Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 532 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

4 -— Jack Javert, the Independent Detective. see eee was to take a message somewhere. It was not | witch of Gotham who is just nowin our way. to Zubiano the Sorceress who brought your late mistress home in that terrible frame of mind which preceded her suicide, send you to that woman. She sent you else- where, and, what is more, she intrusted you with a written document,” Lucy did not quail before the look which ac- companied these words, ‘You pretend to knowa great deal,” said she. ‘If all this be true, and you know it, why keep me here with these questions?” ‘*T want the truth.” ‘Tt is not for Captain Pygmy!” The dwarf grew dark in the face, ‘*Ts it open war, girl?” he exclaimed bending forward with bis hands clinched and all his tiger passions aroused. ‘“* {tis what you make it,” calmly answered Lucy. ‘‘I want no difficulty with any one. shall keep my word with Juliette my late mis- tress,” ; ‘* Ho! then you have not yet fulfilled the mis- sion!” cried Captain Pygmy. Lucy said nothing. ‘* You have made it war; not I,” said he, ‘“* When you come to your senses you will re- tract the declaration of hostilities, for until you decide to tell the whole truth, you will be found here at all times.” The dwarf sprung across the room and his hands descended upon his young prisoner's shoulders. Lucy saw him bending over her with blazing eyeballs, and his breath fell hot on her face. “As Dve said, there are many webs in Goth- am, and thisisone of them!” hehissed, ‘* You'll know how strong its meshes are before you are through with them. Haven’t you decided already to tell me what I want to know?” **T have not!” Captain Pygmy drew back as suddenly,as he had sprung forward. “Then, my foolish fly, you’ve lost every- thing!” cried he, ‘‘The detective whom you visited once or twice at Juliette’s dictation has given up. his office and disappeared. I presume e fell into the other web as I did once and per- ished there. He was your friend, wasn’t he? Took an interest in you, at any rate. Don’t fear that you will ever fall into the clutches of the police and be examined by them. [Il see that you do not. They won’t look for you here, neither will the person to whom Juliette sent her last message by you. When I have played the cone through and have my pockets lined with iamonds, you'll wish you had not made war against me—that is, if you are not a poor crushed, dead fly in the web at thetime, You've rejected a fortune for a whim. Girl, you’ve tossed aside the precious secret of your life to carry out a foolish pledge to a dead woman. Well, take what comes, If it be despair, dark- ae and death, don’t blame any one but your- se Lucey saw the dwarf glide across the room and halt at the door with his hand on the knob. His face was full of triumph, hers she felt was white. ‘* Guide me to Juliette’s last message—to the written one, and get out of the captain’s web alive,” said he, in parting tones. ‘ Keep the se- cret in your bosom and Jet the web hold you till death ends all!” Then the door opened and shut, and the girl, Pe ae deserted by courage, fell back in a aint. é CHAPTER XX. RUN DOWN, CapTAINn PyGmy had surely gone, for the door did not open again to admit the dwarfish figure of the hideous man-spider to the girl lying in- sensible on the floor. As to the dwarf, he had let himself out of the house and into the street, ‘* A few hours of imprisonment will fetch her around,” said he. ‘*1 know the spirit of these oung creatures. I had Lucy in my grasp as ong as she was Juliette’s protegee, but now, with Juliette out of the way, strange to say the girl rebels. When I come back she will be ready to tell me to whom she was to have taken Juliette’s last commands. Was it to her sleuth Jack Javert, the Broadway independent? I must know.” At the same time—to the minute, almost-- Captain Cinnabar the web-weaver was inspect- ing a certain dwelling from the outside and with the aid of the nearest lamp. The street was; not the most respectable for residence. It was well taken up with drinking- onan Seat Se ree but here and there a r looking house s like an i in the bleakness of a fale Bones 0G agen ““Queer that the Queen of Sorcery should come here to renew her magic,” thought Cinna- bar. ‘* Monte never makes a mistake, and if he says he saw Zubiano enter this house, I am sat- isfied.” Captain Cinnabar continued to eye the build- ing for some time longer, though he did not at- tempt to enter, ** I'd give a good deal to be on the inside, and I assured Monte that I intended to crush the The woman who killed General Ray mont crack- ed the web, I was just twisting Colonel Nero She would not | round my finger when she came between. Now she rejoices in her vengeance and perhaps medi- tates a second blow as powerful as the first. Let the girl and her new detective go for a mo- ment, Crush the sorceress, Captain Cinnabar; play in New York a hand as deadly as the ones you used to play in the gold domain,” His own words seemed to give him courage, for he took several hasty strides toward the house and stopped at the foot of the steps before | en in the valley of death against Colonel Nero the front door, ‘*Why not goin like a whirlwind and aston- ish her with my lightning power?” cried Cinua- bar, ‘‘I feel my blood burn in my veins when I find myself at last so near this mysterious and dangerous woman, Zubiano, eh? I did not dare name her to Xerxes, the old bloodhound of the Spider League. He would have called me mad and with cause, too. Istartled him enough when I intimated who Juliette was and why she took such a fancy to the girl Lucy; but to have told him my private opinion of Zubiano would have been too much,” All at once, as if goaded by an impulse which he could not resist, Captain Cinnabar ran up the wooden steps and jerked the knocker. ‘*T’m cool enough now to go through the play without a break,” he said to himself, ‘* She doesn’t look for me. Ah! some one comes!” Footsteps beyond the door grew more and more distinct till they ceased at the portal itself and then the knob was turned. Cinnabar drew back and waited. The door opened at last and he saw a face and caught a glimpse of a human figure. ‘*It is she!” he exclaimed under his breath and then without more ado he pushed forward, opening the door wider with his body. In a moment he was in the hall, bis burly fig- ure erect under the jet that burned overhead, and his eyes riveted upon the person who stood between him and the threshold. Tuat person was a woman, She louked calmly at Captain Cmnabar though it was evident that he was the last visitor she expected, *‘ Well,” said she with a faint smile at her lips, ‘‘ you have found me again.” Cinnabar advanced a step, then bent his fig- ure forward as if to get a better look at the face already in the light. ‘** Yes, Lady Panther, I have found you,” was the reply... _, She seemed to start at the name, ‘* This isn’t California nor the heart of the Sierras,” he went on. ‘' You have transferred your game to New York, the metropolis of the continent.” ‘*So have you, Captain Cinnabar,” smiled Zubiano for she was the woman he had found, The Californian shifted his Baers to one against the wall where he folded his arms upon his broad chest and studied her for a moment. *‘Do TI look like the victim of Colonel Nero’s vengeance?” she asked, ‘*] think youdo, Time has dealt kindly with you, Ximena.” The woman laughed, ‘* You don’t forget names, Captain Cinnabar,” she exclaimed. **T could not forget yours if I would. You have been Lady Panther, California Coral, and other characters; you are now parading behind the mask of Zubiano the Sorceress. hen did you learn the devil’s magic?” ‘* After you left Camp Satan at Colonel Nero’s heels to play for his millions in New York!” ‘“That was years ago.” ‘Yes, and you areas far from the millions now as then.” ‘* Don’t be too sanguine,” cried Cinnabar, ‘You ought to know that the webs I weave catch the fly in theend. The golden insect avoids the thrall a long time, but with the certainty of fate it falls into it and becomes m prey. You had to put your hand forward and strike down your old enemy with the vengeance of the tigress which never forgives.” **T? cried Zubiano, cc You.” : “When did I touch him?” ‘* Perhaps you did not touch him in one sense of the word. You sought his presence in hisown house. You knew that General. Raymont was Colonel Nero, the old head of our famcus Spider League of the Sierras, Heaven knows how long ae watched him before you dealt your blow, | | id you want him to round out the last million he was accumulating—to feel that he was entire- ly safe, and that you were but a heap cf bleached bones in a valley whose location Xerxes the sworn trail dog would not reveal? One can see that you brought to Gotham the spirit you pos- ues in the gold country. You did not pity the beautiful child under his roof. I’d have thought you would have remembered her even when your hand was raised, but merciless to the end you went on and left him dead on the floor of his mansion.” ** You accuse me, captain,” smiled the sorcer- ess, “ " ? rice ae he deny?” ig + ey —— “‘T thought not, In cold language, you killed General Raymont.” ‘**T did not know him. I hated Colonel Nero.” “It is all the same, Ximena,” ‘*So itis, The bleached bones you have just talked about have a power in them, eh, Captain Cinnabar?” ‘* They can kill.” - Zubiano put out her hands and looked at them with an expression of triumph on her marble fece, ‘“* These are the hands that were lifted to Heav- and his infamous League!” she suddenly ex- claimed, ‘‘l am the woman who was tied to a horse and the horse shot dead by the man who is to-day in the service of his old master, 1 know that he reported to Colonel Nero that Lady Pan- ther or La Pantherina as you some times had it was out of his way forever. From that moment he breathed freer and went from million to mil- lion as if there could be no day of retribution. Do you want to hand me over to the police with no proof that I killed your old captain? Is this your mission here to-night, Cinnabar of Califor- nia?” His look fell to her hands, : ‘You don’t wear the ring any more?’ he grinned, “Oh! the serpent-headed bauble, which Col- onel Nero’s maid says she saw on my hand when she admitted me” ‘* Yes, and the ring Juliette lost a short time before.” ; ‘‘No! my hands are clean, as you see,” cried she. ‘As to the ring, I have no use for it now. . When Colonel Nero saw it flashing its baleful eyes in his gaslight, he must have known that the dawn of the morning of vengeance had come, He must have wondered how his lost be- \ trothal ring came to be on my hand,” ‘¢ His betrothal ring, woman?” echoed Captain Cinnabar. ‘‘ Yes; he placed it on Juliette’s hand when he won her. When she came to Camp Satan as Queen Leo, and claimed ber husband, she was seized by the Spider League, with Captain Cin- nabar at the head of it, and searched for the snake-eyed ring. Ah! T see you smile. The event bas not escaped your memory. Juliette sent him word once that the ring would come q back some day, and so it did; but not on the | hand he looked for,” ‘‘ You killed Juliette, too,” accused Cinnabar. | “No, I stop at her door,” was the answer. | ‘‘ She took her own life.” | ‘‘ She visited you a short time before.” ‘‘ Which of your sleuths told you this—Xerxes ~ | | | | te ee SE or Monte?’ ‘‘Never mind, You do not answer me.” ‘“‘T will, Juliette saw me, not knowing my identity. I took her home, and in the privac of her house she took the fatal draught, - struck the old enemy. I was ready to let Juliette live, She had something to live for— her child!” ‘* She has no child, unless— Captain Cinnabar’s. sentence seemed to be broken by the woman’s look, ‘* Let me finish your sentence, captain,” re- sponded the sorceress—‘‘ unless Nora is. that child! Isn’t that it, my Captain of the Spider . League?” Cinnabar did not answer. | ‘** Hug that delusion to your heart,” continued a Zubiano, ‘‘Sometimes the spider finds the ‘f wrong fly in the web.” . Cinnabar started from the wall and colored. ' “Isnt Nora the child of Raymont and Juli- i ette?” he exclaimed, : “Put your twin sleuths on the track of the am mystery, Set them on the trail!” cried the | sorceress, her eyes full of a fierce fire. ‘‘ They | are famous for ferreting out people and things, 1, 2 Xerxes hunted Lady Panther down once, e time may come for the prey to hunt the hunt- er | Captain Cinnabar bit his lip over his failure, 4 CHAPTER XXI. ae A TERRIBLE MISSILE, Ga ne was the woman whom he had come to crush, a | Standing before him within reach of his eage hands, she was looking defiance into his eyes, even liughing over the vengeance she bad taken on General Raymont, alias Colonel Nero, Captain Cinrabar had been more successful * than either Nora the heiress or her detective. . He bad found the subtle murderess while they were yet groping in the dark, Monte’s keen eyes had found her—by accident, it is true—but nevertheless she had been found, and that was enough. Now, could he a his hand and put ber out of his way forever, for while she stood in it, the millions of the game—Raymont’s millions— = fot i never gild the meshes of the Spider = | e, ' Sinushan thought fast while he stood face to a face with the woman whom he had rundown, =| The time had come for action, but where dW should he begin? r a | Truth is, the man, despite his courage, was q : : mete A superstitious. He did not know what sort of 4 ~ckemeonuicbooks.com we i ; ~~ oe!