Beadle's Dime Library No. 509 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

Old Falcon, the Thunderbolt Detective. He struck off the handcuffs, thrust them into his pocket, and strode carelessly away, without another word. | | h He reflected a few moments. . Then, abruptly turning, he began to retrace is course with a speed that was not long in de- Joseph started out of the semi-dazed condition | veloping into a run, in which the detective’s expeditiousness had left him. ' ‘‘Ts the man a necromancer, that he should thus have overcome me, as with a warlock- spell?” he muttered, wildly. Then he sprung out of the nook, his face working and dark with evil passions, and men- acingly shook his fist after the detective’s re- treating form. ‘* You propbesied better than you knew, curse you!” he cried, under his panting breath, *‘ You | were right—I sball take no train, at least not | I fathom your | yeta while. Designing hound! game at last. You woud track the stolen treasure to its secret hiding-place, and then make your own terms with the heiress for its restoration. Ha! but [ll cross your purpose yet, besides sry, He girl, by fair or foul, into the bargain. hat! have I reddened my hands with my cousin’s blood, only to relinquish my golden dream, and at you hawk-eyed fel- low’s mere command?” He darted away, for Old Falcon, though but in sarcasm, had not misjudged Joseph Mervyn’s secret character. ' Born desperado, in spite of an early breeding and education beyond his instincts, he hurried He had good wind and fair eee 3 powers, considering his dissipated life, and the pace he was pursuing pars pt ht kim to the gate of the cottage where Retta lived. It was long past midnight, and yet, after a ‘mere glance at the silent cottage, which was, moreover, quite isolated, he did not hesitate to knock at its door, Almost immediately there was an answering movement within, and presently the blinds of the little parlor to the right were cautiously nt rng while some one peeked out through them. ‘‘ What, Professor Josephs! it is you?” ex- claimed Retta’s voice, in a surprised and slight- ly indignant tone. ‘Sir, this is an unseemly hour!” He was standing a little out from the door porch, in the full pour of the moon. ‘* Yes, it is I, Miss Merrivale,” he answered, with unusual earnestness, ‘And I am fully aware of the apparent unseemliness of this visit. But it is on a matter of immense importance to ou. I must taik with you now, this instant. very moment of delay may be fatal!” There was an embarrassed pause, **T do not know what to say, sir,” she went ** Oh, he had been at the fortune—your for- tune, the loss of which cost your father his life— depend on it!” cried Joseph, exultingly. ‘ZT sha’n’t—I can’t believe it! At all events, I was an absolute stranger to him; he could not have suspected my true name, or my having any right to the treasure.” ‘** Most probably not,” Joseph was ingenuous enough to admit, though he repented it when too late. ‘“ But the fact remains tkat it was your fortune he was surreptitiously depleting— that itis your treasure he is even now, at this very moment, with two confederates, making another levy upon. Good God! while we are thus wasting our time they may be carrying off the entire boodle.” And he snatched up his hat with a frantic movement that was unaffected enough. ‘‘ What—what do you mean?’ faltered the young girl, mechanically reaching for a wrap and bonnet which she had brought into the room with ber. ‘* What is boodle, sir?” ‘““The money, the money! Pardon the slang expression I used. But come, come at once!” ‘What would you have me do?” ‘‘ Accompany me back to the haunted cottage, of course. We may yet bein time to intercept the purloiners, Come, come!” ‘* ‘Who are the others, the confederates?” ‘One is a rascally detective, the other a wicked woman in disguise. Delay no longer!” contentedly along the path of crime with the on. ‘ Mrs, Kelly has been called away to a ‘A woman in disguise!” But by this time assured step and veteran air that were almost to | neighbor’s sick-bed. I am altogether alone in | she had puton her wrap and bonnet, and was the manner born. | the cottage. I hope you will go away, sir.” resolutely leading the way out of the cottage. At eleven o’clock of that night, the figure of | Harvey Mayfield stole out of the Godlove board- | continued the ing-house in the direction of the railroad sta- tion. Yet another figure as stealthily followed him from the same house a moment later, and was quickly joined by yet another, a singularly raceful one. These two were Old Falcon, the Ratactive, and Therese Bertrande, the latter cos- tumed as a young lad. They, in their turn, were secretly followed and shadowed by Joseph are who had been patiently lying in wait, as if in anticipation of something of the sort, in the angle of a gate- way not far away, and he, also, was disguised. CHAPTER XXVIII. A GAME OF DUCKS AND DRAKES, THE stealthy movements of these three parties, the one secretly spying upon the other, may be briefly explained. Mayfield, alarmed at discovering the sudden association of Therese with the detective, and only able to account for it by the supposition that they were somehow, however vaguely, on the track of the hidden treasure, was resolved to be at least beforehand with them in one more secret visit to the hoard, which he hoped would enable him to carry off the entire residue, For this reason he was provided with two grip-sacks, both of ample proportions, and he doubted not that he had successfully given them the slip with regard to his purpose, notwithstanding that both Therese and the detective had been in sus- piciously close converse during the evening, and that he was aware of the latter having engaged an apartment of Mrs, Godlove fomthe night. Therese and Old Falcon had, however, with greater analytical acumen than he gave them credit for, shrewdly surmised just such appre- bensions and consequent action on the young man’s part. The former had, indeed, gone to the extent of sacrificing her New York perform- ance in order to participate in the game of hide- and-seek suggested by the detective. This will sufficiently explain the movements of the pair, as yar | intended to extract golden wisdom from i ‘*T cannot, I dare not, without seeing you,” oung man, with ill-suppressed excitement, ‘* Miss Merrivale—Miss Henriette Mervyn,” in a lower, but more thrilling voice, ‘“*T swear to you that it isa case of more than life and death to you! The recovery of your fortune is at stake.’ There was a dead silence, and then the young woman’s voice again, trembling and changed: ‘* You know me for what I really am, then?” ae Yes. ” ** Who are you?” ‘Your cousin, Joseph Mervyn. My bereto- fore deception shall be explained and justified— trust me for that. But now every instant is o gold.” It was evident that bis intense earnestness was having its effect. ‘* My fortune, you say?” ‘‘- Yes, yes!” ‘* Alas! what fortune have I?” “That which was stolen from your father, It was afterward buried—is still buried, not two miles from this house—and designing, wicked men are even now searching for it. For God's sake, Cousin Henriette! Ah, it may al- ready be too late!” “* Wait!” Through the blinds there was the flash of a lamp being lighted. hen she admitted him into the little parlor, five minutes later, she was fully dressed, and, though pale and seeming to maintain her com- posure by an effort, somehow conveyed to him that she was armed. To do the scoundrel justice, even the girl’s ex- traordinary See 4 together with her unpro- tected situation, did not for the moment affect him otherwise than to stimulate his fevered ob- ject with regard to the hidden treasure. Without delaying an instant, te poured forth his story, a cunning blending of fabrication and fact, in such earnest and graphic manner as served to place the whole affair before her com- rehension in just the light that he would have er view it. At first she was partly dazed by his reve- ‘*Yes; but fear nothing. Iam armed, in case they should violently resent our interruption,” ‘“So am I, for that matter.” And she locked the house-door behind her as they stepped out into the moonlight. CHAPTER XXIX, THE TREASURE AGAIN. THouGH Joseph led the way in the direction of the haunted cottage at an almost breathless pace, he found time to enlarge upon the explan- ation already vouchsafed to his fair companion. ‘«T still cannot understand,” she at last said, while hurrying along. ‘‘What is it you can’t understand, Cousin Retta?” “Two strange things, perhaps. The first is, why Mr. Mayfield—if really guilty of appropri- ating any partof a treasure he knows to have been stolen, which still seems unreal to me— should now, upon a second visit to its hiding- place, take two other persons in bis confidence especially with the intention of sharing the spoil with them,” be Ab }? ‘“* How do you explain that?” ‘*T have not yet imparted to you my own sus- picions in that regard.” ‘*But what are they?” ' ‘* These two others, from what I have to-night observed, were not accompanying, but sbadow- ing him—sevretly following him, you know.” ‘Heavens! without his suspecting it?” ** Of course.” ‘*But to what purpose?” “You can conjecture as well as I. They bave doubtless somehow got wind of his lucky find, and are bent on sharing it.” * Oh! Prete to the extent of offering him violence?” ‘‘ Who sball say? Money has been called the root of all evil.” | If this suggestion was intended to accelerate the young girl’s pace, it served its purpose ad- mirably. Sbe now fairly flew, until actually compelled to drop back into a fast walk again, through very breathlessness, And the sugges- etait. sell 19: Mavfield’s stealthy expedition. lations, but was not long in collecting her | tion brought its own punishment, for the knowl- As for Joseph Mervyn, the last member in | thoughts. edge that she was prompted to this extra-haste this somewhat ghostly and altogether surrepti- ‘‘ And my other cousin, Jacob Mervyn—dead, | solely by the idea of personal danger to May- tious procession, his last words, while shaking | you say?” field—doubtless already the possessor of her a bis fist after the detective from under the shadow ‘“ Yes: a frightful accident, as I have sketched | heart—was as the quintessence of gall and of the memorial shaft, are significant of his sus- | it to you. You shall have the painful particu- | wormwood to her scoundrelly companion’s jeal- : picions and his purpose, lars when time presses less than now.” ous instincts, : p Mayfield was being shadowed to the treasure’s ‘* And this fortune—where is it hidden away?” ‘‘ There is yet another inconsistency that you hidiug-place. His shadowers were in their turn being shadowed by Joseph, with vengeful and perhaps murderous, no less than with merce- nary, intent. . ‘ All boarded the down Express train, appar- ently without becoming aware of anything out- side of their several projects. Yonkers was reached, and still was the same game continued. The night was dark until toward the end of the strange midnight prowl. Then as Joseph, still hindmost in the string, reached a slight eminence in the road, the moon suddenly made her appearance from behiod a pile of clouds, giving him a view over a wide extent of country forward. . It also revealed to him the figure of Mayfield in the act of entering the neglected grounds pertaining to the haunted cottage, together with the forms of Old Faicon and Therese, crouch- ingly following behind. | ** The secret’s out!” exclaimed Joseph to him- self, with a great gasp of exultation. ‘* Let me see. There will doubtless be considerable dig- ging before the treasure, wheresoever it may | rer be, can be reached. Im the mean e— plunder when ‘money, I should say. ‘*Somewhere in a country-house, if et to be haunted, less than two miles south of here, on this road.” ‘*What! in the old house where I was born— in that very house where I first met Mr. May- field, under those awful circumstances, such a short time ago?”—This, more in the form of a startled soliloquy. “ How? What is that you say?” * Never mind.” ‘You were born there? And it was there that you first met Mayfield?” ‘** Yes, yes; but do not talk of it.” ‘But I must do so, Ha! all is growing clearer. The *convict’s legacy ! He must have been Joading himself with part of the secret Pa chanced to meet. him there.” ** Impossible! sharing such proceeds!” “Could not! But wait: let me ask you first if he did not seem to have an unusual sum of money just uhen?” “Yes,” reluctantly, ‘‘a very great deal of And yet—” She paused in a sort of agony, something of the unwelcome truth upon her mind. beginuing to force itself He could not be capable of | have failed to make clear to me,” she panted. ‘* What is that?” ‘‘ The necessity for you and your unfortunate cousin making my acquaintance under assumed names and false colors.” ‘“‘Ha! But I could easily explain that, only I shrink from doing so.” “Why should that be?” : “Through my shrinking dislike of speaking ill of the dead.” ; ‘*Of the dead?” ‘¢ Yes—of Jake, you know. We were more as brothers than cousins, you must understand.” ‘* What of that?” ‘Well, I will ak! There seemed to be no help for it, in simple justice to myself.” ** Do explain,” ‘¢ It was all poor’s Jake's, suggestion, you see.” ‘* What was?” . a a ae in disguise before you.” ‘**! combated the suggestion, but in vain. The idea was naturally repulsive to my in- stinets, which are guileless and above-board as a baby’s. ‘A trustful, transparent idiot’ was one of poor Jake’s favorite characterizations of “my unsophistication.” AMLICEl oyeyve) (e ‘S,com (E(0)