Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 363 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

a een dial cae Crowningshield, the Sleuth. CHAPTER X. A GREAT GAME. “Tas old bummer has got out of the way,” Curly Kid continued. “Such vermin as he is den’t like to be watch- ed and thatis the reason why I followed so close- ly on his heels. ‘‘ That maneuver gave him the idea that I was on his track and he made all possible haste to get out of tho way.” ‘**Remember what the poet says about ‘The tyrant, Conscience, that doth make cowards of us all,’” remarked Randolph. **That’s the idea exactly, but here’s a cross- pe and by walking briskly we can intercept the oy.’ he two turned into the path indicated by Curly Kid and as they meocences at a sharp walk, he went on to cxplain to his companion the design which ke had formed, ‘*Some of the best tricks that I have ever taken in my life have come to mo just by acci- dent,” he observed as a commencement, “I believe that is generally the case with everybody,” the other remarked. ‘“‘ Now in rogard to this matter I should not have cauvlt on to it if Old Lead Pencil hadn’t happened to reton the ‘ boose’ last night in Irish Kate’s den. Perhaps you are not acquainted with that high-toned resort.” **No, Lam not.” **Oh, i's tho boss place for the boys, I tell ou! You can strike more first-class ‘High Toby’ men in there in the course of a day than you can scare up anywhere in the country out- side of a State prison,” ‘**Tt must be a delightful resort.” ‘** Tt is, and it’s the place to hear the news and find out what is on the carpet. ““Sho’s got quite a large place; there is a bar in front, and on the other side of the rcom from the bar is a row of oyster boxes, little rooms you know, with curtains in front and small partitions separating one from the other, about seven feet high. ‘Kate runs a sort of a resturant too, you know, on a small scale. ‘*T was in tho end box next to the rear wall, which is my usual resort, getting a drink anda bite to eat. Ib was close to midnight when this Old Lead Pencil and another bum about as bad, | came into the next box. ** Both of them were pretty full, for Old Lead | Pencil and his pal had made a lucky haul. ‘Tn their perambulations they had stumbled upon a drunken man asleep in a doorway, and as there wasn’t any one around to interfere they relieved him of his wealth, which consis of over ten dollars in clean cash, and as a natural result the two went on the biggest kind of a jamboree, set out to paint the town red, you know, and all that sort of thing.” “Which, in the case of such a fellow as this vile ruffian, means aor down his throat of | Spee pate whisky that he can manage to get old of. ** Your description of the or is singularly exact,” Curly Kid remarked. ** Well, for once in his life, the old blackguard | had whisky enough on board to make him talk- | ative, and while they were eating their oysters | and drinking their liquor—they had been ex- | travagant enough to order a whole bottle of | whisky—in the fullness of his enjoyment the other old tramp remarked that the lucky dis- covery of the drunken man was one of the big est tricks that he had taken for a long time. * Then Old Lead Pencil, in a mysterious way, | intimated that he was going to work a game | with a thousand ten-dollar tricks, and when his companion expressed his amazement at the statement, Old Lead Pencil gave enough away | to put me on the scent. “In brief, there’s some woman in this city upon whom the old bummer thinks he has a claim; apparently she won’t have it. ‘‘ He got after her some nine or ten years ago, but she upset his trick by clearing out, and he hasn’t seen or heard anything about her until last week, and then by accident he happened to whether a minister or a cracksman says it, run across her. ‘‘ She’s well-fixed now it seems—worth a mil- lion—and Old Lead Pencil calculates to grab a portion of it. | P “There’s a child in the case, a boy, whom | 5 udgment comes they’ll this woman deserted when she fled in the long | g ‘“* The boy’s father is one of the nobs of the city and his uncle is worth half a million.” : “That's a nice little amount; I think I would | be content with that.” ** No doubt,” responded Curly Kid, dryly. | ** Well, the child’s father is anxious to find the | mother, who, 16 appears, has married again, though why she fled from a husband who wasso well-fixed, and deserted her child, is not appar- ent. I presume Old Lead Pencil knows, but he | didn’t give that away. rif ‘¢Old Lead Pencil’s game now is to make a big | stake out of either the mother or the father, by | means of the child in some weve ** About this point, too, his By was ob- | scure, and I didn’t ‘catch on.’ I listened to the - thing of course, for I always make it_my busi- ness to pick up all the information I can, for | crack their crib for there’s no knowing when it may prove useful, but I didn’t at the time see that it particularly interested me in any way, and then, too, I hada suspicion that the whole thing was a fraud from beginning to end.” “Yes, the man might have been lying and tho story only a coinage of his brain.” oy om an idea that it was rather fishy, but now since my encounter with the old man and the boy, thanks to what I heard last night I hold the key to the whole thing in my hands. Don’t you remember my speaking of a beau- tiful woman who, in company with an elderly man, drove pant us in a buggy just before we came up to the bummer?” ‘Yes, but I didn’t notice her particularly, I only saw the back of her head and caught sight of her diamonds as they swung in the air,” tho other answered. ‘* And they are daisy sparklers too, old fellow, no humbug about them; they are the genuine article and no mistake; and the ring and pin that the old buffer wears too are not ye sneezed at. I've cracked many acrib in my time, risking both liberty and life without any chance to get away with so much swag as them sparklers would be. ‘‘That woman is the mother of the boy, I think. In fact I feel so sure that I'd be willing to gamble on it. I noticed a peculiar expression on her face as she passed, and that was pro- cuced I reckon by the unexpected sight of the if Why, the moment I looked in his face I saw what a striking resemblance he bore to the wo- man, and then when he told that he had come with Old Lead Pencil to see his mother, what I had overheard the old scoundrel say last night flashed upon me, and Ray, old fellow, I tumblea to the bummer’s little racket immediately and then all of a sudden the idea flashed into my head that I could make a big stake myself in the former! and beat the Old Lead Pencil out of his trick. ** Well, as I said, I did not see the face of the woman, but there was something about the boy’s features that seemed familiar to me,” Randolph remarked, slowly, evidently trying to recall where it was that he had seen the person whom the boy resembled. ‘** Maybe you’ve seen this woman somewhere!” the other suggested. ‘* Possibly so; if I had seen her face I could have told. But who is she?” ‘Her name is Mrs. Judge Jefferson Jones, I don’t know what her first name is. The matter did not interest me at all so I did not take the trouble to inquire. ‘*Old Jeff Jones, her nyenanid 9 nes Jones as they panenally cali him, is one of the ig copper men from up around Lake Superior. ‘*‘Owns sixteen or eighteen mines, you know, and is one of the biggest toads in the puddle, The headquarters of some of his mines are in Boston and he has spent the winter here ringing in new sucke.s to take the place of the old ones, whose cash he has exhausted. ‘*The world at large calls gentlemen in my line of business hard names, and when the pub- lic get us dead to rights, everybody sets upa eat strut, and when we're railroaded into tate Prison for ten years or so, then the world yells; ‘ Hustle ’em in so they can’t contaminate onest men,’ but when a reg’lar old shark like this Jeff Jones rings in a cold deal on the pub- lic, by getting up a minin CoRPADE to work a propery, that ain’t worth shucks and then after e gets the pigeons in, plucks them until they are cleaned Gut, people rub their hands and say, ‘Smart business man, Judge Jeff Jones; he knows how to turn his property to the best ad- vantage.’” “Why, Curly, you have mistaken your voca- tion!” Randolph exclaimed, laughing. ‘‘ You | were evidently cut out for a minister instead cf a housebreaker, and a very king among the High Toby men.” “Oh, stow that! replied. ‘But it is a sure enough fact, all the same, None of your gas!” the other these rich sharks, who make thousands by fleec- _ing their dupes, are no better than the poor thieves who risk State Prison for the sake of ’ icking up a few dollars, and when the Day of find it out, tco. “But here, 'm getting away from my mut- ton. This is my game. I know all about the Joneses, for I’ve been watching for achance to uite a while. The mother is there, and I’m well posted about the Crown- ingshields, for J’ve had a notion for quite a time that I might be able to pick up some few trifles there some dark night. ** And that is where the father is located. ** Now, then, the boy is the key to the whole situation, and whoever has him has the game in his hand. ‘Now my little trick is to tell the boy that I can take im to his mother, so induce hiin to come with meand quietly lug him off. ‘** Come, old fellow, what do you thinl:. there a pretty good chance that either mot. ci <r father, both of whom are rich, will stand a ju!) af arene ten thousand for the return c a ' | - —_——— <tc LA LLL LL LLL LLL LLL LLL CLL LL AO Sn ' of tho rey remarked, with an air of satisfaction, © JOO 9 “But this is abduction, Curly, you know— dangerous work.” “Nothing venture nothing win, Come, are ‘you in?” ‘Yes, Pll go it.” ‘*Good. And there’s the boy now.” CHAPTER XI. ENTRAPPED. LitTtLeE GOLDENLOCKS had walked slow] along, meditating upon the strange things which had oecurred to him. That the lady in the carriage was the exact image of the picture of his mamma which his father had painted he was certain, but then it might not be his mamma, after all. he looked straight at him as she rode by, but did not seem to recognize him. ‘*But I was only a little Loy when she went ato * he murmured, ‘‘and, of course, she wer se know me now, that I have grown to be a big boy. ‘* Won't papa be astonished, though, when I tell him that I have seen a lady who looks ex- actly like the picture of mamma, and that old man said it was my mamma, too, but I don’t know whether he knows my mamma or not. ‘*He don’t look very nice—just like an old tramp, and his breath smells awful, too, and he hurried off when that gentleman told him to £0, ag as the street-boys do when they see the po- iceman coming.” And then the boy shook his head doubtfully, and it was evident that he did not put much faith in the words of Old Lead Pencil. “Tl tell papa all about it, and perhaps he'll know whether it was mamma or not,” he said, in conclusion, : By this time he had reached the Frog Pond again, and encountered Curly Kid and Ran- dolph, who by means of the cross-path had man- aged to reach that point before the boy. Goldenlocks, busy with his meditations, had walked quite slowly, and had not noticed that the men were hurrying to intercept him, ‘* Hallo, here’s my little man now!” exclaimed Cur] Kid, in his pleasant way, as he encoun- tered the lad. “And I’m glad I met you, tco, for I know where your mother lives, and I made up my mind that I would take you to her the next time I saw you. ** When you toil me why you had come with that old rapscallicn, for the moment I didn’t remember that I was well acquainted with your mother, that is, if that lady with the golden hair and blue eyes, who drove by with the old gentleman in the buggy, is your mother.” ‘Yes, sir, that’s the one!” exclaimed Little Goldenlocks, eagerly. “Well, my bey, I knew there was some mys- tery about the lady, but I didn’t know exactly. nate it was,” Curly Kid said in his easy, plaus- ible way. He was a fellow who had succeeded in pulling the wool over the eyes of sharp business men in his time, and it was no wonder that the innocent child was deceived into the belief that he was fully to be trusted. ** The old gentleman that you saw her with is a stern old fellow, and there isn’t any doubt in my mind that he had something to do with your mother’s mysterious disappearance. ‘Yes, sir,” said Goldenlocks, ‘“‘he looked cross.” When the man spoke so confidently in re to the matter, how could the boy doubt that he knew all the particulars? ** Now then, my lad, if you'll come along with me, I think I can get you into the house without the old gentleman’s knowing anything about it; and if you can get a chance to see your mother alone, I’ve no doubt that she will be able to recognize you.” ** Oh, yes, sir, I will be glad to go!” the little fellow exclaimed, eager for the chance, } Adee a not tbe eet bit of Seer in the y's disposition; and then, too, Cur d play- ed his part so well that it would have tibene wise head, indeed, to mistrust him, ‘** Well, let me see; I have to stop on Tremont street for a moment, and I'll tell you what to do. Do you know where the corner of Charles street and Boylston is?” ‘Yes, sir.” ‘**'You trot along down there and wait for me on the corner, and I'll be along past as soon as I fix up this little business which I have to attend to. won't keep you waiting long, and then I'll take you right to your mother, for I hein’t the least doubt in the world that she is your mother. ‘““Now, you'll wait until I come?” “Oh, yes, sir!” replied Little Goldenlocks, who had been infected by his father with the fever- ish desire to find the woman who had disappear- ¢ - 1 : ed so mysteriously years before. *Run along, then, exd te sure to wait for” me.” . **'Yes, sir, I will.” . Off went the buy, and then the two men turn- “. “4 . ed their steps again toward Tremont street, companion. (Eo) S m (E “The hook is in his mouth, and we wont is have any difficulty in landing our fish,” Curly © : to ; ; ee ” A] ; ey - ats be =