Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 288 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

; ' : nn ae '« is — ye er ee es A A a ee Eg ge — - — - en a — — = => ce = rm — —— ee? . rr —o— <= . 18 eandid. If you are not, I shall be compelled to arrest you. Tell me—who are you?’ ‘1 have already answered that question,” ‘* But it is not satisfactory. Now, let me tell ou, if you are not Anice Idello, I am your est friend, and I can save you from those who are I know your implacable enemies,” Hardly had he spoken the words, when the girl jumpod from the chair and began walking rapidly to and fro before him, wringing her hands like one in mental misery, while she cried: ‘‘It is no use! | am hunted, haunted, pur- caed forever by that crime which I never com- mitted! Oh, 1 have lived by night and by day with the phantom before me of a murdered face for which [I am not to blame! [am hounded down at last, when the American detectives are so close upon my track, and I know that there is enough evidence in Italy to clear me if it was not for the cruel web which my perse- cutor has woven around me. I am tired! Il am at bay! By every means I first strove to elude the man who at last found me and nearly killed me in this very house. By oy means | have striven to hide myself from the law that unjustly pursues me. But I will do so no longer. I will do battle! Il am a woman beset and at hay, I say!” ‘*'You are Anice Idello, then?’ the detective interpolated. ** Yes!” with an accent almost of frenzy. ‘I am Anice Idello! Butit will do you little good to know that. Ha, ha! you would arrest me for the murder of my father, Pedro Catazky! Try it! Move from that chairif youcan! Let me see you lay ahanduponme. Yes, lam Anice Idello, the child who is pursued by the law for the murder of her father. I am she who left ber husband, Pietro Idello, because it was he who really committed that crime, and who tried to avoid him under the guise of the child of Simon Jacobs. But I shall prefer Pietro at the last to the ignominy, the death that will be mine, if I yield to you, a hated detective. I[ will not yield. And I shall kill you where you sit before I will go witb yon.” Notwithstanding ber frenzy, the detective laughed lightly at this threat. A man accustomed as he was to handling hardened criminals, did not apprehend much trouble with a frail girl should he choose to cap- ture her. ‘““l am glad I have found the murderer of Pedro Catazky,” he said, smilingly. **l am not the murderer, though the evidence will convict me, I know. And itis because of that I now defy you and tell you that you will never leave this room alive!” ‘* Come, miss, I think I will have to arrest you, if fur nothing else than the fact that you may prove an important witness in something I am working up just now, and if you did not kill Pedro Catazky, you will have ample oppor- tunity—” He paused, The girl had halted before him, and her sym- metrical body was bent, with hands half-raised, in an attitude of suspense. ; aes coal-black eyes burned with an astonish- ng fire. # Move! Move!” she cried, ‘‘ Stir from that chair if you can!” A thrill that was like the chill of death passed over the detective, as he found himself held in the chair by an invisible something that was stronger than bands of iron. Not a motion could he make, And the beautiful girl now fairly glowered over him until her lineaments lost their loveli- ness in a malicious exultation. CHAPTER XXIII. . THE TRUE SIDE OF THE CATAZKY MURDER. In all his life, the detective had never expe- rienced such a sensation as crept over him at the moment. He sat and gazed at the beautiful girl—now like some beautifu! fiend—as one will gaze at the brilliant and fascinating orbs of a deadly reptile, A slight tingling. and not unpleasant feeling pervaded his every fiber—only transiently, how- ever; and when it had passed, he smiled again, saying: Way do you dare me to move from this chair?” | A smile that was distorting, while it displayed her ps and even teeth, curled her lips, as she re : Because, when I first spoke, you were not capable of it. Now you can do soif you wish; but let me warn you of one thing before you at- tempt it.” “Well?” : “The very instant you place a foot beyond that mat on which the chair rests, you will be a ead man.” ‘*f am hardly afraid of a woman like you.” **When you know that 1 am desperate? Ay, I vow to you that I will not be taken by ths American detectives for a crime of which I am innocent, yet for which there is in existence suf- ficient evidence to convict me.” ** Yet I shall take you—” * Sit still!—sit still!” she broke in, sharply. West saw that there was something about his position which made the girl confident that she | had him in her power. He was too old a hand to proceed rashly; he would wait further de- velopments, ‘* Do you object to telling me why I will bea dead man the instant I leave this chair, as you say? ‘*’'You have the use of your limbs?” ‘* Yes, | think 80,” stretching his legs and moving his arms, ‘Did you feela strange sensation a moment since?” ss Yes. PP] ‘*Can you guess what it means?” sé No. ” “Tl tell you. Within the short time you have been sitting there, you have been power- fully charged with electricity. The amount ut into your system is sufficient to killa man if the circuit is completed, Move one step from that mat, and you will tread upon the complet- ing wires! The mat is fashioned underneath with woven glass; the legs.of the chair on which you sit, as you can perceive, are set in glass cups. Now do you comprehend? Step off if you dare—and you kill yourself by the action of electricity that is in you.” There was no doubting the sincerity of the girl, as she cried forth this thrilling revelation. And at that juncture there was another party to the scene. A cupboard-like door at one side of the room agp, and into the apartment stepped the tall, sleek, sinister-browed Italian, Pietro Idello—the same who had called at the agency in regard to the Catazky murder case, ‘*] bave the honor,” he said, deh rmegy | infer- nally, as he advanced to a position directly before the detective, ‘‘to hope that you are in excellent health.” ‘*Pretty well, considering,” rejoined West, nonchalantly. ‘* You have heard what the girl has said?— you are in danger of your life if you make a motion,” ‘* Well, what kind of an ending is this scene to have?” ‘You shall hear it soon enough. You area sneak efter the wharf rats of Locust Point, eh? You bave escaped death in this very house once before. This time you will not escape,” ‘*Ohb, then you mean to kill me outright?’ West was remarkably composed. One of his hands was within the pocket of his loose jacket, clutching the pistol He knew that, come what might, he could accomplish two things: be could either kill the Italian or bring assistance by merely firing his weapon. ‘If that ismy intention,” sibilated the Italian, ‘before it is done, I shall tell you that you are a great fool to undertake to come between man and wife. This is Anice Idello, We saw you entering the premises; | convinced ber that you were after her for the murder of her father in Italy, and we at once concluded to forget our differences and join against you. We have brought you into a very neat trap. You are entirely at our mercy.” ‘*But you make a mistake in one thing.” ‘‘Indeed,” with a shrug and bow. ‘‘ What is that?” ae am not after this girl for amy murder at all. A little cry came from the one whom we have called Rachel. ‘*] am after you, Pietro Idello, for that crime and the burglary of the diamonds at the Man- sion House. I shall take you in with the brace- lets on yet.” ‘Ha, ha,” derisively. ‘‘We shall see about that,” ‘* Well, if I am not to have any show for my life, will you object to telling me, before you ut me out of the way, what this mystery is tween you and the other Italian who so much resembles you?” ‘‘As you say, you are todie. No, 1 have no objection, ou are speaking of Guiseppe Duoro,” sa Ha 1? The slim-limbed Idello laughed with grim gayety. “So you have been perplexed, eb, by the resemblance between myself and Guiseppe Duoro? Well, it is a little strange, But then we are natives of the same clime; grew under the same sun; are of the same age and bight; a careful attention to the complexion and the trimming of the mustache has wrought the striking likeness. We have done this for a purpose; we are, as you may have discovered— or that partner of yours, whom I tried to drown at Locust reg, ahaa thieves for whom the great city of New York has grown too hot. Our excellent band of rascals is progressing slowly southward, It is a neat trick or Gui- seppe and myself to take our room at a hotel— and always one or the other of us is to be found there. Suspicion of contains crooked : would never rest on Signor Alfiero, the music-teacher. ssn Duoro it was, as I told you when I visited your office, who furnished the electric instrument to kill Pedro Catazky. But he did not give it to the beautiful Anice at all; he gave it to me—” ‘** You admit, then, that it was you who killed Pedro Catazky?” + | Electro Pete, the Man of Fire. | ‘Why should I deny it to you, when you will never leave this room alive?’ ‘* Not a very pleasant prospect, truly.” ‘“‘ Listen, if you choose, and I will tell you this little story that has come out of the murder of Pedro Catazky.” ‘*‘Go on, old man,” said the detective, with a coolness that rather surprised the Italian. ‘*] was lawfully wedded to this girl, Anice” —leveling one of his long white fingers at her. ‘* We were to fly on that seve night when Cat- azky was murdered. Yes. it was I who ap- plied to the head of the sleeping man the charge that killed him instantly. The instru- ment was furnished by Guiseppe Duoro, Anice and | fled to France. There | sqyandered what money we had raised on her jewefry. There, in a drunken fit, 1 boasted of how I had put her father out of the way, and urged that she return to possess herself of her inheritance. She spurn- ed me and the proposition, and in a passion of hate left me, as she vowed, forever. But I was not to be dropped so easily. I pursued her. I communicated with Guiseppe, and he, with the prospect of a rich slice from the estate, made a confession to ths authorities that he had sold the deadly instrument to Anice Catazky on the afternoon preceding the night when her father was so mysteriously murdered. He ex- pau to them how the thing could be applied eneath the hair and produce death without leaving any trace. The authorities at once started on the trail of Anice. I found her and apprised her of the net that had been spread about her; her flight at the time aided my plot by increasing suspicion. But she was no child. I will pay her that compliment. She happened to know that Guiseppe Duoro belonged to a family whose record in the past was stained by several imprisonments, one of which was for murder. In the city of Paris she performed a trick that was, to say the least, remarkably clever, ‘*She wrote a letter, in which she stated that she, Anice Catazky, had witnessed the mur- der of ber father. The one who committed the murder was no other than the elec- trician, Guiseppe Duoro. Being discovered as she was escaping from the vicinity of the fateful bedroom, she was seized and abducted, not knowing even then, at the writing of the letter where she was, except that she was con- fined, a prisoner, in a large house that fronted on a square. Before just such a honse, she dropped the letter, addressed to the Italian authorities. It was found by some honest per- son, who conveyed it direct to the prefect. News of the document was at once sent to Rome. Guiseppe’s family connections were against him; he was held in prison while search was being made for Anice Catazky. She, meantime, had eluded me again and crossed the ocean. I went to Rome, and after some years procured the release of my friend Guiseppe, against whom no direct testimony could be found. And it was because of this little affair, that the Italian consuls of various cities in America have taken no very vigorous steps for the apprehension of Anice Catazky. When he was liberated, Guiseppe swore that he would search the world over and, finding: Anice, would assuredly take her life for the smart trick which he had turned upon him to his discomfiture. ‘*It was at this time that we became the thieves we have been since. For to prosecute our search, we must have funds, and procuring the release of Guiseppe had exhausted all that we both had. Another thing: I did not want Guiseppe to kill my little bride; for there was a vast inheritance for ber in Italy if I could manage so as to free her from the suspicion which still to a great extent rested upon her. We kept together closely. In Chicago, we found her. Guiseppe was for assassinating her without mercy. ut my counsel prevailed. I proposed to bleed her for all the money which she seemed to have—for she was making a good show, and lived at a. highly-respectable hotel. ‘ People cannot do that without money,’ I said to Guiseppe. ‘No,’ he agreed, ‘and we will have some of it.’ Just here, a singular thing happened. Anice underwent a meta- morphosis! She was_ still under our surveil- lance; but suddenly I became possessed with the idea that it was not she. This proved true, 1 discovered that some one was per- sonating Anice—thougb for what purpose I can- not imagine. At all events, Anice had vanished again. es But of this fact, Guiseppe seemed not to be aware. He still believed that the beautiful girl upon whose trail we hung like waiting vampires, was Anice. I did not say anythin to shake bis faith in that fact. For I planne that rt should continue pursuit of this strange girl who was playing tbe part of Anice —kill ber if he was so ed; then, if I was so fortunate as to find the real Anice, I would compel her by some means to return with me to Italy, get the inheritance by a few false oaths against Guiseppe, and while he fled hither and thither, pursued by the law, we could en- joy our wealth. In Chicago, we met with the ew, Jacobs. Then and there was formed the on gang of which I have since been the eader. comirecbooks.com »» “Sy a