Beadle's Dime Library No. 509 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

Old Falcon, the Thunderbolt Detective. 21 ‘“* Absurd! ) quaintance with me since my early childhood.” You have hardly renewed ac- | But if Retta had been gullible in the lesson of false mechanics, her memory of the old days ‘That is nothing. To see you, as the peer- | when she had lived in the haunted cottage, a less yourg woman that you are, was to love you.” ** Have done, Isay! And we must be return- ing homeward, too. I have Mrs. Kelly’s house~ key. Sbe will be both astounded and alarmed should she return before me.” He made a half-movement as if to detain her jn the neglected grounds by force, but moodily regained the road at her side. “It isn’t my fault if I have come to love you to distraction,” he presently said, as they moved along together in the first beams of the new day. ‘*T had no intention of insulting you.” **Oh, but you didn’t do that,” she replied, more kindly, though still without looking at him. ‘‘I would allow no man to insult me, Cousin Joseph.” This was said with no reference to the pistol, which she bad quickly put out of sight after roducing it in the cellar; though it none the ess reminded him of the fact that she had the weapon handy, and would not be afraid to use it on occasion, which was well enough, every- thing considered. ‘You will at least acknowledge, though, I hope,” he continued, ‘‘ that my action in your behalf in this adventure has been disinter- ested.” ‘* Tt looks that way, Cousin Joseph.” ‘* But it must be so on its very face!” he per- sisted, earnestly. ‘I really, honestly tried td save the treasure to you.” ** No one could deny that.” **T didn’t offer myself to you first—or try to make your acceptance of my devotion condi- tional on saving the fortune for you.” ‘Granted, cousin. No; you surely did not do that.” ‘*T didn’t steal a big slice of the hidden money first, so as to make a false showing before you of a wealth that I had no right to—I didn’t seek to dazzle your poverty, or win your gratitude, as a preliminary step to gaining first your love and the remainder of the money afterward.” But he had gone too far. ** What other ever did that?’ she suddenly exclaimed, facing him ingigpantty. ** Dare you to insinuate that Harvey Mayfield acopted such a course with me?” ' ** Well, you have as much as hinted—it was yesterday, when Therese Bertrande was talking with you—that he was rich when you first met him, and even assisted you. And it is well known that Mayfield was poor as a churcb- beggar directly prior to that.” ‘You pervert the facts, sir—whether wit- tingly or not isa matter for your own conscience to decide, Even if Mayfield was fresh from a surreptitious visit to the hidden treasure on that occasion—which is by no means certain—he could have bad not the slightest suspicicn of my identity with its legal owner. ou yourself acknowledged that much not long ago,” ‘*T acknowledged the probability of it—that was all. I was sitaply willing to give him the benefit of the doubt,” ** Indeed!” Retta steadily rejected all efforts at conversa- tion thereafter until they reached Mrs, Kelly’s ate. ‘ Here she ea him her hand, with a forgiving though half-rebuiking little smile, whose beauty once more stirred his blood. -“* Asa matter of course,” said she, ‘‘ TI shall feel like postponing my music-giving debut at Mrs. Godlove’s, You will remain in Tarry- town?” ‘For the greater part of the day, to make the arrangements for my poor cousin’s fu- neral.” ‘Could you find time to notify Madame Ber- trande of my postponement of the visit prom- ised her?” , “Certainly. And at what hour to-night shall you wish to accompany me to effect the release of our friends in the old cistern?” ‘‘As soon after dark as shall enable us to escape observation.” ‘Say ten o’clock?” “ Yes.” ‘¢ Cousin Retta, allow me.” He respectfully kissed her hand, and she hur- riedly entered the house, finding, much to her relief, that Mrs. Kelly had not yet returned, so that there was little danger of her own absence ever coming to lignt. : ‘The mistake of my life, the mistake of my life!” angrily repeated Joseph Mervyn to him- self, as he hastened away in the direction of the station, ‘‘Fool—shrinking fool that I was! I had her absolutely in my power in the old house. Why did I let the opportunity slip of compelling a betrothal. However, it will present itself once more this evening. When she shall find her lover, together with the accursed detective and that other chap, suffocated in the cistern, as we certainly shall find them, the loss of her last estige of nerve will place her yet more thor- oughly at my mercy. Gad! but that was a good lesson in cistern-building I caused her to im- bibe, Who, I wonder, ever heard of one that was not left air-tight, no less than water-tight? A woman alone would have swallowed an asser- tion to the contrary!” happy child with her gocd parents, had been slowly and silently strengthening. And by the time of Mrs, Kelly’s return, an hour or so later—to find that her amiable boarder had even got the breakfast in readiness —her recollections were so perfect with regard to the construction of that particular cistern that she was most anxious to put them to a practical test. ‘**[ have been up a long time, my friend,” said she, ‘‘and you see I have taken the liberty of making myself useful. How did you leave your invalid friend?” ‘**Much better, glory be to God, miss!” was Mrs. Kelly’s reply. ‘‘ But, bless you, you shouldn’t have taken all this trouble on yourself. One would think you to be the mistress of the house and myself the boarder.” ‘*That is all right. I do not forget that you have been more than once as kind to me as your means would allow, I hope you will find the toast and eggs all right. As for the coffee, it smells good at all events. Come now; for the morning is so lovely that I am bent on an early walk,” Retta fortunately possessed a good appetite on her own account, and she was careful to sat- isfy it to the fullest extent. in view of the per- haps arduous task that it was in ber fixed inten- tion to perform without delay. It was still not seven o’clock when she once more set out in the direction of the old cot- tage, ‘* | know there was some sort of a cave at the back of the orchard that mY poor father was quite certain bad some underground communi cation with the disused cistern,” she said to her- self. ‘* Everything is becoming clearer to me now, He thought the passage might have been used by smugglers away back in the War of 1812, when smuggling was so frequent up along the Hudson here. Oh, if I shall only be in time!” She shuddered and turned cold at the mere suggestion that the long disuse of the subter- ranean passage might have so thoroughly choked it up as to render the air of the cistern fatally foul or suffocating. However, she once more made her way, un- perceived, through the neglected orchard, and was at last fortunate enough to find the cave- entrance of the tunnel under an overhangin bank, thickly grown with briery underw and the gnarled roots of ancient apple trees. She had not neglected to bring a lantern with her. This she set down at the mouth of the cave, after loosening it from the newspaper in which she bad wrapped it. Then, running up to an adjacent tool-house, by considerable rummaging in its interior she succeeded in pressing into service a light, short crowbar, which was about the only implement left; Mayfield having, as we have seen, appro- priated a pick and spade from the same recep- tacle on the occasion of his first treasure-seeking sa ay ge t had occurred to Retta to make an attempt to reach the cistern from the top, but she had “ey once rejected the idea as being the least feasi- e. * Not only did she doubt her ability to dig down, unassisted, to the iron lid, but she was already beginning to have grave doubts as to her cousin Joseph’s good faith; and she was consequently so much the more desirous of ef- fecting the release of the immured ones without bis knowledge. CHAPTER XXXTI, THE SECRET PASSAGE. Havine boldly entered the cave, crowbar in one hand, lighted lantern in the other, Henriette was enabled to advance some eighteen or twenty yards without much difficulty. It soon became evident that the tunnel was an artificial one, and, considering the length of time it must have been built, the walls were for a short distance in a fair state of preservation, while the air of the place was neither noisome nor particularly damp, Moreover, the trend of it was arrow-true in the direction of the cellarsof the house, so that she could no longer have any doubt as to the connection with the cistern. But at this P ri she was interrupted by fallen masses of rock and earth, which wholly choked up the entire ge from top to bot- tom and from side to side. Retta was almost in despair. The obstruction in all probability extended back for a long distance; but, even were it only a yard through, she soon became satisfied that it would be utterly beyond her strength to pierce the barrier, A great blank of horror fell upon her, If such were the condition of the passage at less than midway to the cellar walls, what must it be beyond the obstruction, far away back in the cistern itself? Must not the hapless miserables entombed oc be already dead, and perhaps long since | panion continued to puzzle bh She was suddenly aroused from her stupor by a dull, picking sound, She started and listened intently. Yes; the sound reached her again, and it was almost incessant. It was a sound as of some eme working to get through the barrier from the further side, She called out at the top of her voice, again and again. Joy! hope! At last she was answered by a nese ee that was something more than an echo, Faint, far-away, but, nevertheless, an in- dubtibly answering cry. With a final scream of encouragement, she grasped the crowbar and struck it into what seemed a large fragment of rock in the very face of the barrier. To her astonishment and delight, the rock gave way at the blow, like so much compacted meal and, crumbling aside, together with a mass of debris, unto a sort of gully, relieved her at once of at least a yard’s thickness of the opposing. obstruction. The rocks, for the most part, were but seeming rocks, composed of friable chalk and gravelly deposit, readily yielding to the stroke of the crow- bar while there wes unqnestionably a deep gully running along one side of the tunnel wall, and protected by a broken overhang of the latter from fillmmg in, that would serve to carry down much of such debris as might be removed, Fired with new hope, the young girl set to work bard and methodically. She was by nature of a strong and robust physique, and, though altogether inexperienced in this sort of thing, she soon begen to learn how to improve her work and economize her strength. In less than an hour fully four yards of the interrupted passage had been cleared, and though the obstruction still rose jaggedly before her, the sounds of the pick on the opposite side could now be heard much more distinctly than at first. At last a specially fortunate blow caused a great section of the barrier to partly give way, and the sounds of the pick were suddenly render- ed so plain that she doubted not a communicat- ing air-hole had in some way been effected. Again she halloed. Was it a dream? The answering hallo was in her lover's voice,, and she could even partly distinguish the words, ‘*Hallo!” came the faint-caught accents; ‘who is beyond there?” ‘* A friend!” was the joyous response, ‘Well, keep it up, for God’s sake! Weare well-nigh gone in.” ‘* Fear not! I shall remain at work. Are you all alive?” ‘* Yes; and better off now the purer air is. reaching us. Whoand what are you, friend?” ‘**Retta Merrivale!” There was a long silence, as if the answer had been something of an astonisher, and then the picking sound was resumed; to which the young: girl made response by once more setting to wor with renewed energy. We must now return to the moment when, af- ter Old Falcon and the disguised Therese had been so unceremoniously and unexpectedly precipitat- ed into the cistern, the three entrapped individuals exchanged astounded and somewhat appalled looks, while the sound of the earth falling upon the iron lid above their heads apprised them of the awful nature of their situation. The young divinity student, who had recogniz-. ed the detective at once, though the latter’s com- , was the first to: recover from the shock. “T hardly think we're quite being entombed alive just yet,” said he sullenly. ‘'There’s a breach in the wall Sasa which seems to me to: have some counection with the outer air.” Then he remained sullenly silent, looking first at the spread-out treasure and then at the un-- welcome intruders, while the revolver which he had whipped out of his bip-pocket in the first flush of his startled excitement was slowly thrust out of sight. The intruders, on their part, being less famil-- iar wit the place, had recovered their self-pos- session more slowly, and were returning the young man’s ‘stare of resentful inquiry in a somewhat Jess assured condition than he, Therese, being a trained athlete, had, notwith- standing the unexpectedness of her precipitation into the vault, managed to turn a half-somer- set in her descent, which had enabled her to fall on her feet with cat-like precision. But she was now in a somewat squatty attitude, ne- cessitated by the lowness of the vault overhead, and was observing Mayfield with a comical mix- ture of rep oach and alarm inher great black eyes which, combined with her boy’s costume, only served to increase his mystification, Old Falcon had not f so fortunately in the plunge, though be had luckily escaped any more serious injury than a somewhat stunned sensation following upon the shock. After turning partly over in his fall, he had lumped into a sitting ture in the midst of he cash-boxes, scattering some of them and their contents in every direction, and flattening — Eomicbooks A CE ES Gor ve pA <i, as