Beadle's Dime Library No. 509 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

12 ring so much as a whispered taint of dishonest collusion or double-dealing with crime.” ‘‘ Why, the map has an eye like a lammer- geyer's. Who would suspect him of being so soft ‘‘But we’re drinking mighty little of this rime beer, I notice,” said Jacob, and, hammer- ing s the table, he ordered the glasses replen- ished, “T say,” observed the other, ‘‘ we have done precious well, then, in keeping our detective in the dark, eh?” ‘*T should say we had.” “Shall we go up to Yonkers to-night, to make sure as to the gal’s identity?” ‘*Why not? I had thought of trying for my revenge out of Hughes’s roulette-board to-night, but that will pa over.” ‘“ While the gal might not, eh?” ‘* Just so.” “*{t is agreed, then.” as Yes. ” “More beer, waiter!—Now another thing, Jake.” ‘*T thought you’d be coming to it.” And the other smiled, *“‘Of course. This is the next wrinkle, ain’t it? Our best course in the event of our suspi- cions proving correct?” “Certainly, But there is scarcely a doubt as to her identity in my mind. She’s the living image of her father—-Old Nunksy Hop, as we called him when boys, before he quarreled with our fathers—though in such a ravishing mold. Better go on that supposition from this time forth.” “Taken for granted for the moment, then, that the working-girl we saw this morning is our cousin, Henrietta Mervyn, so disguised, what then?” ; ‘* Tt won’t do to let her know that there is still hope of her fortune being recovered?” ‘* Not by along shot! She must still imagine herself penniless, friendless, despairmg.” ‘Well, and good. What then?” Joseph drew a long breath, while his weak eyes twinkled. ‘*T have a brilliant idea.” ** What is that?” demanded Jacob. ‘* One of us must marry the girl.” ‘*My thought, at the same instant, to a T! Marry her, eh, and then go halves with the non- marrying other, in case of the fortune coming to light?” : ‘* Exactly. There is buf one question as to success in the marrying scheme.” ‘* Two, if you please, Joe.” ‘* What are they?” ‘*The question as to the girl’s consent being procurable, and as to whether that divinity chap having already become her lover.” ‘* True, the latter possibility had not occurred to me, Let’s see, hé is the man whose name was in the newspaners in connection with the con- vict’s sensational death?” ** That is so.” ** How could he have struck up her acquaint- ance, think you?” ** Doubtless by mere chance, Tarrytown is but a short distance north of Yonkers, you must Pe ah But don’t let’s consider him at pres- ent. ‘* All right. sary, later on.” ‘** Now then comes the prime question of all.” ** Precisely. As to which of us two shall do the marrying?” ‘* That’s it. Now, to tell the truth, I shouJdn’t mind sacrificing myself in the double cause. The girl’s beauty rather took my fancy.” “That's odd, Jake. But she rather took my fancy, too.” Then they looked at each other, burst out laughing, and added more beer, with cigars. He can be disposed of, if neces- CHAPTER XVII. A GAME OF BILLIARDS, PRESENTLY a fresh, brilliant idea seemed to strike the younger of the precious cousinly brace, ““T have it!” he exclaimed. ** What is it you have got?” inquired Jacob. ‘The we out of our difficulty—to decide as to which of us shall marry the girl.” ‘*Oho! But, if you'll excuse me for speakin out in meeting, Joe, I don’t fancy you mosie have a ghost of a chance for success in that quarter, under any circumstances,” “The deuce you don’t!” And the ugly look showed itself again in Joseph’s face. ‘* Why ot? ** Well, even from the brief glimpse I got of her, she struck me as probably being a young woman of penetration and force of character.” ** Well?” ‘“And you’ve got such—such sore eyes, you nen, ae such a generally petered-out look, so spea . But Joseph’s eyes were not too sore to blaze ominously at the flattering personality. ‘One wouldn’t imagine you so polite, Jake, from your generally boorish and loutish ap- pearance,” be sneered. . ‘‘Tndeed! But you mustn’t be over-compli- mentary, Joe, It mightn’t pay.” And Jacob’s face was reflecting the other’s frown with interest. ‘* Besides,” continued Joseph, maliciously, ‘“vou, as a matter of course, would be out of the competition on—ur—strictly moral grounds, you know.” ‘** Moral grounds’ is good! anything of the sort, Joe Mervyn. you mean?” ‘‘ Why, you’re already married to that bar- tender’s divorced wife up in Harlem—report says 80, at all events,” ‘Then report is an infernal liar!” exclaimed Jacob, with an oath, and yet moving uncom- fortably in his chair. ‘‘ But Jenny once told me:so herself.” ‘‘Then Jenny is a liar, too; and I'll take it out of the minx’s hide at the first opportunity! I wouldn’t marry her if she’d go on her knees and beg for it, even with the kid in her arms— the devil fly away with her!” ‘* Well, well; no harm’s done, then. of going into convulsions over it.” ‘“But you shouldn’t throw up an idle rumor as a fact to me, Joe, I[t isn’t the fair thing.” ** And Soe might, with equal reason, leave my optical infirmity to look out for itself. And, moreover, I’ve stovud fast living as well as you, and am visibly no more ‘ petered out’ than ou. ‘* Pshaw! don’t let us quarrel, Joe. We can’t afford it.” ‘* Good, then! idea,” ‘“« Let's see; what was the proposition?” ““To decide which of us should first pay court to the girl, with a view to the matri- monial racket.” ‘* Well, how do you propose we shall de- cide it?” “By a game of billiards—now and here—a hundred points up—four-ball carom!” Jacob’s eyes glistened, as billiards were one of his strong points; though Joseph was also a powerful player. ‘*Tt’s a bargain!” A carom table chanced to be vacant a few moments later; a marker was secured in the ike dban & with whom both young men seemed well acquainted; off went their coats, and the game began. The disguised detective changed his seat for a more desirable one, and, masking his interest by a pretended examination of a file of illus- trated journals, calmly watched and waited the result of the game, The young men at the outset assumed a half- jocular interest, as if each was trying to deceive the other with regard to the momentousness of the affair; but they speedily relinquished such hypocrisies, and were breathlessly absorbed in the contest for the mastery, both playing for all they were worth. As has been intimated, both were expert players—were something more than amateur proficients, in fact. The play soon became exceptionally brilliant, and, as the impression somehow got out that it was not only for a hundred points, but also for an unusual stake in secret, the table was soon the center of a large group of connoisseurs, hangers-on and miscellaneous onlookers. At last Joseph finished a cautiously brilliant run of eighteen, and drew back with a confi- dent smile on his face, haggard with suppressed nervous excitement, for it put him sixteen points ahead, and the game was already well along. His string showed eighty-six; his opponent’s but seventy. Jacob’s superior physique, however, was best standing the nervous strain, and there was not a tremor inthe practiced hand with which he coolly grasped his cue. Joseph’s break had, moreover, left the balls in an easy position for his successor. The latter, however, made calculations for ac- complishing too much at a stroke, took a pains- taking aim, and—missed. Joseph’s smile broadened, and, with scarcely an effort, he added ten more to his string. He required but four points to call ‘‘ Game!” while his opponent required thirty. *“*T rather think ve got you, old fellow,” re- marked Joseph, quietly chalking his cue. Jacob looked calmly savage, but made no re- ply. Neither did he make anything with h‘s shot— another miss; and a most unusual thing, two misses in succession with so excellent a player. ‘** He’s losing heart,” was the general impres- sion of the spectators. ‘‘ He’s a goner.” But here Joseph missed in his turn, and there was yet a chance for his opponent. Jacob scored a paltry run of five, and then broke up miserably. There was breathless suspense. Joseph counted three points, as if they were so many Kohinoor diamonds, so elaborately petir yoke 3 was his play, and then went into the air on the easiest carom that had offered. Still he could well afford to smile, notwith- standing that the perspiration was streaming down his pale face. Ninety-nine to seventy-five! But I don’t know What do No need Now to return to my original Old Falcon, the Thunderbolt Detective. Jacob chalked his cue witb ae pe, deadly and iron-lixe in his grimness, and called fora glass of brandy. Draining the spirits at a gulp, he set to work like an automaton. Click, click, click! counted the caroms in steadily growing succession. Fifteen, and the balls well left for nursing. He drank yet another brandy, and went on with his run; a silence meantime prevailing in which a pin could have been heard to drop— and not necessarily a ten-pin either. Click, click, click! His nerve and skill seemed to have returned to stay, and he was continuing the run with tbe remorselessness of fate. Joseph was growing whiter and more perspir- ing every instant. He glanced wildly at the wires. What! with only that one counter between him and victory, was the prize—the modest beauty of the young woman’s image rose before bim witha tantalizing, an exasperating radi- oe be ruthlessly clicked away from him at ast? At that instant his jealous hatred of his cousin (their friendship had never been more than skin deep at the best) was such that he could have murdered him in cold blood in the most hilarious good-humor. Click, click, click! The big-pauncbed German proprietor, who was acting as marker, was now calling out the points aloud. “Twenty-one!” Click—‘‘ twenty-two!” Click —‘* twenty-three!” Click--‘‘ twenty-four!” Then a pause, But one more to go, and yet with the balls scattered most unfortunately. Joseph compresses his lips, twirls his sickly mustache, and tries not to gasp audibly. Jacob smiles feebly over his set teeth, but his eye has the veteran gambler’s steely glitter, and his haud is like a rock. He grasps his cue. A sigh of relieved suspense from the bystand- ers, a harsh, forced laugh from Joseph accom- panied by a poorly masked glance of disappoint- ment and concentrated hatred from Joseph’s red-edged and blinking eyes. A superb, chance-taking, all-around-the-table shot—caroin, and the game! ‘¢Tll stand the dinners, old fellow,” the pseudo deaf-mute exquisite overhears Jacob say, while the young men are putting on their coats. ‘* That will leave us time for the seven-thirty train. Where shall it be?” ‘““Oh, anywhere! The Hotel Brunswick is good enough for me,” returns the defeated com- petitor, with assumed indifference; and they g,0 out together. Two or three hours later, when the worthy nephews of the deceased ruined banker, Hopkins Mervyn, took their seats in the smoking-car of a Hudson River train, with cigars alight, flushed faces, and other indications of having both dined and wined regardless of expense, a rather stupid, loutish-looking old countryman, in coarse bhome- spun, a slouched bat and pine gore spectacles, with ample suggestiveness of the regulation amount of hayseed in bis ill-kempt gray hair, stumbled into the seat directly behind them, and to all i bet went off into a softly-breath- ing, hard-earned state of somnolency without a moment’s delay. ‘‘Do you suppose that cottage was the girl’s residence, at whose gate we saw her with the young fellow this roorning?” Joseph presently asked, soon after the train started. ‘It is most likely,” was the response. ‘‘ It was a poor and yet neat-looking hole—just such as a mill operative, we will say with a refined sense of past better days,” with a confident smile, ‘‘might choose to bury herself away in.” ‘Tt strikes me that way, too. 1 suppose we’d better call on her together first, so as to make sure of her identity.” . ‘‘-VYe-e-s, And yet, since I’m to do the after- work (finger of fate, you know, my boy,) there won't be anv special call for your presence, at all, Sort of a fifth wheel to the picnic equipage, you know,” ‘* No, I‘don’t. The deuce yousay! Suppose, for instance, the girl should turn out to be some-~ body else—no cousin or heiress whatever, but just her own, real unromantic work-a-day and poverty-stricken self, as her garb and general appearance indicated.” | acoh smiled, and made sure of his necktie and its associative diamond. Naturally a hand- some man, he seemed to have taken on a new srr ei of gaye and assurance, ‘‘ Well, what of it?’ he asked, nonchalantly. CHAPTER XVIII. ‘*RETTA.” JosEPH MERVYN gave his cousin a searching under-lidded look of conjoined envy, suspicion and malevolence. ’ . ‘““Do you mean to intimate, Jake,” with a contemptuous laugh, ‘‘ that you would go in for the matrimonial racket, heiress or no heiress?” “Ah, that would depend, my boy. The girl’s face haunts me yet—she was pretty enough to eat! I might and I might not, you see,” ‘“¢ We never thoroughly know our best friends any more than we understand ourselves!” sighed — > a (Eo) Eomicbooks a aa &