Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 363 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

Crownin The lady rose slowly to her feet, her orbs blaz- ing with baleful fires, hard ugly lines plainly visible around her eyes and mouth, while her face became deadly pale. ‘* You forget yourself, sir!” she exclaimed her naturally sweet voice hoarse with suppressed passion. ** You insult me in my own house by express- ing such doubts!” ‘* And what have you done to me?” Crowning- shield questioned, also rising to his feet and tow- ering over her with an expression upon his face such as a judge might assume while arraigning a convicted criminal. “ Destroyed all my life—took my honest love, which should have been the crown of some wo- man’s life as a plaything to be trampled beneath your feet at your own sweet will, and now that at last I am face to face with you, instead of falling upon your knees and begging for pa | from the man you have so fearfully wronged, you attempt to carry matters with a high hand. ‘Madam, while I loved youI was as a child whom you might at your will do with as you pleased, but now that I have discovered how un- worthy you are of the love of any honest man, T am transformed into an avenger, for it is not the will of heaven that a woman so wicked as you have proved yourself to be should escape ‘un- wares of justice. ‘Tell me the name of the town if you dare!” An ope gee of utter scorn appeared on the face of the lady. ‘‘T laugh at your threats!” shecried. ‘T can- not tell you the name of the place for 1 have forgotten it. All the memories connected with it are unpleasant and I have blotted the record from my mind.” ** Oh, that is a very likely story!” he exclaimed, contemptuously. ‘* No, no, that tale will not pass current. The idea that such a woman as you should ever be able to forget the name of the village where you assed your early life is absolutely ridiculous. ut I can easily discover what [ wish to know even if you refuse to give me the information. “Old Lead Pencil will only be too glad to sell me the name of the town!” Phe lady recoiled a step asthough she had been suddenly stricken in the face, ‘* You will seek the assistance of that miserablo old wretch?” she cried. ‘‘ Most assuredly, for I am determined to sift this matter to the very bottom and if you are the vile creature that your own words have made you out to be Tam determined that you shall not escape the punishment which should follow upon wicked deeds,” ‘Oh, he’ll give you the information—he’ll tell you all you want to know!” she cried in scorn, ‘and perhaps he will also tell you—but no; he will not dare to speak of that. Fears for his own safety will seal his lips. ‘But do your worst; whether I am Roxanna Merivale or not I defy you. ‘It does not matter what I have been or how Thave been called. My name now is Roselle, and I am the wife of Judge Jefferson Jones who 1s able to and will protect me from all attacks,” she fairly screamed, so excited had she become. “If the judge is above the law he may be able to shield you, but if he is not, then, most assured- ly, you will be punished, **T will see him to-morrow, before I take any steps in the matter, and ascertain what he thinks about the subject.” By this time the lady had recovered her com- posure and surveyed him with a mocking smile. ‘I can tell you beforehand that you will only have your labor for your\ pains, but since you wish war I will not attempt to dissuade you from it; but look to yourself, sir, for I warn you I will not submit tamely to this wanton attack.” “Threats ill-become you after what has passed,” Crowningshield replied. i But now, what have you done with my boy? © Your boy?” and the look of astonishment upon her face seemed genuine. ‘* Yes, is he not here with you? He did not return home to supper and just before I came here I received this note from. him,” He produced the note which Little Golden- locks had written and handed it to her, She glanced over it. ‘ . **T do not suppose you will believe me,” she said as she returned the note, ‘‘ but I assure you [ have not seen your child and know ab- solutely nothing whatever about him.” Crowningshield did not believe her. “I give you until to-morrow morning to re- turn the child.” he said. ‘TI will allow him to remain with you one night in order to see if there be any trace of the mother still existing in you. Butif youdo not return him to-morrow, I will call upon the aid of the police.” And with this threat he departed. CHAPTER XIX, PREPARING FOR THE ATTACK, A sap heart Howard Crowningshield carried in his bosom as he descended the steps of Judge Jones’s princely mansion. The woman for whom he had searched so long was found but under the circumstances better for him to have remained in ignorance | of her fate than to make the dreadful discovery which had given him so great a shock. In his mind there was not the least doubt that he had been face to face with Roxanna Merivale the woman whom he had once loved so well, and he fancied he understood her game too. She had told him the truth in regard to why she left him; she had ruthlessly Pe pai the knife to the roots of the tree of love, thinking that the tale she told would so disgust him that he would never want to see her face again, It was a dreadful blow to the young man’s | pride. The idea that he had been the prey of | a worthless adventuress, who had_ ruthlessly traded upon his affection so that she might sustain her worthless life was galling in the ex- treme. But why did she wish to see her child if she was the vile creature which her tale if true proved her to be? This was a puzzle which occupied Crowning- shield’s mind all the way home. He could only account for it on the supposi- tion that somewhere in the creature’s nature there was a latent spark of womanhood which impelled her to wish to look upon her child, who had been absent from her for so many years. ‘‘ She will hardly dare to attempt to keep the child from me,” he murmured, communing with | himself as he strode along. ‘Still there’s no telling what a woman of her stamp may not attempt. She may think | that aiaed by her husband’s wealth she will be | able tomake a successful fight, but if she tries | it, I fancy that she will soon discover, that Judge Jones is not the only man in the world who is possessed. of good financial backing. “I will give her until to-morrow morning, and then if she dares to defy me I will soon con- vince her that it was an unwise action on her part.” When Crowningshield arrived at the house he found Old Lead Pencil sitting on the front steps. | The old fellow rose and ducked his head at the approach of the gentleman, ‘‘T made bold, guv’nor, for to squat on yer stoop,” he explained. ‘I was kinder tuckered out, an’ hadn’t no | place for to go, an’ I thought I might as well squat here as anywhere. “Then, too, guy’nor, P’ll own I was mighty anxious for to hear how you came out with that durned tiger-cat of a woman.” ‘“You have earned your hundred come in and I will give it to you.” . The old fellow took a-sly glance at the face of Crowningshield, as the gentleman passed him on the steps and entered the house by the aid of his latch-key, and from the expression thereon he fancied he could get an idea of what had taken place between him and the woman he had sought. “There was war—war to the knife, an’ red- hot, too, an’ I'll bet on it,” Old Lead Pencil muttered as he followed Crowningshield into the house. The gentleman led the way into the smoking- room at the end of the entry. ‘Sit down and wait for a moment while I get you the money.” With a grin the old fellow obeyed. Crowningshield proceeded up-stairs to the library, took a hundred dollars in bills out of the safe there, then returned to the smoking-room and counted the money into Old Lead Pencil’s eager hand. he dull eyes of the vagrant fairly danced. Such a windfall as this had not come in his way for many a long day. ‘Il was squar’, wasn’t I, guv’nor?” he ex- claimed, as he proceeded to fold up the bills and stow them away in his pocket. ‘Straight as a string, hey?” ‘“Oh, you kin bet yer bottom dollar that I wouldn’t go in for to play any sich gen’leman as you are for a sucker, ‘Oh, no, that ain’t the kind of a galoot that I am. You found her all right, didn’t yer, but how did she take it? “ Showed fight, I'll go bail. I tell you, guv’- nor, the way she cheeked me was a caution, but I reckoned she wouldn’t dare to play that game on you, ’cos there’s a heap of difference between & poor old cuss like me an’a gen’leman of your kidney. But in course with you she wouldn’t dare for to deny that she was Roxanna Meri- vale, the gal that you picked out of the gutter, . an’ was soft enuff—meaning no offense, you know—for to marry.” , “You are acquattived: I presume, with all the particulars of her early life?” Crowningshield asked, thus parrying the question. ‘You bet Iam!” Old Lead Pencil exclaimed. “Why, guv’nor, I know all ’bout that gal as well as she knows herself.” She used to live in some little village in Kan- Sas. ‘‘T know the place—an’ durned good cause I | have for to remember it, too,” the old man ob- served with a grimace, ‘Oh, I know it, an’ know no good of it, too, dollars; gshield, the Sleuth. he asked himself if it would not have been | ‘cos the town an’ I didn’t git along pretty well, 15 I thank you. ** It’s down in Southwestern Kansas, right into a corner nigh to Missouri and the Injun Terri- tory. Chetopa, it’s called.” ‘You have given me some valuable informa- tion,” Crowningshield observed, quietly, and the old man immediately began to look uneasy. It was not his custom to give anything to any- body if he could help it. ‘Valuable information, hey?’ he asked. “Yes,” and then Crowningshield proceeded to rehearse the story that the woman had told him in regard to the twin sisters. ‘* Tt’sa durned lic!” he exclaimed, after Crown- ingshield had finished. *’Tain’t no sich thing! I knowed Sol Meri- vale as well as I know myself, and he never had but one gal—only one child, anyway, an’ she was allers as ugly an’ contrary as sin. “That yarn is all got up for to fool you, Mister Crowningshicld, jest to throw you off the track, an’ for to make you believe that she is dead, but she ain’t, She’s Roxanna Merivale an? there ain’t no mistake "bout it.” ‘She denies, too, that she has my boy, and declares that she has not seen the child.” ‘“'That’s another lie!” Old Lead Pencil exclaim- ed. ‘‘I know she has seen the kid, for I was a-passin’ along Tremont street to-day, when the youngster was a-playin’ inside the railing on the Common, au’ jest then she rode by in her car- riage an’ I know from the way she squinted at the kid that she recognized him.” **Oh, you know my boy?” ‘Yes, I heard one of the kids he was playin’ with call him by name; Adonis, that’s him, isn’t it,” replied Old Lead Pencil, unblushingly. “That is his name.” ‘ An’—beggin’ yer pardon for bein’ so impu- dent as to ax the question—w’ot did you say to her when she tried to stuff sich a yarn down yer throat?” “TI told her that I did not believe it, and then she offered to give meparticulars so I could ascertain for myself that Roxanna Merivale died and was buried at Chicago some nine years ago. S Bosh | sich a trick as that kin be worked easy enuff in sich a big place as Chicago. How casy to find out some poor gal jest a-goin’ to kick the bucket, an’ bribe her ‘or the people w’ot had charge on her fur to have her called any name yer wanted! ‘Oh, that’s the thmnest kind of a trick!” ‘* So I told her, and informed her at the samo time that all the information I wanted was the name of the Kansas village where Solomon Merivale was hanged by the lynchers.” The old man turned ghastly palo and for a moment Crowningshield thought that he was going to faint, for he seemed as if he was about: slide from the chair to the floor, ** What is the matter, man, are you ill?” the host exclaimed, springing to his assistance. ‘*Tm faint, that’s all; you've given me an awful turn,” replied Old Lead Pencil, feebly. Crowningshield, from the closet at the end of the room, procured a glass of brandy, which he tendered to the old man. The vagrant drained it as eagerly as though it was so much water. ‘‘ Aha, that puts life into a man,” he remarked, smacking his lips with satisfaction, and no won- der for it had been many a year since he had en- joyed such liquor. ‘When you talked about that ere calamity it sort of upset me, ’cos I came within an ace of are strung up too. ‘You see I was a pard of Sol Merivale’s, an’ the gang sot out fer to hang both on us at first, Oh, it was a narrer squeeze fer me I tell yer, an’ [ never thinks of the thing that it don’t make the cold shivers run all over me.” ‘The story of the twin girls then is a false- hood?” “Tt is; as big a whopper as I ever heered.” ‘* I gave her until to morrow to send my boy home, and told her plainly that if she attempted to on him, I should call upon the police for aid. ‘* That’s the talk, guv’nor,” and the old fellow brought his hand down upon his knee with a vigorous ‘lar, ‘Go ter cr with the peelers; snatch her bald- headed, an’ I'll put in a leetle detective work in | this ’ere business too. Ill spy ’round the house commencin’ to-night an’ mebbe I'll light on some- thin’ wu’th knowing.” Crowningshield assured the old man that he would pay liberally for any information and then the vagabond departed, Little Goldenlocks did not return home, and in the morning Old Lead Pencil made his ap- pearance, but was obliged to confess that he had obtained no news, 7 To the chief of police then Crowningshield went and laid the matter before him. The chief who had come to regard the young man as a personal friend by this time, thought the matter over carefully. ‘It’s a delicate case and we must not be rash,” he said. ‘* Come with me; we will call upon this’ Judge Jefferson Jones and see what he has to say about the matter before we put the machin- ery of the law in motion.” | JOO com (C cS