Beadle's Dime Library No. 386 — page 17: what you’re looking at

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

‘ane? -_ as noiselessly, steadily and relentlessly as the iron roof was shutting down. Forgetful for the moment of Clarisse’s instruc- tions, Hawk stood, or rather crouched, in the center of the cell, gazing back into the diminish- ing recess, overmastered by a supreme sense of horror. His seeming indifference to his peril, in ‘ Bli- thers’s’ presence, had merely been assumed. « Now that he was alone, the full knowledge of his situation well-nigh paralyzed his faculties. He could see the iron box in which he was en- trapped slowly and remorselessly closing in upon him, like the contracting maw of some gigantic reptile into which he had been sucked by the vortex of a nightmare, 7 Yet lower he crouched, quivering like a leaf, while he could almost touch the narrowing sides with his elbows, Then there came another shivering blow from without. It was followed by the same terrible voice that had thundered forth its demands when he had dangled over the pit of fire and steel. ‘* A chance for life is yet accorded you, Hawk Heron!” exclaimed the voice. ‘‘ Swear to relin- quish your pursuit of Count Kotzka, the Pro- scribed!” ** Never!” ‘Reflect,” continued the voice, ‘‘ But two more blows will be struck with this hammer. At the last, the contracting process will be hast- ened—the roof and walls will close upon you like a house of cards—your iron tomb will become your iron shroud!” Hawk vouchsafed no answer. Even in this emergency, however, he could not help thinking, ‘‘ How odd that this villain should echo Blithers’s prediction, almost to the exact words!” *“Once more, and for the last time, speak!” again cried the voice, ‘‘ Will you take the oath demanded of you?” Hawk could now easily touch the sides of the cell with his elbows, and he was half-doubled up by the encroachment of the descending roof, The ordeal through which his resolution was passing was appalling—his hair was bristling and the sweat of mental agony pouring from him in streams. But he was indomitable. ‘* Never!” he gasped through his clinched teeth. A diabolical laugh of mingled fury and deri- sion rung out from overhead. ‘‘ Adamantine dolt! incorrigible enemy! die then in thy perversity!” again called out the voice, though in receding tones, as though its owner was retreating. ‘‘Three minutes hence thy body will be a breathless, broken and irre- cognizable mass within its iron shroud!” * Iawk shuddered as the voice died away. Terrible as it had been, it had afforded him a species of companionship that was preferable to solitude in the presence of that awful, torturing death that was gathering him into its iron em- brace, He was now so narrowly inclosed as to be able to change his attitude only with the utmost diffi- — culty. The fact that the contracting process was now going on much more slowly—so slowly as to be hardly perceptible—was only a refinement of the torment endured by our hero, ’ His eyes were starting from their sockets, his breath coming and going in quick, panting 5 ee only wait, in a sort of horrible ex- pectation, for the next of those two fateful ham- mer-strokes that ny been promised, At last if came It fell so heavily and jarringly that the shiver- ing iron walls inclosin the miserable captive bruised his flesh through his garments. Was not the end now at hand—was he not al- ready, to all intents and purposes, enveloped in his iron shroud? f : Still, the few remaining instants of immunity from the fell destroyer’s actual embrace were as an age, and Hawk groaned aloud. | Suddenly Clarisse’s penetrating whisper rung through the metal plates close to his ear. ‘The embrasure—the window!” hissed the voice. ‘* Have you forgotten, or are you mad?” ‘‘ T don’t believe I can turn toward the win- dow now,” Hawk managed to gasp in reply. ‘¢T am fairly locked up in iron!” — A low, despairing wail floated in to him. Then the whisper was yet more urgent and ates, oats try, or you are lost!” it continued. “ Pather of Mercy! not a moment is to be lost. The next hammer stroke disjoints the entire cell S yur fate!” ‘ a es acoperate effort, Hawk succeeded in waning right about face. 1¢ Window’ - He whtored a savage cry, like that of a snared -ild beast whose last hope of rs has been suddenly and unexpectedly cut o ; The window was no longer there st, only a narrow § Rl se cea tients were ac rp ne ing closed over the greater part Irom © Nevertheless, Hawk frantically edged his way toward it. , < ‘eee on be4t ve lit of the embrasure |. Heron, the Falcon Detective. He was too late—the catastrophe was upon him! At that instant, the last hammer stroke fell $$$ ——$——_ a Unarmed as he was, he instantly closed with the figure. There was a shot, the bullet grazing the de- with shattering force, and the iron walls and | tective’s hair, and then his assailant and he were locked in a hand-to-hand struggle. roof tumbled in upon and around him with a hollow crash! CHAPTER XVII. IN DARKNESS AND STORM. But the sudden demolition of the iron walls imprisoning our hero had also re-opened the em- brasure. By a last desperate leap, Hawk gained the ledge, and ensconced himself within the opening just as the massive plates collapsed with a hid- eous crash on the floor behind him. Breathless and half-unnerved, he clutched the grating of the window, and looked back. The immense room in which the hideous dun- geon had stood was wrapped in darkness, Out of this darkness, there issued a retreating bi wes terrible voice of Kotzka, the Pro- scribed, **Come away, and leave the stubborn fool to erovel in his iron shroud!” cried the voice. ** He dared his awful fate, and it overtook him, To- morrow we can dispose of the remains.” Then there was a sound of numerous footsteps dying away in the distance. Outside the weather had changed, and a furious tempest was raging. Hawk waited long and anxiously, in the hope of receiving some further intimation from Clarisse, None came, The space within was doubtless deserted, and yet'back again into that chamber of horrors, Hawk dared not venture. Should he do so, hidden foes might spring upon him as if by magic; and, as the case stood he was doubtless thought to be dead, a esis oe and motionless inmate of the iron shroud, which erroneous impression might greatly facilitate his escape. He now produced from his sleeve his fine, deli- cate saw, and went to work on the thick bars of the grating. His task was frequently illuminated by flashes of lightning through the pouring rain, while thunder-peals rolled and crashed overhead. He was an expert at his work, and two bars were presently displaced. He dragged his body half-through the open- ing and gazed anxiously below and above, as the lightning lent its illuminating flashes. Scarcely ten feet over his head was the cornice of the building, just back of which, he was sure, arose the tower in which Olga was imprisoned. Far, far below lay the dimly-lighted, deserted street. The rope which he had secured,though new and strong, was barely thirty feet in length. : To ascend or descend directly was an impossi- ility. But a flash suddenly revealed to Hawk the roof-ledge of an adjoining building, a litvle low- a than his position, and about twenty feet to one side. By suspending himself from the remains of the grating, there was a chance, theslightest chance that he might succeed in swinging himself along the blank face of the brewery, soas to obtain the coveted foothold. Enormous as was the risk, it was taken almost as soon as conceived. A few minutes later, he was suspended over the awful depths, with the rope knotted under his arms, and the storm whirling, lashing and whipping him about like a reed. As he pushed himself from one side to the other, he felt the rope suddenly give with his weight an inch or two, He looked up, Horror! A flash showed him that the rope, by rubbing against the sharp outer edge of the embrasure, was almost severed! One more oscillation might plunge him, bleed- ing and mangled, upon the pavement below. However, desperate as was the chance, he must take it. By a last powerful effort, he swung himself on a level with the adjoining roof. Just then the rope parted! But he had already gained a grip of the ledge. The roof chanced to be a level one. A moment more, and he was standing upon it, breathless, and with the severed rope dangling from his body. ; As he rid himself of the incumbrance, he took his bearings. He was on the flat roof of one of a series of lofty tenement-houses. The blank side-wall of the brewery building rose above it to a hight of twenty-odd feet, and above that, set a little back, rose the tower in which Olga was imprisoned. Drenched and shaken as he was, Hawk looked up at it with longing eyes, as he crept over the roof in the pouring rain. i i Hawk found himself by far the larger and stronger. In an instant he had whirled his antagonist from his foothold, and snatched the weapon from his hand. Then came an illuminating lightning-flash, Each recognized the other at the same instant, as they staggered apart, ** Nixey!” ** Boss Heron!” It was, indeed, the faithful lad. Hawk again caught him in his arms, but tenderly and gratefully, though in supreme as- tonishment, ‘*Now Heaven be praised, for I thought you dead!” he exclaimed. ‘* Not yet, boss!” was the Jad’s cheerful re- aly. ‘But, oh! Lordy, boss, how awful you ook!” “Tn what way?” ‘‘As if you had been Havin’ pot-luck with ghosts!” ‘*T may well look that way, for they came near making one of me, and at first I took you for another. But why are you here?” **To look after you, boss.” ‘* How did you escape from the tunnel? And Seagrave—is he also alive?” ** Alive an’ kickin’, boss; same as me,” ‘Tell me about it.” ** The bu’s'-up in the tunnel brought down the roof,boss, but behind both Mr. Seagrave an’ me he at one end, an’me at the other. Then wego out at different ends, an’ met ag’in on top of the rocks,” ** Good! since?” “Fu’st off, Mr. Seagrave thought you must have been killed, but I was sure you hadn't been.” ““ Wh ” “‘T sort o’ knowed it wasn’t your luck to be cornered to death like a rat in a hole, boss,” Hawk once more embraced his stanch little friend. “*T now see why it was that I overheard the report of my friends’ destruction,” he thought. ‘*Tt was intended that I should overhear it, in order to strike deeper despair into my soul. Well, go on,” he continued, aloud. ‘Well, boss, then Mr. Seagrave was fur me i! the perlice, but I wouldn’t hear of it.” “That was right.” ‘Then I was fur seekin’ out Mr. Blithers, but on second thoughts concluded I wouldn't,” “ Right again!” ‘*Then, the rest of that night an’ i a wi when we wasn’t asleep, Mr. ave was skir- mishin’ around tryin’ to find Miss Clarisse, but without success, while I was busy in locatin’ that old brewery, into which I sort o' felt you must have forced your way, an’ been captured,” ‘** Ah! and you located it at last?’ **Only two hours ago, boss. Then I made my way up to the roof of this ’ere tenement throu the hallways. My object, boss, was to gain the roof of the brewery, an’ somehow make my way down through it to your relief.” Hawk pressed his hand. “*T had been studyin’ that ere dividin’ wall, boss, fur more’n an hour, wonderin’ how I'd shin up over it, when you suddenly crept over the roof an’ tackled me. But, Jewhillikins! how rains! We'll be washed away like gum-drops, oss! ‘““ Where is Seagrave now?” asked the detec- tive, heedless of the rain. “Down at the door, on watch.” On watch?” “Yes, boss. This hull block of tenements jest swarms with Eyetalian, Rooshan an’ other urrin galoots what may be feller-conspyrators of that Kotzka.” **Oho! Can you signal Seagrave to come up here?” ‘* ‘Yes, boss; but, fu’st off, let me lead you to © a place of shelter,” e led the way along the roots till they were underneath a little room, or shed, built over one of the scuttles, ‘* All right now, boss,” said Nixey. | ‘‘ But be- fore [ signal, will you permit me to propound a question?” ** Certainly; speak.” * Why stay up here, boss? Why not come down yourself, an’ take a rest?” _ Hawk pointed out of the shed at the tall out- line of the tower on the brewery. ‘“*Olga is imprisoned up there,” said he. ‘T shall take no rest till I have seen and spoken with her,” This was said in a tone that admitted of no argument. Nixey ran to the edge of the roof, and sounded a shrill cat-call down into the street. A moment later, as Hawk and he advanced And what have you been doing Suddenly a short ficure, with a dark-lantern | toward the nearest open scuttle, Seagrave came in one hand, a pistol in the other, sprung up in | bounding up throug his path from behind a chimmey. zh it, notwithstanding that he was burdened with a box in which were a “What!” thought Hawk; “have my enemies | number of odd-looking, bulbous-shaped bottles, pursued me even here?” partitioned off one from another. (E(o) milebooks y - ’ ae wit i