Beadle's Dime Library No. 509 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

ee a as = bd ' “ES Old Falcon, the Thunderbolt Detective. As the saw Mayfield coming toward them. were quitting the restaurant they | the telegraph station, there was a touch on the shoulder, and he found himself again confronted He was walking very slowly, a pleased smile | by those eagle eyes of Old Falcon. on his face, with his eyes devouring an open let- ter, just obtained from the neighboring post- office, in his hands. The letter was from Retta, in answer to his contrite missive of the morning, and was the bearer of these few but satisfactory, if some- what enigmatical words: “Since you confess your ill-considered hastiness, my good friend, I have it not in my heart to be otherwise than forgiving. | A spasmodic flash, that was very like terror, | came into the young scoundrel’s face, but was gone in an instant, ‘* Excuse me, Falky,”said he, ‘I can imag- ine your shock over the affair, but can’t give you further particulars now. Hardly time to | catch the train.” “T simply impose the conditions that hereafter | yeas look before you leap, and know before you udge. *' Perhaps I shall meet you, when I call upon the ladies at Mrs. Godlove’s house to-morrow forenoon, but not before then, please.” The young man looked up, with a surprised, if not altogether apprehensive start, on being aroused from his walking reverie by Therese’s greeting, and perceiving who was her com-— panion. ‘If I remember rightly, mon cher ami, you have met before, you two?” and she smilingly looked from one to the other. ‘“‘ Why, certainly,” said Mayfield, quite com- | posed now. the major here who first gave me a hint as to your divine identity with yourself, ma’m.” ‘* You have perhaps heard of the fatal run- away accident?’ observed Old Falcon, willing enough to place the young fellow yet more at his mental ease, ‘ Ah, maybe it was that which brought you here?” ** A terrible affair!” ‘* Still, I did not see you at the inquest.” ‘‘] don’t care to be conspicuous in the mat- ter,” said the detective, still evasively, though secretly surprised that an inquest should have been set on foot so promptly. ‘‘ How has it re- sulted?” ‘*T don’t know. The crowd was too much for me, and I came away. Apart from the nature of the tragedy, I had got my astonisher, which was enough.’ te Eh ? ‘* You see, both those young Mervyn fellows had chanced to cross my path, or rather puzzle my attention, two or three times, witbout my ron ah them as the clients of whom you had told me.” ‘Oh! But here is the result of the inquest himse'f, and apparently in no bad feather, after the rather serious ruffling of his plumes.” They had turned, and were walking up the pleasant village main street together; and it was no less a person than Joseph Mervyn him- self who was now coming toward them. Still pale, but thoroughly self-possessed, his person had been carefully rid of all traces of the runaway accident, a newly-purchased fash- ionable hat was on his head, and, in spite of the public attention he was focusing, which another might have found something more than em- barrassing, he was carrying bimself well, one? with an air of sadness, as was appropriate to the death of a cousin and boon companion. His face took on an odd look upon his first per- ceiving the trio, but he came to a polite pause, and even submitted to an introduction to May- field, on the part of Therese, with a good grace. He then began to tell them of the inquest, to- ether with his own version of the cause of acob Mervyn’s death, intermixed with expres~- sions of pain and sorrow in keeping with his possible sense of bereavement, ‘* You were doubtless the principal witness at the investigation?” observed the detective. ‘The only one, in fact. Some one, however, had pulled poor Jake’s body out from a gully, into which he had been fatally tr ponies you know, while I still stuck to the rig till it went to pieces. The coroner would doubtless have had his testi- mony, too, could the man have been found.” ‘it was I,” replied the detective, bluntly. ‘“* Madame Bertrande here was also a witness at the scene of the—the accident.” And he fixed his penetrating eyes significantly on Joseph; who, however, managed to keep his countenance unmoved. “Ah, I fancied as much,” said the latter, coolly. ‘‘ But really, you know, my testimony was all that was necessary to evoke an intelli- nt verdict in accordance with the facts, I ave already made arrangements with the un- dertaker, and am now on my way to telegraph to some friends that poor Jake might have wanted at his obsequies.” Joseph then strode on, with a slightly accel- erated pace. ‘* Pass along together, you two,” said the de- tective to bis companions, “1 shall see you later at Mrs. Godlove’s dinner-table, if she will kindly make a place for me there. In the mean time, I bave certain business with the survivor of that painful accident.” He heard other particulars of the inquest, after turning and following after Joseph, but none that altered the complexion of the genera] result, which was simply this: Joseph was rid of his rival, and found himself a free, and, to ces, a wholly unsuspected man. _all appearan As the latter, however, was stepping out of rrr ‘* And now I recollect that it was | | } ] ' | } “You'll take no train, save at my command, Make yourself settled on that score, my man.” Joseph Mervyn started. There was a steely ring in the detective’s oth- erwise calm tones that was not only new to him, but strangely disquieting. ‘* What the deuce do you mean?” exclaimed Joseph, with angry haughtiness. ‘‘ Have you lost your head?” ** By no means, though you may haveat least jeoparded—your neck.” oseph started yet more visibly, though he still kept his nerve, which was more than the average, ‘‘ Again I demand what you mean?” he de- manded, with his habitual profanity. ‘* Come with me!” And the detective moved off astep or two, with astrangely beckoning, 10y smile that about completed the other’s secret isquiet. ‘as the close-locked secret of his guilt already known, and were the fateful handcuffs already awaiting bis white wrists? ‘You talk like an idiot!” he fumed, the black blood of mingled hate and fear coming into his face. ‘*Goon vour way! lam not used to be- ing ordered around in this way.” ‘* Yowll get used to it,” contemptuously. “Come!” gruffly. ‘‘I sha’n’t command you again—it isn’t my way to bandy too many words with criminals,” If a scoundrel, and even worse, Joseph Mervyn was no coward, His sallow face flushed, his watery eyes con- tracting and glistening like a cat’s, andasavage, wolfish look settling about his lips. For an instant he seemed about to precipitate himself then and there upon the detective. ‘* Don’t try it!” sneered the latter, in his low thrilling voice. ‘‘One murder a day should sat- isfy you; and besides you haven’t got your load- ed whip with you now.” Joseph controlled himself, to put on an air of supreme astonishment and indignation. “Come, then, I will go with you,” he said, with a short laugh, ‘‘If there’sa method in your madness, it shall be made known to me.” The detective led the way out in the village outskirts toa comparatively secluded spot not far from the monument memorializing the cap- ture of Andre. ‘* Well, what do you want?” demanded Joseph, when they had again come to a pause. The detective surveyed him with his terrible yes. es sanestionsig obedience to my commands, or your life at the hangman’s hands—that is what I want!” were the words of his reply. CHAPTER XXVII. IN A MONUMENT’S SHADOW. In spite of his iron words, Joseph Mervyn paled to a ghastly hue, and he seemed for the In- stant incapable of an answer. Old Falcon did not give him time to recover, but drew something from his pocket (which, un- known to Therese, he had secured from the scene of the roadside tragedy,) and held it up slowly to the red light of the setting sun. ‘“Du you know what that is?’ he demanded. ** No,” Joseph managed to reply, though in a hoarse, strained voice that seemed scarcely his own. ‘* Never saw it before, eh?” ‘* Never, to my knowledge.” ‘You are a liar,” Again the wolf-look leaped into the miserable Mervyn’s face, but somehow the wolf-heart was lacking in its support, and he could only glare and clinch his hands impotently. The detective’s succeeding words were yet more startling. ‘‘Murderer! it is the loaded whip-stock with which you so foully asassinated your cousin, Jacob Mervyn! You were scarcely wise to have lost it at the scene of your crime.” ‘t False—false as hell!” came from the accused man’s lips, seemingly like fragments torn from a shattered heart. ‘‘ No murder, though I own we bad quarreled—an accident, a runaway, but no murder! Iswearit! Prove the contrary, if you can!” ‘‘The murderous, the initial blow was made with this lead-weighted stick!” Old Falcon went on, as calmly as if addressing a jury. ‘‘ Brief as was my examination of the body, this fact was conclusively foreed upon me. The one fatal wound was behind the ear—a deep, crushing, skull-fracturing indentation, which this loaded whip-butt would have fitted as nicely into as a ball into a socket. Ah, gentlemen of the cor- oner’s jury! what hayseed numskulls you are not to have looked for further testimony than the unsupported narrative of the dead man’s cppecies and how you missed it in not having this loaded stick in evidence!” > = uy So & et A. RL ee * “Sath Rn Sr ERO Ke ae Po? $3 eee a s ' ‘ | By this time, however, Joseph had recovered a good deal of his self-assurance. ‘Was it to rehearse such a pitiful farce for my benefit that you brought me here, curse you?” he exclaimed. ‘‘Stand aside, nor seek to molest me further, or it shall be the worse for you. But there was still somethivg in the detective’s stern calmness that held the fierce brute in- stincts of the scoundrel in check, ‘* My ultimatum first, if you please.” ‘*The foul fiend fly away with you and your ultimatum! But whatisit that you would de- mand of me, anyway?” ** An instant, absolute relinquishment of your designs upon Henriette Mervyn, otherwise Retta Merrivale, from this time forth.” ‘If I agree to your demand, what then?” ‘‘ A free foot, to blunder into fresh crime, and ie the hangman’s hands, at your own sweet will. “fa! And with no share of the stolen treasure, shouid it be brought to light.” ‘*Of course not, as a matter of course, It would be Henrietta’s sole property.” **Tndeed! And if I refuse your preposterous demand?” By a swift motion of the detective’s, the fatal whip-stock was slipped out of sight, and a pair of glistening handcuffs were dangling, jingling- ly, in its place. Joseph bad before this. thrown a furtive glance around, and assured himself that the spot back of the monument, where they were standing, was secure from observation. With a hoarse, snarling cry, be suddenly drew a dagger, and sprung without warning full at the detective’s throat. But, abrupt and’ treacherous as was the at- tack, he had reckoned without his host, His launching onset did but encounter the empty air, so swiftly and shadow-like did the other evade it, Crash! fell a trained blow from the shoulder, just on the correct spot behind bis ear, and he was sprawling his length upon his face, the lunging down thrust intended for the detective’s breast piercing deeply but barmlessly into the turf, where the blade, encountering a stone, was snapped off short at the hilt. The next instant he was collared, rolled over, Ee up ire the memorial railing, and, with the sbackling-irons upon his wrists, once more confronted his imperturbable Nemesis, helpless, if not humbled, defeated, if not tamed, It was a momentuous historical event that was commemorated there, but it was doubtful if the sculptured patriot on the apex of the shaft would ever look down upon a more silent- ly and powerfully dramatic scene than the one that has been described. “Well?” was all that Old Falcon said, aftera calm and contemptuous pause, ‘“T submit,” growled the other, with an under- current of profanity. ‘‘ Your terms shall bind me. ' ‘* As fast as those bracelets dg now, eh?” sé Yes.” ‘*- You must know that but a signal from me followed by a whispered word, could now land you in a murderer’s cell?” “Tf [ didn’t know, curse you! do you think I would be idiot enough not to defy you? I yield me on the terms demanded, I tell you.” “But what guarantee have I that you will abide by them? ** My word of honor.” “Honor? <A puff of smoke in your case,” ‘“‘Tt’s all I bave to offer, though. Take that, or let be!” ‘‘No; there is yet more, True, I have the whip-stock (no less than the whip-band) over you; but it is well to be fully provided, Let me see: the unfortunate victim of that de- plorable accident was found, I understand, with no valuables to speak of on his lifeless per- son. Then, and almost before the captive could divine his intention, the detective had turned his pockets inside-out with a few lightning-like manipulations of his expert bands. Among the belongings brought to light wasa fairly-filled morocco packer poor stamped with the dead man’s name in full, besides a handsome American gold watch and chain, which the de- tective remembered of his own knowledge to bave been Jacob’s personal property. Joseph’s own belongings were a much flatter cket-book, containing a few paltry one-dollar ills, together with some pawn-tickets, a silver timepiece of much poorer manufacture, a bone toothpick, a pocket-knife and a revolver, With the exception of the latter, these articles were smilingly restored to him, while the detective quietly appropriated the dead man’s property together with the revolver. ‘* Let me congratulate you, young man,” said Old Falcon, still smiling. ‘* You actually seem to have stumbled into criminality as to the manner born, since you were unable to leave your victim without despoiling the corpse. You'll do famously, Keep right on without swerving a hair, and you'll doubtless ily attain the prcud and hempen honors which you seem to emulate so praiseworthily. I believe L have ne further use for you at present.” Gomic Si 700 < — ae q a a (0) } Ly) ie