Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 854 — page 14: what you’re looking at

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

re: - “— ae” = <4 f~'@ > FA 14 the hall-rack in her fall. Then the old lady went outside the front door in a hurry, and Ready Ralph came tumbling inside, quickly followed by Smasher Jim and Halket. L195 a z _— pew | o I - aT awe 3 oe inward comment. Smasher Jim was recoinnoitering through the peep-hole at the side of the front door, and then Mother Halket and Smasher Jim went into the back room, apparently satisfied that Lucy and Hiram were safe. Needless to say, when they retired to the back room they dragged the detective be- tween them. . Sam Stokes crouched down behind the hi shattered mirror of the hall-rack, so that he Nt was unobserved by either Smasher or Mother vag Halket, but he managed to meet the eye of Ready Ralph, and to bestow a reassuring wink upon him. At the same time the door was banged shut and bolted inside, the detective taking care- ful note of what was being done, and of the fastening of the door. Mother Halket, who had an eye like a hawk behind her gold-rimmed glasses, un- derstood the young man’s glance at the door, and observed, in that singular!y mild tone of one i“ > ES eS >. Rg ey % ~~ at en = 1" ‘ans at as - Py “ " ae hers: ‘ <x ‘It won't help you, Ralph, to know that oe the door is only bolted, because we do not 34 mean to let you go out of this room alive. co Do we, Smasher?” | ie ‘“No! Curse him! No!” ( Smasher Jim was busy at a cupboard in a oe, corner of the room, and did not take the fi, trouble to look around as he answered the wy old woman, but the emphatic manner in tp which he spoke told that he meant what he Re. said When he agreed with his companion as a, to the fate of Ready Ralph, a Smasher did not stay long at the cup- er : board, and when he came away Rea 2 7 Ralph saw something that made him mail. “i AR der, notwithstanding that he was as brave a eS. tr young man as need be. Ar Be The counterfeiter had a long stocking fill- " fer: ed with something soft and yielding in one § i hand, and a long sack in the other. Mother Halket saw him start, and there he ia 8 ; : Se | Bc | was a hard vindictiveness in her tones that 4 ‘he told what a stranger she was to any feeling of tA seg mercy, as she asked Ralph, with 2 grin: , ‘* Do you know what they are?” fas “Tf he don’t, [ll tell him,” interposed Smasher Jim. ‘‘ This stocking is filled with sand. It is a Chicago particular—a sand- bag. This sack is about seven feet long, and good and wide. When aman has been sandbagged, we just shove what remains of him into this sack, with a piece of iron at the bottom, and then we row out into Lake Michigan and dump the sack overboard,” *« **& cowardly trick, but such as one might expect from a skunk like Smasher Jim,” said the detective, calmly. . ~ With a howl of rage, Smasher Jim sprung toward him, and swung the sand-bag over his head. ° | But, Smasher Jim did not strike him with his awful weapon. He was not quite ready for the murderous deed, although his mo- mentary rage had made him inclined to com- mit it then. He recovered himself, and, - with a snarl, struck the detective a blow on the cheek with his open hand, that made the eyes of the young man flash fire. “Smasher Jim, I’ll hang you for that,” ; remarked the detective, in as quiet and even _ @ tone as he might have said, ‘‘ Pass the Dead men can’t hang people,” was _. $masher Jim’s singnificant response, as he * ‘busied himself with a long rope that he had also taken out of that convenient cupboard, and that had become somewhat entangled. a ees He untied the detective, — oy ’ g 7% 4 (* = eat Mother ‘Things is getting hot,’ was Sam Stokes’s A pause of a few moments, during which | rope, and approached the : - - / : 7 i. 7 * .* 4 , - y waste SR - “f ? ; y 4 4 ’ + : d * : J : - f ” : > 4 . eye Ft am ‘* ; vos rt i : i? aa - | 7 i wy ° i Y ~ ‘> ” Me hs - 7 : 2 j _ ” ras + ¥ w Ie ‘ e id ay ak. oe ‘ / s . * < t I ’ ‘ » | * =< a e ope © Py ~ s et re : ay op * ~~ ee Sa Uncle Sam’s Detective in Chica oe eee ——— oe | With a dexterous cast he threw a slip: knot over the detective’s head and shoulders, and tightening it, suddenly, he fastened the arms of Ralph to his side with such force that he could not movethem. ‘Then he took complicated knotsin the middle of the young man’s back, where it would be impossible | for Ralph to reach them. | Smasher Jim looked upon his work with | considerable satisfaction, and then, with the _ rest of the rope, that was several yards long, | | he took several turns around the young | man’s body, knotting it here and there, and | passed it twice around his neck, so that he could not bend his head forward without im- minent danger of choking himself to death. ‘* Smasher, are you going to dump him in the lake without knocking him on the head first?” asked Mother Halket. ‘*You’ve struck it,” answered Smasher, com posedly. He was still working with his rope, and now he passed it around the legs of the de- tective, winding and knotting it, so that the detective was as firmly tied up as any | Egyptian mummy in its almost endless cere- ments, At last the task was. coucluded, and then Smasher stood the detective against the wall, with his face to it, satisfied that he could not move of his own volition. , The gas was turned out, leaving the room in pitchy darkness, Then the detective ; heard the door unbolted, felt a stream of cold air as the door was opened and then closed, and he realized that he was alone in the room, tied so that he could not move an inch, and with the prospect of a horrible death within the next hour or so—certainly before daylight. ‘**Must be past one o’clock,” muttered the ) detective. ‘* The mornings break early this time of year. They won't leave me alone long. I must dosomething. [wish I could see Sam Stokes, but I am afraid he will be in as bad a fix as I before long. They are sure to find him. } ‘Tf I could only get word to him in some way, or even to Lucy!” As he uttered this wish, a thin stream of light burst from the wall against which he was standing, blinding his eyes for the mo- ment, and at the same moment a voice, that was the sweetest in the world to him now, whispered his name almost in his ear: ‘Ralph! Ready Ralph!” | CHAPTER XII. THE ROPE TRICK, Av the first sound of this voice, it was Ralph’s impulse to call out in joyous tones, but an admonitory ‘‘Hush!” told him that for once, at all events, the girl had more sense than the young man, detective though he was. ‘* Are you there, Ralph?” ‘* Yes,” he whispered. ‘* Sam Stokes is in the house.” ‘*T know it.” ‘‘He will get you out of there first, and then you must rescue father and me.” “Tam tied hand and foot, and cannot move.” | ‘That is bad.” ** Could hardly be worse.” | ‘‘Sam has been talking to methrough the hole in the door. Smasher Jim has gone out, and Mrs, Halket is up-stairs. Sam says it will not be safe for him to bein the room with you more than a moment, because ' they have some sort of secret alarm wire | connected with the dovy of that room, which enables them to tell when the door is opened, wherever they may be jn the house, Can you not get out of the ropes?” what I can do,” he whispered, ' 20. | his wrists, and, flthough the cruel cord the slack of the rope, and made two or three | | sounds as if-you were choking, | ‘Somebody coming, I guess,” thought | Ralph. ‘‘ Now is the time for action,” Thus thinking he strained and tugged | with all his might at the rope that bound sunk into his flesh in a way to cause him /excruciating pain, he pesevered for over a | minute. | Then he uttered a slight cry of joy, im- _ possible to repress. The cord was beginning to yield! For five minutes Ready Ralph pulled and ! stretched at the rope, the knot giving little | by little, so that he felt sure, if only given time enough, he would be free. There was the rub! If he were only given time enough! ° At the end of five minutes he was very hopeful, and he found that the ingenuity of Smasher Jim had provided another diffi- culty for him, in case he should attempt to loosen bis bonds. The more he tugged at his wrists, the tighter became the rope around his neck, so that, to get his hands out, he would be com- pelled to strangle himself to death. At this moment the stream of light show: ed itself in the wall, and Lucy whispered: * Ralph,” ee Yee” ‘‘What’s the matter with your voice. It ” said Lucy. **T am choking.” ““ How?” In afew words, the young man told her his predicament, but her woman’s wit was fully equal to the situation. ‘Then you must release yourself in some other way. If you cannot get yqur hands out, try your chest and shoulders. Expand your chest with all your might, and try to move your shoulders,” Ralph obeyed her directions gp al a and was overjoyed to find that he could do so without increasing the strain upon his neck. In fact, it seemed rather to relieve it. Well?” asked the girl. “Lucy, you are smarter than any detec- tive I ever met,” answered Ralph, enthusias- tically. | The detective was tugging at his bonds, and had now got the rope partly off his ms iG shoulders, but he kept on talking. ee “How did you know what I was doing in on fle here?” he asked. “Through this little hole, that enabled me to listen. I could not see you, but I gathered from the conversation what was going on. It was not the first time this hole has been useful to me.” ‘‘Can you call Sam Stokes?” he asked. ‘* Are the cords all off you?” ** Nearly.” The girl uttered a silent prayer of thank- fulness, as she tripped lightly to the broken FA eer door that separated her room from the hall, Ps Go aa and made a slight noise, like a whispered od 2 an whistle. | In an instant Sam Stokes was at the 4 door, looking at her through the broken | panels. : » oli ** Now is the time, Sam.” | ‘Allright. You can bet 1 ain’t no kid, an’ I'll get the feller out of this here fix so =| swift his head’ll swim,” said Sam. | ee ‘* You dear Sam!” exclained Lucy. : ‘Oh, quit yer guying! You don’t care | fer me, You’re mashed on Ready Ralph, You know you are,,” | ‘*Sam, I'll never forgive you ifyousay a thing like that again,” returned Lucy, smil- ing and blushing, in spite of the terrible situation in which she was in. ae . He chuckled, but the next moment he had _~ something else to engage his attention, for he heard a gentle knock at the front door! 4% ° * ° « . * - qn ‘*That will bring the old woman down, of —— “Pil t course,” thought Sam, ‘I must hustle.” and then the stream of light suddenly dis- | When Smasher Jim and Mother Halket appeared, and there was no response from | had left Ralph in the back room, they con- she lek ee ty Js atte 1 _ | sidered him so safely tied that it would not ie be 1 ' ‘a ¢ - ‘ ey. © Lied ; q ( “404 . *. ; 3 ‘ e . ~~ s » at me . eS Su 4 a ONY PE OS ~~ “ }