Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 419 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

| ‘es - : 7 - With such detectives as these to plan was to act. Ten minutes later Plantington was on his way to New York, and Phenix, hurrying to the cot- tage of the superintendent of police. CHAPTER XXXITX., WEAVING THE WEB. Jor PHENTIX was a fast walker, and it did not take him long to reach the summer cottage ‘on the beach at Long Branch,” occupied by the su- perintendent of police. | The New York chief dined late, after the fashion common to the notables of the neighbor- hood, and was sitting on the piazza, enjoying a cigar, in company with nis family, when the de- tective came up. As Phenix advanced toward the house the chief surveyed him with a curious glance, for though the detective was so carefuily disguised that the superintendent did not recognize him, yet the idea came to him that he had seen the stranger somewhere before. — The cottage of the superintendent was situ- ated next to one of the big hotels, and the elec- tric lights which flared in front of the palace- like structure flooded the cottage lawn with light, so that all objects were almost as visible as in the full glare of the sunlight. By the time that Phenix had got half-way across the lawn the New York official pene- trated his disguise. Or, to speak more correctly, he suspected that the stranger was the detective, for knowing that he was in the neighborhood, and expecting a call from him, hé was on the watch, otherwise it is safe to say that he would not have recog- nized Phenix, so complete was his disguise. The moment he made the discovery the super- intendent rose to his feet and, with a casual re- mark to the effect that he supposed he had bet- ter see what the old fellow wanted, advanced to meet Phenix. : It was a rule of the chief of the metropolitan : police never to allow his family to know aught of his business. Unlike other men he could not confine his business strictly to his office, for in urgent cases it was absolutely necessary for his secret agents to seek him at bis residence, when he was not at Headquarters, no matter what the hour might be. When the disguised detective perceived that the official was coming to meet him he halted The superintendent came up, favored Phenix with a scrutinizing glance and said: “Well, I think I know you this time, al- though if I had not been on the lookout for you the odds are big that you would have fooled me again.” . ““TIs my disguise so perfect, then?” the detec- tive asked with a quiet smile. ‘Indeed it is!” the chief exclaimed. ‘ You are at the top of the heap in this line, and no mistake!” ‘‘Such a compliment as that from a man like yourself, an expert in these matters, is worth aving.” ek ‘Tt is my honest opinion, too—no gum-game ' The Bat of the Battery. | | | of action, and it is not likely that the fellow has | | his spies here at the Branch, because he will not | be apt to suspect that any one could penetrate | bis designs.” | | | street, and get away from the glare of the hotel | | | | | 20 —— **T don’t see how your plan can be bettered | him into the secret, and so explained to him in any way, and I will do all I can to aid you. that the horse was wanted for a bit of detec- ‘*T will telegraph to Byrnes in New York that | tive business, but without going into any par- Plankington is on an important scent, and for | ticulars. him to furnish any aid he may require; andin | He had said as much to Joe Phenix, and that regard to the running horse, General Tom | gentleman had agreed with the chief. Mack, who has a stock-farm near Monmouth ‘* Yes, there isn’t much danger of anything Park, in Eatontown, where he boards and trains | leaking out, for these horsemen are slways twenty or thirty racers every year, isa partic- | keen chaps and understand that a still tongue ular friend of mine, and from him I can un- | often makes a wise head, and then too if he doubtedly get an animal such as you want. knows for what purpose the horse is wanted, ‘* And if he hasn’t got a horse, he can put me | we will be more apt to get one suited to the trip, in the way to get one. | than if he picked a steed out in ignorance of the ‘** We will drive over there at once, for in this | purpose for which it was to be used,” the de- matter there isn’t any time to be lost. | tective observed, shrewdly. ‘You wait here while 1 order my trotter to So, after the chief had introduced Joe Phenix be harnessed.” to the general, stating that he was a gentleman The superinterdent’s stableman was indulging | in the detective line, he at once proceeded to ex- in a smoke in front of the barn, so that the com- | plain why they bad called upon him, mand to harness the horse was immediately | ‘* You want a good horse for a little detective obeyed, _ business, eh?” the general remarked, thought- ‘*Do you think there is any danger of your | fully. ‘‘Stout, and speedy, an all-day horse, being recognized by any one if you go with me | able to do his sixty mi‘es without going all to in the buggy?” the chief asked, when he return- | pieces?” ed to Phenix. ‘* That is the kind of horse, exactly,” said the ‘*We will only have to go to the corner on | superintendent. Ocean avenue, and after we turn into the side ‘IT guess I can fit you out all right. ‘* There is just the kind of animal you want in my stables. **Old Hickory, as good a beast as ever looked through a bridle, if he wasn’t such a rogue.” ‘* Why, I know Old Hickory!” exclaimed the _ chief of police. | “T bave seen bim run—and win, too—right _here, on the Monmouth course.” | ‘* Exactly! he has done it—he has showed the way to the judges’ stand to the best of them. ** And if he would only run always as he can run when be feels like it, he would be worth~ twenty or thirty thousand dollars of any one’s money. ‘*But as it is, the man who would be idiot enough to pay one thousand for him would he apt to regret his foolishness mightily before he was a year older, ‘*One racing campaign would be apt to make him wish he had thrown his money into the sea rather than invested it in the horse.” ‘*T understand,” observed the superintendent with a sagacious nod, “he is uncertain and un- reliable about bis running.” ‘* That is the explanation. ‘Here on our private track he can beat any horse that we have ever had on the place, but when it comes to a public race, in just about nine times out of ten the brute will not try to run at all. ‘ ‘*Once in a while, one time out of ten, as I lights, there isn’t much chance of your being spotted by any one even if you were not dis- guised,” ** Oh, I will risk it,” Phenix replied. ** We are quite a distance away from the field Was going to suggest you could walk up the side street and get into the buggy there.” ‘* No necessity for that, I think.” ‘*] don’t hardly think there is, but I am so deuced anxious for you to lay this scoundrel by the heels, that I am really nervous about the matter.” ‘** You can depend upon it that I will not ne- glect any precautions.” The appearance of the stableman at this point | with the buggy interrupted the conversation. : The two entered the vehicle and away they went. As the superintendent had remarked, it did | not take them many minutes to get out of the lare of the lights on Ocean avenue—Long ranch’s famous drive—to the gloom and quiet of the country road. And there the conversation was resumed. ‘“This Almayne is accompanied by a coach- man,” the detective said, ‘‘and Miss Brandon’s men, who are two unusually sensible and well- | said, he will go ahead and teat his horses with informed darkies, are not at all favorably im- | ease, and then the next day he will allow seme pressed with him. | of the same horses to run away from him in the ‘*To use their language, he is a ‘low-down, | most hollow manner. trifling’ sort of fellow, who is not disposed to be ‘1 tell you what it is, gentlemen, such a horse sociable.” is a mighty disagreeable bit of property to own ‘* Some cross cove who is doing the coachman | for after winning a race the public come in anc act for his pal, and who is afraid to talk with | back him the next time hestarts, and then, when the stableman for fear they will discover that | they see the horse beaten so ridiculously easy, he is not what he appears to be,” the superinten- | they are aptto set up oa howl] that the horse was dent remarked, pulled—he was not ridden to win, and that I, the ‘* Well, if you thought there was danger, I | ‘** Yes, that is mysidea exactly, and that is the reason why I did not attempt to interview him. ‘‘T was afraid I should discover that he was some old acquaintance, and feared he might be sharp enough to penetrate my disguise, and if he did all the fat would Le in the fire.” . ‘* Not a doubt about that,” the chief observed, with a sagacious nod. about the matter, you know; but what is up? “* Any more ne th No “‘Oh, yes—importan 55 oe Caos aca. with me to the back of the house; we shall be in the shadow there, and can converse without any danger of attracting ob- servation; for in a place like this, you know, you never can tell who may be in the neighbor- ood ” a ee" Phonix nodded, for in his judgment the move | that if this master scoundrel discovered tha‘ | | | owner, am an ‘ infernal skin,’ who is robbing the public of their money.” ‘‘Michty disagreeable, of course,” the super-_ intendent observed. ** Oh, yes, it isn’t pleasant to be called a cheat and a robber right to your teeth, too, on a _ crowded race-track, as 1 was once on account of | this beast of a horse, who can run and will not, ‘It is as plain as the nose on a man’s face | i and tbe brute carricd ten thousand dollars cf. my cash that day, too, and then, gentlemen, to was.a good one, and then the two proceeded to the rear of the cottage. There was a garden bench there, in the shade of a good-sized tree, between the cottage and the barn, which was a hundred feet or so from the house, and upon this bench the two seated them- ves. wus a capital spot for a confidential con- versation, for all around the tree was an open space, so ati _* any chance for an eaves- alropper to pla @ spy. 3 oo any the detective revealed the important discoveries which he had made, and th» susvicions he had in regard to the designs of “Doc” Almayne, ‘* You Lave come pretty near to the truth, I think!” the superintendent exclaimed, when the detective had finished, ‘Your idea that this fellow had something to ao with the abduction of the girl, although seemingly an extremely wild guess, is not far out of the way; and as he succeeded in carry- ing the girl off once, the chances are big that _ he may try the game again.” ‘“That is the conclusion I came to immediate- 4y.” Phenix remarked. ‘‘ And acting on the idea, I have taken meas- ures to get my man so dead to rights that there will not be a chance for him to escape when the time comes to spring the trap on | bim.” And then the detective related how he had dispatched his assistant to New York, and also exolsaiped what his own plans were, ‘Excellent! excellent!” exclaimed the super- | the general to be a had judged that it would be best to partially let a while ago with some rubber horse-skoes which t intendent. the outskirts of the pretty village of Eaton- | mufiled so that noncise will be mude. Ihave | town, near the famous Mcnmouth Park, Long to follow a party, and it is particularly desirable. Branch’s justly celebrated race-track. that the came shail not suspect that ke is being — Luck seemed disposed to favor the blood- | tracked.” hound of the law in the difficult game which be ee a Well, now, hang me if T can’t fit you out to had undertaken to play for the proprictor of | the quecn’s taste!” exclaimed the old colonel, the stock-farm was at home. . bringing his hand down with a hearty slap upen The metropolitan superintendent, Inowing | his kno. j discreet, long headed mar, ' ‘' There was a crazy sort of a chap alorg here— iinet aie Joe Phenix was nosing around with the idea of having a finger in the pie he would certainly be seared off,” | ** Yes, and that is just exactly what I do not | Old Hickory in a race now. want, for if he manages to get away this time _ ‘‘ Youunderstand, gentlemen, wesporting men it may be a long while before I havea chance | run race-horses to make money out of them, for to get on his track again. | it costs money to keep up a racing stable, but a ‘* My idea is to let him go on and then take | horse that is so uncertain that ycu can’t tell him, red-handed, in bis den. _ whether he wiil try to run or not, is a mighty ‘*T want to catch him in such a way that the | poor piece of property to risk your mcney on. evidence will be so strong that there will notbe | “I gavea go the least chance in the world for him to escape.” holding on to him, hoping to get somehody to ‘‘That’s the talk—that is the way to do the buy him, but I am afraid his reputation is so trick!” the chief exclaimed, decidedly. bad that no snorting man will care to invest in ‘There isn’t any use of nailing aman unless you’ve got him so dead to rights that he can’t | get out of it.” _be attacked and abused by a rabble after such a _ loss was adding insult to injury. ‘* He is just the horse for my purpose, though, _T imagine,” Joe Phenix observed. Phenix nodded anprovingly, for this was the **Oh, yes) cn our track here cr cn the road it. game he always played. _ takes a firsi-clars horse to run with him, and xy. | then ho ccmes cf ‘‘ four-milcr” blood, and never CHAPTER XL. | gives cut. IN THE SADDLE, | “J bought him down in ’Orleans, after he As the horse of the superintendent of police | had won a four-m_loe race—three heats, too.” , was a most excellent animal it did not take the ; ‘‘ And now, thero’s anothcr point,” the detec- pair long.to reach the well-known stock farins . tivo observed. 4 of General Tom Mack which was situated on “ It is important thet the hoofsof the horse be y Eboo STONE PE com ‘And that is the reason why I seldom enter | price for the beast, ard I sm | Old Hickory.” “" and * mt ~ ¢ cs rss » i 4 on Pas ways