Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 532 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

ae eee a ee ——— be or. sand Jack Javert, the Independent Detective. 21 house a long distance from the scene of his last exploit. his time he made sure first that neither Felix nor any one else was on his track, He wanted no repetition of the scene on the dark stairway and the landing below, and it was enough to render him cautious, Nobody mefi him in the house and he took a seat in the room where heand Captain Cinnabar had touched glasses to the success of their plot and the utter defeat and worse of Zubiano the Sorceress, In the first place Monte helped himself from the sideboard. | He found the captain’s liquors full of revivi- fying fire, and settling back for a wait he gave himself over to his thoughts, | He wondered who would come first—Cinnabar or Xerxes and as he expected no one else he was totally unprepared for the person who did come. Frequent visits to thesideboard in the wall had rendered Monte at peace with nearly the entire world and it was only when a twitch of pain in his neck recalled Felix and the collision with the wall, that he would confess that he still hated somebody, Monte dozed in the chair under the gas and at the table in the middle of the room, ~ His dark-brown face thrown back fronted the front window which had a shutter that was closely drawn. His hands hung down over the arms of the chair not very much like the hands of a person on guard, After awhile the door at his left opened from the hall. Monte heard nothing. The step that followed would not have broken the slumbers of a cat, : It came toward Captain Cinnabar’s spy, and the eyes that watched him had a twinkle if not a glitter of satisfaction, The intruder was a good-sized man, with a brownish beard and eyes that matched it well in hue, Hesaw only the man in the chair, and when near the table, he stopped and studied Monte several minutes, **‘On guard and in the arms of Bacchus!” muttered the visitor, looking at the bottle and glass that stood side by side on the table, ** Captain Cinnabar would smile at this himself if he could drop in just now. But he isn’t here to enjoy the scene, and I sha’n’t disturb it.” The speaker passed around Monte and opened a coor behind him, ‘** What is more fortunate for me than Cap- tain Cinnabar’s choice of this house?” be said to himself, ‘‘f know no house in Gotham better, Here for a week I lay watching some peuple across the street, and when I never thought of crossing swords with the so-called Spider League.” He looked over his shoulder at the man still sleeping in the chair, and then entered the apart- ment revealed by the door, In another second he was gone, and the door was closed as before, An hour passed avays The clocks of New York had struck the hour of midnight, and the streets had long before settled lown to quiet and content, All at once Monte opened his eyes—or rather they had been jarred apart by the closing of a * portal somewhere, ‘Hang me, if I don’t b’lieve I was asleep!” he exclaimed, ‘‘Whendid I come here? It was after I found Javert and had the tussle with the man who nearly twisted my neck off my shoul- ders. I'd like to know— Hello!” Monte’s greeting was intended for the man who had just stepped into the room. ** Did you hold him, Xerxes?” he cried. ‘*Ho! do I look like Xerxes?” was the an- agers Ee Ae a sight bave you fished out o’ the bottle ere! you’ve been aslee stain Monte.” y p, Capta By this time the lieutenant of the League saw that he had taken a very different person for Xerxes, and he hastened to apologize, but his tongue was still thick, and his brain a trifle ‘6 heavy.” . ‘* Well, how did you get along, anyhow?” he asked, ‘‘ Did you throw the net over her this time, or did she repulse you with more of her infernal magic?” ** Do I look ‘like a beaten dog?” Jaughed the. spy’s auditor, who was Captain Cinnabar him- self. ‘‘I made up my mind, as you know, Monte, to get even with Lady Panther and her ** But did you?” asked Monte, eagerly, Ps ao innabar broke out into another aughb. “Once when we thought the League was doomed to betrayal in California, you recollect that I threw myself forward and single-handed placed us beyond that point,” said he, _ I haven't forgotten the circumstance, cap- tain. ‘** History repeats itself sometimes,” a“ Yes, ves.” Cinnabar seemed to take infinite pleasure in drawing Monte on step by step, and lifting his eagerness to the highest pitch. Now, my friend, do you _ think you can ap- preciate some good news a little startling, but golenai all the same?” he suddenly went en. ‘*T can pupreciate lst ‘* Hspecially the contents of theside-board, eb, Monte? But never mind that. You ought to have some news to swap for mine—” ‘ By the nine gods, I have!” “Well, keep it till ’m through with my budget,” ** Go on, then,” Captain Cinnabar again looked triumphant, ‘* 1 went back to the witch’s den,” said be. ** Alone?” ‘* No interruptions!” The half-drunken Monte ludicrously covered his mouth with one of his broad bands. ‘*T found the place as quiet asa tomb—no blazing pyramids on the stair, and no fool suf- focating in the hall. It was like coming out of a chamber of Tartarus and going into a hall of silence. Itook chances—the kind we used to take in the desperate ane of the Spider League —and I went into the house like a burglar by the back way, with my knife along my sleeve, and my eyes on the lookout. ‘* You have never been there, Monte, and—” ‘*[ don’t want to go after your experience,” broke in the spy. ‘* You can go now with impunity. Number — Y—— street is quite peaceful at this time.” ‘*Then you found Lady Panther at home?” **She was there, She is there yet.” ‘* And we have nothing between us and Colo- nel Nero’s millions?” ‘** Nothing that I count a formidable obstacle, Of course there is Captain Pygmy, whom Xerxes will take care of, if he hasn’t done so al- ready; then we have Nora and her new sleuth, who has the Javert eyes—” Monte seemed called back to the past by the name just spoken, ‘*And he has them yet. By the nine gods, captain, they’re still in the same head, and they belong to Javert himself!” Ciunabar, of California, stared at Monte a moment, and then bent forward, ** You are flighty, man!” he smiled. ‘' No de- tective rises alive from his own ashes, Javert perished with the web—” ‘** Javert lives, and is on the trail!” was the response, ‘‘I saw Mr. Powers, Nora’s new sleuth, cast aside his beard, and stand forth ia Lucy Lemon’s presence, Jack Javert, the Broad- way Independent, There ar’ no cobwebs in my brain now, Captain Cinnabar, If we have fin- ished Ximena, or Lady Panther, we must spin a stronger web than one of five for the man who hunts for Nora and the little girl.” Pe eat Cinnabar fell back. ** Monte, you lie!” cried he, Lips twitched, but there was no reply. CHAPTER XXIX, HOW XERXES LOST HIS EEL, SomE time elapsed before Captain Cinnabar became calm enough +o proceed, and when Monte found his tongue after the furious epithet and accusation, he repeated bis declaration in a manner that carried conviction with it, Cinnabar wanted the particulars, and he got them with a detail that ought to have satisfied the most exacting. Javert alive! The thought seemed to burn the Californian’s brain, and to send dancing sparks of firethrough his blood, ** How did the sleuth get out of the net?” que- ried Captain Cinnabar, ‘*That’s where ’m puzzled, Of coarse if he had been there when the web took fire, we would not be discussing his escape now,” ‘* That is evident, Monte, He was there five minutes before the fire started.” ‘It is very strange—simply inexplicable.” ‘“‘ And we can’t get at the secret only through the detective himself,” grinned Monte. ‘ We will get it; give us time,” was the quick response, ‘‘So Javert has found the girl, Lucy? He is still playing a hand for Nora Raymont, the general’s heiress, I shouldn’t wonder if he knows the value of the prize he bas picked up. Javert is no better than some other sleuths who always keep an eye open to the interests of their pankpt books, He isapt to work Nora for him- self, ‘* But the young lawyer, Mr. Nixon, to whom she is supposed to be engaged?” ‘‘ He isn’t actively in the game,” said Captain Cinnabar. ‘‘ The sorceress of New York will trouble us no more, I have attended to that ob you may be sure, Monte, that it was well one. ‘** What became of the girl who stood on the stair and threw the pyramid at you?” ‘**T didn’t see her,’ Cg she direct suspicion when she comes ‘*T don’t fear her. We've finished the mis- tress, the slave is harmtess,” Monte heard the front door of the house open and shut, and while both men waited for the new-comer a shadow fell across the carpet, [t was the shadow of the splendid figure of Xerxes, “I thought I had caught a snake, but I had an eel!” he cried, bursting into a fit of laughter when be caught sight of his companion, v ¥ Monte nearly left his chair, ‘*Did Captain Pygmy get away?’ he cried. ‘* Hold an eel if you can!” was the response, at Cinnabar broke in while he frowned: ‘* Why didn’t you hold him?” he exclaimed, ** He got off, part of it.” ‘* Let us have the whole story.” Xerxes catching sight of the bottle on the table, helped himself leisurely before he con- tinued. ‘*T caught theatom at the restaurant door,” he said, with another glance at Monte, ‘‘ He jumped nearly out of bis boots, but I settled down on him and told him that silence and sense meant safety, For a moment I thought I had the Tartar secure, but all at once he grew limp in my grip and some man who saw him shouted that he had fainted or was dead—the fool wasn’t sure which,” ‘* The old dead trick,” remarked Captain Cin- nabar. ‘* Ves, the same old game,” answered Xerxes, ‘* But it did not work, of course?’ ‘*In a moment I had the usual crowd around me,” continued the Californian’s right bower. ‘* Captain Pygmy lay like a dead man in my grip, and a dozen loud-mouthed fellows were telling me what todo, I said that I knew just how things were—that the little captain wasn’t as dead as he let on to be, but the whole crowd laughed and wondered why [ did not send the body to the morgue or somewhere else, ‘Vl take care of the man,’ said I at last, and lifting Cap- tain Pygmy in my arms, | started through the crowd. ‘* * Hold on, there,’ suddenly spoke a voice be- hind me, and when I looked around [ had a hand on my shoulder. ‘That man isn’t dead!’ said the policeman. I laughed. ‘Is he your friend? I was asked. ‘ Yes,’ said I, ‘ Wait! I think we want him,’ and the cop, holding to the arm of the supposed corpse, looked Captain Pygmy over very carefully. ‘Why, this is the man who was picked up for dead in the house of the Mrs. Jansen who committed sui- cide. He came to life on the way to the morgue and jumped out of the patrol wagon on the road to the station. We want him, as you see it’s very likely to be another case of suspended ani- mation.’ I was obliged to knock under to this, especially as I had three cops to face instead of one, by the time the speaker got through, and a minute later my eel was gone! They took Cap- tain Pygmy off, followed by a crowd, and I was laugbed at for my pains.” * Didn’t you follow?” asked Captain Cinna- bar. ‘‘ No; there were certain risks in that direc- tion, and I let Captain Pygmy go. If I had succeeded in holding him, be would have come here with me, rather against his will, of course, but he would bave come all the same! I think the police will bold him till he comes out of his trance, and then they'll work him for all he is worth, But the captain is no fool, and the cops may find in him the same Tartar I ran across,” ‘*T hope they will, but if they will put the California eel behind bars too small for him to wriggle through, they will confer a favor on Captain Cinnabar.” Monte offered no opinion and no suggestions, Xerxes’s story which had given its narrator some pleasure bad not amused bim, ‘When I catch Captain Pygmy, if I ever do,” he growled to himself, ‘‘ there will be a genuine corpse for the morgue and all the science in New York won’t be able to pump life back into it, either?” ~ “Where's your man?” suddenly asked Xerxes, turning to his late companion, ‘* He got away.” ‘* Like mine did, eh?” ** No, I didn’t surrender him to the police— that’s about all the difference,” ‘‘No more of this,” interposed Captain Cinna- bar, seeing that Monte cut his sentences madly. “The web is strong again. Its threads will not be broken, nor even tried.” ‘‘ You forget the sleuth,” observed Monte, ‘The man we saw at the restaurant?” asked Xerxes, . ** The one I ran down,” | ‘‘And who was he—Mr, Powers, Nora's: shadow ?” , ‘© More than that, sir, The man was Javert.” In an instant the face of Xerxes grew white. He looked quickly at Cinnabar. ‘* What think you, Xerxes?” queried the cap- tain. “ Javert, eh? 1 thought he went out of the game when the old web became ashes,” he an- swered., ‘* So did I, but Monte will have it that he bas. seen him.” Monte nodded. f **T followed him to the girl, Lucy—Juliette’s. waif and protegee. {looked over the transom and crept away to have a tussle with a human tiger-cat on a stair. I know that I have not lied, The man sworn to find General Ray- mont’s assassin and to bunt us down as well, is still on the war-path. He is Javert, the Broad- way sleuth, and a man who knows how to make webs as well as some one else, If he is not to be. turned op at once, count me out of the play.” say, but that’s not the strange Gomilecbooks '