Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 419 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

—— ——— ——_-— { arm-chair, a few paces from her, his eyes fixed | ‘‘ The fury of the elements tore you from me, with an earnest gaze upon her face. but the chapter of accidents again brought There was a strange, mocking smile upon his us together, and eagerly I snatched at the features, and as the astonished girl gazed upon , chance. him a horrid truth flashed suddenly upon her, ‘* Again you are in my power, and this time She had recognized him at the first glance, _I fancy you will not escape until my purpose is lt was the New York gentleman who had _ accomplished. been introduced to her by Miss Brandon only a **Girl, it is written in the stars that you must iew hours before. : become my wife.” Then his face had seemed familiar to her,and | She started in horror. she bad been puzzled to account forit,for she | ‘That surprises you, eh?’ he continued. could not remember ever meeting bim before, | ‘‘ Well, I suppose it is rather startling, being so but now, like a flash, the problem was solved. __| entirely unexpected, but that is the way, it is T'bis was the man who had so boldly abducted | the unexpected that always happens.” her from the deck of the steamer. ‘* But such a thing will not happen!” she ex- A sickening sensation came over her; again | claimed, her anger rising at the cool assurance she was helpless in the power of one, whoif not | of her captor. a maniac, wasa very fiend in human form, ‘It will happen within the next month as She closed her eyes as if to shut out the hor- | surely as you are a hving, breathing woman. rid sight, and a convulsive shudder shook her | Reflect for a moment upon the position you oc- frame. cupy,” he replied, calmly. ‘‘ You are here in The captor noticed the movement, and he | my power, utterly helpless. No one knows that laughed outrigat. A low, cunning laugh, ut-| you are here, and your friend in the country terly devoid of merriment, but full of menace, | will not be apt to trouble herself to search after Again the girl shuddered. you, for when she discovers that you are missing ‘* No need of closing your eyes,” he remarked. | she will also find she is minus some valuable ‘‘T am here all the same, though you shut me | pieces of jewelry, and the supposition in her from your sizht. You cannot get rid of a disa- | mind will casernt y be that you oated absconded greeable fact by so simple a process as merely | with the trinkets. I was careful to arrange this closing your eyes to if.’ | little matter. As it stands, Miss Brandon, in Our heroine was a brave-hearted girl, one | disgust, will look upon you as a snake which, full of resolution, yet so intense was the terror | after being warmed to life, turned upon and inspired by this extraordinary man, she felt as | stung her benefactor.” weak and powerless as a puny child. “Oh, you are a demon!” Lesbia cried, horri- The feeling that possessed her was akin to the | fied at this revelation. horrible fright which would have seized upon ‘Yes, to those who attempt to cross me inmy her if in some woodland glade she had stepped | way. It is necessary for certain purposes that suddenly upon a slimy serpent and then beheld | we become man and wife. There isn’t anything the reptile raise its crested head tostrike. romantic about the affair. I am not at all in This man seemed to her to be more than hu- | love with you, and I don’t expect you to profess man. The boldness of his attacks and the suc- | any affection for me, but you must be my wife, cess which had attended them astounded her. | and I haven’t any doubt that we will get alon From the first she had escaped as though by a | just as well as the majority of marri miracle, but would Heaven again interpose its , folks.” mighty arm in her behalf? ‘* | will never consent!” She endeavored to collect her thoughts; no ‘**Oh, yes, you. will! I shall tame you into easy matter now that she fully understood her | submission. You are as securely a prisoner position, and besides, her brain was still whirl- | here as though you were immured in a ing from the effects of the powerful drug which | dungeon a hundred feet beneath the earth’s had been administered to her by the abductor. surface. I shall starve you until you consent. With a great effort she endeavored to eet | Neither food ner water shall pass your lips un- calm, striving not to betray the fear to which | til your proud spirit is broken. Ten hours for she was a prey. | reflection [I give you and then I will come She opened her eyes and looked her captor full | again,” in the face. With this Almayne quitted the apartment, ‘Good! that’s a brave girl!” he exclaimed. | closing the door carefully behind him. It was ‘There's nothing like making the best of a bad | fastened by a powerful spring-lock. bargain, and to boldly confront a danger at once reduces its extent. I think I perceive that you recognize me.” CHAPTER XLIII, “ Yes,” HUNTED DOWN. ‘* But you did not when we met in the coun- THE apartment into which Almayne entered try.” ja was the one to which we before introduced the ‘No, although I knew your face was familiar, | reader: the library, where the consultation be- yet I could not remember where I had seen | tween the scheming doctor and the treacherous u.” Culpepper had taken place, ‘‘Tt was not strange, for I disguised myself A tray containing a decanter of brandy and materially when I assumed the role of the half- | some glasses was on the table. witted Frenchman: but how is it that you recog- Almayne sat down in his favorite seat, a lea- nize me now, when your memory did not serve | ther cusbion arm-chair, and helped himself to a you then?” glass of the potent liquor. ‘* Because you no longer attempt to control | ‘‘ Aha! that’s the stuff!” he exclaimed; “that your features—you have thrown off the mask, | puts new lifeintoa man. Idec not exactly un- and any one who has ever once seen your fiend- | derstand it, but, somehow, I don’t feel as well as ish cathe would never be apt to forget it!” she | I ought to under the circumstances, Every- exclaimed. thing is progressing as well as I could possibly Again the man laughed, for the speech pleased | wish. I bave succeeded in all my designs, and him. unless some evil genius rises to snatch my prize ‘““You are right,” he remarked, ‘‘a victim | from me my fortune is made, The gir] will con- once transfixed by my eyes seldom forgets the | sent to the marriage in time, and if she does not experience.” I will so weaken her down with dru so en- ‘But what is the meaning of this terrible out- | feeble her mind that when the time for the cere- rage?” exclaimed the girl, hotly, unable to re- | mony arrives she will be but little better than an strain herself. ‘‘ How have I ever injured you | idiot, and will not have sense enough to resist, —what do you intend to do with me? I have | All Iam afraid of is myself. I am half mad at nothing—I am nothing—why, then, do you per- | times; I know it; I am quite conscious when the secute me?” spell comes on, and then I am a perfect wild ‘‘ Maith! it fairly rains questions!” he cried, | beast, hungry for blood and slaughter. But will with the shrill laugh that so disagreeably af- | not the time come at last when the mind will fected the girl. ‘‘It may not be so easy for me are Yai and the madness beccme permanent? to answer the questions as it is for you to ask t will bean interesting study. Many men them. In the place I am not sure that I | are crazy more or less, but few of them are can give you my reasons. Look in my eyes— | aware of it, as I am, and fewer still capable of do you see anything odd about them?” calmly waiting and watching its development.” ‘* Yes, there is a strange glitter and glare as if He took another glass of brandy. you were not in your right mind,” she answered, ‘What is the matter with me?” he exclaimed. promptly. “Tam nervous and ill at ease. Is there some ‘That is exactly the thought that comes to | danger impending? Thet old tramp! that fel- me sometimes, and I sit and ponder over it; am | low inspired me with fear. If I were not sure crazy, oram TI not? In my actual self—for,as | that Phenix perished beneath the waters of the you have doubtless guessed, I lead two lives, | North River, I shonJd have suspected that the and they are almost as widely separated as the | tramp was he in disguise, The man-hunter is poles—I know I am all right, and I challenge | dead—and the dead do not return.” any one to int out a blemish; but in the Hardly had the words left his lips when from other, when [I give my fancy full rein, I am | behind a Japanese fire-screen which stood in a either ma! or else a demon, yet if I am mad, | corner of the room rose the figure of the old like Hamlet, there’s method in it. tramp, a cocked and leveled revolver in his ‘*[ have not sought vou just by chance, but | hand. through deep design. When my mad fit is on ‘*Does not the Phenix always rise from its me I am reckless as to the consequences; the | ashes?” he asked, at the same time removing bis wilder and more daring the scheme that comes wig and beard and displaying the resolute fea- into my head the better I like it, | tures of the detective. ‘* Yovr life is shrouded in mystery. You see Almayne sun’: back in his chair with a con- I know more of you than you think. Youcame ,; vulsive gasp. He realized the situation upon the a stranger here to meet strangers, but I stepped | instant. in between. _* “Do not attempt to resist,” continued Phenix, TT TTT TTT TTT TTT TT The Bat of the Battery. er -_--- -——— ey coming from behind the screen. ‘‘ The house is filled with police; your two confederates are in our hands, and in order to save themselves they have made a clean breast of it. You didm’t finish me the other night as you thought, for as I came to the surface of the water I saw you re- turning and I conjectured that you had en idea of making an end of me, and as I wasn’t ina good condition for any more fighting, my re- volvers being useless from the auckir g, | took advantage of the fact that your back was to me to crawl out and hide among the rocks. ‘* But I lost your trail though, all the same, and only struck it again by an accident, I was employed by Lamardale to find this girl, Les- bia, and when I discovered that sbe was under Miss Brandon’s protection I assumed a disguise in order to ascertain exactly how matters ste od, and so was lucky enough to stumble upon you, and I recognized you that time, Almayne, ual- though you fooled me completely when ycu were disguised as a woman. ‘*The game was up then, for I felt sure you were the man who tried to abduct the girl from the steamer, and I reckoned you would try it again. ‘“‘ When you carried off the girl in your coach I followed you on horseback, baving previously warned the police by telegraph. ‘*That coach, with the trap door in the fleor by means of which you were enabled to leave the bodies of your victims wherever you pleased, with little danger of detection, is in our hands. ‘The cloak you sometimes wore which gave you the appearance of a gigantic bat, and so inspired credulous souls with terror, we bave also captured, together with sundry valuables, the property of the men so fiendishly slain by ou.” ms ta, ha, ha!” laughed Almayne, suddenly re- covering his composure, ‘*‘ I played a bold game, didn’t 1? It was easy enough in my disguises to entrap my victims. They entered the house on one street, met their doom there, then were car- ried to the stable in the rear on another strect, placed in the coach, and their bodies thus easily disposed of. ‘* Probably you have suspected that at times I am not exactly in my right mind.” ‘‘T have, for only a demon or a madman could accomplish such deeds of blood,” replied the de- tective. ‘* My particular craze, when the fit came on, was to believe I was a vampire, one «of those fabulous creatures who live ou bumen Phleod, -T slew my victims, and then pricked them in the neck with the dagger-point justasif the vam- pire’s teeth had bitten there. ‘*T have reason for my madness, too—reason to bate all the world. ‘*] was reared as the scion of a wealthy Crecle family, but when I returned from Eurcpe to claim my estate on the death of my perents, I discovered that I was naught but a penniless beggar, the child of a quadroon slave. The blow drove me mad. I was sent to an asylum, where I was treated in the most cruel manner. ‘* At last my reason returned to me, and I was discharged cured From that time I have prey- ed upon my fellow-men as mercilessly as any wild veast, ‘*When you pot <4 my track I feared the worst, and so I tried my utmest to kill you. Fate is against me, and to it I vield, ‘* You have stopped me right at the moment of success, The girl, Leshia, is to be the old hanker’s heiress, I was going to marry her. kill Lamardale, and so cluteh his fortune. But you wil] not hang me, though, for I em crazy.” ‘*So reasoned another great crimival, but the law took Lis life nevertheless,” exclaimed Phenix. ‘* It will not take mine, for Iam already dy- ing. Like the scorpion when driven to bay, I sting myself to death!” ; He held up his left hand, upon the little finger of which gleamed a heavy ring. ‘This is the poison ring of the ancient Bor- gias!” he cried, wildly. ‘‘A slight pressure drives its poisoned fangs into t! e hand it touches. See! thus do I defy your malice!” He clasped bis hands before the detective could spring forward to prevent it. Wildly he laughed, and rising, brandished his hands in the air, waving the detective away. Almost immediately the powerful poison took effect. ‘*T feel it sanping the life within my veins!” he cried. ‘No scaffold-beam, no hangman’s rope forme! Phenix, accurred man-hunter. my blood is on your head—in death I defy thee!” Almayne sunk back in the chair: a few con- vulsive gasps and the secret slayer was beyond the ken of the law. He was dead, A few more words and our tale is told. Lesbia was conducted by Phenix to the house of the banker, and there Lamardale explained 'that it was through him that she quitted England. Then came the story of the marvelous adven- tures that had befallen the girl since her arrival in the New World, and Phenix, thanks té the revelation made to him by the baffled villai was able to explain the motive which bh Gomicbooks. col : . ‘ « 7 ° " ‘* mY ip a7 sui. a Pe ie e)) ae 4 . >