Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 660 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

*.} ) ; SS PLT ergy: SS ee ee > e a. » and L Deadwood Dick, Jr.’s, Insurance Case. ly to the side of the house, and reached to the roof. §So old and strong were they that they could bear a man’s weight, and, ina jiffy English Jack was upon the roof, and out of sight. Dick and the crowd below waited in suspense for Jack’s reappearance, but they waited in vain, for Jack came not. A quarter of an hour passed—a half an hour passed, but still he came not. ‘‘Something’s wrong,” decided Deadwood Dick to the crowd. ‘* You fellows remain here, and if you do not see me inside of ten minutes, the whole lot of you come up to the roof, and investigate the matter.”’ ‘‘We will: that,” replied the gang, in a chorus. ‘* We'll make it bloody warm for them as does yez any harm,”’ So Dick pulled off his coat and climbed to the roof. The old mansion, although only two stories high, covered a good deal of ground; but, the roofs of the wings, although flat, were not on a level with the main portion of the building. When Dick reached the roof, he gazed around him. : There appeared to be no skylights. Evidently the house had been built before skylights came into fashion. entire, on any of the roofs, was English Jack to be seen. The roof was of cemented stone slabs, ‘‘Well, this beats the deck,” Dick mut- tered. ‘‘ What in blazes can have become of Jack? I see no way he could have got into the house from here, and the only way he could have got off the roof would be by the vines.” Suddenly an idea occurred to him. The chimneys were of the old-time sort— big enough to admit of the passage of a man’s body. Had Jack descended one of these? lf so, why had he not opened the door? Perhaps he was caged. Perhaps there was an old-fashioned fire- place, by which he could escape. : The idea was plausible that he was a chim- a prisoner. ick could imagine no other mishap. After a careful inspection of the various chimneys, however, Dick came to the con- clusion that if Jack had dropped down one of them, he was cither instantly killed or had escaped into the house, and been made a prisoner, Ten minutes had already expired, and the men from below began to mount to the roof, one by one. ‘* Well, what’s der news?” asked Pat Mc- } Coy, one of the gang. ‘* I can’t find Jack, nor any trace of him,” Dick replied. ‘‘ Neither can I find how he disappeared unless he slid down one of these chimneys.” “Tl bet he did! He used to be a chim- Ben Sweep in London years ago. I used to work wid him,” f ‘Well, if he’s gone down—” ‘‘Tll go after him,” said McCoy. ‘‘ Jack is a good boy, and I can lick the man as says he ain’t.” ‘I'd advise you not to try it,” said Dick. ‘‘In case you don’t find an open fireplace, what aid can we give you? We have no tackle with which to fish you out again.” ‘Well, l’ll take the chances. There must be a fireplace to the big chimney of the main building.” ng lene 3 Be his coat, McCoy mounted to the top of the big flue, and soon disappeared in its sooty depths, —_—_— CHAPTER XIV. A QUEER EXPLORATION. Wirn great anxiety the party waited for some report from below—from the lower megan, as it were. Butthey waited in vain. he first gray streaks of dawn appeared in the East, and with them came a sudden. and drenching rain. There was no sign of life below. If any one was in the house they took good care not to make any noise. ‘*T guess the only way,” said one of the party, ‘‘is to git a big battering-ram, and hammer down one of the doors.” ‘‘T’ve a better idea than that,” said Bleecker-street Bob. ‘* Well, what is it?” . ‘‘ Has any one got any powder?” ‘*T have,” said Carmine-street Jerry, who was equipped with an old-fashioned shot- gun. ‘‘ How much have you got?” ‘** Half a pound,” ; ‘** Give it to me.” _ “What do you want with it?” “‘ Nevermind. Every man to the ground!” The order was obeyed. When the ground was reached, Jerry, who had recently finished a term for safe-blow- ing, advanced to the front door, accompanied by Bob, who was of the same noble frater- nity and had ‘‘done time” repeatedly. fter a careful inspection of the front door, Bob turned to the gang. ‘‘ It’s no use,” he said, ‘* When that door was put up, it was.cyut there to, stay and don’t you forget it.” ‘‘ Well, we can try,” said Jerry. ‘‘If the ay kin be blowed up, hyer’s the boy as can O it.’ Thus far Deadwood Dick had made no ob- jections to their movements but now he came to the front. ‘‘This explosive racket will do, after a fashion,” he said, ‘‘but other tactics must also be pursued. I will go back to the roof, and also drop down the chimney at the in- stant you are prepared to fire the blast. In this way we will be attacking them from two quarters at once. See the idea?” ‘* Yes, and it’s a good one,” said Bleecker- street Bob. ‘‘ How shall we communicate with you, when we get ready to touch off the blast?’ ‘Oh! simply whistle.” ‘All right. Sail ahead. We'll be ready for you in five minutes.” So Dick ascended to the roof again, Day had now fully dawned but the rain still came down in torrents. Dick applied his ear to the mouth of the chimney, and listened, but there was nosound of any stir below. This made it more than probable that Jack and McCoy were prisoners. With considerable impatience Dick await- ed the signal for the drop. Estimating the distance, he presumed he would have a slide of about eighteen feet, as the house was an old-fashioned one, with high ceilings. At last the signal came, It was a long, low whistle, but distinctly heard fron Dick’s position, ‘ So he at once took a drop down the big ue. . Simultaneously there was a loud report. Dick had only partly anticipated his fall, for, instead of stopping in an open fire- place,, as he had expected, he continued to go down, and eventually brought up ina place of inky blackness, which be calculated must be the cellar. It was fortunate that he had taken his dark-lantern with him, for it now came in handy. He had plenty of matches, and, lighting the lantern, he gave the cellar an inspec- tion. There was nothing to be discovered, how- ever, except that an old ladder led to a trap- door above. This ladder he at once as- cended, but only to discover that the door was fastened above. Gy With all his might Dick tried to lift the ae but his efforts were fruitless, he trap was fastened so securely that it would have taken a derrick to lift it. An- other inspection of the cellar followed, in , 4 - 4 a : ‘\ : . my ' _* e 3 es htt) Fie rs ‘os 7 * li hopes of finding some tool with which to force the trap; but nothing of the kind was discovered. And he was in a dangerous position, too, for there was no window to the cellar, and the air was disgustingly musty and stifling. A person could not long survive there. There was no sound above, to indicate that the outside attacking-party had yet gained entrance. ‘Well, this looks like I had got myself into a bad fix,” Dick muttered. ‘‘ But, courage, my boy! You wouldn’t’ be your- self if you didn’t manage to get out of it somehow.” And he was right. | If any one could get out of'a tight corner, it was Dick. And after rummaging around the cellar for some time, he at last found the way. The discovery was somewhat unique. The walls of the cellar were built of stone, quarried out on blocks about a foot long by half a foot broad and thick—something like one of those used for city pavements of to- day. One of these blocks attracted Dick’s atten- tion. Instead of being on a uniform sur- face with the other blocks, this particular one protruded into the rooms several inches. To aless keen-eyed man than Deadwood Dick this fact would not have become im- mediately apparent, but it struck him as being rather odd, to say the least. So he grabbed hold of the stone, and gave it a jerk, when, sure enough, out came the | block, . ; “Aha! I’mon the right track now,” he muttered. ‘‘There’s two cellars under this house.” ) This proved to be the case. In olden times the old Dutchmen used to have a special cellar for their wines and liquors. pe This was evidently one of Be oid farm- houses of the Rip Van Winkle period, | The stone removed, Dick peered through the aperture. All was blank darkness; not a ray of light to be seen. Dick flashed his lantern inside, but the light did not penetrate far enough to disclose anythirg. | As far as was to be distinguished, one cellar was about the same as the other, But, Dick was not satisfied. ‘‘Loose stones have a significance,” he argued, ‘‘and that stone was not loose with- out a reason. I am going to know that reason.” _ With that he set to work. : The stones really were put together with red clay mortar. With his good knife, Dick was able to dig this out of the crevices and thus to remove the stones one by one. In ten minutes’ time, he had made an open- ing sufficient to admit of his ingress into the next cellar. ‘being ee So in he went. -* From this cellar, a staircase ascended, in- stead of a ladder, as in the other one. Otherwise, there was nothing to be dis- covered. % Dick mounted this staircase, and tried the door. ’ Good luck, this time! It was unlocked. With caution he opened it, ay fl CHAPTER XY. be CONCLUSION, : SIMULTANEOUSLY with Dick’s opening of the door there came another cras outside of the buildin _**T reckon that the as the powder,” thou upon the first floor o RS ee The room he entered was unfurnisl ed and dusty, with cobwebs'gtinging to the ceiling. It had but one door, and this opened into s on the — ia is about as strong — ht Dick, as he aed the house. >. a |