Beadle's Dime Library No. 146 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

. a ee 8 The Doctor Detective. ee ee ee ee judge you are in full possession of all your senses, although I must admit that i am utterly at a loss to account for your strange language, or to explain it except under the supposition that you are laboring under a hallucination, ” ** Enough of this trickery!” cried the visitor, ee y, ‘‘Let us not fence with words; and, in tne first place, let me set your mind at reat. I do not come to do you any*damage. Heaven knows [ have suffered wrongs enough to make me seek for revenge, but I do not; I am content to ket the dead past bury its dead. You ruined all‘my young life; you could not make reparation for that even i a were so inclined; but I, who know your vile nature so well, understand only too well that it would be ‘but the hight of folly to expect you todo what was right when you could just as easily do wrong, 80 perverse is your nature. ou plunged me down into a perfect hell, taking advantage of the love which, in my fond ig- norance, I imagined would raise me to heaven. The rio good deed you ever did, as far as my knowledge extends, was when you deserted me and fled like a thief in the night. You left me to ruin, d and death, but the Great God that rules our destinies did not design that for my love I should suffer the torments of the damned. With His broad hand He raised me from thy low estate and gave me back again to the life from which your destroying touch had lucked me, And then, when | was once more the sunshine, when i had means to enable me to use the machinery of the law, which is pe he to move for justice, but which m reality seldom stirs except when impelled by gold, 1 searched for you. But not for ven- eance, although I had cause enough. With the devilish skill, which is so greatin you that at times it really seems like genius, you evaded the search, until at last 1 gave up the effort, trusting to the chance of accident to bring us together again. And I did not trust in vain. Accident did favor me after an elapse of ten years. I met i in the street, recognized you immediately although you have changed some- what, and actually look younger than when ou insnared me some thirteen years ago, caused you to be tracked, and now that yon are fairly hunted down, I come in person to make my demand. Your disguise was skillfully chosen. In the humble, obscure doctor, Alco- nor Diamond, who would recognize the once rate g | favorite of fortune, who was wont to carry it with so high a hand? But the chase is ended; I am here, either as a friend or a foe, as ou choose to have it. First, I will aes hen, if you think it wise to brave me, I will demand. John Frenier, give me back my child!” If the doctor was affecting the ignorance which his face expressed, then in truth he was a most wonderful actor, for he was doing it to the life. “Madam, it does not seem possible to me that you are in any way disordered in your mind, for, apart from your story, I cannot dis- cover any evidence of mental disorder; there- fore the only explanation of your singular con- duct is that you are laboring under a terrible mistake,” Diamondsaid, with slow and measured accent, his old calm, half-sorrowful way return- ing to him. he lady shook her head energetically, and firmly compressed her rich red lips together; she was not to be put off in this way. ** Have patience and let your own judgment decide,” the doctor continued. ‘I am not the person you take me to be; I have never seen you before in my life, and thirteen years ago, the date you fix upon as the time of our meet- ing, I was nothing but a boy, barely eighteen; I am just thirty-one now; and in this very house and neighborhood I have lived for the last ten years. ‘‘ And that is the reason why I have not been able to find you!” she exclaimed. “I did not for a moment dream that * would be con- tent with a meek and lowly station; I looked to see you flaunting it with the best of the land, as was always your custom—a vulture tricked out in eagle plumes.” ‘‘Madam, will you not listen to reason?’ the doctor plead, still patient; ‘‘examine the evi- deyce I produce that I am notthe man you take me to be.” “What evidence?” | ‘The testimony of the neighbors hereabouts that I have resided here for the time I have mentioned.” * There isn’t any doubt in my mind in regard to that; Tam willing to accept that statement for truth. It was twelve years since we — —since the night when you fled—deserted me— left me to go straight to the hottomless pit, as you doubtiess I should, for I was with- out money or friends, and what door opens in this world for the unfortunate girl with the sus- of a taint upon her name except the ded portals that belt the gates of hell?? “The facts in regard to my life before that time can be easily ascertained,” the doctor de- elared, still endeavoring to reason calmly with the woman. “ Speak; I will listen!” And the simple sen- tence carried with it the implication, ‘‘Go on, _ oe and ses how quick I will rend the lie to pieces, that you are concocting.” ‘*T commenced practice as a physician in this house, ten years ago, just after my graduation.” ‘* And where did you study?” **At a private medical college in St. John’s, New Brunswick.” ‘* And by writing thither I can easily ascer- tain whether your story is true or not?” The doctor was silent for a moment; for the first time a aggre ie | of his position occurred to him, The institution to which he referred had been destroyed during the great fire which a few years ago nearly devastated the city of St. John’s; it had never been reéstablished, and the chances were that not a single soul connected with it could be readily found. Briefly he explained these facts, adding that his diploma would show that his statement was true, ‘Oh, you are the arch-fiend of deception him- self!” she cried, in contempt. ‘* How nicely events occur to suit your purpose! You have the diploma, as if such a thing was not easily forged! But, there is one proof of your identity which non cannot destroy. Remove your coat and roll up the shirt-sleeve of your right arm!”’ The doctor started, surp —amazed, and a hot flush came over his pale face. ‘‘Why do you wish me to do that?” he at length demanded—the words falling slowly from his lips. ‘You do not dare to doit and then attempt to deny that you are the man [ say you are, for upon the inner part of your arm, Just below the elbow, pricked in with India-ink, is the symbol of two serpents twined together, with uplifted es and threatening jaws. Come, sir, pro- cee ‘It is useless; there is such a mark upon my arm,” the doctor replied, with icy calmness, ‘and ver, [am not the man you say. My name is Alecenor Diamond; I have never borne any other, and I know you not.” ‘“‘It is to be war then?” the woman exclaimed, rising in heat. ‘‘Of what avail is it for me to own to a lie?” “It is my child I want, John Frenier!” she cried, impulsively, suddenly changing her tone and extending her arms imploringly—‘‘ the helpless little thing that you stole from me, and for whom I have vainly searched for twelve long years! Oh, are you so utterly bad as to attempt to keep a mother from her young? I am rich now; I can give my darling every- thing. Lam powerful, too, for the great ones of the land are my friends, and they will back my quarrel. Refuse to listen to my appeal, and, by the Heaven that made me, I vow that I will crush you to the dust though you were ten times the cunning devil that you are!” ‘‘Woman, will you not believe my words?” Diamond cried, springing to his feet, greatly agitated. ‘‘I know you not, I tell you I know ou not!” ‘*Ten days, ten days to yield my darling, and he refase, then look to yourself!” And with this threat the woman departed. CHAPTER IX. A LIBERAL OFFER, Ovt into the court Hoppergrass rushed, much to the astonishment of Mistress Mulcarthy. ‘* Heaven be good to us!” she cried; “the bye iscrazy! The tin dollars has put him clean out of his mind!” But Hoppergrass still retained full control of his senses and shrewdly suspected that some — mystery lay at the bottom of this strange air. Why should the girl hurry off in this man- ner, and what batt bocedue at the body of the mother? The more he puzzled over the question the greater his § iveon + If the girlhad only been gone ten minutes, as the Irishwoman declared, it might be pos- sible that she was somewhere in sight down the strest, but when he emerged from the court, to his great disappointment she was not to be seen. Denny Stump, the one-legged beggar who had sin pparktneat in the corner house, whose a i ‘*This morning!” cried the boy, bewildered and unable to understand what it all meant. *Yis, sur, and there was a foie carriage, too, for the gurl, and an illigant gintleman. They brought the old woman out in a foine cof- fin, good enough for the Prisident, then the gurl got into the carriage with the gintleman and away they wint.” | ‘“Old gent, or young gent?’ asked the boy, more for the sake of asking questions than any- thing else. ‘‘ Well, he might be older, and then ag’in he might be younger,” was the rather unsatisfac- tory reply, ‘‘ but he was wan of the nobs, I tell ye! Mebbe it’s a brother, or somethin’ of that cind, come back from furren parts wid lashings of yews dd ‘* Mebbe so,” muttered the boy, and then he walked slowly up the street. ‘*Something wrong in all this,” he concluded ; ‘"tain’t right; I know thai it ain’t!” The re- membrance of tha wild words of the young girl was yet fresh in his memory; she spoke of a sacrifice she bad made and how it had come woo late! ; It certainly was very mysterious, and ths boy, whose street-life had made him old be- yond his years, puzzled over it, earnestly. The girl evidently had departed early in the morning, for the express purpose of avoiding all comments upon the action, and her giving the few trifling articles in the room to Mrs. Mulcarthy, was preef that she did not intend to returns, Hoppergrass had very few friends, and it was but natural he should grieve over the loss of the one whom he prized the most; and then, tee, the boy had some ‘‘ wild and whirling ” thoughts in his mind in regard to the gérl, which he had never dared to translate into words. He was looking to the time when he should be the happy and prosperous proprietor of a dog-house, and the income from the ‘‘ plant” should run about ten or fifteen dollars a week, Then he had made up his mind that he would extend a son and a brother’s protecting arm to the old woman and the young ‘‘ gal,” and when he got a little bigger, why, if the maid, who appeared to him to be fully as beautiful as any of the angels whom he had heard people talk about, hadn’t seen a “ feller” to suit her fancy, he would try his luck. : Of course the idea was absurd, but it did nof so appear to the gamin; so the visien gave him courage to toil and to suffer. As he trudged up the street, utterly disgusted at this untoward event, the thought entered his en front door was on the street, was sitting on the © stoop enjoying a pipe before proceeding to bis — usual avocation, and, noticing the boy, natural-— ly asked him what he was looking for, ‘‘as wild as a goose with two heads.” ‘*For Miss Eldon; you know that handsome gal wot lives with her mother up the court?” “* Paix! ag’in, ’m thinkin ‘“Did you see her when she went away?” asked the boy, spate ‘‘{ did'‘that same, and the old woman, too, I belave.” “Why, she’s dead.” ** And who sed that she wasn’t?” “How could you see her, then?” ““T saw the box she was in.” ‘Did the funeral men come?” ‘*They did! Sorra a taste of lie is there in that; a nice hearse, too, as if she had been wan of the quality.” ” ' | | head that it would be a good idea to eonsult Doctor Diamond. He had, apparently, taken quite an interest in the girl, and the boy hada very high opinion of the doctor’s skill and sa- gacity. Sohe proceeded directly to the phy- sician’s house and rung the bell. A pleasant-faced, middle-aged woman an- swered the summons; this was Mrs. Converton, the doctor’s housekeeper. ‘The doctor is not in,” she replied, when the boy had made known his business. ‘He did not come home last night at all. LIsuppose he has been detained by some urgent case of sivk- ness. The boy pondered over the matter for a min- — ute; his newspaper business required his atten- tion; but, as he had fallen heir to the unexpected windfall of eight dollars—for he did not sup- pose that the doctor would charge over two dollars for his visit, and might not require any fee at all, as he had not been of any service, he concluded that he couid afford to play the idler for a part of the day at least;.so he told the lady that, as he wanted to see the doctor on very particular business, he guessed he would wait. Tne housekeeper, amused by her caller’s odd manner, talking as he did with all the delibera- tion of an old man, asked him to w in and wait, but the boy declined the offer said that he would prefer to wait outside, so the woman closed the door and left him in possession of the stoop. ° Now Hoppergrass, thinking that he might have some time to wait, p to make st self comfortable, He went across the way to the baker’s and invested in a penny roll, then from the grocer’s next door he bought two cents’ worth of cheese, returning to the steps he sat down and munched away at his breakfast with all the relish due to youth and health, but kept a keen watch groutid him to see what was going on. A lady, well-dressed, ‘‘ Fifth avenue style, clear through,” as the boy observed to hinself, e’ll look a long time afore ye see her | on the other side of the street attracted his et- _ tention by the liar manner in which she — over at the doctor’s house, and then at im, as she passed down the street. ‘*I guess she will know me ag’in when she sees me,” the boy muttered, not over-and-above pleased at the scrutiny, and began to suspect something wrong. “‘T ain’t done nothin’, nohow,” he continued ; ‘she needn’t look at a feller that way as if she was trying to ‘spot’ him. I never seed her afore, and I’ll bet high on it too!’’ The lady, who was dressed in black and with a heavy vail over her face, walked slowly down Gomichooks:co