Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 532 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

A ee ee — Jack Javert, the Independent Detective. tain. You will find Javert on the trail to the end. You will see the web destroyed by the avenger, and others will see the spider dead among the ruins,” For a moment Captain Cinnabar seemed on the eve of clearing the space between him and the detective by a desperate bound, but, laugh- ing, ‘‘ ’'m a whole den of tigers compressed into one—ha, ba!” he wrenched open the door and walked out, CHAPTER XXXIV, THE EMPTY HOUSE. ‘““THEY are not here, and neither has left a report,” growled the desperate captain, when he had looked into the side-Loard that graced the wall of his lodgings half an hour after his inter- view with the detective in the little room of the ag It waslong past ten o’clock, and Xerxes and Monte had not reported in any shape, Captain Cinnabar’s face still wore the sinister smile with which he had parted from Javert, and when he thought of his last adventures he burst into a loud laugh. | a you in New York some of these days. Mr. idal, and not Xerxes, the mountain thug! Ho! ho! bo! [I shall split my sides!” and Captain Pygmy laughed till he grew red as a lobster in the face, Xerxes never moved a muscle, but looked from the dwarf to the officer with a smile of_de- rision, ‘**T have no advice to offer,” said he. ‘* Hear- ing of your prisoner, I thought I would drop in to see if he was the person I took him to be, find him the same party. You are to be con- age ie on your luck in picking bim up, hen I am wanted—if I should be—for the Poe of legal identification, send for Henry idal, No, 600 M—— street.” The police lieutenant made a memorandum of the address, ** He'll be there if he isn’t playing the role of Xerxes for Captain Cinnabar!” exclaimed the dwarf, covering Xerxes with his finger, ‘ This is a most audacious play, old fellow, but there’s | @ good deal at stake—a million or two, eh, my | Sierra bloodhound?” Cinnabar’s man made no reply, but turned his ** Xerxes will find the newspaper paragraph | back on Captain Pygmy who clinched his hands to be true,” said he, suddenly. Pygmy has fooled the police for the last time. He can’t play his dead game successfully any more, and we might con- sider him out of the way. I did hit the girl, Nora, with a thunderbolt, didmtI? And my last shot at the ferret staggered him as well. They find me without kids now, and the man who came from the Sierras to win a millionor | ‘Captain | and gave him looks of rage. He glared at Xerxes till his attendant took | him by the arm to lead him back to bis cell, and | two in New York is not to be beaten with his | hand almost on the pile, Captain Javert knows about my swoo on Zubiano, Will he arrest me for it? No! He has no proof. I went there alone. I came away in the same manner, and I left the speechless dead behind! He won't at- tempt to trip me for that ten strike. I think [ know Javert’s policy, I have the last play, I can lift my finger and throw two human heunds straight at his throat!” Meantime Xerxes was on a trail which prom- ised some important developments in another direction. It did not take him long to discover that Cap- tain Pygmy the dwarf was held by the police, and a little reconnoissance about the station- house told him that the authorities were anxious to learn all they could about their prisoner. Xerxes conceived the brilliant idea of fasten- ing the grip of the law on the captain who since his arrest had said nothing beyond a vehement denial that he was the man wanted by the police. - In order to do this effectually Captain Cinna- bar’s right bower by the application of a razor and the purchase of a false beard and some second-hand garments transformed himself into an entirely different looking person, and thus arrayed dropped around to the station on his mission, He was listened to attentively when he said that he had called for the purpose of identifying a certain man under arrest. He believed he could put beyond cavil the personality of the prisoner called Captain Pygmy, and he was anxious to help gv iu any way in his power. The result of the interview was that the dwarf was sent for, and the turnkey of the station soon brought him into the office, The dwarfish plotter looked searchingly at the man who awaited him there, and Xerxes in re- turn eyed him from head to foot. ‘** He is the very man I thought he was,” said he with a glance at the lieutenant in charge, Captain Pygmy seemed to start at the sound of the voice, ** Whom do you call him?” asked the officer. ‘Oh, he’s had half a dozen names in his time,” was the response. ‘*‘ What is he here for?” ‘¢ He was found in a house where he was not wanted, and when we had him he played a dead trick on us and got away.” ‘‘ His old game,” laughed Xerxes, ‘You know that he has played it before, eh?” ‘¢A hundred times, perhaps.” ‘In New York?” ‘No; this is new ground for him, but it does not take him long to get used to fresh territory.” During this conversation Captain Pygmy’s eyes were riveted on Xerxes, and his dwarfish body was thrust forward in bis eagerness for as close an inspection as possible, ‘* What do you say to this?” queried the lieu- tenant of police, turning abruptly upon Captain Pygmy. ‘‘This gentleman says he knows you and many of your tricks, How is it?” ‘** Who is the gentleman?” asked the dwarf, ‘“* My name is Vidal,” said Xerxes, Captain Pygmy showed his teeth beneath his snapping eyes, ‘« Mr. Vidal, I presume?” he laughed. ‘Mr. Vidal, and not Xerxes of Califorrnia—not the man who used to follow people with a hidden knife and a coiled lasso! No, you have covered your claws with velvet, but one who knows where they are can see them all the same! Ho! ho! you’re a nice man to come here to fasten the grip of the police on me! a West, and I’m nearly willing to bet my head, precious as it is to me, that one will tighten on 0 5 There are more than | that they bad concluded ozen nooses waiting for your neck in the did not find the street to even then he threw a look over bis shoulder at the figure of his foe. ‘* Wait!” he hissed through his teeth. ‘* You think you’ve fastened the screwson me, Captain Xerxes, but we shall see! It is a long lane that does not turn at all, and a good sky that never knows a storm, I’m little and I’m in the web ape but have a little patience—you and your chief, Xerxes felt that he had drawn the cords of the law tighter than ever about the dwarf, and that without compromising himself at all in the eyes of the police, Of course the authorities would not believe the statements of a criminal as against those of Henry Vidal a reputable citizen of Gotham. He was safe on that score, and he believed that he had dealt Captain Pygmy a staggering blow. ** Now, if Monte has done as wellas I have, the day will not have been lost,” said he to him- self. ‘* Monte was to look after Javert and the oe besides keeping an eye open for the man he ad the strngele with on the stair. He won’t be apt to find his enemy, but he will see the girl and perhaps the detective, What have I on hand now? Nothing!” Xerxes stopped suddenly at his own answer. ‘Why not look after Captain Cinnabar’s work at Zubiano’s house?” he suddenly went on. ‘*T presume it is locked, but doors have yielded to me before. The captain wouldn’t tell just what he did, and I would like to know.” Xerxes had to turn at the next corner, and a few minutes afterward he passed the house where Cinnabar dealt his blow. Its shutters were drawn and it had a gloomy ook, While he eyed the premises a gig drove up in front of it and alittle man with a buiness air ot out. ‘** Ho! what does this mean?” mentally ejacu- lated Xerxes, The man walked up the steps and took a piece of Bets paper and a small hammer from his poc ket, Then he unfolded the paper and placed it against the door, when Xerxes, to his astonish- ment, read the words ‘*‘ For Rent” thereon. ‘* That house empty?’ he cried. ‘‘I can’t be mistaken. This is Y—— street, and that is the number as I got it from the captain. If he finished the witch of New York, and if he left her in that house dead, why hasn’t the sensation got out? I can’t believe my eyes, yet there it is —‘ For Rent,’” By this time the man bad finished tacking the paper on the door, and as he turned to come down the steps, he happened to catch the watcher’s eye. ‘*- You don’t wan’t a house, hey?” he said. A brilliant idea flashed through Xerxes’s brain. ‘‘ That’s just what I’m looking for,” he replied. ** Are you the owner?” ‘No, sir—agent, Do you want to look at the property? It was vacated this morning, and rather pita gar spake which is nothing against the property, sir. I’ve got just ten minutes of spare time on my hands. We'll go in. No trouble to show premises, I assure you.” The property agent unlocked the house, and Xerxes walked in. He found the place well but not expensively furnished. His guide opened the shutters and showed him the various rooms. There was not a sign of Captain Cinnabar’s swoop anywhere, nothing disarranged, and no bl on the floor. Xerxes was astonished. ‘* Who was your last tenant?” he asked. ‘© A woman who dabbled a little in the occult arts, I believe. She bad a servant, a youn irl, who came round this morning and sai move. aybe she tastes—I’m sure I don't know.” ‘**T presume you don’t know where she went?” ‘* We never interest ourselves in our tenants when they move away, Too much other busi- ness, you know,” Xerxes looked a little further and said that he would give the agent a definite answer before night. Then he walked out of the house and saw the gig rattle away with a thought that something very singular had taken place. ** If he failed to finish Zubiano—” He ne nag abruptly and laughed at himself. ** But be says he made no mistake,” he went on. ‘*‘Captain Cinnabar does not leave things one-half done, But how was that house given up so quickly when he left a dead woman there witbin the last forty-eight hours? How? That’s what I would like to know!” He looked at the house again before he start- ed off, and instead of going to the pretended residence of Henry Vidal, of which he had spoken to the police lieutenant, he went direct and swiftly to Captain Cinnabar’s house. Bolting across the hall and into the parlor, he found a man lyiug on the floor on his face, With a strange cry, Xerxes stooped and turn- ed him over. It was Monte! CHAPTER XXXV, THE GRIP OF STEEL, ‘My God! who has dealt a counterblow of this kind?” was the next exclamation that rung from the throat of Xerxes. The man on the floor showed no signs of life, yet there was a peculiar warmth to the body which told Captain Cinnabar’s right bower that he was not dead, Xerxes dropped the hand he lifted and ran to the side- board, Snatching a bottle of brandy from the shelf, he came back to Monte, and forced a quantity of the liquor between bis lips. The hot fluid had an instant effect, and Xerxes soon had the pleasure of seeing his com- panion come “ back to life.” The wild glance which Monte sent round the room settled at last on Xerxes, and the grim stare of horror left his eyes for a better look, ‘* What did the captain lie for?” be asked, and his hand tightened on Xerxes’s wrist like the jaws of a turtle. ‘* What did he lie about, Monte?” ** About Zubiano,” “ Was she here?” A grim smile fastened on Monte’s lips, ‘‘ Yes,” he said, through bis teeth. ‘‘ She was here.” ** When?” ** When I came.” ** And that was—” ‘*T don’t know how long ago,” interrupted the man in the chair atthetable, ‘‘ I know that I came back from Javert’s trail to leave a Pip for the captain. I had just seated my- self at this table to write it, for Captain Cinna- bar was not here, when I heard my name pro- nounced from bebind the chair. In a flash I dropped the pen and had turned half round when? was seized and my head pressed back against the chair, Then I saw a woman in the room—a tall and handsome creature, with eyes that seemed to burn like coals of fire. ‘ Itis not the chief spider, but one of the spawn!’ said she to the person who was bolding my head. Then I saw her deliberately light a grayish cone which she took from her bosom, and when it was hidden by volumes of smoke she threw it at my breast, on which it broke into a thousand pieces, each one of which clung to me likea scorpion and burned like red-hot claws. T can- not describe my sufferings, I felt my strength and consciousness departing, while the hands that held me to the chair seemed to sink into my flesh. At last, by a most desperate effort, I wrenched myself loose, but as I sprung forward my agony became too great, and I knew no more, That is how it ed pase Xerxes, and I know that Captain Cinnabar scotched the viper but did not kill her.” Xerxes had listened to Monte’s story with bated breatb. It bad for him the indescribable fascination of the horrible, but strange as it was, he did not doubt a single word. ‘The cone proves the woman’s identity,” said he. “It was with the same terrible weapon that she triumpbed over Captain Cinnabar, Then it was launched by her attendant, a young ‘girl; now sbe throws it herself.” Monte writhed in the chair in sudden pain. ** The needles of fire are still in my body!” he cried, ‘* I shall go straight to the houseon Y—— street and strike back.” ** She is not there,” “Tt is her den,” ‘But the house is empty,” persisted Xerxes, ‘* But forget the witch of Gotham fora moment, Monte.” 1*T can’t.” “Then keep her in your mind, but tell me what you were going to report when she came.” ‘*Tt was not very much, I went back to the building where I saw Javert and Lucy, but the © room was not tenanted.” ‘ ‘* Not even by the girl! queried Xerxes, ve Not by the girl. She has changed her quar- ters. Eomiecbdooks PS, GO