Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 715 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

—~ Poe ae ee “way, Mr. Gummage, suldenly that the chief of the Cormorant League trembled in his chair. ‘** What is he like, Davy?” ‘*He’s tall and good-looking, seems very anxious to havea talk with you, sir. Says he must, in fact.” Clark Gummage seemed to weigh certain things in his mind. Davy, the usher, and old Noah’ssuccessor, waited at the door. “I won’t take the risk,’ decided the merchant, avd he looked at Davy. “Say I'm busy with a gentleman,” he ordered. i the gentleman to leave his name and call again.” The attache turned away, and Gummage was con- gratulating himself on the success of his scheme when he heard a hasty footstep and the voice of old Davy. ’’ He’s busy, I tell you,” urged the clerk. “Not too Lusy to see me,” was the answer that seemed to congeal the Gummage'’ blood. “Good heavens! is that man out there?” gasped the hunted man, even as the door was pushed open. ‘Alone? I thought so,” grinned the person who came forward with his eyes fastened upon Gum- mage. There was no reply, for the rubber-dealer was staring at him, with face destitute of color. The man before him was Byrd Davvidge, the black-mailer, and the person who had forced from him the ten-thousand-dollar check. “lve got a proposition,” Davvidge informed the chief, with a grin, as he noticed Gummage’s uneasi- ness. “I got that check cashed without a bit of trouble, but,me and ey pard have been unlucky. I think the goddess went back on us by prearrange- ment, and we're as poor as the celebrated church mouse, of which I presume you have heard.” Gummage made no reply; he could only stare at the man and wish him in Hades. “We've got to have another raise.” continued Davvidge. * You know we took a big risk when we robbed old Wandel, and brought you his pocketbook which contained, among other things, an arrow-head, which did not look very dangerous without the shaft. Come, don’t look at me that I own that my errand isn’t very welcome to you just now, but business is busi- ness—”’ ‘ How much do yon want now?” broke in the merchant, eager to get rid of the blood-sucker. * Five thousand apiece,’’ was the business-like rejoinder. * You want to break me up.” No; we want to keep you out of Sing Sing, that’s all,” laughed the lesser scoundrel. a Gummage bit his lip and took out his check- ‘Payable to bearer, please,’ reminded Davvidge, bari a his movemenee. ‘i ‘What if I should refuse to give this check?” hesi- tating over the check-book. ‘Just as you like. We don't urge it, my pard and me, but I wouldn't go back on us if I was you.” ere was a significance in this which Clark Gum- mage yi not 5 secrig na at’s the last blood-money you get from me!” said he as he pushed the check toward his visitor. banks!’ was the answer, and, a moment later, Davvidge had disappeared. Pll set the League on the track of the vampires!” grated Gummage. ‘I won't be safe while they can get around here to bleed me. Let me see: We've £0t to work fast now. If Porterhouse esca the &Irow by some sorcery, be must be looked after and eh beyond all question. I'll issue the orders at He pushed back his chair and got es As he reached the door he was met by the errand- ‘i = the establishment, who thrust a note into his d. “A gentleman sto ped me onthe street and gave it_ tome,” explained the lad, and Len’s successor, He said it was very important, and that he was on trail, or some such language.”’ Gummage did not wait to hear further, but step- ped back ilite the office and opened the note. Heavenz!” fell from his tongue. “One thunder- bolt succeeds another. This is a pretty bad one, coming just now. What if she should fall in with Neii Porterhouse?” This is what he read: "I have just'come from the Nest. It is empty— not a soul in it f¢ gone with the haat tee garret to cellar. oes Jee No wonder Clark Gummage stood like a statue in the middle of his office, He had to clutch the back of his chair for support, but the whirlwind seemed to pass gps a oars time. ne? 1¢ Old Nest empty? Myra has carried ere Ste threat. She has reledscd the boy ferret and orn ae mango. Sandos says he is on the trail; but, will he find her? The Cormorant League is in great papery iad 5 it has to be met with a cool head anda AY ‘ , ¥ the talons aunie a t fuess I’m cool enough to direct e lit @ S4s-burner over the desk and burned the note; then he went out, with a white face Still, al- most frightening the employees whom he passed. They did not know that the man they served was the head of a secret | e of blood-stained villains ~-that he had left his little office for the last time, Fate was closing in on the Gorinorants! CHAPTER Xx. THE LAST OF THE GUE epee the man I Want to see !’’ ejaculated “ Hento & Voice at k Gummage’ certain corn ol age's elbow as he turned a Wide-Awake Len. The rubber-dealer halted, as if struck in the side with a dagger and looked into the face of the speaker. | It was Sendos. “I got your letter,” whispered Gummage. “Is it true that all have escaped?” **I wouldn’t have sent the note if it was a lie,” was the reply. “I have lost the woman; but I know she is bent on revealing our identity, To whom? Why, to the Southerner—to Porterhouse, if she can find him.”’ * If we could find either one of them first—” “We'd finish the game, eh?”’ “That we would!’ flercely. At that moment, the merchant, looking up and a his gaz) wander across the street, spied a little figure leaning half-way out of a door. “The boy spy!” he grated, loud enough for his companion to hear him, “é ere?’ io: Across the street—in the door of that cigar- store.” Sandos looked, but saw nothing. “ He is on the lookout for Porterhouse,”’ continued Gummage. “I wishI had my band at his throat fora moment, That would be long enough.” Sandos grinned. ‘*We must separate for the present. right at the next corner. I will go straight on. Meet me atthe end of an hour at your own house, I am known there, and will wait for you.” Sandos nodded and the twain parted at the first corner, which separation was seen by Wide-Awake Len, who slipped from the cigar store for that ne pi se. The young ferret was determined not to lose sight of the chief villain; therefore he let Sandos proceed on his way, and in a short time had tracked the rubber-dealer to the latter's place, the door of which he opened without knocking and disappeared. A few minutes later the boy detective turned u in another street and ascended a flight of steps, into a room where he found Carlton Crisp at his window. ‘I have treed the head of the League,” cried the lad. “I have run Clark Gummage down, and now I want to find Porterhouse.”’ ‘* He has just eone out with Myra Moss.”’ ‘* What, was the missing woman here?” “Yes, and I have listened to the whole story of that territle crime which turned Porterhouse into aman-hunter. She has fled from the talons of the Cormorants, and is ready to tell all she knows, which is enough to hang more than one man,” ‘*Gocd for Myra Moss!” exclaimed Wide-Awake Len. ‘*‘Now, Gummage must be nabbed,” “How's old Noah?’ ‘* Doing as well as can be expected of a man who has been bound to a chair for hours. We got to the ‘lenth street house in time to save him from a dee fainting fit. The two rascals Sandos and bis pard, had left him to die there, for théy had lost the docu- ments, thanks to Porterhouse’s shrewdness. Noah's the happiest man in Philadelphia, anc is eager to testify against the men who entrapped him. I’m off now, for the final round-up, I hope.”’ At this very moment the man from Feliciana was not far off, playing a game of his own. He had almost accidentally run across Myra Moss, the tool of the Cormorants, who had escaped from the old Nest near the Park. He had recog- nized her as his father’s fcrmer servant, and she had told him wuch concerning the mysterious crime, and had gone into details concerning Gummage’s rivate life, which was not at all in the scoundrel’s avor. ob After taking the girl toa place where he knew she would be safe, and out of the reach of the Cormo- rants, he had turned back to the hot trail again. Success had made him eager. The game was in sight! A ners of this time, though he knew it not, he was watched by a man who had the gliding step of a anther. tt was not Sandos, but Sandos’s € came across Porterhouse after be ha Myra’s safety. ss ‘While that man breathes we are not safe,” said the wretch under his breath, * He is the implacable foe of the League—the man who has sworn to ac- coniphieh our downfall, and will let nothing stop him short of victory and our destruction.” Porterhouse might have seen this man if he looked back, but absorbed in bis hunt, he did not think of such a thing, and kept on. He was in the act of turning a corner when he almost ran against a boy, who at the same time saw the man who was on the Southerner’s track. Len drew back before the villain saw him, and then, gliding up to Porterhouse as if he intended to pass him, he warned him of the shadower. “The man in brown,’ announced Len, ‘Look out for him; he is a Cormorant.” Porterhouse, cool at all times, manifested no out- ward surprise, but kept on till he reached the open door of a small store, into which he stepped. The “py stopped and waited for him to come out, but, as he did not, he grew impatieat and came on, When he gained the front of the store and was pagss- ing, Porterhouse fell upon bim, and a well-aimed blow straight from the shoulder sent him half-wa across the sidewalk. Before he could regain his footing, he was seized by the man from Louisiana and held with the grip of a giant. Wide-Awake Len now came back and went with Porterhouse and his prisoner to the nearest station where a few words of explanation to the sergeant caused the rogue to be beld—the first Cormorant to one the bars, ummage, seated in Sandos’s room, was win exceedingly impatient. at ae The hour is up and Sandos isn’t here,” cried he, and secured : He can’t | Len Dalray across the street, and, while he gazed, follow two trails at the same time. Turn tothe | bis eyes seemed to flash fire. ! oi ‘** Has he fallen into the hands of that terrible Por- terhouse? I won't think it, probably because I don’t want to.’’ He waited awhile longer; but nobody came. Then he took from his pccket an arrow-head and examined it in the light. ‘*I do believe that if that cursed Len Dalray had not cross:d our path all would have been well. I never learned, till too late almost, that he was living with Carlton Crisp whom Porterhouse sent up from the South years ago to solve the mystery of the plantation house. The Southern detective lost his eyes by opening an envelope, ha, ha! He should have thrown it in the fire witbout opening it at all.” Still holding the barb in his hand, Gummage walked to the front window and drew aside the cur- tain just an inch, **Hunting me yet!” he cried instinctively, falling back, while his face assumed an ashen pallor. ‘There is that boy across the street looking at this house! Can he lave tracked me hither? If he has found me it won’t be long before Porterhouse knows where lam. The absence of Sandos bothers me. Has he deserted me at the end of the game, when allcan yet be recovered by a _ ten-strike? Is the Cormorant to be crushed by the band of that man?” He stood at the window locking at tbe figure of Presently he noticed the boy look to the left, and, following his gaze, he saw advancing down the street the figure of Neil Porterhouse! He met Len, and the two crossed the street. Ina moment Gummage sprung to the door and saw ‘hat it was locked. He now had the look ofja wild beast brought to bay. All this ime he had not dropped the arrow-head. He stood at the table for a full minute, a statue of despair and stubborn resolution. Footsteps came up the stairs, and Len and Porter- house reached the top of the flight together. The young shadower pointed toward a certain ocr. ‘‘ This must be the room,”’ he decided. Porterhouse knocked, but received no answer. He knocked again with the same resuit, and then drew back, looking fixedly at the barrier. Len saw him summon all his strength, and the next moment he launcbed himself against it, and the door fellin with a loud crash, The two friends sprung into the room, Porter- house in advance, and nearly stumbled over a body stretched on the floor. ** Too late,” said Wide-Awake Len, looking up into his companion’s face. Porterhouse raised the body and gazed down into the staring eyes, then caught sight of some drops of blood on the right wrist. : “Look! the coward has escaped the law!” cried the Louisianian. And Len, bending forward, stared at the mark of the arrow-point. It was true, Clark Gummage, the head of the Cormorant League, was dead, though the smile of bitter triumph which preceded the application of the barb, lingered still on his dark face! That afternoon a little party were gathered in the humble home of Noah Smithson, and the paves which had passed through so. many adventures had been opened for the benefit of Wide-Awake Len and Dora, The papers were a revelation, sure enough, for they disclosed the fact that Noah’s de wife was the daughter of the elder Porterhouse, of Louisiana, and was, therefore, the detective’s own sister. She had married Nosh against her father’s will, and, dying, had left Dora joint heir with Neil, her uncle, to a splendid estate. If the execrable Cormorants had obtained es- sion of the papers, they would have fois some other girl upon the public for the real heir, and, in the end, have cheated Dora out of her rights. Porterhouse had hunted down all the members of the League but one, and that person was Sandos, who seemed to have vanished completely. “I won't stop till I know the fate of every one,” avowed the son, “I kriow that the arrow-head, bought of old Isaac Wandel, and used by Clark ummage, took my father’s life. I have hunted down, with the assistance of plucky Len, and my dear friend, Carlton Crisp, the accursed Order of Cormorants, rightly named, and I know them ail. While Myra Moss is not as guilty as we thought her, she did enough, and will atone for her acts in the future. Now for Sandos, the last bird of the foul nest!"’ We cannot follow him on his new trail, but suffice it to say that in the end he was successful, tracking Sandos down and seeing both him and his pard pay for their many and detestable crimes. Ralph Mennesse, the rg 2 watchman who was confined in the Nest, left it when Myra did, and re- turned to his family. The firm of Gummage & Blynn is no more, owing to Mr. Gummage’s ‘“‘ sudden retirement.” Porterhouse has taken up his residence in the City of Rrotherly Love, and Wide-Awake Len, who, some day, will become a member of Noah Smithson’s little family, still lives with Carlton Crisp, whose one re- t is that Clark Gummage managed to cheat the aw. “*Cowards genérally do that,’ he says on reflec- tion; “ but Len, my boy, the Cormorant League will trouble us no more. can never see Dora, but I know she is one of the best girls in the country, be- cause she has Porterhouse blood in her veins. Heaven bless you both?’ THE END, com cbooks.co