Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 853 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

ae, | eo = . ~ : ° ves ad 2 . Dick Doom’s Kidnapper Knock-Out. . ‘ik Doon's Kidnapper Knock-Out: THE SEARCH-LIGHT DETECTIVE : IN CHICAGO. BY COL, PRENTISS INGRAHAM, CHAPTER I. KIDNAPPING A WOMAN. Cricaco was startled, its best people thrilled with surprise amounting to almost horror, The crooks of the city were correspond- ingly exultant, for Crime had won a great game, The criminals, hiding from justice, smiled blandly as they met their pals, for Vice had downed Law and Order, apparently. The crime committed was a strange one— one to make men feel dread in their own homes—to guard more closely their loved ones. Those dwelling in the city and in the sub- urbs, looked well to their locks and bolts, purchased vicious dogs or hired watchmen, et dreaded that even they might be in league with the crooks they were paid to watch, An epidemic of crime was running through the country, and Chicago seemed to have become headquarters for the criminals as if by agreement, Ordinarily where business centers and cities grow rapidly men wanting something to do flock to the spot; and so, also, do the ‘‘shady” gentry in pursuit of their game; but Chicago, during the great Exposition, found to its sorrow, that it had become the rendezvous of rogues to such an extent that its police and Secret Service force had strik- ing proof almost daily of a grand league of criminals that made the work of detection doubly difficult and dangerous. The particular crime now referred ‘to that had outraged the community and so thrilled it with dread, was that it was the most con- spicuous of many cases of kidnapping that had lately occurred, Children had been spirited away, a bank cashier had been entrapped and held in hid- ing for ransom, and numerous. other cases of minor importance had been known and widely commented upon, by the press and people; but when, from the most beautiful and wealthy suburb of the Lake City, a lady of wealth had been deliberately spirited away from her house by night, it was. time to call a halt to the bold criminals in their work, and administer a rebuke that men of the conscienceless class would. re- member as a terrible warning. | This lady was a person of great wealth, and one over whose life a strange romance and mystery hung. She dwelt in the fashionable suburb of Hyde Park, alone, save for her half-dozen servants, in a grand old mansion built a full generation ago, surrounded by large grounds walled in, and running down to the lake-shore. | The mansion had a weird: and unenviable hes 5 Prong to it, for men hinted that its builder, a sea-captain who had retired to the lakes, had made his money by smugglin between Canada and the United States, an and also the,scene of the orgies of his crew atter a successful crime. But, the truth of these rumors could never be traced to old Captain Lawrence Granger, who, dying suddenly, had left his son, Cap- tain Lawrence Granger, Jr.,.a very large fortune andthe whole of that fine estate. Under the new owner the house had been | rec rae ans improved, and the new. master * followed the sea” also, cruising only on the great lakes however. His first wife was said to have died and left him a son; but he bad married again, lived awhile in undisturbed prosperity, then passed away suddenly one night, as his father had done, and Mrs, Lawrence Granger number two became the mistress of Lake View Hall, and estate, dwelling there, there. after, wholly alone, for her step-son had been exiled from home for some reason the public did not know or care to investigute, But, the same fatality of sudden death which had come upon the two captains seemed also to pursue this: widow of the second Granger, for she, too, died one night, without an hour’s illness, . It was then that there suddenly appeared at the halla young man, claiming to be the heir, as no will had been made, and he was on the eve of recovering the great estate, when unexpectedly, Mrs. Granger, the dead captain’s first wife, put in an appearance, showing that she had not died, as had been announced by her husband, but, instead, had been incarcerated by her husband’s deliberate act in an insane asylum in order that he might marry the woman who then had in- fatuated him, These facts were indubitably proven; so she succeeded to the estates. With the son, however—her own son— she would have nothing to do. He was merely paid a stipulated sum of money and then promptly dismissed — forbidden the premises, and virtually disowned. But these several mystcrious deaths at Lake View Hall had started the newspapers to sifting the matter, and Dick Doom, the famous crime inquisitor from the South, was sent for, and especially detailed to the case, with the remarkable result of implicating this discarded son and his accomplices in taking the lives of those dying there, and of the intended murder of the last owner of the estates, by whom he had been disowned. These artful intriguants and criminal co- terie had been run down by the tireless and never-failing New Orleans shadower, He had scooped them all, and lodged every one of them in prison, and the mistress of Lake View had dwelt in peace in her elegant but ill-omened home. | Lived in peace, until one morning came the startling tidings of her having been, kid- napped from her home—that Lake View Hall had once again been the scene of a das- tardly crime. CHAPTER II. LAWYER BEALL’S SUSPENSE, Mr. Beaty, of the iaw firm of Richards & Beall, came down to his city office in Chi- cago, in no enviable frame of mind, for he had read at home in.his morning paper, that his wealthy client, Mrs. Granger, had been kidnapped, and in the absence of his part- ners he hardly knew what to do, He had ordered his carriage and driven at once to Lake View Hall, the scene of so many tragic occurrences, to find there only the servants, all of whom were in dire alarm at the kidnapping of their mistress, but could tell nothing about how it happened. The butler said that Mrs. Granger had re- tired at her usual hour, he had closed the house up and gone to his quarters. The maid said that her mistress had dis- missed her early, saying that she would re- | tire without her aid, after she had written ‘| some letters that were important. | the house was the hiding-place of his booty, -When she had left her, there were upo the dressing-case her box, of ‘miptesidl but ‘when she went to awaken her in the morn- ing the bed was unslept in, the valuables were gone, and Mrs. Granger could nowhere’ be found, while a couple of dresses, her cloak, hat and some linen had been taken ‘No word had been left, but the front door had been opened by the cutting out of panel, which enable the marauder to unbolt and unlock the door. A dark lantern was found on the piazza and there were the marks of the carriage- wheels at the outer gate, while the pad- lock had been broken to enable them to enter the grounds, With this discovery Lawyer Beall went to his office, convinced that Mrs. Granger had been kidnapped for one of two purposes: to meet the sudden end of the otber owners of Lake View, or to be held for ransom for her return; he sincerely hoped the latter. His first duty upon entering his office was to write a reward for information leading to the restoration f Mrs. Granger, or the RCO NGS of the kidnappers who had taken her at mid- night from her home. Sending his: office boy to the papers with advertisements of his liberal reward, he started to open his own private office, when to his amazement he found that he did not have his keys with him. He had changed his suit of clothes that morning, soat once sent another office boy to his home for his keys. The boy retnrned to state that they could not be found. Then it dawned upon Mr. Beall that what he had believed to beadream during the night, must have been a reality, for he had dreamt that he saw a mar enter the open window of his room, go to his pantaloons and take his keys from the pocket. With a dread at his heart he hastily sent for a locksmith to open his door for him. The man came and after some difficulty, for the lock was a peculiar one, the door was opened. A glance. showed the lawyer that his papers had been rudely disturbed, but his look at his iron safe relieved his mind, for the door was locked. It was true the man who had entered the office might have the key, but that was not all, for besides the two keys to the safe, there was a combination also which was needed to open the safe. ‘‘Now open that safe, please,” said Mr. Beall with some excitement, and the old man set to work to obey. He was a skilled locksmith, one whom all acknowledged was a master artisan, but he could do nothing toward opening the safe. For a couple of hours he struggled in vain and then said: ‘‘T will go to my shop, sir, and bring my sachel of false keys and picks, and return and see what I can do,” ‘‘Do so, and lose no time, for I am most anxious to see if the safe has been entered, for if so, fortunes have been at the mercy of the robbers.” The locksmith left and reaching his shop began to look over his tools, telling the story the while to a youth who had only entered his employ a week before, to improve him- self in the trade, and had shown an aptness that i surprised his employer greatly. sé i 5 be of use?” asked the youth, _ Permission was granted and the locksmith oa his assistant returned to the lawyer’s office. CHAPTER III. A BOY’S TRIUMPH. TAWYER BEALL bad grown more and more nervous. | Had that safe, in which were the most im- portant papers, bonds and official documents belonging to clients, been opened and rob- b How strange it was that the office had been entered the very night that Mrs. Granger had been kidnapped. Was ita conspiracy against his client and. her lawyers? — It looked soto the senior partner of the law firm, panes He welcomed back the locksmith, and his young assistant, with delight, and said: . ; Ok ea you let me gowith you, sir, forI | - la ee nl - 4 - ~ ' « 2 - - = PO <2 eat. orn