Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 839: Broadway Billy's Big Boom — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

Broadwav Billy’s Biz> Boom. catch me, my lad. It looks somewhat sus- picious.” ‘‘Don’t know nothin’ ’bout it, boss, You've got it straight, and I’ve got the quar- ter she gev me, so we’s all right.” And with that the freckled youth took his departure. It was no other than Tip Feeny, the de- coy! Franklin stood for some moments staring at the fragment of writing he held in his hand. It was, as he had said, suspicious;—that Vivia Laurence should send him a note like this, and not wait for him, being in a car- riage. The note ran thus: << z Called in haste to — —— street. Join me quickly as possible. It must be highly important. Vivia.” It was evidently in a woman’s hand, but it was a mere hasty scribble, showing its having been written in some difficult place. He could not say whether it was or was not Vivia’s bat ** Yes, it’s doubly mysterious,” he reflect- ed. ‘She would have merely sent the boy, with a word to call my attention to her car- riage. It could have been done while she was writing this. And then, what call has she to go to such a quarter of the city?” He thrust the note into a pocket, and for a moment stood in deep study. ‘‘[ don’t understand it,” he said to him- self, “‘but I will before I go any further in it. Dll goon to the house, and there’ll be able to get the straight truth, no doubt, {f Vivia has been called suddenly out, her mother will know all about it, and J’ll go posted. But, from the tone of the note, she evidently did not know the nature of the errand she was going on.” He went on his way, making haste. ‘Then, who has sent for her?’ he ques- tioned. ‘‘ Ha! maybe it was this young de- tective. If so, that would account for her eae haste, and when the average woman is urried she gets rattled, which would ex- lain her conduct about the note. Maybe it’s all right, after all, and maybe my help will be of some use if I get there quickly. [ will go! What can happen to me, anyhow, in broad daylight? Pshaw! it is not likely it can be a trap,” Changing his course to conform to his change of mind, he presently caught a car that would bear him more rapidly toward his destination, He had his eyes carefwly about him as he drew near to the address given, after leaving the car. It was in a disreputable quarter, and it behooved him to be on his guard, Presently he turned a corner and came upon the house he yas looking for, and the sight of a carriage sianding before the door reassured him. Miss Laurence kept no carriage, but had One at her disposal whenever she had use for it, and at a glance Franklin took this to be the rig he had seen her out with on other oc- casions. ‘“‘T was right, after all,” he decided. << It must be the detective who sent for her in haste.” : - leaped up the steps and touched the ell. The door was opened promptly by a not very inviting personage. ‘*[ want to see the lady who came in the carriage,” Franklin announced, as a ‘“‘ feel- er,” ‘“‘ All right; she’s there in the back room, sir,” the woman said promptly, indicating a door down the hall. This door was slightly ajar, and his suspi- cions allayed, the man stepped quickly for- ‘ward, pushed the door open, and entered. The moment he did so, something struck him on the back of the head, and he was sent headforemost into a corner, where he dropped in a heap, insensible. ‘* As neat as [ ever seen done!” exclaimed & rough, coarse voice, and a villain armed with a piece of lead pipe stepped forth from behind the door and looked at the work he had done. “It was first-rate,” another man agreed, ‘* He walked into the trap as tame as a kit- ten. Oh, we are in it to win, and don’t you forget it.” The last speaker closed the door, and the de drew a table out from its place near the wall, That done, a part of the carpet was roll- ed up, disclosing a trap. While one of the murderous knaves raised this, the other dragged the body forward, and together they lifted the insensible man and dropped him inthe hole that yawned below. “It’s all day with him, anyhow, and no- body the wiser,” declared the one who had struck the blow, as he closed down the trap. ‘* Yes; and now the next thing is to go and get our money for the work.” ‘You are right. He made a mistake when he meddled in this thing.” ‘‘That’s what he done, for a fact, old man.” ‘We had a double cinch on him.” “You bet; and, we'll git double pay fer the same job.” ‘Ha, ha, ha! He didn’t know we already had him under our eyes when he set out to play the detective,” he carpet and table replace, the room was in as good order as before, and the men were about going out when the door opened and another man entered. This time it was the thin man with the Sharp nose and chin, and he appeared rather startled. ‘Did you have a prisoner?” he asked, “We ruther guess we did,” was the an- swer given. ‘* Where is he?” ‘‘Done up and laid away with care. Come down with your money, old man, and no trying to get out of it. We was jest going to find you, and then t’other feller what is in it with ye.” ‘Tn it with me?” insome surprise. ‘‘ What do you mean? Iam init alone, and I didn’t tell you to kill, only to take prisoner. If you have killed this man you have done something that will get us all into trouble, for he went to the police just before he got the note to come here.” The faces of the two guilty ones paled, and they looked at each other. CHAPTER IX. BILLY'S ‘‘ WHERE AM I AT?” ‘‘SwerEeET pertaters! Where am I at?” So exclaimed Broadway Billy, when he stopped going‘down, as he gathered himself up out of the ruins. Fortunate it had been for him that he had gone down after the falling wall, for otherwise he would certainly have been killed. He had dropped something like a dozen feet. He seemed to be ina sort of pit, and it was almost totally dark, the gaslight, com- ing through a hole in the wall above barely reaching the bottom in even the faintest degree, Allwas as still as the grave, as he listened, and his exclamation seemed entire- ly suitable. ‘‘This is from bad to worse, I am afraid,” he said to himself. ‘‘ Would have been out of misery by this time if I had let the rats do their work. Maybe now I’m here to die of starvation. Nothing very comforting about that, with a hearty appetite like mine. But, never say die, William; you have just got out of one consarned diffikilty and ought to be good for another. etting out his matchbox he struck a match to get some idea where he was. He was simply in a hole. As he looked about him, though, he found there wasa way out of it, and freeing his se from the delvis he stepped to the open- ng. A breath of cold, foul air came up from it, and he believed it must be an opening iead- ing into a sewer. His match went out and he lighted an- other, by the light of which he advanced a little way into the forbidding passage, taking care that his footing was secure. Only a little distance had he gone when a draught deprived him of his light, and at the same time his foot slipped and he got an- other fall and went sliding for some distance down an incline, When he brought up he knew where he ‘was at.” He was in a sewer! ‘Well, so far so good, anyhow,” he said to himself. ‘‘ There is an outlet, some- where, if I can only find it, but I don’t know how that will. be. I have heard of folks wandering for days down in these under- ground avenues, before getting out, and maybe it happens that some don’t ever get out at all. Hope I won’t be one of that sort, anyhow. There’s one consolation, I’m no worse off than [ was. Cheer up, William, and make a strike for liberty.” Taking note which way the water in the bottom was flowing, he started forward in the same direction. He was in the dark, and it was slow pro- gress, but he knew that his getting out at all depended on his finding an open- ing, and in order to do that he had to keep moving. With many a slip, and sometimes with almost a fall, he blundered along for what seemed to him hours, and at last he began to get tired. ‘‘T wonder what time it is anyhow?” he asked himself. Out came his matchbox again, and his watch, and he found it was well into the evening, It was some hours since he had first fallen into the trap, longer than he had thought it possible could be. It might be hours longer before he would be able to get out altogether. Looking around him while the light of the match lasted, after glancing at his watch, he was surprised to find an opening right at his elbow. / It was not large, neither was it very small, and by the light of the match Billy looked into it. That it was a tunneled passage, leading somewhere, was not to be doubted. “Tm going to explore this thing,” Billy declared to himself. ‘‘ Sewers don’t general- ly have openings of this sort leading into them, and it may be a side trail to the land of the living. Anyhow, here goes.” With the aid of another match he had taken his bearings carefully, and now he climbed up into the hole. He could not stand erect in the passage, but could walk by stooping considerably, and he made his way along with the same caution he had been using previously. ; At last he caught the gleam of a Kght ahead. ‘‘ Ha! that looks cheering!” the wanderer exclaimed. ‘‘ There’s a prospect of getting out, now, and when I do there will be a circusin the camp of the Philistines, I’m betting.” He pressed forward, and ere long came to the light itself. 7 It was a single gas jet, turned low, and was beside an iron door that was set ina stone wall. ~The wall was evidently the foundation of