Beadle's Dime Library No. 386 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

She was greatly excited, putting one question after the other with nervous haste, _ ‘‘My first move shall be to get rid of these hars as quickly as y0ssible,” said Hawk, answer- ing the last query first, as he set to work on the | grating with his fine saw. ** Then, if I don’t £0 in there to you, it will be because you will come out here tome. Yes; some one did accompany me. He is a worthy, handsome young fellow, very much in love with you, who is waiting on the roof below.” Olga colored, and then looked greatly trou- bled. ‘*T do not understand,” she faltered, as the work on the grating proceeded, ‘*I have no lover.” ‘*Can’t you recall the name vf Seagrave?” said Hawk. ‘Seagrave? No. But wait. Was not that the name of the young man who so persistently attended all my performances at the Thalia, always occupying the same seat?” ‘* Like enough,” } ‘A medical young man, tall, dark, with wavy hair and soft eyes?” ‘ ‘‘T yemember now. He told me his name— Seagrave, that was it!” . ‘** He has no other.” ‘‘*Ah! I once permitted him to escort me home, when Mr. Schmidt had failed me, and my mother was too 1l— But, ah heaven! I must not think of her, or I shall go mad. Yes; the young man accompanied me to my door, But he was so silent, so gentle, so respectful, I never dreamed—” ** To condole with me, like a sister, in my mis- fortunes.” ** Anything else?” ‘** Yes; to warn me that, though my captivity cause that she would only mysteriously hint of, I should turn a deaf ear to all of Kotzka’s threats and importunities.” ‘* Threats? importunities? Heavens! does the monster dare—” ** Alas! he is my only other visitor—he gives me his hateful presence twice a day.” ‘* For what purpose?” ‘**To beseech me to end my misfortunes by marrying him, ** Marry him ? Oh, heavens!” ‘That is, he begins with entreaties, and ends with the most mysterious and horrible threats upon finding me obdurate.” ‘** Why, this is the quintessence of fiendishness! Is the monster mad? Marry him, the destroyer of your peace, your own mother’s mur—” **Ah! don’t speak it—don’t recall the awful scene! Besides, how can I know ‘twas he?” A wild terror seemed suddenly to have pos- With two of the iron bars nearly severed, Hawk paused in his work, and looked at her with amazement. ‘** Child, your words are an enigma!” he ex- claimed. ‘* Ah, speak not again of that scene!” ** But 1 must speak of it! When Ihave effect- ed your release, it will be necessary for you to testify as to that terrible tragedy.” ‘** Ah! but if I cannot?” Hawk Heron, the Falcon Detective. —_— ee ee ee ae ne ** Ha, ha, ha!” roared a familiar and demoniac voice. *‘* What! are you so sure of baffling the vulture’s clutch, my falcon foe?” Then Kotzka himself leaped into view, rising” is necessary for the welfare of some secret | over the staircase landing with a terrible aspect, a cocked revolver in each hand. Olga shrieked, while, covered as he was with the pistols, Hawk could only start back in. mo- mentary confusion. ‘** Ha, ha, ha!” roared the villain again. ‘What! would my pretty dove abandon her faithful vulture for a younger and a falcon wooer? But two can play at the game of treach- ery, and—” He was interrupted by a fresh paroxysm of" the storm, then the structure quivered to its foundations, there was a dazzling flash, a ter- rific peal, and the tower was in flames. It had been struck by lightning! Kotzka was the first to recover from the stun- ning effects, and dropping his pistols, he hurled himself spon the detective, while the latter was still dazed and half-paralyzed. “Ha, ha, ha! <A _ clever second-thought!” roared the giant. ‘‘Marplot, whom nothing will seem to kill! let us try the hangman’s noose © Thou sialt dance on air before thy time!” With that, he drew up the rope by which Hawk had ascended, and knotted the end secure- ly about his neck. Olga shrieked and seized his arm. He thrust her back with an oath, and raised the: detective’s helpless form high over his head. The next instant he had cast it far out over the balcony of the blazing tower. She paused, coloring again, this time deeply. ‘You amaze me! Cannot testify to what you CHAPTER XX, Of course not!” said Hawk, sawing away | actually witnessed?” ‘* HAMMERS AND TONGS!” energetically. ‘‘ Girls never do, even when a ‘* She implored me not to.” For the moment, it looked as if it was all up young fellow is dying with love for ’em.” “Who did?” with the career of Hawk Heron, the Falcom ‘* Don’t say that,” murmured Olga. ** My mother.” Detective, beyond all mortal hope. ‘*But I must, for, if it hadn’t been for Sea- grave, you would doubtless have been buried alive.” ** What is that you say?” Seeing that she was growing interested, to the obvious improvement of her spirits, Hawk gave her a highly wrought account of Seagrave’s in- strumentality in her rescue from the under- taker’s hands. ‘* Ah! how ean I ever doses eyigh thank the young man?’ Olga murmured, when he had finished. ; ** Easily enough, if your heart is engaged to no other,” said Hawk, with a muttered anathe- ma upon his work, which was progressing but slowly. ” Tlevs no one—I have‘never loved,” sighed Olga. ‘Besides, I cannot but remember that you, sir, were my actual preserver from that hor- —oh, such a sweet, such a lovely creature!” —EE 85099955 855358535 Hawk could only make a gesture of continued astonishment. ‘**T give it up!” he muttered, ripping out one of the bars. ‘* Olga, you are inexplicable!” He then resumed his work, and, Bag athe she was greatly distressed, changed the subject. ‘** Let me continue my questions,” said he. ** Yes, sir,” was the submissive reply. ‘“Have you any recollection of your infancy in a foreign land?” ** Only of my mother, distinctly. All the rest is shadowy—unreal. I was not four years old when I quitted it.” **Can you recall your father?” ‘‘But vaguely—as in a dream. My mother told me he died a martyr to liberty, Kotzka, since I have been here, has told me the same, adding that my father bequeathed me to his charge.” **But not with more eagerness,” he cried, His friends on the roof below had only recov- ered from the effects of the thunderbolt, to look up and behold the entire upper part of the tower in flames. Then their horror and consternation had been completed by beholding their beloved chief hurled over the balcony railing with the rope: oo into a hangman’s knot about his neck. But the flames, that illuminated this awful spectacle, proved the salvation of our hero. They had spread along the balcony, burning aay the fastening of the rope, by which he would otherwise have been plone tind with evcn more than the conventional jerk, Thus he fell into the arms of Nixey and Sca- grave, who succeeded in preventing him from rolling down the roof, and the dashing rain socy. revived him, in spite of the tremendous shaking- you can bave all the murder an’ arson’on your ee ee — ee ne 8) = = . = ey — = . © rid fate, though I do not even know your name,” ‘* He lies!” up he had undergone. 4 ‘‘ Hawk Heron, a poor detective, at your ser- ‘*) rejoice to know it!” “An ax or a hatchet—quick!” gasped the in- vice, young lady.” ** Any recollection of Kotzka himself in those | domitable detective, tearing the hempen noore ‘‘Hawk Heron? What an oddname! And | early days?” from his neck, ‘‘ Olga will be burned to death, yet so significant!” ‘*But a dim one—even less distinct than of | if we do not chop our way through the tower! ‘‘ Don’t forget, though, that but for Seagrave, | my father. And yet!” sheput her hand to her | Hark! hear you not Kotzka using an ax up the man who loves you to adoration, I could | forebead, with a strained, troubled expression; | y never have preserved you.” *“and yet, I seem to recall him at times more | implement to our pu ‘*T shall not forget. Ha!” distinctly—the form and face of one whom my Seagrave and Nixey had already pounced She started back as there came a sudden gust | father liked and my mother feared—together | upon the bound captive, ¥ hen, as if in answer to of the storm, accompanied by a Llinding with another, a much younger man, a mere | bis prayer, an ax, probably escaping from anda tremendous thunder-clap, that might have | youth.” Kotzka’s grasp, came flying out of the tower-top, torn Hawk from his foothold had he not clung ‘**Ah! that other? Try to restore him in your | and fell at Hawk’s feet. to the grating. _. | memory—only try!” To appropriate it as a godsend, and attack the ‘‘Don’t worry about the storm, please,” said She tapped her forehead once more, and knit- | base of the tower like a madman, was the work : Hawk, resuming his task, ‘‘ but pray answer | ted her brows, but ended b shaking her head. of an instant. : such questions as I shall put.” “Tcannot! I but recall dreamily a youthful The great chips flew from the wooden frame- | ‘‘ With all my heart, sir.” _ | face and figure that was somehow mysteriously | work in showers at every blow. i ‘‘ How did you disappear from the room in | associated with Kotzka—nothing more.” “Wait, Hawk!” said Seagrave, coming up to { which I laid you after taking you out of the Hawk pressed his face through the opening he | him. ‘The rain is rapidly putting out the | coffin?” had effected, and regarded her eagerly. flames,” | “T hardly know myself. You had hardly ‘‘Scrutinize my lineaments well,” said he. ‘*So much the better!” said Hawk, without: . been gone five minutes, I could still hear you | ‘*Do they not assist your memory, Olga? Have , pausing in his labor; ‘‘ but we can cut our way ' moving about in the adjoining room, when a | you no place for them amid those indistinct through to the staircase before Kotzka can y noise at the window near where I lay caused me | vistas of the Varee make his way down it with his prisoner!” , to turn my head, Ah!” She regarded him long and earnestly. At Boss,” said Nixey, also coming up, “it can't | She covered her eyes, as though to shut out an | last, as a change was poor into her face, a | be did!” awful recollection. change that might mean the desired revival of ‘* Nothing like trying, anyway,” gasped the “Pray, go on!” exclaimed Hawk. memorial intelligence, there came such a tre- | detective between his strokes, ‘What did you i ‘‘ A man—an immensely powerful man—had | mendous paroxysm of the tempest, followed by | find on our prisoner?” it just stepped through the window as stealthily as | a deafening crash of thunder, that she started “Only these,” said Seagrave, holding up an a panther.” back with a scream, ee tin box, packed with round, oblong tubes ‘Had you seen him before? Did you recog- ' Ah, you will be blown away!” she ex-| of adirty brown color, ‘TI can't imagine what. : nize him?” claimed, This is awful—I can feel the tower | they are.” ‘Yes, yes!” rock! 52 ae awk made along enough pause to examine “Was it Kotzka—the same man who had! “Fear nothing,” said Hawk, almost through | them hastily. . haunted you at the theater, who hed subsequent- | with the second bar. ‘Do you recall no others ‘‘T can,” said he, resuming his work. ‘ They're ly abducted you, who afterward brought you | once familiar—no brother, no sister?” _ | dynamite cartridges.” . here?” ‘None, though my poor mother was mysteri- “What!” exclaimed Scagrave, nearly drop- } “Ah, Heaven, the same!” ously reticent on that point. Ah! thank Heaven ping the box, ‘*There must be danger in even j ‘* Go on!” your work is nearly complete!” andling them!” c i ‘‘Before I could make an outcry, I wasin | ‘ Yes; buta few moments more, and I will be A shot from above at this juncture perforated H his terrible grasp, with a saturated handker- | in there with vou. the Brim of his hat. chief pressed over my mouth and nostrils.” ‘‘ And then?” They all looked Up. “ And then?” ‘Then you must prepare to go with me.” Kotzka, pistol in hand, and getting ready for ‘My senses deserted me—I knew no more x the way you came here?” another shot, was leaning over the half-burned | till I found myself alone in this prison.” “Yes; there is no other. You will not be | balcony railing, with a face like a fiend. ‘¢- You have been here ever since?” sorry to escape out of Kotzka’s vulture clutch?” The flames of the still burning tower-roof’ H “Yes.” “Sorry? Oh, Heaven! with what eagerness | were sending their red tongues high up in the ‘¢ No visitors?” ‘ I shall fly with you!” _ air, far above bis bead. Bi “Oh, yes! Twice a day a man brings me| Here the second bar yielded to Hawk’s wrench- ‘**Blast your infernal picture!” yelled Nixey,, i food. Then once I have been visited by a lady | Ing erasp. in a sudden fury of boyish rage; “ dye think | | ‘springing into the room, ‘than I shall bear | you away, cut of that arch-fiend’s power for- ever!” bc ee re . 2en, hardly knowing what he was about. and before he could be prevented, he seized one of me Her name?” Ean ‘She told me to call her ‘ Ularisse. ** Ah! the object of her visit?” i fonder? Search our howtnde for some sort of , | MmIicboo CS . . * (eC) com : — 4 = P oe ns 4 : ’ : \