Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 793 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

Ee - 4, - a ee = _ a ligt lt ete A ALL, Dick Doom in Chicag‘o, ** Oh, yes, sir, for when she was South she wrote all the letters to me about the place,” “Pll buy them from you, Crumbs,” * All right, sir.” | “Perhaps I had better tell you, Crumbs, that Iam trying to maké out a case which will pay you considerable money if you can help me in it, so Pll just band you over a couple of hundred dollars now as a token of good faith, and promise to reward you well when I have finished my work,” ** "ll do all I can to help you, sir,” said the de- lighted Crumbs. hen he got a bundle of letters from the house, and handed them’ to Dick Doom, who asked: ‘** Crumbs, who let Miss Carroll in the night of the murder?” ** The suicide, you mean, sir?” ** Yes, if you so call it.” **T did, sir.” **Did you lock the door?” ‘Yes, sir; but—” ** But what?’ “Well, sir, I’ll tell zoe what I never told any one, and that is that there was a skeleton key in the pass lock, for I found it there the next morn- ing. How it came there I do not know, sir; but it was there, and I took it out,” **' What did you do with it?” **T have it, sir.” **[ want that key, Crumbs,” ‘You shall have it, sir.” And Crumbs got the key and handed it over bag as Jule came out upon the piazza, to see who t was that her husband was talking to, CHAPTER XX, FERRETING, “THs is my wife, Mister-—Mister—” and Crumbs paused as he did not know his visitor’s name, ‘* Leffingwell,” said the ferret. ** Oh, that’s the name of the brave gentleman who saved Miss Clarice from burning up in the hotel in St Louis, and who is now Mr. arroll’s adopted son,” said Jule, ‘‘ Yes, I bear the same name, Mrs, Crumbs, and [am happy to meet you, for I came to get your aid and your husband's in trying to secure a fortune, **T hope you can help me, for it will be greatly to your advantage I assure you, madam,’ Jule was delighted with the handsonie, polite young gentleman, and replied: ee will be happy to help you, sir, I assure you. ‘* You are very kind, and I will-tell itis a matter that must be kept a secret us, or else 1 may lose all. ‘To get the information I desire, I must go back to your life at Mr. Carroll’s, for I wish you to tell meall you can about Mr. Carroll, Miss Clarice and the young lady’s beaux, for 1 know that you were,.I may say, her confidential friend as well as maid,” Jule was greatly flattered, and began to talk, and Crumbs helped her out until, after a visit of an hour the ferret took his departure with the remark to himself: ‘‘Tam more and more convinced that Miss Carroll was uot a suicide, for that blow was vot given, with the dagger to the hilt and hilt lean- ing to the left with thédeft hand, while the two hands were lying at rest in the lap. “ef Then too that key in the door means some- ing. ; ‘*Now to go to my room and study those letters written by her, and the one just before her death,” It was late when Dick Doom went to bed that night, for he had been looking over the letters or hours and seemed deeply interested in em, ie pant canine He went to the office eS a celebrated expert In Chirography, and place before bim tbe letters, with otis ‘past over tae excepting certain lines being, left to be re ou that tween “TI wish your opinion, sir, as to this hand- writing,” he said. The expert took the letters, placed them under a strong light, aud with his glass ex- amined them in silence for a long while, the ferret closely watching bim. Then he took pen and paper and began to trace some of the lines. . _'* These letters were written with a gold pen, air, aud this one with a steel pen,” he at last ort Yes.” ‘* Of course the difference in pens would make a materia! difference in the writing.” ‘“T understand,” 11 ‘* Now the copy of the handwriting of these letters is very clever.’ ‘¢ You think it is a copy then?” ** Of course.” ‘The same person did not write all that is written there before you?” pe no means.” *‘ Have you any Cther suggestion to make?” ‘*T would say, sir, that these lines here before me of two sentences, beginning with, ‘I cannot tell you my secret,’ and ending with ‘That madea secret of it,’ were written under in- tense excitement.” ‘¢ You would call the writing a man’s?” ‘*It is masculine hand, sir, in those letters, but a woman wrote them,” ** And from this other letter from which you have just quoted?” ‘* A man made the copy.” “Thank you, and wrote under excitement?” * Most certainly.” ‘ Please say what I owe you, sir,” ‘‘ Twenty dollars, please.” The money was handed over without a word, An expert is worthy of his pay, thought Dick Doom, From that office the ferret returned to the hotel, took his gripand started for the depot, from which he took’a train up the lake-shore, He went to the hotel where Leo Lefftingwell had stopped the summer before and remained there just two days, While there he occupied the same rooms, rode and drove about and took solitary walks, at the same time talking a great deal to the landlord and servants, Then he took the train back to the city and was once more installed in his room at the Grand Pacific. That afternoon he obtained permission to visit the yacht owned by Leo Carroll, and a liberal fee to the mate in charge got him shown all over the pretty veasel. He took great interest in the vessel, said that he was a sailor himself and returning to the hotel was busy some time in making notes in a book which he took from his trunk. ‘*Now, to find some one who can help me trace the career of this man Leo Carroll,” he muttered. ‘‘Mr. William Wheatley, Crumbs said, is Mr, Carroll’s best friend, but for that very reason it might be dangerous to go to him. ‘*T must get at some one to help me reach the bottom facts, for I am just as sure that par girl was murdered as | am that I am alive. ‘Money was the object of course, and per- haps a knowledge of facts as they existed may have caused a larger stake to be played for than was originally intended. ‘‘Let me see, the best thing to do is to trace ol4 Mr. Carroll's career through his earlier years. ‘Yes, I will do that first, for the otber will keep.” He glanced over the time-table and said: ‘‘ Crumbs said that he had lived in California, | “T can catch the Express that goes at four,” Half an hour after Mr, Dick Doom was on his way to the Pacific Slope ina Pullman sleeper. CHAPTHR XXI. A PAGE OF THE PAST. Tue trip of Dick Doom to San Francisco re- sulted in his tracing the career of Samuel Car- roll there, finding out that bis wife had com- mitted suicide just as his daughter had done, it was alleged, Here the ferret stopped to think, for he said to himself: wanie eek Han the inheritance of miiioes 8a black eyeupon my theory of murder. **'W hat shall I do? Rs ” ‘* Give it up and admit that I am wrong? ‘‘No, Iam just as firmly set as ever in my opinion that [ am right. ‘The same feelings thay came over me when I read those papers about the affair, come over me now that I cannot shake off the belief that it was & murder, ‘* My friends, the chiefs, all say I ama born ang for Lintuitively take ideas, and maybe am, ‘* But now what am I to do? ‘Ah! I have it! ‘¢T will seek the doctor who was called in to see Mrs, Carro}], for surely she had one, and then I'll go and see the San Francisco chief and get all the facts from him.” The doctor was looked up and found, still a practicing physician, ‘‘Oh, yes, indeed, sir, [ recall that case of suicide. ‘¢T was called in before the beautiful, unfor-. . tunate young woman died, but could not save her,” he said, ‘¢ Did she poison herself, sir?” ‘‘ No, indeed, she drove a knife to her heart,’”” ‘¢ Could that be readily done, doctor?” ‘‘ Well, the knife was a very long-bladed af- fair, sharp at the point as a needle and keen as a. razor, ‘‘She had gone about it very deliberately, taking a seat in a low chair, drawing a high table up over her, and placing the hilt against it. ‘‘ The point just touched her flesh as she sat there, and by springing up suddenly she drove the weapon down into her body, ‘¢ Tt was a most diabolically cool suicide, and she meant to make no mistake,” ‘¢ But her motive, doctor, when she had a lov- ing husband and young daughter?” “Ah! that was just it, for sbe had married Carroll, believing the one she loved was dead, ‘‘Carroll was a splendid fellow, and rich, so her parents had deceived her, for they were or. ‘Long after she met the man she loved, and she at once took her own life, rather than go- wrong, or live a wretched existence.” ‘ And Mr. Carroll then went to Chicago?” ‘Yes, he moved Kast, and I lost al) track of him, for he wished to forget tho past, having had two unhappy marriages.” ‘6 Indeed; he was married before, then?” ‘Yes, when I first met him it was in the mines, whero we were both seeking our fortunes he by digging for gold, and I by getting hold of it after it was dug, for [ was practicing medi- cine then in the mining-camps. “ Poor Carroll married a beautiful young girl,. but one who all felt would give him trouble. ‘The parents, as in the other case, made the: match, and after the birth of a child the wife ran away and deserted him, going, it was said, with a former lover, a wild fellow by tue name of Leffing well,” ‘‘ Leffingwell? gasped Dick Doom, ‘* Yes, tbat was his name, I remember, ‘‘He was doing well in the mines, but killed a man about this very girl, and had to fly for his life. ‘‘ Whether the woman ever went with him or not I cannot say, but I saw him one day in Omaha, some years ago, as I passed through, and he said he was living there.’ ‘* Omaha?’ 7 Yes, sir.” “ And the child?” ‘* Well, Carroll was away at the time, and the child, an infant of a few weeks old, was taken very sick, and I was called in. “Tt pulled through, as I thought, but soon after I beard that it had died, and been buried, and immediately after the woman left the house, ‘Poor Carroll returned and used to haunt tbat little grave, the only consolation he had in. life, for he did not seem to care for the money he made, and be was growing rich rapidly, “Then he left, and somebody struck a lead. which ran through the burying-ground, ‘“‘The baby’s grave, with others, was, dis- turbed, and what do you think was found in the coffin, which fell to pieces?’ ‘* Nothing?” ‘““Why a large wax doll, which had been buried for the baby, showing that the guilty wo- man had run off with her child but wished Carroll to believe it dead,” ‘* A girl was it, doctor?” ‘* No, a boy.” ‘‘Then Carroll, leaving the mines, came here,. and I followed not long afterand one day was: caJled in to see his wife.” ‘* His second wife?” ‘Yes, the beautiful suicide. ‘* Poor fellow, I have always felt for him. “But you say he is living in Chicago, now?” ‘* Yes, sir.” | “ And that bis daughter committed suicide?” ** Yes, sir.” ‘She inherited the madness from her mother,,. ‘‘But I have been in Europe the past two years, so failed to see nn account of it. ‘¢But did he ever know that his son was not dead, or at least had not died in infancy, for when I met him here I had not the heart to tell him, and really felt that with such a mother the boy would grow up bad and bea curse instead of a blessing to him.” ‘ His son is with him now, sir,” ‘‘ Ah! come for his heirsbip since the daugh- ter’s death?” ‘¢ Well, he was known before, sir, but Iam not sure he was known as the son. ‘But he is said to be a splendid fellow,” and comicbooks