Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 932 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

yo ae en, =a ~* ° “he & ae ee ee ——————— > —- Se ee - tin Om o—— > le y - - oh ge tem, ~~ —— _ mes —_ - - Fie ~ x... ee ee LD — a a ee epee TP ye = — {Oo ee? ener Te _— —% Stee * es eer : a | ed if he has come back to New York he —_—_——— ; weeks, if you will leave the country and pledge yourself not to return within three years.” . “Vil do it, Nat—glad to get the ticket- of-leave!”’ “Then, at our rext meeting, you must take the pledge before the band, and if you break it and return, I will have you arrested for the murder of the escaped convict who was my prisoner here, and whom you intended to release, as you told him you would, and at the same time to betray us.” “Tll take ther pledge, don’t come back until gray.” “All right; if you do.” New York Nat left the prisoner and, go- ing to a well-furnished room on another floor, begart to change to a different look- ing person from what he was when he en- tered the house. When he went out, an hour after, no one would ever have recognized the hand- some youth, so completely had he dis- cuised himself. CHAPTER III. THE SHADOWER. “Yes, Ive got to go slow, for New York Nat’s got ther keenest eye I ever saw, and he seemed fairly to look through and through me, “Tll wait and see how long he stays in the house, and if any of the others of the band go in or come out.” It was the shadower who thus mused, the same one who had said he intended to make money by betraying the band of Boy Ferrets to the Secret Service offi- cers. He seemed to know well that they had zained the envy, if not the ill will, of the police‘by their secret work, and all that they had accomplished, while they so well kept their identity hidden as to baffle the most astute men on the force. For over an hour he waited; then he Saw some one come out of the house. “That’s not Nat; but I'll see if I know him,” and the shadower crossed over so as to meet him face to face. But again he got a look which, though through spectacles, actually seemed to thrill him, and as he went on he mut- tered: “It was New York Nat, for that look betrayed him! I never saw any one else who could look like that. *“ But who would know him, all rigged up as he is like a German professor? “Ah! He has stopped, and I must make myself searce about here, for now it is twice that he has seen me and that is once too Many times. “ But he’ll never know me in my dis- guise of a Dago, with a fruit push cart— netmuch he won't! ‘He seems to be watching me, and to get him on my track is to be run down, as sure as he suspects me of shadowing him. “Ah! There comes a hack. and get out of this.” He had just turned the corner and discerned a cab coming toward him; so at once he ran to meet it, found it had no passenger, and, springing in, called out: “Turn about quick and drive for the Forty-second Street Ferry with all speed.” The driver did so, and the cab was just turning the nearest corner when New York Nat appeared at the other street. “Ah! I was right, for he has run off in that hack, and I cannot catch him now; but it was Sykes beyond a doubt! IT'll put the band at onee upon his track, for and you bet I my hair turns you know the consequences Vill stop it } New York Nat’s Drop. means mischief, and the Unknown Fer. rets are not ready to be betrayed yet.” Meanwhile, the shadower was glancing back out of the little glass window in the rear of the vehicle, and had seen New York Nat turn the corner. “He’s on to me, sure, for he was going in the other direction; but this dodge Saved me, and in the disguise of a Dago l’ll be safe, even from his never-failing eyes. ‘Now to go to a costumer’s and get a& make-up that will transform me into an Italian, and fortunately my six months’ stay in Italy enabled me to learn a few choice oaths .and expres- sions of the Dagos.”’ The hackman did not drive to the ferry, as at ‘irst ordered, his passenger telling him he found he was too late to catch the train he expected to, and so he went to a costumer’s upon Union Square. There the shadower made what pur- chases he needed, a wig of jet black hair, false eyebrows to make his own black and heavy, a velvet jacket, corduroy pants, stout boots and a striped woolen shirt. His next stopping place was at a down- town retail and supply fruit trader’s, who kept peddlers out on the street. Of him he bought a push cart and a Iot of fruit, with a night lamp. A short search found him a boarding house up-town, which he said he wanted for a friend, and procuring his license to peddle fruit, he sought his new quar- ters, carrying his sailor’s kit along from the hotel where he had been stopping. Telling the landlady of the house that he would wait and ‘let his friend in, he set to work had completely whom he expected soon, “making up’ and soon disguised himself. When the landlady saw him, an hour after, she failed to recognize in the “Dago”’ the “gentleman” who had en- gaged the room, her best one, for “a friend.” Karly the next morning the push cart was delivered, with a lot of choice fruits upon it, and after breakfast the shadower began to patrol the neighborhood near the home of the Unknown Ferrets, He stood at.a corner where the most people passed, and which commanded a view of the Ferrets’ den, so that he could see all who went into or left the resi- dence, and he smiled grimly as he mut- tered: “Now, New York Nat, I'll soon know all about you and your Secret Boy Po- lice, aS you used to eall yourselves; then Ill sell you out, taking good care not to incriminate myself in doing SO. “Then I'll get my revenge, and a price, too.” He had hardly uttered the words when a young girl came along, saw the tempt- ing fruit, halted and bought quite a supply. “"EFhat was a very beautiful girl!’” mut- tered the pretended Dago. Then, as he saw her ascend the steps of the Ferrets’ retreat, he cried: ‘Why, she has gone in there, and she has a key, too! “T never saw the face Queen—none of us ever did, save New York Nat, for she always appeared masked\ before us; but, as she has gone in there, she has betrayed herself, big of our Girl “Yes, she is the Girl Queen of the Unknown Ferrets! “Ha! ha! ha! I am doing well, in- deed, as a shadower,” and he seemed ex- ceedingly well pleased with his discoy- ery. CHAPTER IV. THE MBETING. What a motley crew it was that gath- ered in the lair of the Unknown Ferrets 3 - ————e a regular meeting of the ———E — . -_ —_ —— — the night of the clan. It was an assemblage such as can only be found in the great American city of New York. There were all sizes, ages and condi- tions of youths -boys who had been born in a cellar and reared in the slums; boys who had been born in elegant homes and nursed in luxury, but whom uncertain circumstances had brought to the slums, or whose own evil deeds had been their undoing. But, under the influence of their young leader, and their Vailed Mascot, or Queen, unknown and a mystery to them all, they were on the road to perfect re- demption and reformation, and that only two of these gamins, in three whole years, had proven a traitor to their cause and their comrades, proved how well that redemption had worked. They were secret workers, and, though dodging the police themselves, they were doing the very work which only too often the officers of the law failed to do, for reasons they could not have explained. There were bootblacks, telegraph and telephone messengers, newsboys, hall- boys in hotels, wharf rats, a sailor or two, a couple of young Chinamen who had a laundry, one clerk at Police Head- quarters, and “Loafer Ferrets,” whose duty it was to patrol the city in search of crime, crooks and suspects. They had come together in their lair at the call of New York Nat, their young cuptain, and in the assembly room of the house they awaited his erders, seated in Silence, facing him and their Girl Mascot, who was masked. They had assembled, one, two and three at a time, and had admitted themselves with pass keys, which all had; while Guard, the dog sentinel, had met all at the door to welcome them and see that there were no impostors in the crowd. But, shrewd as they were, they had not discovered a foe in the Italidn fruit vender, who, with his push cart, was near their lair, a lantern revealing his tempt- ing display, while some of them had been led to halt and purchase from him. But he had his eye upon the door of the long deserted and ill-omened resi- dence, and counted each one who went in there. He saw the Girl Queen enter first, then the others, and he recognized some who had been memibers when he was one of the clan, before he ‘had turned traitor. “ Well, if those two Heathen Chinee haven’t gone in there I'll give up!” he ex- claimed, as two young Chinamen who had bought bananas from him had been seen to ascend the steps of the mansion and pass inside. ‘“T suppose they go as music pupils, as the sign on the door reads; but I should hate to hear them sing.” Next, a young Hebrew came along, halted, bought a bag of peanuts, and was seen to go into the house. “What, a Jew, too? “The band of Ferrets is reaching out. Next I'll expect to see that the band has roped in a nigger, for they’ve got mighty near every race on earth sinee I left "em. “But I've got ’em down fine, and T'll get a big price when I sell them out. Yes, and have a sweet revenge, tao, Mis- ter New York Nat.” While the pretended Italian was talking to himself the Ferret clan had assembled in the mansion, and, called to order by Captain Nat, they had transacted the regular business of the meeting, made their reports, been paid their weekly wages by the Girl Queen, who was treas- urer and secretary, and then ces heard a | KS.C rot m ‘CO 7 ' :