Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 742 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

44 ~~ _ -_ He saw Sam Spanker emerge from the room with Mother Snipe in his grip; he noticed tkat, despite her tiger strength, the woman was in his power, and while he looked he thought he saw a gleam of triunmiph in Spanker’s eye. This was more than the boy ferret could stand, He rushed from the shadow of the hallway and faced the astonished man, ‘‘Halt! Let Mother Snipe alone!” be cried, Sam Spanker, terrified by the voice for an instant, recoiled and almost released his vic- tim. “You see I have the drop on you, Sam Spanker, You should have held me when you had me in the cab.” ‘‘ Jehosaphat! the boy!” exclaimed the plot- ter. ‘* [I wish I had choked you when I had the chance, Stand back and drop that guu—” ‘* Release Mother Snipe!” Sam was not disposed to do this, but the men- ace of the little revolver which Billy Winks held in his face was an argument he did not relish, ‘‘ Let her go, and be quick about it!” Billy or- dered, ‘This isa game which two people can play at, 8am Spanker, I know what took place on the wharf. I had the pleasure of lying be- hind the bale and listening to the whole sweet seheme,” Spanker looked wickedly into the face reyveal- ed in the light from Motber Snipe’s room, and Billy moved a step nearer, **Go back to your master, Blake Belden, alias Van Loo, and report failure,” continued Billy. ‘“‘T guess the game is nearly up. It will end when they hang you for the murder of Chuck Holcomb,” Sam laughéd, when he suddenly threw Mother Snipe almost headlong across her own threshold, and then stood grinning at Billy Winks and wishing that he could sweep the revolver aside, ‘‘Some other time!” said be, madly, ‘I’m not through with you yet, boy.” ‘¢ Just as you like. Here, Mother Snipe, we’ll even up matters right now. Take hold of Sam Spanker, If be moves, [ll press the trigger and save the sheriff a job.” With a joyful ery, the woman came toward Spanker, her eyes fairly glistening. CHAPTER XVIIL. SURPRISES ALL AROUND, COWED by the weapon in tne determined boy’s grip, the man of many crimes did not stir. He felt the firm hand of Mother Snipe at his arm and drew back alarmed, as he stared into eyes that boded him no good. ‘*T cuess that will do,” continued Billy, when Sam had been bound, ‘Vil go down and see what’s become of Simon Short.” ‘* You won’t find him around,” Sam declared. ‘‘T won't, eh? Heisn’t waiting near here with the cab? He didn’t agree to be on hand with _ the vehicle that was to convey Mother Snipe somewhere? Oh, no! But Vl go down and see, all the same.” Guarded by the woman, who watched him with the eyes of a hawk, Sam Spanker began a cunning game which did not succeed. He offer- ed first his watch, and then a goodly sum of money if Mother Snipe would let bim go; buthe soon discovered that be might as well have talk- ed to stone. The old woman, who hated him most cordial- ly, was as deaf as a post to bis entreaties, and when he took the otber turn and began to threat- en, he found that be fared no better, in a short time steps came up the stair, and Sam started when he heard them; as well he might, for soon, to-his horror, two persons stood before him, and Billy Winks, looking at his memspanion while he pointed at the villain, said uietly: ‘That is the man, Captain Duckgun. That is Sam Spanker, the partner of the man we arrest- ed on the box of the cab,” Spanker fell back from the tall policeman without a vestige of color on his face. Simon Short arrested, and he himself in the meshes of the law? It was enough to shock him. ‘*?]] drive the rig to the station, captain,” continued Billy. ‘‘Itll do me more good than getting the Pettibone fortune if I was one of the eirs, ** Who told you you were?” cried Mother Snipe, running forward and clutching the boy’s arm, Billy Winks’s look became a Stare, and when Duckgun laid his hand on Spanker’s arm, to lead him away, the Golden Coil’s right bower ex- claimed: ‘*T think I see something now. Why didn’t vou tell me or intimate as much, Mother Sarpe® “T didn’t have to; and then, I don’t think ve xiven anything away.” With this, the rascal was led from the house mm ee ee to the sidewalk, where he found Simon Short manacled in the bottom of a cab which was guarded by a patrolman, and Billy, mounting the box, drove down the street. A few minutes later the two scoundrels entered the station-house, and when they found them- selves alone in the cell, Sam clutched his com- panion’s arm. ‘* What fools we have been!” said he, ‘* Why didn’t I guess Motber Snipe’s secret before? But, it is too late now, and our only hope for mercy lies in our telling everything and getting Belden as deep in the pickle as we can.” ** But Holcomb?” “T don’t think the fellow’s dead yet. him that I would come back no more,” ** And the girl, Josie?” ‘*T oness we'll have to tell them where she is, and there is old Pappy Pink. You know who he is, don’t you Simon?’ ‘‘T've an idea,” answered the otber one, ‘* When I saw the cop walking toward me, with the boy, I seized the lines, but the pistol held me and in a jiffy [ was in the toils,” Thus through the whole night long the two men talked in the darkness and gloom of the cell, and when morning came they were brought out for examination, All at once Sam Spanker recoiled on his seat with a wild cry, for there had entered the room a man at whom he stared as if his eyes would pop from his head, “« That’s the vulture who had me in his beak,” said this person, who was Chuck Holcomb, hag- gard of conntenance and hungry looking. ‘‘That is Sam Spanter, the tool of the man called Van Loo, but who really is Blake Belden, the plotter.” Both Sam and Simon gat spellbound and glared at Holcomb, ‘¢] left him in the chair,” continued Chuck, bending forward and grinning in their faces, ‘‘] guess he is safe there—as safe as I was till he came and in a foolish moment cut me loose, Do you know this boy, Sam? I know him now!” Already Sam was looking at Billy Winks, who had accompanied Holcomb to the station after accidentally picking him up on the street, The rascal made no reply for a moment when he suddenly said: *¢ Does Belden know it?” ‘“‘Not yet,” answered Holcomb. going to the house now,” The two pards exchanged looks, when Simon Short turned to the officer in charge and said they were ready to make a clean breast of the whole thing. This they were allowed to do, after which I told ‘*We are Billy Winks, accompanied by Chuck Holcomb | for a guide, and an officer, went to the house where Holcomb had left Blake Belden in the tor- ture chair, W ben they opened the door of the fatal room all three looked amazedly at each other. Chuck was the first to speak. ‘‘'The eel bas given us the slip!” he cried. Yes, the chair was empty and Belden was one! ac To his house, then!” ordered the officer, and thither they proceeded, A search of the premises showed that Belden had been there, but had executed a hurried flight, and the three turned away, ‘That man mustn’t escape!” Winks, ‘‘T promise you that he shall not,” was the official’s assurance, The confession made by Sam Spanker and Simon Short revealed Josie’s hiding-place, and the pretty type-writer was at once set free. She was overwhelmed with surprise when told that she was one of the lost Pettibone heirs; but, when Mother Snipe turned to Billy Winks, and leading bim forward spoke again to Josie, another scene ensued: ‘* Josie, this is the other one,” said the old wo- man, ‘ This is no longer Billy Winks, but your own brother, Mr, Pettibone,” ‘‘ What, me?’ cried Billy. ‘‘ Mother Snipe, I kin swallow a good deal, but this is too much. Couldn’t you have made the pilla little smaller?” Then followed a strange story from Mother Snipe’s Jips—a story too long to be repeated here; but she told it so straight, and so proved everything as she went along, that there was no doubting it, Billy Winks and Josie were the lost heirs of the Pettibone thousands, and the Bell Boy Detec- tive, while working up the case against the Golden Coil, was all the time unconsciously help- ing bimself and clearing up the mystery that surrounded his own life, It was such a ‘time for surprises that no one cried Billy Billy Winks, the Boy Detective, Pettibone, Pappy Pink no longer, went back to ~~ was astonished when Pappy Pink turned out to be John Pettibone, who had not perished at the destruction of his Jersey home, but who had wandered off after that event, singularly affect- ed, He almost at once had become invention mad, and actually seemed to be unaware of his own identity. Sam and Simon, the two sharps, did not se- cure leniency < making a clean breast of the infamous plot. They were tried and given long terms in Sing Sing where they are to-day, and when Blake Belden was hunted down, as he was, and brought to justice, the two wretches once more looked into the face of their old master. Belden, coward like, tried to take his own life in the city prison, but was frustrated, and went ‘‘up the river” for a term that promises to amount to a life sentence. Chuck Holcomb and Phlox disappeared after the arrest and conviction of Belden; Mother Snipe moved into better quarters, while John Jersey, where he took possession of the old estate and with his children began a new life, It was not long, however, before.he was called upon to give *‘Josie” up, for Nelse Martin claimed her, and Billy—we must call him by his old name—accompanied the young couple on their wedding tour, ‘*T don’t feel as good as I did when I was bell boy at the old Metropolis, or unwinding the meshes of the Golden Coil,” he declared the day of Josie’s wedding. ‘I think I will go over to New York some time and set up as a detective I know the traps and trails of the old city pretty well and I just like the excitement. The land is full of Sam Spankers and Blake Beldens and they need watching. Yes, I think I'll goto the city and settle down to business as rogue-catcher and crook-trailer.” John Pettibone’s inventions, really novel and singularly practical, have been recognized, and he has ‘struck it rich,” aud while he is happy once more on the old farm, and Blake Belden 1s justly in durance vile, the bright boy who work- ed up the great Pettibone mystery to find that he himself was a part of it, has struck his true calling, and, if no ill betides him, will make his mark as one of that battalion of Hawkshaws whose silent band is the great city’s best protec- tion against the army of rogues whose presence is a ceaseless menace to every good citizen, THE END. on my own hook, Beadle’s Dime Library. BY OLL COOMES. 619 Kit Bandy & Co., the Border Detectives. 148 One-Armed Aif, the Giant Hunter, 137 Long Beard, the Giant SRY. 99 The Giant Rifleman: or, Wild Camp Life. 51 Red Rob, the Boy Road-Agent, 48 Idaho Tom, the Young Outlaw of Silverland, 46 Bowie-Knife Ben, the Nor’west Hunter. 44 Old Dan Rackhack, the Great Extarminator, 43 Dakota Dan, the Reckless Ranger. 7 Death-Notch, the Destroyer. BY LIEUT, A, K. SIMS. 666 Old Adamant, the Man of Rock, 618 Kansas Karl, the Detective King 552 Prince Primrose, the Flower of the Flock 5x8 Huckleberry, the Foot-Hills Detective. BY NED BUNTLINE. | 657 Long Tom, the Privateer. 633 The Sea Spy. 621 The Red Privateer; or, The Midshipman Rover. 584 Fire Feather, the Buccaneer King. 517 Buffalo Bill’s First Trail. 361 Tombstone Dick, the Train Pilot. 270 Andros, the Rover; or, The Pirate’s Daughter, 122 Saul Sabberday, the Idiot Spy. 111 The Smuggler Captain; or, The Skipper’s Crime, 61 Captain Seawaif, the Privateer, ' 23 The Red Warrior; or, The Comanche Lover. 18 The Sea Bandit; or, The Queen of the Isle. 16 The White Wizard; or, The Seminole Prophet, 14 Thayendanegea, the Scourge; or, The War-Eagle, BY WAJOR DANGERFIELD BURR, 448 Hark Kenton, the Traitor. 18% The Phantom Mazeppa; or, The Hyena. 156 Velvet Face, the Border Bravo, 142 Captain Crimson, the Man of the Iron Face. 117 Dashing Dandy; or, The Hotspur of the Hills, 92 Buffalo Bill, the Buckskin King. A new issue every Wednesday. BReadle’s Dime Library is for sale by all Newsdealers, ten cents per copy, Or sent by mail an receipt of twelve cents each. 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