Beadle's Dime Library No. 152 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

* re er ee CeCe 16 ‘Captain Ironnerve, the Counterfeiter Chief. — — Fg fe eee eee et — —— Pe ee, ———— = os = - ta: .L.°S es — —_——- > = Ty a ee ee St SS a = =< -' 2 . oe ‘*Do you know where?’ “No,” ; “Can you Gnd out?’ « Yes. ” sé Do so.”” “eT will. ” “When?” « To. day. ” ‘‘T want to go there.” “Go there? Say, Cap, I don’t believe you’re well yet. Nobody with a sound nut on their shoulders, would want to go there, unless he had some biz—” “TE have business.” “* Worth the risk?” ** Yes—and more,” *~‘ That settles it! we’ll go.” “+7 must get away from here.” ~“<That’s easy enough.” ** How?” “ Walk away. Nobody ’ll stop you.” ‘¢ We'll go to-morrow.” “0. K., Cap.” “Would you rather go with me, than re- main here?” .. Cert! aren't you worth a thousand to me —and aren’t you goin’ to be worth a heap more?” . | “*T hope so.” “Shake on that, Cap.” They shook. “ What are you goin’ todo?” asked Mosquito, after a pause, ““T’m going to Virginia.” ““T know—but what, when you get there?” ‘‘Make Cran—Captain Ironnerve suffer!” ground out Ralph, whose temper had not im- proved since his arrest, ‘* What for?” ‘‘A thousand things! ing his wound. “ He didn’t give it to you.” “No, but he’s the cause of it,” “Who's this Cran, you’ve been tryin’ to talk about.” ‘‘ Tronnerve’s other name.’’ “ Whew-w-w !” ‘¢ And you'll stick by me, boy?” ** Till I can’t see!” . : ‘And so this strange friendship was cemented, and in after years, when Mosquito after the collegiate course which Ralph subsequently gave him, looked back upon this time, he felt that he could fall upon his knees and worship his benefactor, with a truer reverence than many accord the Almighty. All that day was passed in laying plans, and deciphering means.to execute them, and when night came, they both repaired early to bed, slept soundly, and the next morning felt ready for any emergency. * : Early in the morning Mosquito had gone out and purchased a wig and a pair of smoked glasses for Ralph, securing a new costume for himself meanwhile, so that when the two is- sued from the house in which Ralph had been an invalid for so long their best friends would not have known them. They wended their way boldly up the prin- cipal street, until at last Ralph paused before a sign which read: Puitie RoGERs, PRIVATE DETECTIVE, and telling Mosquito to wait for him, he en- tered the office. Mr. ‘Rogers was in and saluted our hero with that grave self-possession which men of his stamp always have at their command. ““Mr. Rogers, I presume,” said Ralph. ‘The same,” was his response. ““T want you to take a case for me.” *‘ Certainly; be seated. What is its nature?” ‘Rather dangerous.” ‘So much the better. Proceed.” ‘‘ Before going further,” said Ralph, “let me add that in the event of your success, you will be handsomely rewarded, but if you fail, I can only afford to pay you for your time,” “Exactly; but I must hear the case before agreeing to take it.” “Of course. The main fact is this: you to arrest Captain Lronnerve.” ‘* But report says he’s dead.” ** Report lies.” ‘‘T thought as much. Are you the man who was mistaken for him?” Ralph was startled. Should he reveal his identity to this man? Who could tell which was the best course to pursue? He liked the face before him, but ap- pearances are sometimes deceptive, still he thought, “ nothing risked is nothing gained.” This for one,” touch- I want “You are right,” he said at last; ‘‘and in order to right myself, I am obliged to throw myself upon your generosity.” “The best thing to do,” said Philip Rogers, ‘for I never thought that you were Captain Ironnerve.” “Thank you for that!” cried Ralph. you undertake this case for me?” ‘That depends upon yourself, Mr. Gordon. Business is business, you know.” “Certainly. If you cage this bird, I will give you ten thousand dollars, and if you fail—” ‘**T won't fail!” “All right. Jn that case I will give you ten thousand dollars, as I said before.” ** Agreed!” ‘é Agreed.” “Now tell me all you know, for I imagine you know something.” **-You are partially correct in your surmise, Mr. Rogers,” and Ralph then proceeded to re- count to the detective all his suspicions réga:d- ing Gordon Crandyl, and when he had dcne, Rogers agreed with him in thinking that lron- nerve and Crandyl were one. “J think I know my game,” said the detec- tive, after thinking deeply for sometime. “ It is very necessary to gain access to their strong- hold, in order to discover where one is going to land, before leaping. Crandyl, you say, is a blonde?” “ Yes. ” ‘* Fine looking?” ‘* Rather,” ‘Give me a description of bim, and be par- ticular about the expression of the eyes, the sound of the voice, and his manner of walk- ing.” Ralph did so. “Let me see,” mused the detective, after taking notes of the description of his’ man. ‘‘These woods, you say, are extensive and dense?” “ Very.” “And Laurel Lodge is in the midst of them?” ** At the very heart,” “ Servants?” “Five or six.” ‘€ Dogs?” ‘*Two—and very savage—bloodhounds,” “Ah!” Another pause, and Ralph began to feel great confidence in the man he had se- lected. “Ts this all you can tell me?’ was the next question. P “Everything.” “Very well, You have given me several very good points to work on, and in less than thirty days your Captain Ironnerve shall be caged, or my name isn’t Phil Rogers.” Ralph sprung to his feet and grasped the hand of the man before him. ‘Keep your word as to that,” he cried, “and I will put another thousand on your fee, by way of bonus! It is worth more than any- thing else in this world to me to find the true Captain Ironnerye, and convict him, thus proving my own innocence, not only with re- gard to complicity in the murder, but in dis- pelling the cloud under which I am so long as Gordon Crandy! is at large.” “ How do you account for the sudden change in his demeanor toward you?” ‘‘T had had a picture in my possession for some time which bore a remarkable resem- blance to a person whom we both knew, and, upon showing it to him, he accused me of steal- ing it, and I knocked him down. I imagine I had begun to be somewhat in his way also, and accordingly he put two and two together and resolved to get rid of me.” “Yes, but how did he happen at your uncle’s house just in time to accuse you of the murder?” “Of that I know no more than you, and I think it must have either been a strange coin- cidence or the working of some deep plot against me.” “Which do you think?’ “T rather incline to the former, for I think him too cautious a man to let a third party in- to so serious a secret as that,” ‘‘Had you no friends here by whom you could have proven your identity?’ ‘None, except the very man who was mur- dered. You know I am a foreigner, and since I have been in this country, the most of my time has been spent in the woods of Virginia upon an estate which Crandyl and I purchased jointly. All the time spent in town has been at the house of my uncle, and my visits *¢ Will —_—_——_—— EEE IIIT nn there very infrequent, for truth to tell, I had ‘grown so satiated with city life, that wander- ing through the wvods with a gun in my hands seemed a paradise. The thing that strikes me as most peculiar is the fact that Crandyl should consent to have me with him inthe midst of his nefarious trade.” **Perhaps he foresaw some risk on his owu account, and being, [ should judge, of an ut- terly unscrupulous nature, wished to use you as the cat’s-paw with which to pull his chest- nuts out of the fire. Or, again,” thoughtfully, ‘“‘he may have thought that he could eventual- ly enroll you in the ranks of his gang, and so both work together. In any light you can put it, it is a mixed up case, and, in my opinion, more bebind it-than either you or I dream of. Your nameis Ralph Gordon, you say, and his is Gordon Crandyl? What relation do you bear each other?’ ‘‘That of distant cousins only. My grand- father and Gordon Crandyl’s father were first cousins, if you care to go back and climb the genealogical tree to such a hight.” ‘* Well,” said Rogers, after a few moments’ thought, during which bis brow was wrinkled in perplexity, “ as 1 said before, there is sowe- thing behind all this, and I can and will find it out if it takes me a lifetime. Let me manage the thing in my own way, and you shall be righted in every way.” With this assurance Ralph arose to depart, feeling that he. could depend fully on the reso- lute man before him. ‘‘You’ve been long enough, Cap,” said Mos- quito, when Ralph joined him. “Yes,” was the reply, “but it was time well spent,” and so they left for safer quarters than one of the public streets of Richmond, CHAPTER XXI. ON THE RIGHT PHILIP ROGERS was one who did not be- lieve in any needless delay at any time, and particularly in a case of the importance of the one which had just been put in his hands, and Ralph could have scarcely left the street door ere he was before his mirror with his lather-cup, brush and razor, and in a very short time his face was as cleanly shaven as that of a youth. | With some preparation he darkened the skin where the beard bad been removed, and in less than an hour, he had left the house, so trans- formed that his best friends would scarcely have recognized him. ; Men in his profession are generally pretty well acquainted with the ‘marked men” of the city in which they reside, although they do not always know to which particular branch of the “ prey-trade ” they belong. Accordingly, when he saw Jim Munger coming up the street toward him, he knew him as belonging to the class called ‘‘ crooked,” and resolved at once to make his acquaintance, in the hope that he might glean some knowledge which would prove useful in the search he had undertaken. “ With this object in view, he turned, and at a safe distance, followed him, trusting to some unlooked-for chance, to bring about the means of an introduction. Fate proved herself more kind than is her custom, in this instance, for scarce a mile had been passed over, before the man whom he was following, stopped, and appeared to be en- gaged in some altercation with several men, and while Rogers was still looking, Munger— whose temper was very quick—struck one of the men a blow that felled him like a log, and then, as the others rushed in to revenge their friend, he whipped out a long, murderous- looking knife, and stood at bay. On rushed the men, and in less time than it takes to tell it, a second had fallen, and the blood was streaming from an ugly wound in his side; then there was a cry of “ Police! slope!” and the whole lot turned and ran. It was a truly desperate resolve that Rogers took when he saw the officer running toward Munger, and hastily glancing around to see that no other uniforms were hovering near, he too ran forward, and just as the policeman placed his hand upon Munger’s shoulder, struck him a blow that dropped him like an ox, and telling the counterfeiter to follow, ran with all speed down a side street, through an alley- way into another street, and then into a saloon where he ‘well knew they could find shelter, There they remained until disguises could be ‘ . * le RPE yal £0 ee $e 4s , —< eo) Eomichbooks “nag,