Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 754 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

Pez - oS. : a+. ee ee ee ee es - eee ———— bind them, and Captain Ortiz waited for him to speak, ‘* When are you going to pay up?” abruptly asked the blackleg, ‘When everything is done.” ‘- What more is there todo? The grandfather is dead, the boy is not found, and the papers are “eget of you as the only heir, Seems to me the game is played out.” Tho two men sat face to face in the little room, and for some time Captain Ortiz looked Into the eyes of the cool spider. *“ Perhaps you woul: like to see more than the hand,” said Simon. ‘*f am prepared to furnish you with all the proof you want. Will you come wih me?’ The Gaban drew back. “Tt am willing to take your word, after what I have seen, but you must remember that [I am not yet in possession of the estate, that I will not get if antil certain weeks have passed, and the polhee of New York are satisfied that Tom Waeener will never bother me,” ** Hang the police!” growled Simon. ‘‘ Meand my pari can’t live on wind,” ‘*T don’t ask you to confine yourself to so slim a diet,” smiled the Cuban, We'll take the check, then,” ‘6 Not all of it?” ‘“The whole amount,” Captain Ortiz glared at his man. Simon Slyboots had crossed his legs, and was coolly looking, now at him and now at writing materials that stood on a table near at hand, ‘* Wel take the ten thousand,” he continued, “Life is uncertain, captain, and we want our own very badly.” The eaptain of the Centipede moved to the table and bent over it, penin hand. | Ali this time there were eyes at the window which opened on a sloping roof in the back- yard, These eyes were as keen as any in the city, and when they saw Captain Oriiz seat himself at the table they got a quick light, Billy Winks was ‘‘on deck” as usual, and it was his figure that lay on the roof and his eyes that watched the two men in the room—the mas- ter and his man, for several moments Captain Ortiz wrote and then tossed the paper to the watchful Simon, Mr, Styboots caught it up and looked it over with a good deal of care. Without a word he put it in his pocket and turned to the Cuban. ‘“Thaz counfounded boy has turned up again,” he remarked, Captain Ortiz started as though stung by a snake, ** Where is he?” “Tracking, as usual, I have thought of curbing him just to show him that I am still im the ring; but, then, he can’t do me any par- omer damage. You're not afraid of him, cap- tain The color of the Cuban’s cheeks was answer enough, ‘*xmon, do you think you could be as success- ful dealing with this young fox as you were with the other one?” he asked, ‘* When did I ever fail?” ‘‘ I can’t recall a failure, of course; but you must know that | don’t want any spies at my heels at this stage of the game,” ‘* Certainly not; but, captain, you see there might be some trouble connected with the net- ting of ashrewd young rascal who knows the whole city lke this boy does—” ‘*] understand. I don’t know who else to trust, You have furnished the other game and I don’t want you to work for nothing. Woulda thousand do?” ‘That would ouly be five hundred apiece for me an’ Sloper, for 1 would have to get him to help me,” The captain of the Ceutipsde bit his lip, and turnei once more toward the table, He wrote a moment and handed the results of his labor to Simon Sly boots. It was a check for three thousand dollars, and the eyes of the sharper emitted a gleam of triumph as be looked at if, He knew he had Captain Ortiz in his power. ‘** We'll do what we can,” he said, pocketing the check, ‘*f don’t propose to have any one at my heels nor interfering with the happi- ness of my friends. Yes, we'll do what we can, ‘Bloper an’ I will, You needn’t fear Mother Magog. I bold a club over her head and she knows it.” ‘* Pm aware of that, Simon,” Billy Winks did noi slide from the roof until the twe worthies bad left the room, and when ‘the door had closed upon their retreating 4 . 4 — ’ - 7 al | . a , = oe Oe ee ow 5 8 _ Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower. forms, he left bis perch and went back to the street, Simon Slyboots was the man he now tracked, He followed him to a house on a very quiet street, and was so near him when he sbut the door, that he heard his footsteps on the stairs in the hall. Presently Simon was heard talking to some one, and when he came out of the house and walked away, Billy lingered and resolved to see the person inside, ai a csr he slipped up to the door and knock- ed, It was opened half an inch, and he caught a glimpse of a woman’s face, ‘* What is it?” asked the person in the ball, ‘*The gentleman has sent me back of an er- rand,” and Billy squeezed into the bouse only to be caught when across the threshold and held as in a grip of iron, There was light enough to show bim the face and figure of the woman who had captured him, She was still young, but not beautiful. There was something soft and silken about her looks, Lut there was at the same time that grip which seemed to sink into bis flesh to the very bone and send a chill over it, ‘* He sent you back, did he?” she said, looking down into Billy’s face. ‘** Young man, he never did anything of the kind. If he wanted me to have any news, or if he wanted anything, he would have come back himself, You are play- ing a game of your own, and this is a bad place to do auything of the sort. But what does he want?” ‘* He won’t come back when he said he would,” said Billy, boldly. ‘* He’s changed his mind, I guess,” The woman laughed. **I thought you wanted some excuse to get in- side, and what are you going to do now that you’re in?’ Billy thought of the letter he had picked up under the lamp after Captain Ortiz had dropped it. This woman was the person referred to in that letter as ‘* Violet, the Death-F lower,” And he was in her grasp! While he thought of these things he was drag- ged back into the hall and a door alongside was opened, Billy Winks was carried into a dark room, where he was released as suddenly as he had been taken, but all was dark, and he did not know which way to go to find a door. ‘* This is almost as bad as the hold of the Cen- tipede,” he said to himse!f. ‘‘I am now in the clutches of a woman, and she knows that I have crossed the forbidden line by a lie, But there must be a door somewhere,” He started forward, with his bands in front of his face, but had not advanced half a dozen steps when his wrist was encircled by a band that had long fingers, **Stop! To investigate in this house is death!” said a voice in a hiss, and Billy Winks stood still, breathless, but calm. CHAPTER XX, BILLY IN BONDAGE. TuE Boss Boy Detective knew that once more be was in the grip of the creature whom he had mentally named Violet the Death-Flower, that it was her hand at bis wrist, and that if be resisted he would, in all probability, be throttled in that chamber of darkness, For some little time after the last words, nota sound broke the stillness of the place, and he stood still, waiting for the next move of the un- seen foe, At the end of this time he was burried across the room and a door was opened. This time he was ushered into a chamber not so dark as the first, nor quite light enough to distinctly show him his surroundings, ‘* Keep a cool head, Billy Winks,” the boy said to himself. ‘‘ You ara in a trapof your own making, and must get out of it as best youcan.” This was true. He had poked his head into danger, but his motto—‘t Nothing risked, noth- ing gained ”—was one he had followed a long time, and he was not the boy to give it up be- cause a little peril threatened, ‘*Sit down, please,” said the woman, and Billy was dumped into a chair, up over the arms of which immediately came two hands that held bim fast, Billy looked foolish when he found bimself at caught, and the woman met his look with a smile, ** He » do you like it?” she queried. **Oh, I’m contented any where,” was the reply, but the boy detective did not look it. wr’ * zw ® ss. S rea on alll . Srey Te TT NET Re Se et eee ES ; et ie ~ dee He was left alone in the room, but the me- chanical arms of the chair held him fast, and he could not escape. After a while his captor came back and looked at bim some time without speaking, ‘t Playing a game, weren’t you?” she said. Billy did not speak. ‘**it’s all one; you may talk, or keep a still tongue in your head, I am not particular, I don’t like people who track other folks, and I de- spise the ferret,” ‘* People who have fears of the police generally don’t like ferrets.” ‘* ‘You don’t want to insinuate,” and she bent forward and gazed into Billy’s face, Pr All at once she bounded from the room, and presently the boy heard voices beyond the wall. There was @& man on the otber side, anda thought of Simon Slyboots rushed -through his mind, | What if that villain of villains had come back? By and by the noises died away and he heard nothing again, An hour passed, and he was still the occupant of the chair. No one seemed to inhabit the house, The dim light flickered along the walland then went out altogether. Billy was once more 1n darkness as deep as the darkness of Egvpt, nor was this all. He seemed to be rising in midair, propelled upward by unseen power, though be could not feel any hands about him. He had heard of traps opening in the floor and letting the victims down into unknown depths; but here this was reversed, and he was moving up and up, bigher and higher, The strange movement continued till he ap- peared to be fifty feet in the air, When he stopped he leaned forward in hopes of seeing how far be had risen, but could make out nothing, He tugged at bis singular bonds, essayed with all bis strength to get out of the chair, even though by so doing he would fall down and down tothe bottom of an unknown abyss; but the mechanical claws would not open, Presently there was a a strange click and Billy was shot once more upward, the floor seemed to open, and he was in a room well- lighted and well-furnished. As the chair stopped the hands fell off and he sprung from its depths, Free at last—free from the chair at any rate! The Boy Shadower stood a moment and collect- ed bis thoughts. He wasia alittle chamber well- carpeted and furnished with books, The walls were adorned with paintings, and from the win- dow, which was crossed and recrossed with bars of steel, he could look down upon a thriving por- tion of the city and catch the lights and shadows of the streets. But the oddest thing about the apartment was the apparent absence of a door. The room did not seem to possess anything of the kind. . This so puzzled Billy Winks that he smiled in spite of himself, A room without a door was indeed a mystery such as he had never heard of, He was hunting for a door when a sound causdd him to turn suddenly and he saw that a legend bad appeared on the wall at his back. Where a moment before there were no letters, he now saw a line of words and this is what he read: ‘This room is as good as atomb to the unfor- tunate who inhabirs it. It has no outlet and every sound made within its walls dies here,”’ This was not very pleasant reading for the boy detective of New York and for a moment every thing looked dark. He went closer to the letters and saw that they wero actually there, that it was not the wild imagining of one’s brain. “Why don’t you come forward like a brave person and face me?” exclaimed Billy, “I am not afraid to face,.my fate whatever it be and right here I want to say that lam not the sole possessor Of the secret for which the police of. New York are hunting. The longer I am shut up here the sooner will the secret be given out by the avengers of justice and though I perish in this doorless chamber, [ will be avenged by a hand as powerfull as Fate’s,” There was no response to these words which died away within the walls of the room, and Billy Winks fell back and seemed to wait for some sign, While he watched the letters on the wall they appeared to die out, but no others took their lace, He went to the window and once more looked out, Fe eis 6 eee oe Se a I te allel at a ene ee ele Be — — - ~ ¥ ef pee ne =| “a % ¢