Beadle's Dime Library No. 146 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

~_ ! ; : ; } t a we a 7 aa ee Se ee SSS we eat Sess Se as sich, an’ axes no impetent questions, do ye riind:” me the old woman was dead—she died last t! | ‘Is it possible? Well, now, ye r’ally astonish The Doctor Detective. a ee _ when the lid was lowered upon the coffin to thrust the ends of the rope with which his me; but, now that I put me mind to it, 1 re- | mimber that I didn’t see her this morning. It was about ten minutes ago that the young lady came and knocked at me dure. ‘The top of the morning to ye,’ she sed, whin I answered the knock; ‘I do be afther goin’ away an’ I’m not coming back ag’in, an’ as ye have been very kind to me mother an’ meself would ye be after not feeling offended if I made ye a prisent of the few things in the rooms? ‘God knows [| wouldn’t,’sed I, glad enough to get the laste taste of anything these hard times, ‘but I'll | take them an’ thank ye kindly, too.’ quite -welkim,’ she sed, ‘an’ I wish that they was more for yees.’ ‘ Don’t say a wourd,’ sed I, ‘the smallest favors thank aes received.’ *‘Good-by,’ sed she. ‘'Good-by,’ I, an’ away she wint.” ‘*Crackey! I wish that I had a-seen her!” the boy exclaimed, evidently disappointed. ‘*Oh, musha!” cried the woman, suddenly. ‘Shure me head is upside down an’ I’ve lost me mimory intirely! Here’s a letther that she was afther laving for yees, Master Hoppergrass,” and with a great deal of dignity she produced the letter from the ket of her gown. Tue boy opened it eagerly, and a ten-dollar bill dropped out, and fluttered to the floor. “Oh, tare an’ ’ounds! will ye look at that?’ Mrs. Mulcarthy cried, ! The boy picked up the money and then read the brief note that accompanied it: “Pay the doctor and keep the change for your- self as aslight reward for your many acts of kind- ness. Your friend, Dura ELpon.”’ He read it aloud, and great was Mrs. Mul- carthy’s astonishment. “Tin dollars to yees an’ the things to me! Has she come inter a fortune, do ye think?’ “Gosh! if I ain’t a-going to find her!” and the boy raced madly out into the court. CHAPTER VI. THE DELIVERY. For five days the golden coffin, like the fa- mous one of Mahomet, renowned in story, hung tween heaven and earth. Five days of lingering torture, if the sus- icion that the disguised chief of the league en- rtained was true, that is, that the drug was worthless. And, oh, what pen could depict the agony that a helpless human being would suffer shut up in such a cage? What mattered it that it was made of gold! Lead or iron would not have been worse. , During the five days, at frequent intervals, the members of the White Band had stolen into the damp vault and had peered curiously down the well-hole. They bad an idea that they ght hear shrieks, prayers and curses risi m.the depths of the & my abyss, so that a stranger, not knowing the source of the noise woud be apt to pe that the pit led strai ht to the imfernal ay and that the Geqyats cries came from the unhappy souls condemn to everlasting torments. Bus not a sound rose from the hole during the whole of the five days—that is, as far as any member of the band knew, and they kept pretty careful wa too; not even a groan of an , or the final cry as the body parted its soul came to their hearing. The chief, however, explained the matter mepequey enough. Beit neted that one and ll of the band sceuted the idea of the poison; the tale was altogether too tough for their be- om He reasoned py the weight rs abe softy uare and true upon the mecae hat aleeaet entirely cut off the supply of air, and then what air did reach the imprisoned man must be full of the foul vapors that were in the depths of the pit, and whose existence could be distinctly discerned by any one who took the trouble to lean over the and sniff at the air which rose from it. If the prisoner had had free access to the air—all that he could breathe—in a very short time, indeed, the me- phitic vapors must have exerted their unwhole- some influence upon him. So the leader of the White Band explained to his followers that it was not strange no sound ascended from the hole, inasmuch as the man had, in all proba- bility, suffocated in a very short time af- ter being lowered into the gloomy depths. At the end of five days the chiel, satisfied that the spy, who had by accident learned the terrible secret which brought him into the clutches of the masked mem, was powerless sow for either good or evil, gave erders to have the coffin hoisted up again. Once more the golden caskét rase to earth and ted in its former position. was deposi With eager hands the members of the band d, anxious to look hastened to remove the upon their victim. But when they came to é this work they yande a discovery that greatly alarmed them ip first. The prisoner, whether by accident or Geigy. ef conrse no one could say with any de- Erwe ol ceria ty witch is was), bad contrived ‘Yer | ssl wrists were tied in between the cover and the box so that the lid could not come down square and tight. By this maneuver a fair supply of air was a The chief, ever suspicious, was alarmed when he discovered this, which he did before the lid was removed, but when, with great exertions, the heavy weight was lifted off, there, in the golden coffin, lay the victim safe enough; cold and still, and yet his death had not, apparently, been a painful one, for his face was not in the least distorted, as it surely would have been if he had died in dreadful agony. Indeed, as he lay in the coffin he did not look like one cold in the embrace of death, but rather like a may en- joying a pleasant sleep whom a touch would waken in an instant. So perfect was the illusion that the chief reached out his hand and touched his cheek, but no warm flush of life did he feel; only the cold clamminess that told of death, Tron-nerved as he was, the touch made him shudder, for the sensation he experienced was entirely pry oieeg the body was as cold as though it had been kept upon ice. “* He’s dead, sure enough, eh, captain?” quoth one of the band, “Oh, yes; there isn’t much doubt about it, although he may be in a trance,” and the speaker looked at the cvuffin and its contents ver suspicicney or reasons which he could not explain the man had taken a great dislike to the stranger whom he had made his victim, Dislike was hardly the word for it, either, for he not only etticlonced aversion but fear; some instinct seemed to warn him that the doctor’s star was destined to exert an evilinfluence over his own, and even now that the man lay before him, motionless in death’s clutches, powerless for either good or evil, still the sentiment of fear lingered in the mind of the executioner, The lifelike appearance of the victim puzzled him, and he knew not how to account for it. He had seen a great many dead men in his time, but never one that looked like this. Then to his mind came the memory of the drug which he had permitted the man to take, and he was half-inclined to curse his folly at yielding to the request. Instead of a poison it might be that it was a powerful narcotic which would produce a death-like sleep, and from which, after a lapse of time, the partaker would wake to life again, unharmed. “‘T have read of such a th a hundred times,” he muttered to himself, as he gazed with doubtful eyes upon the strongly-marked and resolute-looking face of Diamond. ‘‘ But it is not possible! I have asked medical men and they all say that no such drug exists, but it may, though, for all that, for these far eastern climes, with al] their apparent barbarism, pos- sess some secrets that we, with our boasted knowledge have never succeeded in penetrating. Shall I e my knife and with one vigorous blow make sure that he will never waken to life in} or quite a while he pondered over the ques- tion. To use the knife would be to make sure of the victim, but then he would lose the sum which he was to receive for the body, and it was a pretty large one, too, for he had secured a first-class customer—an odd, eccentric old physician, who, for such a “subject” as this one, had agreed to pay a really extraordinary price. No respectable physician would accept the body of a murdered man. But, while he was debating this weighty sub- ect in his mind, a sudden idea came to him. ven if the man was in a trance, it was so much like death that the doctor would be pretty cer- tain, in his eagerness to examine the case, to use his knife, and so death would come, any- wa + This thought decided the chief at once. Two hundred dollars was the sum which had been agreed upon, and that, even to the powerful leader of the White Band, was an acceptable sum. “Get the bag ready and dump him in,” he commanded. We will get our ducats for this one, although we did miss it on the old ‘ stiff’ that we went to so much trouble about.” ‘Yes, curse the luck!” growled one of the gang, a big, burly fellow, who was playing a most prominent part in the operation of stow- ing the body away in the bag which had been brought. ‘‘Who would have thought that rich coves like them, with all their millions, would squeal at forking over a hundred thou- sand or so for the ‘stiff’ of the old man, and then they could have stuck it in the gay old tomb that they fixed for him down in the country.” ‘Yes, it seemed a sure thing. If I hadm’t thought so, I wouldn’t have run the risk and gone to the trouble we did. But, these rich uffers are a set of hogs; all they care for is their money-bags,” the chief remarked, sourly. ‘If you have noticed, boys, all these big schemes of ours have turned out badly. There was the boy business that we calculated would pan out ten to twenty thousand aol and nary adime did we ever get out of it. The youngster died , on our hands, and the police hounded the men | bushel of money our men will be nab who did the job so that they couldn’t pick up a decent living—drove them off to the country, and in ‘ aes ’ that house down on the shore they got a bellyful of shot instead of plunder, and so we lost the best two men in our band. Then there was the scheme to flood Europe with forged notes; the whole thing goes right to smash at the very beginning, before our agents could get a chance to do a-stroke of work, and the result will be that instead of pulling ina and b we shali be obliged to raise five or ten thousand dollars for their trial, and to get them out of jail afterward, for they are certain to be con- victed.” A general chorus of exclamations of regret came from the members of the band at this an- nouncement, for all understood that this meant short commons for them for some time, unless they happened to strike in on some rich lead, which did not seem to be very probable just at present, From the foregoing remarks the reader will understand that the White Band was about as. owerful an association of ruffians as had ever en banded together. Headed by a man who really had a wonderful genius for organizing and directing such a league, and comprising about all the rascals of rote in the country, most of the great crimes of the past few years could be traced directly to them. Body-snatching for a ransom; em g children and beautiful girls for the same o t; threatening the latter with a fate worse than death if their friends did not come down with the money demanded as the price of their re- lease. Hence it can be und why such men, with so many crimes upon their heads should be so eager to take vengeance upon the man whom they believed to be in possession of the secret of their league, why they should be determined at any cost to stop bis mouth so that. he should not reveal the knowledge which he had gained to the world. They believed that. their lives depended upon their speedy and de- cisive action. About ten o’clock that night an express wagon drove up to the door of a pretty little cottage situated close to the banks of the Har- lem river in one of the upper wards of the me- hm he plate attached to the door of the house bore the name of Daniel Doramus. The driver of the wagon and his two com- eye jumped out and dragged a long box rom the wagon, then rung the bell. The owner appe “CC. O. D. two ,” said the ae all right he box up-stairs so I . ght; carry the box u so I can see the contents,” replied the owner of the cot- e. nd so the body was delivered, CHAPTER VII. THE SAVANTS, Doctor DANIEL DORAMUS was about as well- known asany man in New York. In his day he had one of the best practices in the city had amassed a large fortune, then had retired from active business to enjoy himself in his fa~ vorite pursuits, | The doctor was a remarkable-looking man, being fully six feet high, gaunt in figure, more bones than flesh, an oe having rominent features, large nose, high cheek- Saal but small y eyes, hid underneath enormously rotrading eyebrows, and the face being fringed with an independent pair of iron- gray whiskers, each particular hair of which seemed to assert its individuality above the others by detaching itself from its fellows and seein Ugwire ht out, it gave him a close resem- blance to an enormous gray ees For some five years—in fact ever since re- tirement, Mr. Doramus had devoted himself to a number of experiments, for he could not con- tent himself with a life of idleness; finally he had concentrated all his efforts upon et ticular object. Day and night he had ied and toiled, and now, at last, he fancied that he was on the eve of success. Alli he lacked was a subject” to experimentupon. Now, toa med- ical man who knew the “ropes” as well as the old doctor, to procure a “subject” was not a difficult matter, for medical colleges must be supplied and, although the law is a to be strict upon this matter, yet it is a well-known fact that students of the ‘‘saw-bone trade” do not suffer for want of opportunities to experi- ment ‘‘on the human form divine.” The doctor knew exactly where to go, but to procure the article he wanted was difficult, for no common subject, such as usually gave satis- faction to the “trade,” would do for him; he wanted an A No, 1 article, and to procure such he was obliged to pay the rather stiff figure which the ‘‘ ghouls ” demanded. tp pan his at last, though; it was safe!y deposi on the marble table in his stucy stretched out om its back, ready for the exper.- ment, hundred do JOO “S com (E ¢ er (E(0)