Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 532 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

» length. strategy, though a little too late to witness the robbery# Now, let me see what I can do again,’ Captain Pygmy soon reappeared at the rear of Juliette’s house, Compressing his body into what appeared to be a cellar-window, he took out an iron grating, and squeezed his supple body into a dark place below. ‘*Going in by the old way!” he laughed to himself. ‘ By the nine gods! I’m in luck,” It did not take the dwarf long to get from the basement into the house above, He crept down the hall, and opened a door which once before had yielded to his hands. There Captain Pygmy halted, with the latch still in his clutch. Something indefinable seemed to hold him back, What if Juliette, playing tigress, was stand- ing beyond the door, ready to press a revolver against his head? ‘“* Haven’t I the quickness of a cat and the strength of Hercules?” was the question with which he met this thought. ‘ This is Juliette’s room I am going into. I will be on the alert,” He took another step forward, aud opened the door still more. Suddenly a step fell upon his eager ears, and then a light was uncovered, ‘* Lucy!” cried Captain Pygmy, springing for- ward, and clutching the wrist of the young girl, rendered spellbound by his apish presence in the room, ** Don’t! don’t!” whispered Lucy, and then she pene across the room, ‘ Juliette is yonder. dragged her to the couch myself. She came home with some one, but fellin the hall with a terrible cry.” Captain Pigmy snatched up alight and sprung forward, A My God, child!” he shrieked. ‘ Juliette is dead!’ CHAPTER XIV. FEATHERING A NEST, THE girl, Lucy, clasped her hands beside the couch, and looked at the motionless figure with stareful eyes, _ “Is she dead?” she asked. ‘‘ She was breath- ing, [ am sure of it, when I brought her in from the hall. No, she cannot have passed away so quickly!” Captain Pygmy picked u that lay carelessly beside held it for a moment, ‘“‘Pm afraid it’s all over,” said he, looking up into the anxious face of the girl. ‘ Did you hear Juliette come back?” ‘* T heard the carriage approach the sidewalk. {f was wide awake. When the door opened I was at the top of the stairs trying to see who was with Juliette. I caught a glimpse of anoth- er woman, nothing more, Almost before the door was shut, Juliette threw her hands to her head, and uttering a cry which I shall never forget, sunk to the floor like one struck with death, I stood svell-bound where 1 was for I don’t know how long. When I reached Juliette the carriage had been driven’ away. I was alone with my mistress, for 1 am now her only companion. She dismissed the maid yesterday. Well, I brought her into this room—I cannot yor how. And now you say that Juliette is eac ‘* Not dead, but without hope,” answered Cap- tain Pygmy, looking again at Juliette, ‘* Ifa spark of life remains, let us try to kin- dle it into a flame.” ‘* No!” grated the dwarf, touching the girl’s arm, as she fell back. ‘Listen to me, child. This woman stood between us and the fortune— between you and the secret of your birth.” ‘Did she know it?” ‘¢"Yes,” ‘‘ Then she must not die,” ‘Hold! she did not have a monopoly of the secret,” continued Captain Pygmy with a smile, ‘‘Let bergo. Her death will make things easier of solution, though I would not have had it thus, She used to be a weaver of webs, a maker of snares. Ha! I used to know her well. 1l’ve but lately got out of a web myself. Has her sleuth reported?” *“He never came back,” replied Lucy. _ “Therefore Juliette got no clew to her miss- ing ring and other valuables?” ‘* None whatever,” Captain Pygmy went back to Mrs. Jansen, he = ~~ fe not changed, oes she live yet?” a ir). ** Life is still here.” pares ‘** Then, for Heaven’s sake, let us save her!” ** Save this woman?” came through the dwarf’s teeth. ‘‘ Im going to stay here till she’s dead!” With a frightened look Lucy drew back and regarded the little Hercules with feelings of dis- gust. His eyes glittered like a serpent’s, and he stood over Juliette as atiger stands over the doe he has just destroyed. ‘Merciful Father, have I linked m to this monster?’ mentally ejaculated the girl. ‘*He seems more than hb tiger. Does he really know anything about me, or is he playing one of the hands uliette’s figure, and me in order to avenge himself against Juliette? Maybe he has thrown Captain Javert off the scent. He is capable of doing anything.” ‘“Tf you don't want to stay bere, go to your own room,” suddenly said the dwarf turning upon the girl, ‘‘ lam going to see this woman die, I told you.” Still watching him and trembling in bis pres- ence, Lucy drew back, and with a last look at the woman on the couch, she glided from the room and left him alone with the inanimate form of Juliette. ‘For a moment Captain Pygmy did not stir, then he bounded to the door and listened. _ Lucy’s steps had died away and he heard noth- ing. ‘‘Nothing better than this could have hap- pened!” he exclaimed, coming back to the bed, ‘When I was in this house before [ did not get to play my favorite hand. I only got a chance to enact my dead role and get bundled off to the morgue for mytrcuble. The girl is thoroughly unnerved and frightened, and I have everything my own way. Juliette must have seen too much in Zubiano’s temple of fate, At least she did not come home in good condition, It suits me to a T, as I’ve said before. Now Pll know something or nothing.” He parted the heavy curtains that hung be- tween him and Juliette’s private chamber into which Lucy had never passed, He Ay across the threshold with noiseless motion, and set the little light he carried upon a heavily-carved desk which filled one corner. Captain Pygmy had not come to the room un- armed, for when he opened one of his hands he displayed a bunch of keys which he had taken from the unconscious Woman. Witb these in his possession, it was not diffi- cult for him to get into the desk, ‘‘ Here I am!” he cried, as the lid yielded. ‘““Now I will know the fate of the woman hunted down by Colonel Nero and the Spider League thousands of miles from here.” The interior of the desk was divided into little compartments which contained many papers. The dwarf went at them at once, The tapestry having closed behind him, he could not be seen from the room where Juliette lay, and he kept his body between the door and the light. Captain Pygmy’s nimble fingers followed his quick and eager eyes. He found one paper which, after a glance, he hid in his bosom, then another followed it. ‘“Tve got enough,” said he. ‘‘I think I will hold the secret Juliette has guarded so well. The hunted woman of the Sierrus did not perish. Xerxes simply lied when he came back and told Colonel Nero, afterward General Raymont of Gotham, that he carried out his sealed instruc- tions to the letter. Xerxes is here now, and on another trail, of course, for his old pard, Cap- tain Cinnabar, directs bim. And Monte is here, too. I have lately felt Monte’s clutch, and the captain’s, also, for that matter. Cinna- bar wants Raymont’s wealth, but at the same time he is playing for the heiress, too. Nobody is actually against them, Nobody? Yes, I am to the bitter end, and so is the woman who killed the general, whoever she is! Juliette em- ployed a detective to find her snake headed ring, and Nora hired one torun down the gen- eral’s slayer. And the strange thing about it all is that they should pick on the same sleuth— Javert of Broadway. But where is Javert? Ah, there’s the puzzle!” Captain Pygmy laughed mysteriously over the problem which had stopped him. ‘*“Maybe Javert fell into one of Cinnabar’s webs,” he went on. ‘Or perhaps he got too hot on the trail of the general’s slayer and met Colonel Nero’s fate. I don’t care so the sleuth keeps away from me. I don’t want Javert on my trail till 1 have played my trumps and won. I intend to feather my nest with the money of the man who when he was the king spider of the merciless league in California, issued a two- worded command which nearly ended my ca- reer.” He shut the desk and took good care to lock it. Then he searched the room a while longer, but found nothing to his liking, for his hands car- ried nothing away. : ‘*Tve got enough!” said he, witha grin. “TI can go back and look at the dead, and then slip away without disturbing the girl.” Back be went to Juliette, lying where he had left her. He did not hold the lamp close to her face this time and one look seemed enough. A smile of satisfaction appeared at his mouth a new glitter lit up the depths of his eyes, and stealing from the room he listened in the hall for a few moments, and let himself out of the house. If he had gone up-stairs to the little room which Lucy occupied when she was under Juliette’s roof, he would have been treated to a surprise, The chamber was empty. Lucy Lemon was on the street instead of hid- ing in the room with the shadow of Juliette’s terrible stroke around her. The girl had left the house by the rear exit, | Jack Javert, the Independent Detective. | ‘*Didn’t I get in the other time by 11 and when Captain Pygmy was going through the desk she was squares away. A strange desire appeared to give speed to Lucy’s feet. She crossed the Park where she had several times encountered Captain Pygmy, nor did she stop till she ran up the steps leading to Javert’s office, “*T am back here again.” she exclaimed, find- ing herself at the door. ‘‘I know of no other man whom I need now, Where is the detective whose fame is so great, and why can’t I find him? He never even reported to Juliette, and she needs him more than ever to-night, I need him, too!” She tried the door, twisting the knob in every direction in her eagerness, and giving vent to her bitter disappointment in appropriate lan- guage. ‘*Gone! gone!” she cried, “I am_ helpless without Javert. He promised to help me in every way in his power and Heaven knows this is my time of need. I—” Lucy heard some one coming up the stair, and breaking her sentence she drew back against the wall and waited. Her heart was in her throat and she became a statue of fear and silence. On, on, came the unseen, The girl held her breath as he approached, At last in the dim light of the place she saw a human figure. It approached the door of the detective’s office and halted there. Lucy leaned forward on tiptoe, then she sprun toward the man with a cry that sounded the fud length of the hall, “Captain Javert! Thank God!” CHAPTER XV. EXIT JAVERT. A HAND quickly thrown out seemed to meet the girl half way. Was the man Javert the detective, and had he come hack at last and just when he was needed most? The light was too dim for Lucy to see clearly the features of the man whom she had called Javert, but she was certain that she had made no mistake, ‘In a moment she found herself in the office locked a little while before, and then she knew that she had discovered the right man. ‘** Well, my little one, what does Juliette think of me?” asked the sleuth with a smile. “ma poor clew-finder in her opinion, am [ not?” ** Juliette thinks of nothing now,” was the an- swer, and Lucy’s voice dropped to a whisper, “*T fear my mistress is dead.” The Jast word found a sudden echo on the de- tective’s tongue. ‘*Dead?—Juliette?”” he exclaimed. ‘Could I have prevented if I had escaped sooner froin the web? Lucy shook her head, ‘* She came home stricken with the fatal mal- dy,” said she. **Teil me all, girl.” Calming herself in the presence of the man whom she trusted, Lucy narrated everything that had occurred to her since the last inter- view. Before she concluded cay UBD stole into the office and the streets of Gotham again began to swarm with human life. Javert listened attentively to every word that fell from Lucy’s tongue, The narrative seemed to possess a singular charm for him, es- pecially that part connected with Juliette’s re- pee ponies and the visit of Captain Pygmy, the warf, ‘*'You will come with me now and take the trail from the house, will you not?’ eagerly asked the girl, and her eyes filled with astonish- ment when the detective slowly shook his head. ** Javert is out of the game,” said he. Lucy started. ‘* What! out of the play?” she exclaimed, ‘If Juliette is dead you have still a mission I should think. Captain Javert, won’t you become m detective? I have no money to offer; but have aname to be cleared. I want to know who I am, I want the secret Captain Pygmy professes to know. Who is he? You have promised Nora Raymont to take the trail of the woman who left General Raymont dead in the library when she left the house, Do you desert her when you tell me that you have left the trail? The web into which you fell must have exerted a strange influence, I did not think you could be coaxed from the trail by anything. Lucy Lemon epose with some bitterness which sent a flush to her temples, At the end of her last sentence she rose to go. ‘ ‘* You don’t trust me, I see,” smiled Javert. “You won’t let me,” was the answer, “If you have left the game, have you not destroyed my faith in you? I may find some one who will not quit the trail thus,” ‘You mean that you intend to make a fight for Captain Pygmy’s secret.” “T do!” sai pic firmly. ‘‘I am now an interested party in this strange drama of crime. I know that I am but a girl without money and without influence, I cannot hire sleuths as Nora can. She has unlimited wealth at her command, and she is bent on vengeance, Cap- (E(0) micbooks:com ¥ _ ; f ab A P =