Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 419 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

- ne tli caasinn “ln, de PE 5 se — ——__— now, when my time has come, why should I not die as game as I have lived? You your- self must acknowledge that I have nr ade a good fight. ‘You did not succeed in entrapping me by the use of your wits, but solely by accident. With all your skill and cunning you walked into the trap as blindly as though you were a green country boy instead of a man who bears the reputation of being the greatest detective that the country basever known. Naught but accident, I repeat, enabled you to escape, an ac- cident which it was impossible for the keenest wits to foresee or provide against. I am only mortal, I am not possessed of supernatural knowledge; how was it possible for me to guess you were an opium-eater and so able to take with impunity the drug which rendered your companion as helpless as a dead man? Bah! I can read the signs which predict the future as well as any one who breathes the breath of life! The fatal event shows me that my career is ended. Why, then, sbould I attempt to strug- gle against fate? Itis useless! Man I can fight and conquer, but when fate steps into the lists it is as well to yield at first, as to be bruised and wounded by an unavailing struggle.” This speech confirmed Phenix in the impres- sion which he had formed when the particulars of the mysterious murders first became known to him; the secret assassin was a little touched in the upper story. But he was glad to find she was disposed to take the matter so coolly, for he hated to bave trouble with a woman, even thoveh she was no better than a female fury. ‘* Well, it’s the fortune of war, I suppose, so, if you will permit me to snap these little orna- ments upon your wrists, we will be going,” he remarked. She shrunk from him and an expression of disgust and terfor appeared upon her face. ‘* But why is it necessery to put on those hor- rid things?” she exclaimed, ‘I will go with you quietly enough—I will not attempt to resist —you see, lam perfectly labia am resigned to my fate; destiny itself fights against me; I realize the fact and know that it will be useless for me to struggle.” Poenix shook his head. He had been tricked in this fasbion once before. A woman hed begged to be spared the humiliation of going through the public streets with the handcuffs on ber delicate wrists; he had consented, and the moment he was out of the house, the prisoner’s confederates assaulted him and so enabled ber to escape. If she had had the bracelets on the trick would not have been accomplished so easily. ** You will not?” ‘*No, madam, I regret that I cannot oblige you, for it is my rule to always put the brace- ets on a prisoner ” “Oh, well, I suppose I must submit then, as I cannot help myself, but it is a shameful deg- radation.” She extended her wrist. Phenix, deceived b the apparent submission, bent forward to ad- just the handcuffs, when, with lightning-like quickness, the woman dealt him a terrible blow between the eyes that staggered him back; fall. ing against a chair he lost his balance and came to the ground. This gave the prisoner a chance to dart through the door into the adjoining room. Inatwinkling Phenix was on bis feet and threw himself against the door. CHAPTER XXL BAFFLED. PHENrx was a brainy fellow; it was not often that he met his match, but in this case the woman certainly bad duped him. After sing through the door she had both locked and bolted it upon the other side, and when the detective flung himself against it he could not stir it, being a solid affair, put together in a workmanlike manner, and not to be easily forced. _ “The infernal vixen!” cried Phenix, greatly enraged, smarting under bis defeat and the ef- fects of the blow, which had been delivered with all the precision and force of a profes- sional pugilist. The detective had guessed the woman’s game, From the other room, which was a bed-cham- ber, a door probably gave access to the entry, and while be was engaged in forcing an en- trance into the apartment, she would be able to make ber escape. Phenix hesitated for a moment, Which door could be break open the easiest? That was the question he asked himself, and almost immedi- ately decided that as the main door opened into the room, while the one he was at swung ex- actly the contrary, he would do better to keep on in his attack. Drawing back a few paces he planted a pow- erful kick on the door, right beside the lock, which had never been made with the idea of re- sistiag such an attack, and so the attachments gave way at once and the door flew open. Only a minute or two had elapsed since the woman entered the room, but it was evidenf she had made good use of her time, for when Pae- e nix rushed into the apartment the culprit had disappeared. As he expected, a door led from the bei- The Bat of the — _ chamber into the hall, and an examination dis- closed that it was locked and the key missing. The woman had evidently passed out of the door into the entry, and by the device of lock- ing the door after her, bad most effectually put a stop to pursuit. Phenix’s resolution was soon taken. He had a stout knife in his pocket and be thought he could succeed in forcing back the bolt, as the lock was so arranged as to afford him an oppor- tunity of working at it. This operation was accomplished with very little trouble, and the detective found himself at liberty again. That the woman would lose no time in getting out of the hotel he nothing doubted. She was attired in a plain, dark dress, and as ho had not noticed ber hat or cloak in the inner apartment, he presumed she had caught them up in her flight, so she was fully equipped for the street, and would not attract attention by an unusual costume, Straight, then, to the “ Ladies’ Entrance” of the hotel went Phenix, and there inquired of the colored man, who had charge of the door, if he had seen a lady go out, describing ** Miss Barcelona.” ‘Yas, sah,” responded the hotel Cerberus, ‘bout five mivutes ago. You mean dat for- eign lady, wid de big diamon¢es?”’ ‘*-Yos; did she scem to be in a hurry?” ‘No, sah, I didn’s notice anything out of de common.” Poenix thanked the man for the information, slipped a quarter into his hand and went out into the street, hoping that he would be able from some one of the loungers, usually to be found around the outside of the hotel, to dis- cover which way the fugitive had -sone, He secured a clew from the very first man whom he accosted, one of the hackmen whose coach stood by the edge of the pavement. ‘*A lady in black? Oh, yes, sir, she took Mickey Doolan’s coach to the Twenty-third street ferry; she wanted to catch a train on the Erie road for Buffalo.” In order to be sure that there wasn’t any mis- take about the matter, Phenix got the man to give him as good a description as he could of the Indy, for it didn’t seem possible that she would be so foolish as to “‘give away” the route that she had taken. : The description tallied exactly with his bird, and when the detective reflected upon the mat- ter he saw the game that the fugitive had made up her mind to play, From the hotel, by means of a carriage, the Twentv-third-street ferry—the up-town depdt of the Erie railway—could be easily reached in ten minutes. She calculated that she would have ut least ten minutes’ start of her pursuer; she could gain the ferry by the time that the trail was taken up—and if she made this con- jecture it was correct, for Phenix had been ce- tained fully ten miuutes. To putthe police ma- chinery in motio-. to intercept her would take fifteen or twenty minutes more, and by that tims she would be able to get out of the way, for that she had any idea of leaving the city the detective did not for an instant believe, but at the same time it wouldn’t do any harm to send out a general alarm, requesting the police to de- tain ‘* Miss Guadaloupe Barcelone,” so Phenix hurried to the telegraph station and sent a dis- patch to the Central Office, then returned to wait the coming of the driver. Not long was he kept in suspense. In about ten minutes a hack drove up, and the driver looked exactly like a man who would answer to such a name as Mickey Doolan. Phenix accosted him and found that his guess was correct. The man had driven the lady in black to the Erie depdt, at the foot of Twenty-third street, but whether she bad entered the depdét or no was more than he could say, as after he ha been paid he drove immediately back to the hotel in order to keep an appointment with an- other customer, and so had not noticed where his fare had gone. The ¢ “ective thanked the man for the infor- mation and turned away. ‘““The game is up for the present,” he mut- tered. ‘*The whole thing was a plant to throw me off the track. She has not gone out of the city, but she would have been wise if she had done so, for, by Heaven! I'll have her, no mat- ter how skillfully she may hide herself. New York is a big place to play at hide-and-seek, but that doesn’t make any difference, for in the end a fugitive can be hunted down as well here as in the smallest village; it only takes a little more time; that is all.” Phenix was considerably nettled by the re- sult of this affair. In all bis professional ex- erience be had never been so skillfully beaten, ut the fact only made hiin more determined to turn the tables upon his cunning adversary, for he felt that she was a foeman worthy of his eel, Reéntering the hotel he took the superin- tendent to one side and explained to him all that had occurred. The astonishment of that gentleman was great, ‘‘Upon my word I never was so completely Battery. | 1g al te a afeard!” replied theo ‘3 Pon — — — — - band at the business and I thongbt . could de- tect an impostcr witrout muci trouble, but I must own up beat in this caso, for | had not the slightest suspicion that there was anything crooked about the woman.’ Then the two hastened up-stairs in hopes to secure a clew. The clerk was still in the easy-chair, insensible to all surroundings. “The dose was a strong one, and it will be eight or ten hours before he recovers from the effects of it,”” Ponenix remarked. ‘Is there any danger of serious results?” ‘Oh, no, nothing more than a dull headache, ust as if he had been on a prolonged spree, hat’s all.” Then, at Phenix’s suggestion, the clerk was placed upon the bed, so that he might be com- fortable during his enforced sleep. A large Saratoga trunk stood in a corner of the room. ‘‘How could a man suspect that the party wasn’t solid, coming with a trunk like tha worth twenty-five or thirty dollars?” exclaim the superintendent with a grimace. The trunk was locked, and when Phenix tested its weight he remarked how heavy it seemed. “Ob, yes, that’s the old game; when we come to open it we'll find that it is full of brick- bats and such rubbish,” the hotel man observed, dolefully. ‘‘The trick hasn’t been played for so long that I had really began to believe it had died out.” The superintendent had a bunch of small kevs and just by chance one of them happened to fit the lock, so they were able to open the trunk without violence, The hotel official was correct in his guess; the trunk was filled to the brim with bricks carefully wrapped in rags and paper. ‘‘Hang me if I understand it, though!” the superintendent exclaimed. ‘'She has only been here a few days and the trunk is worth about e.ough to cover her bill.” “Her game was not to swindle your hotel, but to get me into a trap so as to be able to put me out of the way,” Phenix remarked; ‘but after the tight squeeze she had this time I reckon she won’t be apt to try the game again.” ; Being now satisfied that no further informa- tion could be gained in the hotel, tie detective osted to the railway depdt at the foot of ‘wenty-third street and there made diligent in- quiries in regard to the woman in block, but not the slightest bit of intelligence could he ain. Both the ticket-seller and the gate-keeper, who had been on duty since six o’clock, were per- fectly sure that no such woman had been seen by them. ‘Tt is as I expected,” muttered Phenix, as he turned away, *‘ nothing buta ‘plant to throw me off the scent if I was in hot pursuit. Well, tbe first trick is hers, but one trick don’t make a game, and as sbe knows me in my own pro person, it is now in order for me to get down tc real work. Joe Phenix must vanish for awhil and in his place a second detective must rise more potent than the first!” CHAPTER XXII. LESBIA’S ADVENTURE. AND now we must return to the girl upon whom fortune had frowned so perversely ever since her arrival in the New World. From the time when she had fallen in a swoon on tie beach, exhausted by the terrible strug- gle with the waves, until she woke to conscious- _ ness in what wasapparently the cellar of a house all was a blank, - When she recovered her senses she found her- self lying upon a little bed, with an old manand woman bending over her. A small lamp, placed upon one of the stairs that led to a trapdoor, dimly illuminated the scene, | The old woman had bathed her face with cam- phor-water, and under this sin.ple treatment consciousness soon returned. Lesbia looked around in amazement; thedingy : apartment, the ceiling, so near that a tall man could not have stood upright, the earth walls, the utter absence of windows, as well as the — uncouth appearance of the old couple excited — her wonder, and she could not possibly imagi what had become of her. s pan The fisherman and his wife, watching her with the eyes of hawks, noted the opening of | her brilliant orbs and comprebended that reascn had once again resumed its sway. **Do you feel better, deary?” croaked the old woman, endeavoring to soften her hard features into a sympathetic glance. ‘Where am I?” was the natural question of ceca — soon as she recovered strength enough speak “Oh, you're all right, ducky! don’t you be d man. | ‘** But an awful tight squeeze you’ve bad of it, _ you poor thing,” the woman remarked. “TI tricked in my life!” he declared, ‘‘I’m an old, o, 4 C&, . - by 4 . > | 4 , ; ; . c Ki ari & vt hee a / 4 . : » pa ou what it is, my dear, it was a lecky thing | to or you that my old man and me happened ooo) ComiuGe - % 7 t f AA nbs « * ys i ~ ‘yaa eo ss > ay bf