Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 671 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

Some moments elapsed befere he moved off, <i even then he seemed disinclined to desert the place. F * Lat out by the birds of evil!” ejaculated Jed. “Mr, Nottingham is working a scheme of his own, but just what it is time will develop, I overlooked the prize. It is somewhere in that house. Webb Weldon was coming up-stairs for -' the box” when he spied me, What does that _box contain but the documents? Ah, if I bad found it!” ~The boy burried on until he had crossed Scissors Simon’s threshold, He found the little bunehback sitting cross-legged on the floor cut- ting profile portraits from memory. : Simon,” exélaimed Jed, ‘‘L want you to listen to a story.” The boy artist laid bis scissors down and in a second was all attention, but before Jed began he carried a finger to his lips and by the motion commanded silence. The Jersey boy glanced hastily toward the window, and Simon jumping up ran across the roeou), ~ lea — ve ‘* Youve been followed!” cried the hunchback, returning. j ** By one of the conspirators?” ‘‘ | don’t know, but a man was out there. Let ys go up-stairs.” The two boys ascended to one of the upper rooms and Jed went to the shuttered window and looked out through the slats, There was & lamp across the street and direct- ly opposite the house, and its searching beams reached to the trees that grew in front of Simon’s humble domicile, From the very moment that Jed reached tho wiudow he saw a motionless figure under one of the trees, ‘Ha, captain, you are on guard, are you?” he laughed, for the man stood revealed to bim as the city detective in Mark Murchison’s employ. There was now no doubt in Jed’s mind that he was the person whom Simon had heard at the window, that baving been frightened away for the time, he had come back to keep an eye on the boy who had refused to furtber his watchful schemes, . “Let bim watch,” said the boy artist with a Tight laugh. “Uaptain Catchem can do no ‘harm down there. Hold! Vl take him as he is.” And galting action to his words Scissors _ Simon produced his famous shears and began to cut from a piece of dark paper the figure of a man under a tree, is. erret’s heart will jump into bis ei BCH nes 5 Ss ea Shroat and ue ekle hit to death with joy,” ___A word or two seemed to enchain bis attention, ~ siattematedthe stranger, «' J know I i oer ‘He read the first line, then the next, and did 1 for what [ did, but I couldn't see fade ie unti! he bad mastered all, when his | i | | | mat = - Jersey Jed, the Boy Hustler. him, Wecan beat Mark Murchison despite the boy and the detective, and there’s no use of tak- ing life unless one is pushed to the wall. We’re not quite there yet,” Twisting his mustache in &@ manner which would have caused his recognition by one of the characters of our story, the detective’s shadow went back. : Some squares away he was met by a man much younger, and the two entered an eating- house where they ordered a lunch to be brought to a table in one corver. ‘“T’ve drawn up this paper which I think will finish the play,” said the young man, handing a folded paper across the table. “ The otber took it and holding it in the light, read: “MARK. MurcnHison:—We reject your reply as be- ing cowardly and written in the interests of delay. The time for compromise bas passed. We will carry on no more negotiations throngh the newspapers. We know all about the workof your hired cetective, | known as Captain Catchem. Unless you pay to the hearer of this letter the sum of two hundred thou- sand dollars the doeuments will be handed over to Mrs. Sarah Jeffreys, whose. whcrcabouts are known to Houprast & Co.” ‘Who will take this to him?’ asked the pernser of the letter, looking up, “When?” ‘* At ten to-morrow morning,” “Tf he refuses to comply, will the threat at the close of the letter be carried out?” ‘* Ha, ha, do you think ’m daft?” laughed the young man. ‘This is. only a desperate move; that’s all!” CHAPTER VIII. » THE DOUBLE TRICK, THE Text day, as the hour of ten approached, Mark Murchison might bave been seen seated in his library which his money bad furnished most sumptuously, He was quite alone and had no thoughts nor a of the visitor who was soon to ring bis When the bell sounded he waited until the only servant he kept had gcne to the door, and watching the threcbala of the library with some ge apeaie wondered what detained his man, he truth is, Mark Murchison was looking for Captain Catchem, bis detective, and had given the servant orders to admit bim without ques- tion, but’ when the door which he watched Te speed Ratched the rapidly moving. scissors with | opened at last, bringing to view the form of one : _ curious delight, and laughed when Simon held | whom ke did not know, he started forward with up his finished portrait for inspection and ap- | a slight change of color. proval, it was a striking picture, and one The nabob’s yisitor, as has been said, was which Captain Catchem could not fail to recog- | young. _ nize. He had a good figure and a pair of keen ca Phen Jed had related his last adventures to | searching eto which the moment! they saw ‘mon and received in reply an opinion to the | Murchison, regarded him with a fixed look. a a effect that Nottingham was evidently playing a | The enemy of the Jeffreyses waved the man to 3 game of his own, he was advised to leave the |'a chair and then waited for him to open the house by the rear door, thus avoiding the detec- | battle. ‘ 5 xe hes gre moved from the tree, but was still ‘“Mr, Mark Marcbhison, I believe?” began the . i caller. A few moments afterward the Jersey boy was ‘* You are right; that is my name.” | once mcre under the lamps of New York, and Dropping one band into an inside pocket the he chuckled to himself when he thought how | visitor drew forth a letter which be handed adroitly he had fooled the nabob’s detective. — | across the table between them, end then straight- — it he had known why Captain Catchem wait- ening in his chair, aWaited results. ed under the tree he woul _have left the house Murchison opened the envelope with a slight 7 by the front exit, and his failure to doso was to display of nervousness. He seemed to have a Ue cost him a world of peepee presentiment that some bfow was impending. . a The detective watched until he seémed to tire | ‘‘ Who sent this?” he suddenly cried. it fae of his vigil, then he moved away and disap-| The visitor was coolness itself, ° = a ared. — * The signature ought to answer you,” said he, . _.. An hour afterward, as he turned a certain Though the signature had answered Mark ' eorner, a man with whom he nearly collided Murchison, he cvuld not keep back the question, turned round ant looked at him, He had glanced, first of all, at the bottom of “That’s him!’ said the stranger. “That is | the letter and read there the name— ‘ Holdfast ~ Captain Catchem, the man he has put upon our | & Co.” | e ~~ track, I wonder what he is up tonow? Is he “The devil! I know the infamous name at --o-e~,hoton the trail, or is he stillinthe dark? [’d| the foot of the communication,” continued like to know.” SA eRe + | Murchison, ‘‘ But who intrusted it to you for Captain Catebem now had a gliding shadow | delivery?” T. Rte Aiipchtels. | - | ‘The writer, perhaps, But, sir, you haven't |). . thé man whose attention he had attracted | read the letter.” 4 followed him from street to street, not losing | “I don’t know that I ought to,” wus the | > sight of hi ) OT esages nor getting beyond | answer, , _ Sound of his footsteps on the sidewalk, | Marchison was holding the letter between . Fa of this niage was that Burt | finger and thumb and Sees | at it until bis _, Butler was tracked home; be was seen to un-| face wore an angry cloud well charged with | ___ lock a door and disappear beyond it, and tbe | thunder, q | : __Wacker took a mental photograph of the house} ‘It was written to be read,” continued his 5 Beier, 3. < the boy tel 3 Captain Catchem what he “*T don’t doubt it,” and his gaze wandered to the letter, biti it Roti tea TB z y Waa ac * — 2 oT, 4-84 a4 ~~ 7 ~_ 7 SERS > Ts = . ~~? = fer; He threw the letter upon the table before bim with an excited oath. F more than blood- — “That letter demands money. Iwill treat it with silent contempt!” he roared, : The semblance of a derisive smile seemed to come into being at the young man’s mouth, He left his chair and confronted Murchison in the attitude of one about to depart, S “Ts that your reply? Have you no other?’ he _ asked. ‘' With silent contempt, | believe you — | said,” ; | Murchison made no reply, but looked up at ee the speaker keenly, A sudden thought flashed through his mind. Might not this young man belong to Holdfast — & Co. ? ee | “Do yon belong to the gang?’ queried Mur- — chison, the question being the natural result of | the thought just mentioned. | ‘* To what gang do you refer?” ‘* To the conspiracy against me!—to the league’. which is trying to bankrupt me with infamous — letters like that! You would not bring it to me without some knowledge of its contents, . You know them, Ab! you must belong to the ~ gang.” These charges did not seem to flustrate Mur- chison’s caller in the least. He rather appeared _ to enjoy them. Ne ‘“With silent contempt, eh?” he said, coolly, ‘**Do you stand by that answer? Will you put it down 10 black and white, or—” i Mark Murchison struck the top of the table with his fist and broke the sentence. | . ‘* By Jove! your coolness stamps you a mem- ber of the blood-sucking firm!” he exclaimed, - ' Just as you please; but it strikes me that your epithets are more forcible than polite.” ‘‘T generally call things by their right names,” responded Murchison. ‘* You say that is the last — demand?” 3 The young man now came back to kis chair, — and taking it again complacently crossed his — legs. Wo was Mr. Webb Weldon, as the reader has — doubtless suspected ere this, and when it was — necessary he could be as cool as the traditional cucumber. ; His very audacity struck Murcbison. ot ‘‘That is the last demand,” spoke Weldon, — slowly taking up the nabob’s words as he looked him in the eye, ‘ | | ‘Then Iam face to face at last with a mem- ber of Holdfast & Co,?” ‘“T do not admit that, but the from the house lies before you,” — The old man’s eyes wandered mechanically | to the paper on the table, Siri ‘* You want two hundred thousand?” ; ‘‘ The letter says so.” * it ‘Tf not paid you will throw certain papers — which you profess to hold into the band of a | family called Jeffreys?” a | a ‘‘ T believe that, too, lies before you in black oi and white.” we r ‘Do you know this is blackmail, punishable ~ by the statutes?” a ) ue Come!” laughed Weldon, ‘‘I know every- — thing you would recall to my mind. I came | hither with my eyes open. There need be but | one answer to the letter—yes, or no.” Before he spoke again Murchison picked up — the letter and seemed to reread one of its few sentences, | + ‘‘The money is to be all?” said he. W eldon bowed, a5 ip ae ‘‘Then, [ presume you came prepared to turn — over the—the dccuments.” Pn ox Se ** Holdfast & Co, will keep their part of the — Murchison’s eyes suddenly got a light which | could not escape Weldon’s look. <7) ar ‘*T don’t Jike to be bled,” he rejoined. = ‘lt is a fair business transaction, We give — you something for Pig re : AG REPS “A lot of so-called valuable papers bundred thcusand in cooleasb!? ‘Those ‘so-called valuable papers’ are dee ed sufficiently valuable in your eyes as t secure the services of a detective who = ste es | i last demand ~ + > paid to you—if paid at : ™ ‘ for two | ry * to hunt down Holdfast & Co., and, at of his life, place them in your bands.” Webb Weldon was the nabob’s match, “When will the property be delivered?” ques- — > WT = a ee * tioned Murchison. oii. . Soon after the payment of the sum named.” - The reply seemed to settle one thing in Mark . Murchison'smindg The lost papers were at that mc visitor’s person, There was no doubt | last w told a3 mucty.. =i oe Nae my, ta , ony ¥ ~=*.. * > 4 L< i> oe Ye y oo “ae” 7 4 a ae dee “ -—2 * ~*~. aa Vede Dy < athe a . in — aS a > < e ots e - « . -* Ore vg ay * r 4 ~~. —