Beadle's Dime Library No. 366 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

fi. em 8 they reached the very building in which Con- stance was. A few yurds distant across the road was a curriage, the driver mute and mo- tionless upon the box. An encounter with these men seemed inevita- ble. Marvin's hand grasped his revolver and he sprung forward rapidly as they disappeared within the doorway of the house. At the very steps he paused and almost fell | backward in wild wonderment and surprise. Gliding from the hallway a female form ap- proached him —Constance’s habiliments — her very form! Across her vailed lips the woman placed her finger warningly, pointed to the hall- way, and rapidly descended the steps, beckon- ing to Marvin. Constance Thorndyke or her counterpart es- caping from capture or involved in some new mystery! The impressive episode influenced the detective to follow the vailed figure. Across the street, a quiet order to the driver, and she disappeared within the carriage with a signifi- cant gesture to the detective, He was by her side almost before he could re- al'ze what he did. Wonder, surprise, were in his ce as the carriage dashed rapidly from the spot. ** Miss Thorndyke,” he began. His companion placed a trembling hand upon bis arm, and her head thrown back to watch the street behind them appeared to verify his fast-increasing belief that she was the woman he loved escaping from peril. ‘You fear pursuit?” Marvin’s curiosity and excitement impelled him to ask. “Hush! J—” The low quivering voice paused there, and the vailed figure fell backward as though a terrible strain of excitement passed, she bad succumbed to the reaction, ‘** She has fainted,” murmured Marvin, as he eaught her form in his arms. ‘The driver of the carriage—where has she directed bim to take her? What is this new mystery?” He tapped on the little front window as he ke. No attention was paid to his signal, for the vehicle dashed forward at a tremendous rate of speed. It stopped a moment later—so suddenly how- ever that Marvin was thrown forward witha crash. Darkness, entire and deep, surrounded him. The door of the vehicle was rudely torn open, a hand seized him by the arm, he was dragged forcibly from the carriage, and a low voice whispered in his ear—the voice of a man: ‘Tbe woman is safe. At tke peril of her life and your own, do not refuse to follow me quickly, quietly !” Despite himself, the detective allowed his mys- terious companion to lead him from the spot. In the darkness he only knew that they seemed 1. cross a stone floor and then ascend a ftight of rs, They had reached a landing and he heard a knob turned. His companion had pushed him before him, He was ushered into a room, the brilliant lamplight in which so dazzled bis eyes that fora moment or two he could not discern the faces of half a dozen men who sprung from chairs and benches and confronted him. ‘‘ Barnes?” he heard a voice he recognized, ‘* No,” was the reply of the new-comer’s com- panion. “Not Barnes, but Marvin, the detee- tive!” The clearing vision of the young man re- turned as he divined his peril; his hand sought his revolver and he backed against the wall with extended weapon. His eyes sweeping the throng caused him to realize his true position. He had been deeoyed, entrapped, and the anen before him were Torrance and his fellow- anembers of the Dynamite League! CHAPTER VII. A TERRIBLE DISCLOSURE. ‘WILLIS MARVIN, overwhelmed more by th singular complications of the case in hand than by being unexpectedly confronted with Tor- rance and his accomplices, was at a disadvan- tage in his perilous position, The pale, resolute face bespoke his determination to sell his life dearly, but the conflict was of brief duration, although, as he saw his enemies make move- ments to secure his weapon, he leveled his pistol at the breast of the leader and fired. The shot resounded loudly and _ echoing through the room sped wide of its mark, as Tor- rance sprung quickly aside, and the smoke en- abled two of the outlaws to gain the detective’s side. The weapon was torn from his hand, his . arms pinioned, and in their powerful grasp he was held against the wall, at the mercy of the fierce eyed throng about him. One of their number had leaped forward, a gleaming knife in his hand. ** Marvin?” he cried, furiously. ‘' We’ll end his detective career, once for all.” But Torrance placed an interposing band be- tween him and the object of bis vengeance, ** Hold!” he cried, imperatively. ** Dead men tell no tales,” growled the despe- Trado, ‘‘and this fellow has interfered with our plans too often.” “ LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL es . rr ee | «Tis one may be the last,” replied Torrance, significantly. ‘“‘At all events, we’ll hold him until the captain sees him,” He made a gesture to Marvin’s captors as he spoke, “To the attic room?” inquired one of them. ‘Yes, and be sure you secure the door fast 'andstrong. There must be noescape this time.” Struggling violently, Marvin was hurried from the apartment amid the fierce threats of | the men around him. They forced him up a narrow stairway and into a room whither they | thrust him, retiring and locking and securicg the door after them. ‘* Duped! defvated!” murmured Marvin, once alone. ‘* These men have the shrewdness of in- ventors and the boldness of assassins.” He glanced about the place they had thrust him into. A deep chagrio overcame him as he thought of the skillful ruse of the carriage. He became serious when _ he realized that unless he escaped these men would dispose of him quickly and effectually. Was itaruse? Was the vailed woman a de- coy? Until this moment of sober reflection he had not paused to consider what deep plotting thrse men might have conceived, Was the wo- man he had mistaken for Constance Thorndyke not Constance, but an ally of the League dis- Bed to decoy him, her similarity of form, and eigned excitement and fainting-spell being em- ployed to deceive him and withhold an investi- pation of the truth until he was in the power of orrance? If it was Constance, he thrilled at the thought that perbaps she had been playing a part! No, no! Any suspicion than that the fair, pure girl he had learned to love, could become a party to intrigue and crime was absurd—monstrous. Yet how closely had tha renconter with the woman been timed! How singular that, at the very moment of his arrival at the building where Constance was, she should meet him as though he had been expected! Revolving theory after theory in his mind, wondering what his father’s fate might be, what that of Hiram Arnold, what the mystery of the fifth member of the conspirators—if the stranger was such—at the banker’s home, the Telegraph Detective found restraint galling and terrible, When he considered the strands ly- ing loosely about in the chain of events encir- obng the devoted lives of those he loved, and he helpless to assist them or to defeat the plans of his enemies, be paced the room excitedly. The thought fired him to activity; he exam- ined the door and the walls critically. The former resisted every efforc at forcing ft The window, a small aperture directly under the roof, was securely barred, and by the dim light cast through it into the apartment, he discerned plainly from the disordered bed, the dirt-stained walls and foul floor, that it had been occupied, and that, too, in all probability, by a prisoner. Perhaps it had been the place of incarceration of his father? Perhaps that father, recaptured, was at that moment in some other part of the house? He piaced the broken chair on the bed and climbed to the window, He ascertained that he was in the rear of the top story of the build- ing. and he recognized the locality from sur- rounding landmarks. He noticed, too, that the bars of the window were strongly imbedded in the brick-work, and that the distance to the ground was great; so had to abandon all hope of escaping from the window or of attracting outside aid from the alleyway. Hope! A thrill shot through his frame like an electric shock as he glanced upward and his eyes caught sight of a wire running trom the roof of the building in which he wasimprisoned and thence to the top of the one across the alley- way. Three feet above the window it crossed his vision between the bars and the sky above, and every nerve tingled with excitement as he recognized its smallness of strand and knew that it was part of a local line. If it should be the polica wire! As the thouzht struck his mind and he realized what would be the result, should he be enabled to communicate with the police, his hands trem- bled, and the sickly pallor of suspense crossed his anxious face. To secure outside interfer- ence—to capture the band and the casket would indeed be a great achievement. He reached out the bars of the window to en- deavor to grasp the wire. His efforts were un- successful, however; his fingers could not reach it. Taking from his pocket the coil of wire he had carried from the building where be had first traced the Leag.e, he bent it, and again reaching from the window, flung it over the outside strand, i His heart beat high with hope and triumph as he found that the tension of the wire admit- ted of his drawing it as far as the window. As he examined it with trembling fingers, his eyes sparkled with delight. It was the police wire! is experience told him that in this surmise be was correct, An expert electrician, bis judgment enabled him to determine what to do and how to do it quickly, Separating the wire with his knife, he attached a piece from the coil in his pocket to it and allowed the other end to drop over the The Telegraph Detective. ——— side of the building. He knew from the direc- tion of the wire that it went toward police head quarters, and that with time he could command the police force. Introducing the little instrawent in his pocket, the relay of the line repairer, he inserted the wire, allowing it to run through, and oii the end by con- necting a piece of the coil with it and ground- | ing it by twisting it around a water-pipe in one corner of the room. The circuit was formed! A prisoner in the hands of desperate men, he had them at his mercy, for he felt assured that within a few moments’ tims he would be in communication with police bead-quarters. A3 he fixed his location in his mind, he was enabled to judge what line he was operating. Every nerve was on the alert as he applied bis finger to the little instrument and sounded the call to the operator at the other end of the line. He listened in breatbless suspense for a mo- ment or two. The perspiration stood in beads upon his brow, his breath came quick and heated, Tap—tap! He had been successful! The pe- culiar echo of his movements, a tacit reply to his signal apprising bim of the fact. ‘* Important!” his nimble fingers spoke on the transmitter. ‘‘In peril! I have spliced the line. Keep open for what I have to say. I am—” There was an interruption. Loud voices reached his ears, engaged in excited conversa- tion at the door, while a key went fumbling around the lock. In the semi-darkness of the room the wire might escape detection,’was his first thought, and springing on the bed, he bent the wires to the wall and placed the instrument at his side ax from the door, and sat awaiting his visi- ors. The noise without, the momentary expecta- tion of the arrival of his foes did not deter him from continuing his work, He knew that the very first words of his message would enchain the attention of the man at head-quarters—that his ready intelligence would discern a peculiar combination of some kind in progress, and that be would keep the line open until be bad time to call his story sent clicking over the electric ath. How his fingers flew! In the briefest words possible he told of the murdered banker and ave the location of the house in which he was imprisoned as near as he could guess it—which was quite accurate, as he recognized a building just seen on the adjoining street—and that he was in the power of a desperate band of men who threatened bis life every moment. Even in his excited stateof mind he discerned the voice of Torrance. He could distinguish the familiar intonation, but not the words. The leader of the League had been actuated to the visit by the return of Barnes, and was now A pee his accomplice. ‘You secured the girl?’ be had asked. ‘‘Yes, by the aid of Arminie, who was shrewd enough to secure the detective and lead him here.” ‘* She was waiting for you?” “Yes; she had gone up to the girl’s room, dressed exactly like her, to carry out the plan agreed upon, and had drugged her so we easily removed her to the place settled on.” ‘* The Irving Place house?” ee Yes,” “And you saw—” : ** We saw the captain, and he tells a startlir s story. Tle treasure casket—” . ‘What of it?’ demanded Torrance, quickly. ‘* There’s been some blundering mistake. The stranger who burst into the room and resisted us must have carried it off.” ‘‘Confusion! Has our plan miscarried?” ‘¢-Yes; and the captaiu is raving mad about it. He thought he gave the casket to me. In- stead, he handed it to the stranger, apparently. He says he saw the man coming after him—saw him go into a building near by, and a third man pursuing in the rear. When I came to tell him that I didn’t get the casket, he understood it all, for he recognized the stranger as—” The man leaned forward and whispered a name in Torrance’s ear, The latter started visibly. ** Tt can’t be!” ‘‘It is, for certain! You should have ended Marvin’s career in the garden.” ‘*T wish I had,” replied Torrance, with an oath, ‘*Curse the luck, we're ruined if the casket is gone, but I'll settle the affair, as the captain has told you, about our prisoner. He wishes to spare him to hold an influence over the girl. I'd rather end him, once for all, and feel secure from his infernal interference in our plans.” With these words Torrance unlocked and opened the door of the prisoner’s apartment. ‘Where is he?” a familiar voice broke upon Marvin’s hearing, and Torrance entered the room, , Behind him pressed half a dozen of his men, The principal in the robbery of the banker ad- vanced within a few feet of Marvin and strained his vision to catch a full view of bis face. ‘* Again!” he said, sneeringly, as he met Mar- Cc (0) MUICLOOKS (E(@)