Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 897 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

Sa Ae : a = # — SF -. ‘ - ues ee Oe a ee ee | eet » * io a ee ey ae / 7 : | ‘ 12 + ’ . - f‘ 4 ry. ek a oni p> <*<-> ~ « _ -7 we ee _ al r <3 —_ Dine iP =e > Se = — | Fhe — a >, _ e =a Pi “ > . a ete —- — ye o - t's * at -y s ene a ~_ ae ~ ai iy _= 7 "—__years.ago?” >_>. * , rt. $ i P oe ~~ i oe a ee * je Pé. + & - 7" =. +. * oe — wo Yer =) ‘ at oo ie a d f > a Se ll ; a oT e- > —s “ Fe = ‘ , where he stood and the boy felt though he could not sce some one quite near him, ‘‘T guess this is the same old den,” said a voice. ‘‘I hope I haven’t made a mistake. They’ve driven me from pillar to post and yet { haven’t the courage of a sparrow.” Davy tried to catch sight of the speaker, but the dense darkness that filled the room prevented, and he was forced to wait and listen and watch, ‘‘T saw the old woman to-day, Ii did! She’s changed somewhat, amd looks a good deal older. She seemed to be looking for something, and the girl she had with her couldn’t have been Holly, the grand-niece who lost her share in the big estate when the court knocked out the underpinning from their side of the case.” ‘‘ Heavens! who is yonder?” Davy Doon asked himself as he heard these words in the dark. ‘‘ What does that man know about the Lane fight? How came he to know any- thing about Miss Holly, the grand niece, and about the battle over the will?’ ‘*T guess I'll bunk here. It’s as good a place as any and they won’t look for me where a man killed himself. It was Cap- tain Paul—the man wbo met me the day 1 came to New York and whose fingers wove the cold, clammy net about my hands, Captain Paul! I knew I had fallen into Vulture talons the day I met. him, and he plaved it mighty fine in his way.” he voice ceased, but the next moment the boy hugging the wall in the dark was thrilled as he had never been thrilled in all his life. *‘Tll light a candle. They won’t see the light for | fixed the windows last night.” The man was going to strike a match! Davy held his breath and waited for the next move. Ina moment the room would be illumined by a match and he would be discovered. The thought was enough to send a sudden thrill through every nerve. Presently a match was heard drawn along the wall; then a flame leaped up. _~ 3 ~ _. * ~ a ae i-* > | seit oe Nk nee = ale ane naan. eas ‘ Davy Doon’s Big’ Bounce. plot and that you are one of the spies who | with the skeleton in the corridor of the have been on my heels ever since I got | place where you were confined by the three away. ” Light seemea to break upon a dark mys- tery as the man talked, his eyes strangely on fire and the light flickering in the tallow as the skeleton hands shook. ‘* You must be Hiram Honeybee.” A startling cry followed the name and the holder of the candle with an oath dashed it to the floor where it went out, for in the last flash of the light Davy saw him set a heavy foot upon it. In another instant there was a spring to- ward the back door of the den and the startled | boy detective heard it open and shut and then all was still. The man was gone! In the thrill of the moment, and amid the startling silence, the young shadower stood like one in a dream. He could not realize that he was playing a partin a real drama, for what had happened within the last few moments was so thrilling that he was not himself for some time. The silence was_-not broken, though he waited for the man to come back from the other rooms, At last he advanced himself, He slipped on the crushed candle on the floor, but re- covered and pushed on. The door beyond stood open and he passed into a smaller room and then on to the cramped back yard, ' It was tracking the man by guess, but everything went to show that he had quit ted the. premises, for Davy found traces of grease on the fence where he had scaled it. For some moments he stood there trying to fix in his mind the looks and identity of this night visitor. Why had the name of Hiram Honeybee frightened him away? Why had he rushed off at mention of the name of the missing witness—the man whose testimony at the celebrated trial might have saved the Lane estate to the rightful heirs? Davy climbed the fence where the Un- As it gathered voiume the expectant Boy | known had scaled it, and as he dropped on Spotter saw first the outlines of a man, then the deep-set eyes and attenuated figure to the shoes, lt was the form of one who had seen hard times. The eyes were almost ravenous in their gleam, and the hands were like those of a skeleton though their color was not the same, Davy saw the man apply the match to acandle which he had fished from some- where, and in another moment a permanent light had been obtained. ‘* Now that’s better!’ ejaculated the man. the further side something that glittered caught his eyes. | In a moment he had pounced vpon a ring wi a singular setting—a heart grasped in a hand, Of course he carried his find to the light and looked at it closely. He had never seen a ring like it, and everything went to show that it was an old one for it had been worn a ' long time. ‘*Tt’s something and I will show it to Mrs, Lane,” he decided as he started off. At the first alley, which was very rear, he *‘T don't feel very well any more with a | heard a step, and as he turned, a hand went light about me, but I have to have one now and then. This is a pretty good place for me, but I used to have a better.”’ He smiled as he spoke and ran his hand ‘through the beard that covered the lower part of his face. “Who is that man? In the name of heaven! who have I run across in Captain Paul's den?” wondered the boy shadower. All at once the man picked up the candle and moved toward the very spot where the boy detective stood. - Davy would have forced his body into the wall if it had yielded, but it was obdurate and he could go no further. ‘*My God! who are you?” cried the man, as he stopped with an abruptness which startled the young spotter. ‘‘ What brought you to this house? Don’t you know that I am a desperate man and that I will kill any one who tries to take me back to the old - trap into which I was lured nearly three ?. - > te r » Ma —. * Nearl ie i! { %, ee: | , ‘ Sea ce hat’s what—nearly three years ago!” repeated the man. ‘‘It is true, but you - *¥ three years ago?” echoed the * eal ae y ~ 7 dl = ’ . : ' ; ~ i | te .* d ec 4 : ¢*5a" 'e ie. 2. Ta “om veh. + 3) ‘ § are v _ . a ks of fe a wy :_* _- - wom * *. : Phe Mae 1 ee * J ae bey @ at > : . * A -s ‘“ “* CoA oe Reine Ng “es. 3 ~ y= iets - ‘~ . S. *. tps "Se Ts: ae & =. = | { Ay Yew SPs See «ss eS ‘fe f, -- net aim ri PY around his neck, Before he could cry out his face was driv- en against a man’s breast and a hand was playing hunt in his pockets! ‘*Many thanks!” cried a voice as he was released, ‘‘I guess you won’t show it to anybody now. Youw’re a spy, just as I ex- pected!” -Davy was given a push that sent him headlong down the alley, and when he came to look he found that he had been robbed of the ring! | ‘‘Thav’s what I call lightning recovery,” he remarked with a smile. CHAPTER XIII. THEFT, men. Of course, this witness who knows so much cannot be both dead and living. He may have escaped from the hole and some other man may have fallen into the trap and died there. That is about the only construc- tion I can put upon the mystery, and that is | not very satisfactory. Hiram Honeybee had ' just such a ring as you describe. I think it | was given to him by my husband, some time | before the making of the will. I remember seeing a ring of that description in the old | cherry desk at home, but there may have been another just like it. I don’t know. The mystery is getting very dark—the case more baffling.” Of course Davy Doon had been told about the letter which was found in the ferry- house, and about the words of the policeman who remembered the young girl met there by a young man who answered to the descrip- tion of Jack Jason. He said nothing for a moment, when he exclaimed. ‘‘ It looks like they had captured the girl. I think she is a fly in the web of the con- spirators.”’ ‘ Don’t you think we ought to have older heads in consultation?” asked Nickel Nell. ‘Tf you want them they will be forth- | coming,” said Davy, turning to Mrs, Lane. ‘*T still think I will enmesh the whole lot | and that before they can accomplish their | purpose. Ifthe man I encountered at the | den was Hiram Honeybee he is afraid of the gangand will not want to come forth with the truth while theshadow of their work is about him. My best judgment tells me that Bolivar Brass is the legal head for the plot and that the old scamp will suggest a thousand ways by which they can escape— unless he is cornered himself and made to suffer as he deserves.” ! . Mrs. Lane was silent for a moment, then with a quick start she said to the boy shadower: ‘‘ Trecall the second day of the trial, when aman came to Pascal Point and was closet- ed with Mr. Natty, the claimant. He didn’t stay long, but the next day the case was con ducted in another manner, just as if that man, whoever he was, gave other advice. That person may have been ‘Bolivar Brass and from the description I have had of him from Nell I inclined to the opinion that it was the rascally lawyer. He is capable of anything that is low in cunning, and would not stop to play the meanest hand available.” ‘‘T will see about that old scamp,” replied Spotter Davy. ‘I amsure he is one of the three engaged in this plot to defraud you and Miss Holly and I will look after him.” ‘‘T wish you would. I would like to have a look at him myself—a good look, which I promise you he would never forget.” ‘‘T don’t doubt that,” answered Davy with a smile and a.cunning glance at Nell, *‘He needs more than a look, however. Just now | he pretends he is out of the city, when he is ‘on the ground,’as they say, giving Nat Natty and his companion, Jack, all the advice his head is capable of hatching out.” ‘« He’s a mean old man—a fox that will be i hard to catch; but if any one can catch him itis you, Davy.” . The boy detective received Nell’s compli- ment with a blush and repeated his deter- mination of at once putting Bolivar Brass in a delicate position. ‘‘T think I know where to find him, and Mrs. LANE listened amazed to the story | won’t let any grass grow under my feet. I the young spotter told when he came to her in Nickel Nell’s quarters. m off now.’ \ ¥ Pa - The Boy Spotter was quickly on the side- - She did not know what to say about the | walk, with a well conceived scheme in his identity of the man encountered in the old | active mind. formerly occupied by Captain Paul, the trap singular suicide. ‘*From the way of the name of é/ he > » P ed Se oT a a Pe + ‘ as r : 7 “ cs $ > — ae ~ ha “- ¥ ” 4 Thy 5 aN D $.*."_ 24 lp 2 =) ‘ ~ a > * 7 a A, 4 4 c - ra ~ ore bt ¢ Me says: mt oh : ~ So" - - ve «> at S ee Py ole ”" 5 | nae ae * ann ode Toit ‘o a ° i <> £ + Ay Y’ ; f a 4 “~ + FR ee, Pe" Uae oe : 42 “2 7 ~, . ‘ ‘ 1? t, “Fe eo ° - t= — >, we ‘ee * - : “SP — =~ aoa -» » = + aes = - a OL B a Dr eae Hiram Honeybee he may | thoughts of looking for Holl have been that person,” the old lady inferred, | made his way thither and foun _. Seem to doubt it. I believe you are in the | ‘‘ But, I can’t reconcile his appearance there | ly deserted. | _ The house 4. it apparen p , hd : ded - » | x * *. "4 ~ a > « hd © re . & fg . aT tlle | . iG | } \" BR ° lat > b ® _ Sac = Si* ? be ms a ¢ ” ’ 5 ein > 3 | ” - . “er -¢ o + ‘ | 2. ® be Ya, t a . . : ‘ ef ’ J e 7: * % i into which he had been drag- | ged, owing to the breaking of the slat of the he started at the mention | shutter, was not hard to find, and giving up ane ) pet then, a ee eg & : na . . » 5% ‘ 4