Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 897 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

16 He turned and went down the steps, * You were mistaken, The room is empty,” he said to the woman who,came from a Jower room, ** Impossible!” *“*Go up and see,” A search told that Nat had spoken the truth and fora full minute the woman stood in the room perplexed and pale, ** Maybe Jack came and took her away,” sug- gested Nat, ‘‘He hasn’t been here, What, don’t you know what happened to-day?’ “T> Jack?” éé Yes,” ‘* What was it?” ‘* He was badly hurt in a runaway. He was thrown out of a cab which collided with a run- away team and is now at Bellevue Hospital.” This news seemed to paralyze Nat, é look- ed incredulously at the woman and then said: ‘‘ All this is news to me, I haven’t heard a word of it,” ‘*T thought you would be the first person to know of it. They don’t think he will live through the night.” ‘* Is he conscious?” ‘* He hasn’t been since the accident,” A singular light seemed to leap up in the man’seyes! It was as if he was glad it was so for he turned away and shut his hands as he looked toward the door and saying something which the woman did not understand, passed out. or the open air he stopped and seemed to study. **In the hospital and dying? One dead al- ready and the other nearly so? Things may be coming my way after all,” With this he started off and in a little while was out of sight, Half an hour later he turned u the doors of Bellevue Hospital, parlor and at his own table, **T don’t see how I can suffer much by the death of Jack,” he muttered. ‘‘If he would oblige me by dying without talking he would be of great service to me at the close of. his life. 1 can face this mad woman and the girl, too, and keep what I’ve won, Yes, I can do that.” He was talking thus to himself when his door opened and a servant who had come home dur- ing his brief absence came in, ‘* What is it, Hervery?”’ Hervery, who was a man with a youthful face and easy tread, came on and leaning toward Nat with one hand resting on the table, said in low voice: ‘* A man was here to see you awhile ago.” ** ‘What was he like?” **He was about the queerest looking man I ever saw, He was rather tall with wild eyes that were as restless as a dervish, and while he talked he kept wrapping his fingers round each other like I never saw a man do before,” ay Natty seemed to lose breath. He turned pale, too much for him, ‘‘ What did he want, Hervery? You asked him of course,” ‘*He said he wanted to pay a debt. the document, the right one he said, and he wanted to settle an old score which has been running for more than three years,” ** He said that, did he?” ** Yes,” ** Well, Vl see him later, night, Hervery.” ‘he servant walked out, but Natty sat rigid in the chair staring at the door as if he expect- again, not at ut in his own That’s all. | | Davy Doon’s Big’ Bounce. papers, which, I presume, moldered in the dark flitting figure which had a familiar look and the and which kept the unknown man company.” longer he watched it the more he believed that he was on tne track of the man who had robbed ‘* The unknown man?” echoed Davy. ‘‘ Was Bolivar Brass of the important papers, the underground chamber tenanted when. you He tracked this eege down through the dark | were there?” shades of more than one street and lost him | ‘* There was a skeleton in the darkness when I near Captain Paul’s den near Gotham Cvurt. was placed there. Itis there yet, I suppose, but ‘* That is the man; there can be no mistake,” | Iam here, Now let me thrust this will into | remarked the boy, and as be turned at the sound | Nat Natty’s face!” | This description of his caller seemed to be | der. | | ferret looked at the man as he ran his hand into He has | his bosom and drew out a paper which be held Good- ! holding it for a purpose, Hiram Honeybee had been found |} Mrs, Lane sprung forward and looked into the pinched face a few moments, and then turning to the boy ferret, she cried out: ‘* There is no fraud here! This is the true of a footstep hesaw before him a woman at whom he sprung with the quickness of a cat. He was looking into che eyes of Mrs. Lane, and when the old lady recognized the lad she turned white, ana looked at him, unable fora moment t> speak, Hiram Honeybee. Itis the missing witness!” ‘** You must not be seen in this part of the city | ‘* But ‘“* missing” no longer, thank Heaven! at this hour,” cried the boy, I have bided my time, I felt it would come, ‘Ay, but I must, Davy. You don’t know | Now, let me see the man—the last of the what brings me to this spot. The ‘letter that | three.” came mysteriously to my table brings me here and I believe I amto meet the man we have hunted these long years—Hiram Honeybee,” The letter was produced and the boy detective read it in the light that fell from a window in the alley. { ‘Come! We will see this man together,” said he when he turned to her, handing back | the letter, ‘* [now believe the man I shadowed | to this place awhile ago is the same person, If he isn’t Hiram Honeybee, then that man is as | dead as a herring.” | They went in, passing through the shades that grew black as ‘they advanced, and at last Davy opened the latch of the low door which had on many an occasion opened to Captain Paul; then he and Mrs, Lane went inside. Darkness greeted them, aud a clock some dis- tance from the place began to strike nine. A door was heard to swing open in the gloom and | **T see you now. I havetracked you°’through shadow and sunlight, I bave of late followed you | from pillar to post, Hiram Honeybee, I saw | you rob old Bolivar Brass and—” ‘You saw my trick that time, did you?” laughed the man in thelight, ‘‘ It was a pretty one, eh? Well, I had to do something to get | even. I never saw a crime that did not blun- Why, what do you think the old cur- mudgeon did, Mrs, Lane?” some one called out; Tbe woman was speechless, and the It is the bright morning of another Gay | ‘Lhe door of the elegant house occupied so long (by Nat Natty stands. wide and a:policeman ig | seen walking back and forth in the hall, What has occurred? Davy Doon, the Boy Spotter, stands near the table in the parlor and a man who is seated in the chair near by with something at his wrists that reflects back the light of the sun, looks at another person who has taken up his station over against the wall, from whence he is looking at the occupant of the cbair with a triumphant smile, “*T want to show this to you, Mr, Nat,” this person says, breaking away and coming for- ward, ‘* Perhaps you have seen it before, Don’t you think it a little strange that Old Brass didn’t burn it? You thought he did, no doubt, but here it is—the will with the name of Hiram Honeybee attached in his own handwriting. It never passed out of the old fellow’s hands, but he kept it until I relieved bim of it one night, as that boy yonder will tell you if you ask him,” Nat Natty looks at the detective, but asks no questions, He realizes that the game is at an end, Nat Natty reflected over the past ina felon’s cell long before the sun went down, He heard while be reflected that the patient of Bellevue Hospital was dead, and he knew that the stern hand of justice was about to close on him through the testimony of Hiram Honey- bee and the work of Detective Davy, Holly Lane, whose escape from the house to which she had been taken by Jack Jason from the ferry we have noted, turned up soon after- ward and by the merest chance ran across Nickel Nell who escorted her in triumph home where there was a happy reunion between her and Mrs, Lane. Time came when the man who had profited by the greatest bit of villainy ever perpetrated against an old lady anda fair young girl],received the full sentence of the law and, stripped by his disguises, for he was an impostor and not | the real nephew, Nat Natty went from the cell in the Tombs to Sing Sing. Then everything hidden came out and the world knew that the will which kad won the young | Jersey contest was a fraudulent one, that the | signature had been forged by Jack Jason, while Bolivar Brass engineered the contest and Nat i ; Natty was put forward as the rightful heir, Why, instead of destroying tke will which | Hiram Honeybee, whose story was enough to the rascals stole so that they might copy the | settle the whole matter, for he witnessed the handwriting and forge the names on it, he kept | true document which was produced in court and it—Heaven knows what for. I believe he was | proven to be the right one, produced a profound I believe that he would | Lanegatotd) and acheer that shook the old build- have used it as a club on the man who calls ing greeted the righteous decision. bimself Nat Natty when that ; villain failed to ** We owe this to you,” said Mrs. Lane, taking be bled by bim any longer, _ This is the will,” Davy’s hands, ‘* But for you we would not have ‘* Are you here?” ‘*T have come,” replied Lucy Lane, here in answer to the letter you sent,” ‘*T thought you would come, I have been waiting. Be surprised at nothing. I will strike a light.” The flame of a match leaped into being along the wall and tre next moment the woman from Jersey Jeaned forward and then uttered a cry which rung through the old trap. Aman stood before Davy and Mrs, Lane—a man who looked haggardand thin, but the eyes a bright and the hands long and skeleton- ike, He had not seen the boy shadow, ‘*T need not ask whether you recognize me or not,” he went on. ‘‘Il am Hiram Honeybee, Your young detective has not found me, I be- lieve be has no idea where | am,” ‘*T am up in the light, “Tbe will?” cried Lucy Lane, springing for- | syeceeded and—” ward, but the man waved her off as he went on, ** T guess you owe a little to that man,” was ** You don’t get to touch it yet,” be said. “I)| the reply and the Boy Spotter pointed at Hiram shall keep it till can show it to the man who | Honeybee who was being congratulated by old profited by the fight—the rascal who to this | friends, * ’Tis true that I ferreted him out, but day believes that it was burned by Bolivar | what if he had sealed bis lips?” Brass, the legal brains of the fraud. He Stayed In course of time Holly, now an heiress, found in the background but heconducted theyillainy, | g jover, and rumor says tbat in the near future conducted it from this city, He is dead now, | she will fit out a young married couple whose and’the other one lies in the? hospital dying. | names are Nell cat Davy. But one is left and he is the greatest scoundrel ‘T's allright at last,” says Davy. ‘ Hiram of them all, He is the man who got the money | Honeybee is fcund, old Mrs, Lane is happy, and and who swore to a tissue of lies in open court, Holly is the nicest young lady in this broad ed to see that visitor come back. | “IT know him,” his lips said. ‘ I know this | terrible creature. He said he would come back no matter where we sent him. He has kept his word, That man wasn’t flesh and blood. He | was Hiram Honeybee only in name, but he wasn’t living, He was the ghost of the man who is hunted for by Lucy Lane,” He rose and crossed the room, Passing up- stairs he remained away for twenty minutes when he came back and sat down again. An hour passed, ! When Hervery came back to the parlor, hav- pee wre. , ap ee _ pees 8 show him this will. 1 will stand up before | Jand. And, f all, Nellis getting prettier | him and tell him that Hirum Honeybee is found = par i fi : . at last—that the man who was decoyed to this city three years ago for a purpose still lives though he was for awhile among the rats and wrote his name on the wall and left behind him a few papers which were intended to tell those who came after him, if be died there, that he was Hiram Honeybee, the victim of the plot. * Bat I escaped. ing heard a strange noise there, he found it emp- ty and the gas turned low. every day and I’m all O. K.” THE END. CHAPTER XVIII. EVERYTHING “oO, K,” Davy Doon, the young detective, was still on the trail which since his adventure in the cab had taken a strange turn. By the merest chance he had caught sight of a Next Haur-Divs Lrerary, No. 898! Deadwood \Dick, Jr.’s, Double Drive. I Jeft behind me thoge BY EDWARD L. WHEELER.