Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 262 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

24 “ Ay, ay, [ll get the ambulance,” said the other man, in the same sullen way. ‘ You bring bim on, and Pll meet you here.” He went off slowly and Harvey hurried back to bis friend to comfort the injored man with the news that the ambulance was coming for him. They bad to wait balf an hour under’ the gas lamp before it arrived, but when it did, Captain Samuels himself came with it, bis | bead tied up with a white bandage, and thank- ed them warmly for the trouble they had taken, recognizing them at onee, When be heard that there was another of his men still in the bands of the enemy he said with an air of much embarrassment: “T owe you, gentlemen, an ‘apology. I treated you badly and you have ddné me a great service. It would have been a: lasting disgrace to me to have: lost that man. I bave sent out an alarm and we shall have help very soon. Will you stay and see the fun?, I’m not the man to be beaten by these follows so easily.” The colonel beld out his band. ‘* Captain Samuels, my dear friend, we will see you through. You are good man. I tell you where dey are. Down to. Alderman Magiunis's, getting drunk:: You make de good raid, you redeem yourself.” CHAPTER XXIX. THE POLICE RAID, THE ambulance rolled away with the hurt policeman, and our friends followed it with Captain Sumuels, who questioned them closely on what they had seen. When he beard that Buck Jarvis had been there, he turned earnestly to Harvey: “You'll make that complaint now, won’t you?” he said. *' We'll never get such a fair chavee-at bioy perhaps.” Harvey hesitated. ‘“‘T dare not do it yet, captain. He has in his p wer a young lady I must save from his clutches, and I have no clew to her save through him.” Samuels compressed bis lips. ‘“ As you please,” ho answered; “but I think I can get it out of him, if onee I catch hi.o. You'll swear to what you saw to-night?’ * Yes, if necessary.” ‘That's all I want.” | They arrived. in due time at the station- house, which they found full of men; and Captain Jones, a stout, gray-bearded man with a worried expression, seemed to be much re- lieved at Samuels’s appearance, He took him aside and held a short and whis- ered conversation, which ended in Samuels coming to our friends and saying: “They have telegrapbed that the men will be here in ten minutes, balf the reserve of six precincts, with a mounted platoov. If you gentlemen like to come and see the fun Ul swear you in as specials and give you arms. It's under my command.” Colone] Svenson laughed and seemed pleased. “I go with much pleasure, captain,” be said, Five minutes later came the clattcr of hoofs outside, and the men began to pour in, When twenty minutes had ‘elapsed Captain Samuels set out with a force of near two hun. dred men, ‘all told, to raid the rioters of Shautytown, who had given bim so much trou- ble. They had not very far to go, and found the settlement on the rocks with only a few lights in the cottages. A short, rapid dash of the mounted men through the narrow street, and four platoons were climbing the rocks on either side, coming on the frightened women of the shanties in such force that resistance was not dreamed of, much less attempted. The injured policeman was found in’the road and carried off in the. ambulance, and then Captain Samuels made his arrangements for capturing the male residents of Sbanty- town, as they came back from their spree, dreaming of quietness, The police were distributed round the waste .- lots, and Murderer’s Row was visited, but found nearly empty of men. The few who were there were promptly car- ried off without raising an alarm, and the cap- tain remarked complacently: “A bad beginning sometimes makes a good ending, gentlemen. We'll be even with these fellows before morning.” — Then they all sunk to silence and watchful- i Fighting Tom Tom. | ness till the sound of the mysterious club of the Night Walker disturbed them. | Harvey and’ Svenson, by mutual, consent, | had said nothibg to Samuels. about bim, and | the captain, supposing it one of his own men, got very angry and sent round a sergeant to _ warn all the watchers to keep strict silence, | and on no account to rap. Nevertbeless, the noise. continued at long in- tervals, and the sergeant came back to report | that none of the men had made the raps. It must be some drunken rioter, who bad captur- ed aclub and was prowling round for a frolic. Again they lay still, watching, and _; the sound of the mysterious club continued, so as to annoy the captain seriously, \ He headed a party to scour the waste lots in the darkness, and made the discovery that a number of men were lying round insensible, having evidently been clubbed. They were taken to the house, where Mrs. Somers had lived, and examined. Six were evidently working men from. Shantytown,,in their shirt-sleeves, but three more were recog; nized as professional thieves, who had long de- fied the police to find them, but bad been be- lieved to be residents of Murderer’s Row, when they lived anywhere. The captain jumped at once to the conclusiun that they had been clubbed by his own men in the first attack on Shantytown, ‘But how came they out here?’ he said to Harvey. ‘It’s not like the crooks to leave their friends outside to die.” Harvey ‘hesitated. ‘‘T don’t think those men were clubbed. by your followers, captain,” he said. ‘The fact is, the man who is making that noise did it,” For, just at that moment the rap of the Nigbt Walker’s club sounded not very faraway from them, making every one start, in spite of its frequency. ‘* Tell him de story, my dear friend,” Colonel Svenson observed, seeing the mystification of the police captain. ‘‘We',see if be know if. You have beard of the Night Walker, captain?” Captain Samuels shook bis head. “Night Walker? |. No— except — is that the man you told me of last night, sir?” This to Harvey, who answered: ‘It is the same., We saw bim again Lo. night, and saw him club those men.” The captain scemed annoyed. ‘* Why did you not tell me before?’ “ Beeause, this morning, when I told you, you expressed disbelief of the story— ‘© Not disbelief sur. rude as that.” “IT don’t know what ou call it. . You said he was one. of the thieves, and that it was only one of their tricks,” ‘Weil, I thought so. But you see your story was so unusual. But please continue,” ‘Well, captain, we saw him to-night and I could not have been so heard something about him to-day from Mr. | Joseph Marks, that they call Uncle Joe—’’ ‘“‘T know him well. Every man on the force knows bim, What did he say?” The captsin seemed excited and interested, ‘“ He did not. know. mucb about bim, but he told us a story that lL think has a strong con- nection with this mysterious map.” and as briefly as he could, he told the story of Uncle Joe’s unfortunate ‘comrade who, had been driven insane by kis beating, twenty years before. The captain listened thoughtfully to the story, and said, when it was over: ay | remember Jake Vredenburg, by reputa- tion, though he was betore my time. | The old members of the force calléd him.‘ Lightning Jake,’ and sometimes ‘Thunderbolt Jake.’ I've often beard stories of bim and Uncle Joe. They used to be terrors in their time. But it seems to me that I saw in the papers that he died in the asylum or something.” ‘‘Was drowned, you meap, in trying toswim away. Uncle Joe told us that, But I don’t believe the story. A body was found that they buried for him, but it’s my belief that he was not drowned, and bas come round bere in his insane delusions, thinking bimself still in the old riot times.” ‘Samuels seemed more thoughtful than ever for he said slowly: » ‘lt is just possible. self still on the force,” “That is probably it, captain. I wish we could get him ont. It is strange to me how he manages to exist in those sewer-pipes.” ‘“‘ Oh, they’re large enough, for the matter of that,” said Samuels quickly, ‘Those pipes He must imagine him- ee are a gcod three feet in diameter, and they open into a brick sewer below, that must be five feet high, Besides, they’re dry up here, There’s nothing empties into them yet, except maybe a little water when it rains. It is pos- sible—but—we’ll see to-morrow. I'll hunt them up.” ‘But what can the man find to eat?” Samuels seemed considering again. ‘‘ Strange,” he muttered. ‘ That would ae. count for those—” Then he stopped. ‘* Account for what, captain?’ “Oh nothing—that is—well, in fact, I. have had a good deal of complaint from the men of my precinct of losing things at the station- bouse at night. Clubs have gone, uniform coats and so forth, and no one could find them, It has bred a,great deal of trouble in the force, One doesn’t like to think there’sa thief in the precinct..And- yet, now I remember—” What?’ ‘Tf this poor lunatic really lives in the sew- ers, there is a man-hole in the back yard, that must communicate with this system, and— yes, now I think of it, there may be something in this—” ‘* What bave you in mind?” asked Harvey, seeing that he hesitated, The captain’s answer was cut short by a long tremulous whistle, the signal agreed on for the return of the rioters, and all jumped up, for- getting every thing else in the excitement. A moment later came a man running in haste, “ Captain, where are you?’ ‘‘ Here. What is it?” “ They’re coming, sir, quite a lot. Shall we club them as they come?’ ‘‘By no means, Let them through and keep dark till they’re safe, The boys by the rocks will take care of them.” Pretty soon they heard the buzz of a crowd coming, with an occasional whoop and laugh, as the. now inebriated OGradys and Fitzger- alds with a number of their friends, came reel- ing back from Maginnis’: brewery on their way home, in a state of perfect bliss, from which they were destined to be rudely aroused as soon as they were in the middle of the waste lots, by a sudden irruption of police. They.came on in dozens and scores, and no sound disturbed them till it was too late to re- treat or fight. Some of the less stupid ones tried to resist, and were promptly clubbed into submission, when the whole supply.of handcuffs for six precincts was put into requisition and the pris- oners marched off through Murderer’s Row to Samuels’s station-house, concealment being no longer necessary. When the first streaks of dawn lightened over the rocks of Shantytown at four o’clock, Cuptain Samuels was happy. In the baul of the night he bad taken in nearly twenty-five hard cases, who had been known. as denizens. of Murderer’s Row, with twelve of their number, who had been “ ‘want ed” for some time on various indictments and he said to Harvey gratefully: ‘* Meeting you two gentlemen has been the waking of me tonight, If I canto do any- thing for ycu, let,me know, and I'll do it.” ‘Find that tin box,” was Harvey’s answer, and. the captain replied empbatically: ‘“ You bet, and it wen’t cost you any te- ward neither, I think I know where it is now.” But among all the prisoners that they looked over, ever so carefully in the morning, not a trace was to be found of Buck Jarvis, and Haryey began to doubt almost it be had really seen the man, till be recognized in one of the men who bad been clubbed by the mad police- man ard brougbt to by the surgeon the fami!- iar features of Mr. Jim Nelson, the same who had assaulted him in company with Buck, two nights before. The moment he saw this man, the idea came into bis bhkad to work on bis feelings and, find if he had any tidings of Buck, He suspected Nelson to have been in Jarvis’s company the. night before, and remembered that the mad policeman had clubbed some one, who bad probably been with Buck, when he went off to hunt up the cause of the raps that had puzzled every one. Jim Nelson had evidently supped sorrow during the raid. His face was ghastly pale, his head bound up with bloody rags, aud he lay on a cot in the house where the injured men had been Gomichboo ov —_ so