Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 881 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

4 price plan, and have the dollar down,” laughed the in, ‘*]T axes both ways for variety, but I only take one,” explained the shrewd landlady. * Biddy Malone had her eye-teeth cut before she ever left Ireland. Is it wantin’ the room ye'd be doin’?’ “You don’t s’pose I came here to play circus, do you?” *‘['d sooner see the color of yer money than | hear the length of yer tongue, young man. Ye’ve got my price fur the room, an’ ye can | have bed and board fur three dollars the week, | being’s ye’re only a boy; and an illigant table,if it's meself that says it.” *“*What kind of folks have you got in your | house, Mrs, Malone?” ‘* Paix they're as quiet asmice. They wouldn’t | disturb a three-months-old baby. They're jist miracles of p’acefulness, forby they don’t get an over-taste of the sperits.” ““Who has this room!’ pointing to the right of the sorry cell for which he was dickering. ‘* Nobody in the wurreld but Mr. Patrick Foherty, who works in the stables beyant.” “And this one?’ pointing to the left-hand m. “That’s occupied at present by Mr. Jenkins, Esquire, as illigant a gintleman as ye’d care to Billy’s face lighted up at this information. It was precisely what he had been fishing for. 5 You can’t say seventy-five cents a week, Mrs, Malone?” queried he. ‘* Sorry a cent willl takeoff. It’s dog-cheap now. My landlord gits the whole of it, and | more to back.” “ Ain't you mighty good to him?” asked Billy, seating himself on his box, and looking quizzical- ly into her face. **Good till him,is it? Faix, he’s a way wid him that there’s no overcomin’. Sorry the | . thraneen I'd give him if I could helpit, me boy; but he’s overpersuadin’.” Billy laughed at the old woman’s shrewd philosophy. “* Well, say two and a half for bed and board. I ain't made of money.” “Ye'd best ax me at once to give you tbe board, and throwin the bitof aroom. Three dollars or git: them’s my terms. Sure, butter’s | half a dollar the pound, and praties cl’ane out o’ sight. And it’s an illigant table I set, as Mr. Jenkins ‘1 tell po ‘‘Is he one of your boarders?” ** Indade an’ he is.” “ Well, I don’t mind trying a week with you, Mrs. Maione. And if your table’s as good as you say I'll recommend it to all my friends.” ‘* Fork over the cash. That's the only ricom- mendation as I'd give the weight of a feather fur.” She held out her band Seo: **]'ll take the other plan; two dollars for the room, and pay when tbe week's up.” ‘*Git out, you omadhoun! Ye’re thinkin’ to y me wid the shine of yer heels, are ye! aix, it’s littl ye know Biddy Malone. gone, afore I take the broom to ye! Ye’ve wasted a half-hour of my vallyble time wid yer chatter.” ‘* Didn’*t you quote those terms?” “Quote, is it’ 1'll quote whatI pl’aze. But quotin’s one thing and talkin’s another. Ye can’t come your comether over me, me boy.” ‘*‘ You’rea hard woman, Mrs. Malone,” langhed Billy, thrusting his band into bis pocket and drawing out a bandful of loose silver. ‘* Why, old lady, I’ve got money enough to smother ou, if (Ra toshowitall. Do your boarders ve man out bis cash. ‘‘ Mr, Jenkins has illigant gintlemen to call on him. It's bigh up in the fashionable world he ” Billy smiled covertly, as a recollection of the | slouching rasval he bad twice seen came to him. ‘‘ Sure, wasn’t there a gintleman with a shiny hat and a velvet coat, and with the purtiest waxed mustache, called to see him last week; and they were together fura full hour, and to the better o’ that they drunk more’n the half of a bottle of whisky.” “Here’s your three dollars,” said the boy laughing to himse)f at Mrs. Malone's idea o gentlemen. ‘*That’s good for a week's board?’ ‘““Ind’ade an’ it is, And I wouldn't thought the likes o’ ve were able for it.” ‘‘ There's weeks when I don’t make the half of it,” acknowledged Billy. “But there’s weeks when I make the double of it. When's dinner ready, Mrs. Malone?” “Twelve o'clock and fifteen minutes. An’ them that’s tin minutes late 'l) bave to take I give ye fair warnin’.” Hobson's choice. visitors?” be queried, as he counted | Turkey Billy. | ‘* Now, ee ee Jenkins. ** Them as ain’t on hand ’ll have to take pot-luck.” The guests waited for no second invitation, but plunged in so eagerly and unceremoniously that Billy felt the fuil weight of Mrs. Malone’s warning. Taking a vacant seat, he plunged in with the rest, fearing that five minutes’ wait might make a famine in the land, Few words were exchanged. Those people | came to eat, not to talk, and time was short, appetite sound; so conversation played but a second part io the game. ‘*That’s right, young ‘un,” exclaimed Mrs. ' With a tossof her head the landlady departed, | leaving Billy alone in his room. | The boy flung himself on the apology for a bed | which occupied one side of the narrow apart- | ment and broke out intoa fit of merry laugh- ter. ‘** Biddy Malone's a jolly old lady, I'll go high | on that. The chap that comes it over her has got to get up three hours before daylight. It won't do to let her guess what Turkey's after, | or she might let the cat right out of the bag.” He sprung to his feet as the thought of his errand came to him, and began to explore the room. Malone, looking with approval on Turkey “That elegant gentleman, Jerry Jenkins, has | Billy’s efforts todo hisshare. ‘ There’s plenty this room to the left. And there’s a guy sport | of it,sodon’tsave yer bacon. I don’t like fin- calls on him, with velvet coat and waxed mus- | niky folks at my table.” tache. That’s Morton,foradime. AndTllbet| ‘I reckon yer don’t have many on ‘em,” another dime I get tne work in on their little | cried Jenkins, witha horse laugh. ‘If there’s game before I’m maoneh He’s guin’ to play it | better feedersin York, I dunno where, Hillo, | on Harry Weston and Nelly Brown, is he? t | young gutter-snipe, wbhere’d you come from?” bim look out he don't get a raw persimmon in | “*I judge I don’t owe you no rent!” retorted | his pie.” | Billy. “1 didn’t run away from any of your | As hesoliloquized the boy was closely exam- | pens.” ining the left-hand wall of hisroom. Here and; ‘* Quick on the trigger, ain't yer? Where'd _ there the plaster had scaled off, in one placenear | you git this goslin’ from, Biddy i | the ceiling revealing the lath and joists be | of niver axes my boarders no imperdent | neath. | questions,” returned Mrs, Malone, ‘‘Pay’s the | -_—— —————— | Mounting the little rough table with which | port here; and don’t-pays gits the door. this room was *‘ furnished,” Billy closely inves- em's my rules.” tigated this broken patch, lt opened into the | ‘*And mighty found ones they are, Then I space between the joist, beyond which were the | reckon the gamin has shelled out.” lath and plastering of the adjoining room. ‘*T judge he has,” returned Billy. “I'll be This was sound, but Billy had come prepared. | pretty short before l ask you to pay for me!” Drawing a long gimlet from his pocket, he in- and he at once got up and left the room with his serted it between the leths and quickly bored a | most independent swagger. hole through the plaster into the next room, | “That’s a lively little spark. I like him,” it was a narrow opening, not likely to be no- | cried Jerry, with aloud laugh. ‘‘ Where'd you | ticed from the other side, yet it gave him a view | pick him up, Biddy?” of a small patch of the opposite floor. Looking | ‘He flings the brush, that boy does; polishes through this for a minuté, heshook his head and | up folks’ brogans. I don’t know a ha’porth began boring again. He did not cease, in fact, | more’bouthim. He can be a jailbird or a Con- | till he had made half a dozen holes, looking in | gressman: it’s all one to Biddy Malone, so he | various directions. | pays for his grub.” ‘* There: I reckon tht little dodge isin shape,” ‘“*A jail bird or a Congressman—ha! ha’? the S»ine’em-up Detective exclaimed, with sat- | That’s good!" cried the ‘gentleman.’ “| think | isfaction. ‘* lve got Jerry Jenkins, professional | we can use ’im, ’ crook, under my eye now, you bet! If he tries ‘*Use im, isit? Ye'll havea good toime, lm any moukeying I'l!) go my blackin’-box ag’in’ a | a-savin’ a-doin’ that same!” retorted the dame. postage-stamp that I'll fetch him up mighty sud- ‘“‘Um! We'll see! Just the kind for an er- den.” rand boy, you know,” and Jenkins left the room ean lightly from his perch, Billy put | in some haste asif an idea had struck him. away his vimiet, picked up his box, thrust his hat firmly on his head and prepared for the CHAPTER IV. street. “* ve got to make my three dollars before the week's out, or Biddy Malone ‘ll shoot me lively. A PAIR OF TURTLE-DOVES. DURING the next two weeks the Turkey kept It won’t pay to let wd oy grow under my feet . up a close espionage over Jerry Jenkins, but while this job’s on hand.” In a few minutes more our ragged, self-consti- | with no satisfactory result. Of course his busi- tuted detective was on the street, actively on the | ness engaged him during the day, but he had no expectation of Mr. Morton calling on a low- lookout for jobs. And work rolled insomewhat down rogue like Jenkins except under cover of lively that morning. Before the hour of noon he had put the largest end of a dollar to the | night, so hedid his watching in the evenings, right side of his bank account. whenever the sound of voices came from the ad- ‘That's not so bad,” he said. “ Now I'll go | joining room. try Mrs. Biddy Malone’s illigant table. I can’t| Meanwhile Billy had madehimself very freeand say just how IH get along if she puts on too | familiarat Mrs. Malone’s table, and bad become much style, as | ain’t used toairs. Bat when it | quite a favoriteamong her boarders, Jenkins, in comes toappetite | reckon this young turkey icular,had,apparently, taken afancy to him, kin gobble up as much grub as a fu’st-class | but Biily cultivated none of them; he wassauc Dutchman.” and independent, which seemed to just suit their Prompt! y at a querter-past twelve he present- | rough tempers. ed himself at the Hazey street mansion, He Two weeks, and he began to get discouraged. He feared that he was on the wrong track, and had not forgotten Mrs. Malone's warning. The dining-room, which he found without | that Morton was working up some scheme with which Jenkins bad nothing to do, much difficulty, was not a very superbly fur- nished apartment. The only pictures vn the What was next to be done? Should he give walls were those of a dilapidated wall-paper. | up his present quest, and and discover what The tablecloth looked as if it had not seen a | Morton was at? Heshook his head doubtfully | weshtub for six weeks; and the table-ware was | at this idea. He stood an excellent chance of past danger of cracking, for it contained about | being kicked out if he should show his face in ' all the cracks it was able to hold. Morton’s office. \ The food was plain, but substantial. Boiled| ‘* Hadn’t 1 best give up the whole job? What's potatoes in plenty, coarse meat, but abundance | these folks to me, anyhow? A sensible boy | of it, bread that looked asif baseballs could be | would let them fight their own battles. But | made of it, and butter that Silly felt certain | then, I ain’t a sensible boy, so that don’t count. | could not have cost fifty cents a pound. It | And Mr, Westontried todo mea good turn,if | looked little and strong enough to serve as the | itdidn’t work. And I don’t like thet Morton | light-weight champion in a boxing-match. for notking. And they’re just a pair of babes | be new boarder, after taking all thisin ata | in the wood, that wants somebody that’s up to lance, took an observation of his fellow-guests. | snuff to look after them,” hey were no more promising than the rest of Billyraised bis bead proudly as hecame tothis the paraphernalia. conclusion, It was his private opinion that if be There were seven or eigbt of them in all, and | was not ‘“‘up to snuff” nobody was, and that | others came in from time to time, rough, be- | there was more wit in his little finger than in the grimed, unwaghed fellows, street and stable | brain of balf the men. | workers the mostof them, y- The Turkey was not wanting in a good opinion | Atthe head of the table sat Jenkins. Rough | of himself, as may be seen. } as be had looked in company with Mr. Morton, He gave a start of surprise as he lifted his be was well dressed in contrast with these rag- | eyes. Before him were two persons whom be ged and soiled customers, and Billy could see Fence 02-0. gene 20: es Sa eas why Mrs. Malone considered him as her “ gen- | W and Nelly Brown! tleman” boarder. They were too much absorbed in one another eee |