years before, declared with the overjoyed broker that the Kingdou heir had come home, To one and all the youth told the same story, without variation, bit he would often refer his questioners to the published account, or’ to Bolivar Betts, the man who had discovered and restored him, When be entered Carlos Kingdon’s home, he found there the beautiful young girl whom the broker had adopted. Clarice Kingdon, as she was called, was just budding into a bewitching womanhood. She occupied a warm place in the broker’s heart, and the verdict that Custer’s return would re- sult in a love match, soon became general. About the time of Dick Doan’s mishap at Kingdon’s office, Clarice, strolling through the Park near her house, saw the figure of Custer a short distance ahead. The boy was an object of interest whenever he went out, and already a number of people were watching him while they talked in whis- pers to each other. | Clarice, who had not been seen, fell to watch- ing the broker's heir, but all at once she was startled by a strange touch on hi arm, Looking around, the girl saw near her a woman not very well dressed. She had a pinched face and black eyes that fairly sparkled, and Clarice soon found herself looking into them with uncommon interest, ‘‘ That’s him, is it?’ asked the strange crea- ture, glancing at Custer Kingdon, or Tony, as we have called him on another occasion. ‘*Do you mean Mr. Kingdon’s son?” ‘¢T mean the boy who has entered this house,” was the quick retort. ‘‘ That is he,” replied Clarice, For a moment the little woman regarded the youth, with a singular smile lurking at the cor- ners of her mouth. “What do they say?’ she suddenly ex- claimed. ** Everybody szems to be satisfied.” “Ho, ho! Are you®’ “Why not?” **T thought I'd ask, seeing how you are inter- ested. If he had never come home, Carlos Kingdon wouid have given all to you.” Clarice smiled, **T don’t care for that,” said she. the right person to have his share.” ‘““That’s clever,” laughed the woman, who was past sixty. ‘* Do you know this Mr. Betts, who brought him back?” ‘“‘T have seen him,” ‘‘Ts he handsome?” ** Not very.” ; ‘‘ A little ungainly, isn’t he, child?’ ee.” ‘I thought so.” **Do you know him?” The woman seemed to be startled by the sud- den question. **1—don’t—know,” she answered, slowly. ‘I haven't seen many people for a long time until to-day. I’ve just come out of a mad-house.” “T want > ; i? - \y x ‘ > ‘ / > ] / y ee, + Seed ty Dick D POUND ES PR AU Taboos — Clarice Kingdon recoiled from the speaker witb an exclamation of fright on her lips. ‘Don’t go,” continued the woman, plucking the girl’s sleeve, ‘‘I haven’t been mad because I’ve lived where insane people are. All those who go to mad-houses are notcrazy, I think I know this Bolivar Betts.” ‘¢ You?” cried the young girl. ‘‘7—Margaret Waffles as used to be, though they’ve given me another name. I have been ‘Mad Meg’ for many years; but now I’m out in the world again, and they are looking for me, I would like to see the new heir fair in the face, A gentleman told me just before I came up that that was him over there, He's feathered his nest by coming home, and Bolivar Betts has put some gold into his own purse, too!” Clarice made no reply. « ‘‘ Where does Mr. Betts live?” continued the woman. ‘*T do not know,” ** Does he come here often to see—the boy he brought home?” ** He drops in every day.” ‘* What is the story he told when he presented young Custer to his father?’ The evening was pleasantin the Park and as Clarice had lost all fear of Mad Meg she invited her to one of the benches and answered her last question. ‘* Bolivar Betts said that he accidentally ran across the boy somewhere between New York and Philadelphia. He was first attracted to him by his looks, and when the people with whom he was living said that a party of wandering Gypsies had left him near the house a good many years before, Le became convinced that he was a stolen child. As Mr, Betts had heard of the missing Kingdon boy, he resolved to go deeper into the discovery. He even hunted down the head Gypsy, a man with a reputation for several things not exactly honest. At first he could get nothing from bim but at last he got a confession that the gang had dropped the * 2? “Shrewd Mr. Betts!” exclaimed Mad Meg when Clarice paused, ‘* After this,” said the girl continuing, ‘it took Mr, Betts several months to get another important Jink. He succeeded in obtaining from the hovel of a woman who had belonged to the Gypsy band a lot of old clothes such as are worn by children when very young. One of the pieces proved to be a waist which Carlos Kingdon recognized the moment he set eyes on i+ 9? ‘f As Custer’s waist, hey?” cried the girl’s auditor. oF ay 6, ‘* That, with a peculiar birth-mark which the boy has, settled the matter, and now you know how Custer Kingdon came bome,” | For some time the woman remained silent. By frequent glances at her Clarice saw that she was deeply agitated, and more than once she looked at Custer Kingdon, who had left his seat and was moving slowly toward the house, ‘*T want to see him—just a moment!” said she, ‘* Wait for me here, miss.” And Clarice was alone, looking bewilderingly after the figure moving away. It did not take the late occupant of the mad- house long to pass Carlos Kingdon’s heir, She ran on ahead a few steps, and then came back, looking him squarely and searchingly in the face as they met. ‘* Are you Custer Kingdon?” she exclaimed, stopping suddenly and clutching Tony’s arm in a manner that drove all color from his face, ‘* That’s a pretty question,” he answered, with an affected laugh. ‘“*If lm not Custer King- don, Pu like to know who I am.” Mad Meg looked at him a second loner, then fell back with a shrill, derisive laugh, and dart- ed away before she could be detained. **f saw him,” she exclaimed, coming back to Clarice. “It’s a pretty story Bolivar Betts has told—a very pretty story.” ‘¢ Don’t you believe it?” queried the girl, ‘Do [ believe a liar?’ was the answer, ‘¢Don’t tell any of them what I have said, but keep your eyes open. [I know Bolivar Betts, He didn’t always wear the plumes he carries now. Don’t let them hoodwink you, girl. Ah! don’t ask me any more questions. I can’t stop too long. They will be looking for Mad Meg.” And without another word the strange creature darted away, leaving Clarice on the bench like & person in a maze, ad Meg disappeared in a jiffy, and when she had recovered from the adventure Clarice arose and went home, She did not find Custer Kingdon in the library where he usually spent his idle hours, but think- rr ——— oan, the Dock Boy Detective. pea a ing nothing of this she went upstairs to her own room, There were many shadows in the corridors of the handsome house, and Clarice flitted through some of these like a ghost, When she reached the half-open door of Car- los Kingdon’s private room, she was startled by a sigbt that raet her glance. Some one wasin the apartment, and Clarice did not have to look twice to see that the figure bending over the broker’s open desk was the new heir. Mad Meg’s injunction for her to keep ber eyes open now returned with full force, and shedrew back, watchful and still. She saw Custer Kingdon take paper after pa- per from the pigeon-holes, examine them care- fully, and put them buck. ‘‘*A true son would not do that,” flashed through the girl’s mind. At last the boy closed the desk, and turned so quickly that he caught sight of the figure just beyond the door, Clarice’s heart seemed to rise to her throat in an instant, She drew back, but it was too late, Tony, bounding across the room, fell upon her with the fury of a young panther, and the next moment she felt bis fingers sinking into her wrist. ‘‘ Not a word about this, do you understand?’ | cried the boy, the words fairly forming a hiss as they came forth, ‘‘I was looking fora few stamps in his desk, but he needn’t know it. Idon’trob people! I'd bea nice fellow to ng, my father of anything valuable, would- n’t I?” The heart of the girl beat too fast for her to reply. ‘‘ Remember! Keep this to yourself,” Tony went on. ‘If you don’t I'l] make it warm for you here, for (’m the heir and know my rights, There! Go where you please, but don’t please to play spy on me!” And he released her, and walked off, saying something more which she could not catch, ‘¢ There's a serpent in the houge,” said Clarice to herself, while she went toward her own apart- ments. ‘‘If I thought I could find Mad Meg, I’d go down and look for her, She knows more than she told me; but Pll recollect her warning, and keep my eyes open,” It was very late that night when Clarice fell asleep, She could not help thinking of the wo- man she bad encountered in the Park, nor of the scene in the broker’s room, CHAPTER IX. MOTHER SCAMMON’S CATCH, Tus seems to be a trap with no hole in it. Itisas dark as Egypt, too, and oné needs the eyes of an owl to help himself in here.” Thus spoke Dick o’ the Docks when he found himself alone after the departure of Wat Waffles and Motber Scammon, He was cooped up in a dark room barely eight-by-ten with not a particle of light natural or artificial to show him where he was. He thought of Mollie and wondered whether his arrival in the bouse had been discovered by her, If he could have seen Mother Scammon’s visit to the girl he would have thought that fate was surely against him, but he was not to be thus favored. Mollie was not so sound asleep as Mother Scammon thought her. The woman had barely left the room ere the girl sprung from bed and bounded to the door, She heard mother Scammon go down-stairs where as we have seen she told Waffles that her protegee was sound asleep. Going noiselessly to the room whose peep-hole in the floor afforded a view of the apartment beneath, she looked down upon the two plotters in consultation. Besides this she heard a good deal of their con- versation, gleaning enough to tell her that the prisoner in the dark room should be rescued as soon as possible, By and by Waffles took his departure and the girl waited until Mother Scammon had retired to her part of the house. j Mollie was a street waif who, some years yrior to the opening of our story, had failen into Mother Scammon’s hands under circumstances not necessary to be narrated here. Despite ber surroundings she had grown up with a quick, bright wit and was a strong, good looki ne fi She had long before discoyered that Mother Scammon was a human vulture ready at all times to thrive by any means; but as the woman had given her a home when she was homeless she had remained with her, boping that a time would come when she could better her condition, - = ty ie