Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 460 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

; - Captain Coldgrip, the City Sleuth. 25 don’t intend to desert Jean Valjen, Florette and the rest. As you have attempted to play me a deadly hanuv, you will go with me.” ‘* Whither?” ' “ Ask no questions; but come.” Manuel loo.eJ iat the stern, immovable face of the detective, and got up. The two passed out. Captain Coldgrip conducted the Phas 3 man some distance down tlie Bowery, and hailed the first cab he saw. “Tt is to prison,” flashed across Manuel’s mind. ‘I will either go back to Spain, or be tried here for attempting to kill the Broadwa sleuth. This is the end of the game for me, is it? By heavens! the touch of Jean Valjen has been contagion, and the he of Florette have ruined me forever! Well, let the future do its worst, I cannot escape from a man who cannot be put out of the way. There is no escape from the clutches of Claude Coldgrip.” By this time the cab was rattling over the streets of New York, and Manuel bad settled back into a dark corner where he had relapsed into serious reflection, On, on went the vehicle. The young man, who was well acquainted with the famous localities of New York, expect- ed to be taken to Mulberry street, and placed in the hands of the police. He could look for nothing else. But instead of an outcome of this kind, the cab halted at last in a more quiet thoroughfare than Mulberry, and Manuel experienced a thrill when he looked out and saw the house occupied by Me- dusa the sorceress. ‘What does this mean?’ he inwardly ex- claimed. . Captain Coldgrip said nothing, but took the youth by the hand and led him up the steps. A moment later Manuel was beyond the door of the mystic house, and the tall figure of the witch of New York rose before bim. ‘*] turn him over to you, Medusa,” remarked the detective, leading his prisoner forward. ‘‘ If he is around when the hammer falls, he may be crushed,” and Manuel felt a change of fingers at his wrist. bah ot hie CHAPTER XXXII. CLAWS UNDER THE VELVET. Next morning, bright and er y, Dora Van Gordon descended from ber privace apartments with a countenance that did not betray her rage and consternation of the previous night. The closest observer would not have thought that sl) had been robbed of a very important document, but, for all her smiles, the mistress of the house carried a set of good claws under the velvet. She drank her morning tea and finished her breakfast alone. ‘“‘Had we any callers last night, Rose?” she asked the maid who attended her. The girl started the slightest and shook her head. ‘‘ Where is Miss Marian this morning?” ‘“‘She took breakfast in her room, **Oho'” and Dora smiled as her eyes seem to twinkle with delight. That was all. When she left the dining-room she returned up-stairs. A setiled expression of determination was on her face. : She walked straight to the door of Marian’s room, and, as it was not locked, she turned the knob and entered with the cat-like tread so pecu- liar to her. The next moment th» two women stood face to face. Florette attempted to beat emotion back by a terrible effort of tae will, but Manan, quick to observe, saw that the visit, heralded a storm, and tried to brace herself for its reception, “T trust you will pardon me for not being at home when you calied,” began Florette, with a sarcastic smile, hie ‘“ When I called?” asked Marian, innocently. “In other words, when you robbed me!” cricd Fiorette looking Marian in the eye. The young girl felt a ttrill swecp over her. She knew for the first time that Captain Cold- ip had found something in the boudoir which Ba had tuken away. On his departure the detective had told her that he had discovered a missing link, but not one word about carrying anything off. Florecte’s words, therefore, were a revelation. “T appear to startle you,” Mrs. Van Gordon went on. “I prey ou would be prepared for this call. I wi e my property. Will ou let me have it?” Marian drew back. There was a tight in Florette’s eyes that she did not like. Once before she had seen it, and the discovery had been followed by a scene which would never leave her memory. , “| did not visit you last night,” said Marian, firmly. . ‘Ah! do you deny it?” Mrs. Van er came toward the girl who instinctiy ely sbrunk away. “ Don’t give me any falsehoods, girl,” she re- sumed, ‘*Lam here for the truth and restitu- tion. You were in my room last night.” nr RR ET **T say no!” The following second Florette’s eyes seemed to burn Marian’s whitened cheeks. ‘No? Dare you stand before me and lie with the grass just appearing on your father’s grave? Look me in the eye from where you stand and say you did not cross my threshold last night during my absence.” ‘* I did not.” Marian spoke firmly; the occasion required firmness, ‘*T know your father used to boast to me that you had in your veins the blood of a woman who captured him in the ee Pee of Cali- fornia, and that that blood rendered you cool and level-headed on all occasions. I begin to be- lieve it now.. You were not in my room because you say you were not. You did not take any- thing cause you did not touchit. Is that it?” ‘*T only know that I did not cross your thresh- old,” affirmed Marian. ‘You dare not swear it,” cried Florette eagerly. ‘** You will not prove me,” answered Marian, solemnly lifting ber hand. Florette looked beaten, but only for a mo- ment, ‘*By your Maker do you swear it, girl?” she exclaimed, seizing one of Marian’s wrists. ‘*Remember the oath is a solemn one. Dare you swear by the memory of your father that you did not invade my room last night,” ‘‘By the memory of my dearest dead!” was the answer. Florette drew back, but her eyes were not re- moved from the young girl’s face. ‘*Then, who did go to my apartments?” Marian expected this question. ‘“ Have I not explained enough?’ she returned. ** After an oath of the kind I bave taken, do you want to prove mea traitor? Ah! you dare not tell me what you have lost, if anything?” A quick start on Florette’s part caused her to drop Marian’s hand, The girl’s arrow had gone to the center of the target. ‘*T will know all,” Florette said. ‘‘I am going to get to the bottom of this thing, You may not have been to my room, but you know who was there. If you court open war, you shall have it, and 1 promise you that it shall be war to the knife!” ae. am not surprised. You like war, they tell me. Instantly Florette flushed. ‘Who is that information from?” she ex- claimed. ‘* Do you get all your cues fro.n the inan who runs his fellow-men to earth for the almighty dollar? I like the company you keep, Marian. I fancy, very much, this Broadway thief-catcher who has graduated in the school of Vidoeqism. Wasn’t he here last night with bis velvet tread and hawk eyes? Beware whom you admit to my rooms! You know that Iam not to be trifled with. You have not seen me at my best!” Marian stood firm and heard the through. **'You once accused me of a crime which made | blood boil,” continued Flcrette. ‘ It was when I met you in the library while I was look- ing through the safe for something that I ought woman to possess. I want to tell you here that you don't want totry your tongue any more. [am not werless because [ain a woman. I can ceal a low terrible enough to stagger a giant. So, be careful, girl, Look out how you seek the Broad- way shadow, and when you go to him, remem- ber that Dora Van Gordon is his match for strength or cunning.” She walked toward the door while she uttered the last words, and turned to Marian as she touched the knob. ‘*Once more, remember! Itis I who speak!” she ejaculated. “If you have lied to me, Heaven help you. If you admitted to my room the person who played thief last night, I will not hesitate to crush you, though you are Joel Van Gordon’s child!” Then the door opened and shut, and Marian found herself the sole occupant of the little chamber. ‘* Tigress all over!” were her first words, ‘‘ In Heayen’s name, why did my father ever mate with that woman? I believe that her hand struck him down in the dead of night; but how can we prove it? What was the message he scrawled on the piece of per that was found in his dead grasp? ill it ever be de- ciphered ?” ne young girl did not stir from the room until the shutting of a door below announced the departure of the Queen of the Hoods, **Gone again!” resumed Marian. ‘I wonder whither she goes now? I did not betray Cap- tain Coldgrip, but she suspects. What did he carry off?” _ Marian went back to the toilet Florette had interrupted, and, a few minutes afterward, = a slight paleness told of the exciting inter- view. Dora Van Gordon went down-town in a carriage, and soon appeared on middle Broad- way. Riready the city was thoroughly awake, and the great artery throbbed with busy life. Sa eS le ‘*' What fetches you out so early?” exclaimed a man, short of stature, as he caught sight of the Queen of the Black Hoods on Broadway. ‘* You look as fresh as you used to on the boule- vards of Paris, but here you haven’t so many admirers at your heels. I wonder if you have the five thousand for me this morning? Of course not, my angel of La Petite Roquette. You are n.t looking for the New Caledonian Rat.” The man who spoke thus followed Florette several blocks. She did not look around to see whether she was followed, but kept on at a good pace until she reached an open hallway. ‘Ts it possible?’ cried the little man, who, as the reader has suspected ere this, was our old acquaintance, Jean Valjen. ‘‘ Can she be going to pay a visit to Captain Claude, the Gotham ferret? She has the assurance of Old Nick him- self. But Florette ever was a cool one.” Jean did not follow his wife further than the doorway. He went so far as to lean inside and look wi-tfully up the steps, but discretion whispered that he might be safer on the sidewalk than on the floor above. Florette had disappeared. If Jean had followed her he would have seen her halt at the little door leading into Captain Coldgrip’s office. Florette was cool and self- She rapped lightly on the door and in a mo- ment a voice on the inside bade her enter. Turning the knob, the cool woman opened the door and stepped forward. The office at that hour was not deserted, and Florette was hardly across the threshold before she found herself face to face with the city sleuth. Accustomed to surprises of every nature, a e Coldgrip saw his visitor, but did not sta ‘“Have a chair, madam,” he said, after Florette’s greeting. ‘‘Ilam ata loss to know why I am indebted to you for this visit. Noth- ing wrong at the house, I trust?” His manner was suave and deceiving. This was the man she had found in her path from the inception of her game. Before ber was the untiring, never-failing sleuth whom she had resolved to baffle if it k all the power and cunning of the hooded band she ruled. He addressed her like a friend, yet Florette knew that he was trying to fasten upon her a crime terrible enough to shock the whole city. ‘*Something is wrong,” answered the Queen of the Black Hoods as she took the chair close to the detective’s desk. “I was robbed last night,” e Robbed!” echoed the New York shadow. “That is unpleasant, madam, The best of a though, are subject to visits from the ight finger gentry.” A faint smile came to Florette’s lips, as she seemed to detect a vein of sarcasm in the sleuth’s voive, The hand she kept on her lap moved just a ittle. ‘* Yes, we must be plundered sometime ,” she replied. ‘‘I came hither for the purpose of re- porting the robbery, and also to receive the property taken by the thief.” ‘When we catch the fellow, madam—” ‘T have caught him! Captain Coldgrip, I will take my property or the life of the man who carried it off!” The captain recoiled as well he might, for he was looking into a revolver held in the hand of Dora Van Gordon. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE CAPTAIN KEEPS HIS HEAD, ; A SMILE intensely malicious was visible at Fiorette’s lips. Triumph seemed to laugh in the depths of her eyes, Holding the six-shooter with firm grip she looked over the gleaming barrel into Captain Coldgrip’s face. The detective did not move. ‘Tt doesn’t take me long to get to the end of a trail, Captain Claude,” she went on. “ You are the man who invaded my house last night; you are the person who opened the book and took from it a certain document which I want returned,” The city sleuth heard her no and re- turned her look with his accustomed coolness. To show a sign of timidity at that moment would be to lese the game and no one knew it better than the spotter. “Your hunting qualities are excellent if one is to believe your story,” he observed. ‘“‘A man enters your house at a certain hour last night, and during your absevce. He carries off, you say, an important dccument which he finds ina beok. Bright and early this morn ou start out torun the man down. Hem ave left a plain trail if you have found him thus soon.” Could any thing be cooler than this? Florette look York ferret. ‘‘Come, come! I want no parley,” she sud- the night in amazement at the New denly exclaimed. ‘“I have fou "Eom JOO Cc ‘oe a © _ ct» *>. wt: v ‘