Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 754 — page 10: what you’re looking at

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

10 Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower. across the step and halted a moment in the a e ** T’ll see both of you later,” he cried. **'You’ll have to do it almighty soon or the warden of Sing Sing will prevent the interview,” answered Jim, and the next momeut the captain of the Centipede was gone, As he went down-stairs he growled to himself and what he said boded Molly Marks no good. CHAPTER XII. TWO IN A TRAP, ‘*T WONDER what’s going to happen now?” passed through Billy Winks’s mind when the floor trembled under his feet, He fully expected to sea it open and send him down into some unknown abyss, but nothing of the kind occurred, Instead, the trembling passed off, and he was left in the round room which had no doors. The morning bad fully come and he was hun- ry. ‘* This isn’t a place where one has a chance to order his breakfast,” he thought, ‘I can’t get drip coffee here and talk back to the waiter if the meat is underdonoe. -I will be lucky if 1 get | cg beet at all.” 6 went to the window once more, and looked across the space that intervened between him and the house where hoe had seen the girl who had shown no disposition to assist him, but she was not there, But in her place stood a man who looked rery like one who was connected with the police. Billy saw that the man was eying the broken window, and drawing near it, he thrust his hand through the opening and tried to wave it at the stranger on the porch. He thought be saw a nod telling that he had been seen, when the man disappeared as the girl bad done, and Billy was left to himself, Click, click, went something on the wall again. The boy detective turned and saw another line of letters on the wall. ‘* The fuse is lighted and the fire runs |” *‘ Heavens! am I to be blown up with the house?’ he cried, falling back from what he had just read, and for a moment he stood in the mid- ec the room with the whitest face he had ever ad, ‘‘ Where is the man who was on the porch?” he cried, rushing to the window, But the porch was quite deserted, and he could not see any one who seemed to cffer help, Once more the floor trembled, and this time it began to settle. n a short time Billy was out of the doorless chamber, and found bimself in another apart- ment beneath it, and alone, This room was dark, but he could feel the fur- niture it contained, and he was on the point of trying to open a door, when it seemed to open of its own accord, and he fell back with a sharp exclamation, The woman—Violet the Death-Flower—stood before him once more! ‘* How did you like the upper story?” she asked with a smile, leaning toward Billy. The young beagle laughed. **T believe I would sooner live on board the Centipede.” The woman started, ‘‘She knows Captain Ortiz,” said the boy to bimself. ‘‘ This woman is in the pay of the gang and has ber orders,” Violet, who bad turned on the gas, stood off and looked closely at Billy Winks. ‘** You’re in the secret, aren’t you?” he asked. *¢ In what secret?” ‘‘ Why, in the one that puzzles the police. You know something about Tom Wagner.” ‘*Why, you little rascal, you must think I am into everything,” was the quick retort, and the yonng detective saw the woman bending over him with flashing eyes. ‘*[ don’t say that, but a woman who is con- nected in any way with Simon Slyboots is like- ly to be into a good many things not exactly straight.” *¢ Do you think so?’ and she laughed again, It seemed to Billy that Violet was getting in better humor and he also thought he could de- tect a fear of something in her tone. ** Don’t you know that they have their hands over Simon’s head, that they can drop onto him whenever they want to, and when they do, don’t you see that they will teke all connected with the scheme?” She did not speak. “They will even rake in the Cuban captain, who is the real head of the plot against the boy?” ‘What boy?’ ‘‘Tom Wagner, old Gregg’s grandson, for whom the police are looking now, though they are not as shrewd as some others who reall hold the thread of the puzzle in their bands,’ ** Are you one of those?” asked Violet, Billy smiled knowingly. ‘*1f Tam I was sharp enough to leave what I know in the hands of somebody else before I be- came yourcaptive, You did not think 1 would come into this trap without having some one else on guard, ready to let the cat out of the bag if I got into trouble?” The look that had come into Violet’s eyes was a comical one, yet it gave the Boy Shadower some hope. ‘*When they are all pulled in what will you do, Violet?” he asked, No answer, **Won’t you look fine behind the ten of dia- monds, when you conld have remained here and been as free as a bird in the forest?” ‘Look here,” anc the band of the woman clutched Billy Winks’s arm, ‘‘I know what you are trying to do; you want to eet out of here the worst kind, and you are trying to frighten me into letting you out, It’s as plain as the nose on your faces, but I am not the person to open the door contrary to orders,” “Just as you like, [am in your power, but all the time the hands of the clock of fate are moving, and you must not complain if, when they reach a certain point, they pronounce your doom.” ** What will it be?” ** 'W hat do you think it ought to be after serv- ing Captain Ortiz and Simon Slyboots?” There was a sharp cry from the woman’s throat, and she fell back and looked into Billy Winks’s eyes. ‘* It won’t be a fine house and a big parlor,” he remarked. ‘‘Come, you can’t hoodwiak me,” ‘*T don’t want to, Iam only giving you little bits of truth, and if you don’t want to accept them, why, [am through, You can’t win this game. The boy is missing, but we know who took him off; we know with whom he walked out of the Park the night he vanished, and don’t you think we have: been on the trail long enough to have an idea where he is?” The next moment a bell tinkled over the wo- man’s head, and she turned to the hall, Billy heard her there a moment, and then fol- lowed the shutting of a door. In another instant the creature came back, excitement in her eyes, and springing toward him she seized his wrist and jerked him across the floor. ‘You have told the truth, but they sha’n’t find you when they come in!” she cried, Billy drew back, but the hand of Violet was too strong for bim, and he was dragged into an- other room and down a flight of steps, as if some infernal power clothed the woman’s muscles, All at once a key clicked in a lock, and as a door opened he was thrown forward, and the last words he heard were: ‘‘T guess you'll have company in there, Go and see.” Billy Winks fell upon his face, but rose and stood in the dark till he heard a voice, ‘* Who are you?” asked the voice he heard, The young ferret of Gotham started forward, but brought up against a cot which he could feel in the dark, ‘*T am here, and have been ever since I fell into the trap they set for me. I am Tom Wag- ner, the lost boy for whom I guess grandfather is looking in every hole and corner of the city.” The words took Billy Winks’s breath, and for some moments be could only press the hand he had found, and could not use his tengue. ‘*'You seem to be a boy like myself.” ‘*T am,” said the boy ferret, at last. Billy Winks. Par 2 ‘*[T remember you. But how came you here?” ‘*T made a trap and walked into it. I am looking for you—” ‘‘ And you have found me! What is the news outside? How is Grandfather Gregg?’ Billy did not answer. ‘¢] guess it’s al] over with him,” continued the lost boy of tha avenue. ‘‘He was near death’s door when they sprung the traponme, I have been here, I can't tell how long, for I can’t reck- on time in this place. Simon Slyboots is at the head of the plot, and he is the man who netted me.” ‘* Netted you for Captain Ortiz!” ‘You may know more than I do,” said Tom. ‘You once told me that you sometimes hunted rascals down and turned them over to the po- lice,” ed am You know we used to meet in the ‘*T do that yet, and when I get out of here I will have some lively work.” ‘*When you get out, eh? get out of this place?” ‘Why not? I have never been in a trap that I did not get out and make somebody sweat for springing it on me,” ‘You've got the kind of grit I[ like, and of course I will do my share of the business, but it seems to me that we are two rats in a cage, and that the key has been lost.” Billy left the young heir and went to thi door. ‘¢] was hustled down here in a way that told me tbat some one dangerous to the gang had discovered the trap. 1 was in the high room and managed to signal a man on a porch, but I can’t say what I accomplished.” ‘¢They brought me here at once. Simon Sly- boots turned me over to the tigress called Vio- let, and I have been in her power ever since.” Suddenly a noise startled both boys, In an instant they were on their feet, and were listening with all ears. ‘¢T will stand my ground, and the two are as safe here as at the bottom of the river!” said a voice. “I have locked the door for the last time, and when [ quit the house it will never open to let any one out,” That was all, The voice ceased, and in the awful silence Billy Winks and Tom Wagner heard the beat- ing of their own hearts, CHAPTER XIII, THE IRON KEY, Ir the boys shut up in the dark place belong- ing to the old house could have looked beyond the door of their prison, they would have seen and recognized the speaker. It was Violet, the Death-Flower, and she faced a man who looked in the demi-gloom very like Simon Slyboots, the oily rascal of the city of mysteries. ‘‘That’s all right,” said Simon, with a grin. ‘¢ All you have to do is to carry out your words and keep a still tongue in your head. I have finished with my employer for the present, though I am by no means done with him,” Violet walked away with Simon, looking up into his face until they had gained a lighted room when she sprung forward and caught his arm, ‘* 11] take my pay now,” she said. In an instant Simon Slyboots was gazing into her face, ‘‘ Your pay?” he echoed with a derisive smile. ‘¢ 7d like to know what you’ve earned.” ‘What haven’t I earned?’ said the woman. ‘¢T have been the slave of the whole plot and now when I ask for my wages, I am laughed at and by you, the last man who ought to be guilty of that.” ‘‘Tt seams to me you're very cool about this affair. I told you that I would see that you were paid and I intend to.” ‘The game is out and lam waiting for what is coming to me,” and Violet he!d out her hand. “T am going to keep still, and that is pay enough, I think.” The look that the startled creature shot Simon Sly boots was almost enough to shock bim. ‘** Is that my pay?” . ‘* Isn't it enough?” ‘‘ What if [ shouldn’t keep as still as you say you intead to?” ‘¢ You don’t think of giving the snap away, do ou??? me There is no telling what a woman will do.” Simon laughed again and in her face, ‘‘Tam going away. I want to get asfar from New York asl can. I want to put seas between me and the door back there. I want to live in such a manner as not to think of the past which I am leaving behind.” ‘* Well, live as you please; it’s all one to me,” Violet looked at him, and then came on with her hands shut, ‘*T am desperate, Simon Slyboots. You have made me as desperate a creature as this accurs- ed city shelters. I have served you and your master, the Cuban; I know what has been done, and I have’ been a partof the game, I have played jailer, and played it well. Without me you could not have succeeded, and the boy would not be now @ lost heir to half a million, Give me enough to get away on. I won't ask anything more.” Simon Slyboots, with a look that seomed to freezs the beholder, shrugged his shoulders in an insulting manner, and smiled provokinglv, ‘Don’t you intend to give me my pay?’ ** How much do you want?” ‘* Five hundred,’ Do you expect to