Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 532 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

+ ‘a ** She belongs to my game,” he went onas if 3 head with diamond eyes. The girl saw it on her the statement pleased him. ‘* Wasn’t she Juliette’s maid?” a Yes.” ‘ **What is the child’s name, Monte? asked Cinnabar, turning to bis companion. “ It is Lucy,” responded Monte, and the reply found confirmation in Captain Pygmy’s eyes. **Do you want to get back into the house through the girl?” suddenly asked Cinnabar. ‘** Do you think I have been there?” ‘You have, You played your dead trump there and deceived think of Ruff Raymont’s death?” ‘* T never asked her.” ** Do you mean that you have not seen her since?” ee I do.” ** ‘What do you think of it?” **T agree with the doctors.” ** Suffocation, eh?” “6 Yes,” * “By what?” Captain Pygmy left his chair and stood erect on bis short limbs, ‘**]1 halt here,” said he, ‘‘I am willing to let the sharp detective who is now on the trail un- ravel the skein if he can.” ‘* But you have an opiuion,” ** So I have, and I'll keep it, too!” CHAPTER X, LINKS. Ir must have occurred with thrilling force to . Captain Pygmy when he found himself in a room from which exit was one of the impossi- bilities, that he was a fly in the web, and no longer a spider and the maker of subtle thralls, e walked the floor with the burning rage of a tiger, swinging his long arms, and calling down anathemas of the most horrible descrip- tion upon the head of Cinnabar, The room was cramped and his turns were many and sudden. He did not stop to consider whether there were ears at the door, but continued his ravings regardless of everything till he desisted from sheer exhaustion and fell back into a chair to cool off. “Tf curses could kill, captain, we’d be dead men now,” laughed the man, who left the door on the outside of the room and joined Captain Cinnabar in another apartment of the same ouse, ** Didn’t he let off something valuable, Monte?” was the query. ‘* Not a word in the whole tirade.” ‘** Nothing about what he expects to do—when he gets out?” . “Nothing.” ‘**] know the spider we hold in the web, If he can he will break through the meshes and play havoc with our plans; but I guess the thrall is strong enough to bold the blood-sucker. You know I have but to do this, Monte,” and ending with a significant glance, Captain Cinnabar put up his band along the wall and rested one of bis fingers lightly on a dark button imbedded in the plastering. ‘* Why not do it now?” queried Monte. ** Would you?” ce Yes,” “Ah! you don’t want any damaging possibili- ties in the way.” ‘That is it, exactly,” responded Monte promptly. ‘‘A pressure of the little button, captain, and a limp spider will lie in a death- web, There will be xo more shamming death, and we won’t have to keep our eyes open for the deadly feelers of the crippled monster.” But Cinnabar, with a smile, took his hand from the button and smiled at Monte, who did not return it, but kept his face clothed in seri- ousness, if not in fear. One hour later, the well-known figure of Cinnabar crossed the steps of a house some dis- tance from the spider’s prison, and was soon joined in a small room by a man who was older than he, and whose face with its close beard of dark brown, with here and there a gray hair, looked like a mask put on for a determined pur- se. The captain ordered a bottle of claret and pene which were brought in by a hum acked boy, who eyed the pay very suspiciously before he put it away, and when the waiter had disappeared, Cinnabar bent forward and caught his companion’s wrist. ‘*What have you found out, Xerxes?” he asked eagerly. ** ’ve picked up a link or two,” ‘* About the Raymont mystery?” is Yes,” ‘* Tell me without further ceremony.” The man Xerxes first broke the neck of the bottle across the edge of the table and helped himself, then he wiped his beard with a hand which had a missing finger, and continued: ‘‘A woman did it, captain. Ruff Raymont had a female visitor a short time before he was found dead in the library. She came to the house heavily-vailed, and for a purpose. Ma- riette, the maid, made several discoveries of which I have taken some advantage. In the first place, the strange woman wore a very sin- | | pees hand when she admitted her,” “* Good eyes has Mariette,” complimented Cap- tain Cinnabar. ‘“Yes; and they’re pretty eyes, too,” con- tinued Xerxes, ** You don’t want to let them catch you.” Xerxes grinned and shook his head. ‘* Well,” he went on, ‘‘Nora bent on ven- geance was after a detective before the general was cold. She went straight to the office of a man who is said to never fail on a trail that uliette. What does she | interestshim, I speak now of Jack Javert, the Independent Sleuth, Ske secured his services, and Javert is now working the caso for all there is in it.” , Again a smile played with Captain Cinnabar’s mouth as be thought where he had left the Gotham shadow. ‘But what have you discovered about the vailed woman?” he said, with a move cf the hand as he turned to Xerxes again, ‘* You were instructed to take up her trail, not the de- tective’s,” ‘*So I was, and on it I picked up my first link,” was the reply, ‘*Good. Now we shall have something tangi- ble, Xerxes.” ‘*[ think I have tracked Raymont’s visitor down,” Captain Cinnabar’s eyes got a gleam they had not bad before, His brown silken hands closed with glee, and he watched Xerxes with a delight which he could not suppress, ‘**Here! look at this!” exclaimed Xerxes, drawing from an inner pocket a small card which he threw on the table, and saw it snatched up the moment it touched the board. Cinnabar looked at the prize thus secured, and then at his detective companion. He had read: ‘*ZUBIANO! QUEEN OF SORCERY, Daughter of the Stars,” ‘** Where did you get this?” he asked, holding the card between finger and thumb, ‘*T found it in a cab,” ‘*Ho! Was it left by accident or design, Xerxes?” ‘“* Not design, I think, but one cannot tell, I discovered that at an early hour in the morning a woman left a cab, at a corner near Raymont’s house. The driver is one of the best-known cabmen sin New York, from what they tell me. I found him, and in order to get into his favor, I had him drive me around the Park, All this before I asked a word about the woman. In the Park I mounted to the box with him, and it wasn’t long before [ had his tongue on the jump. He didn’t know much, but he remembered the passenger whom he had taken to near Ray- mont’s house. As he had heard nothing of the general's death, I did not enlighten him, I made him believe that I was an ex-cabby who, having made a raise, had retired from the pro- fession, and the way I talked about the business must have opened bis eyes.” ‘* Xerxes, you’re a trump!” ejaculated Captain Cinnabar, which compliment the spy received with a nod. ‘‘The cabman made a discovery when he brushed out the cab, shortly after the woman’s ride,” resumed Xerxes. ‘‘He found that card on the seat,” ** And gave it to you?” **No; at an opportune moment I took it from his pocket.” ‘* But whither did he drive his passenger?” ‘* He let her out on middle Broadway.” Cinnabar’s countenance was seen to drop, ‘*So the person who visited Raymont is play- ing sorceress somewhere, is she?’ be mused, holding the card above the table and studying it, ‘* Xerxes, does your chain end here? Didn’t you attempt to follow up the clew?” ‘“Of course I did, captain, When a fellow knows a little, he is certain to want to know more, I’ve taken a turn among the sorceresses since,” ** From witch to witch, eh, Xerxes?” “‘Just so—from fraud to fraud—in other words,” ** Well?” ** While I did not find Zubiano, Iam by no means satisfied that she is not in Gotham, She does not advertise her calling like the rest of the humbugs. She may be without rooms just now, “But what did the cabman say about} her face?” queried Cinnabar, ** He did not see it.” ‘Nor the ring om her hand which you say Mariette, the maid, saw?” ‘* Nor the ring, captain,” Xerxes leaned over the table and looked at his brown-faced master. te do you think of my link, captain?’ he as ‘“‘Tt will take more than the one to complete the chain,” “Yes; but isn’t ita start?’ persisted Xerxes, “* A start that calls a halt,” was the response, gular-looking ring—a gold one with w serpent’s ‘‘ We must find the whereabouts of this Zubiano. 8 Jack Javert, the Independent Detective. We must lift the vail and Jook at herface. You know the verdict of the doctors, Xerxes?’ “Suffocation by a compound of which they know nothing,” cried Xerxes, ‘' You see the learned doctors of New York are baffled at the outset. There was a strange odor in the room when Nora entered and found her father dead on the floor. That was the drug which did the business.” ‘* Undoubtedly,” assented Captain Cinnabar. **1 wonder what Nora’s detective has discov- ered, if anything,” remarked Xerxes, ‘‘He had no card to start with, and I am sure he found no clew at the house where he heard Nora and Mariette’s narratives. I think I can keep bs with this sleuth if he gives me half a chance, used to be of some account among the moun- tains.” ‘So you did, Xerxes. You followed a trail for General Raymont once,” ‘“ Ah!” cried Xerxes, his eyes brightening with remembrance, ‘ it was a aoe trail, too, And, by Jove! it was a witch’s trail h I’m on now.” Captain Cinnabar met his detective’s laugh with a smile, ‘*As you caught your witch then you ought to catch her now,” said he. ‘So I should, but the ground is not the same, Then it was over mountain and desert, from Camp Satan to Paradis> Ranch, and through cactus and sage-brush. Now it is from street to street, through city gloom and alley sbadows, No, captain, the ground is not the same, but give me time.” For a moment Cinnabar made a silent study of the face before him, ‘¢ Xerxes,” said he, suddenly, *t you never told me what your witch said when you left her for the last time.” ‘That is because you never asked me,'cap- tain,” smiled Cinnabar’s companion, ‘ I de- livered the full report to the general. She leaned toward me from the saddle of her dead horse and said in a whisper I shall never forget: ‘Tell him and his that though a thou- sand years intervene, I will pay them back!’ A thousand years have not elapsed—nothing like it, Captain Cinnabar—and we're all alive yet. Only the general has crossed the river, and by a witch’s hand.” ‘* By hers, Xerxes?” ‘‘Tbunders! no,” was the answer. ‘‘I'd like to know how she could come back from the coun- try whose whereabouts I have never divulged. No, she is there now. The general picked up a later enemy somewhere. He has been living East for fifteen years—plenty of time for him to raise a crop of hatreds, Now, shall I go back to the trail?’ ‘* We must find Zubiano, the Daughter of the ” ke the one rs, ‘*Tt shall be done despite the keen scent of Nora’s sleuth.” ‘« Ah, Javert will discover nothing,” answered Cinnabar. ‘t The shrewdness of her shadow shall be valueless to all. The general’s gold now lies at Nora’s feet, and Juliette bas%et her snare— for.you know what, Xerxes.” ‘““T know Juliette!” exclaimed the spy. ‘I know her only too well, and I want her there /” He threw forward both hands and shut them madly like a pair of vises, l ‘*Don’t let your head rush you into danger,” admonished Captain Cinnabar, ‘*Trust me, captain,” laughed Xerxes and a moment later be was gone, Out on the street he glided away like a shad- ow, and the night and the cily swallowed the Californian’s spy. CHAPTER XI. THE WEB IN DANGER, CAPTAIN CINNABAR, thus left alone, did not remain long in the house, The footsteps of his spy soon died away. ‘If this woman whose hand is playing so subtilely in this game has become a sorceress in Gotham she must be found,” murmured he. ‘* Xerxes was extremely lucky to find the card, but when he went down among the black art frauds his luck vanished. Give my old ferret time and he will unearth Zubiano; but I am anxious to know something about ber right away. With mealwaysit is: ‘The sooner the better.’ I could have explained how I came to know that Javert the sleuth will never find the the trail for his mistress but I would have gained nothing b doing so. Javert did not have to be thus applied. will keep my secret about the detective awhile longer for I consider the same as my own when lam sharing it with Monte who never betrays.” Cinnabar looked at his watch as he went out upon the street and noted that the hour was not 7 very late. e went almost direct to Ruff Raymont’s late abode and rung. Mariette’s eyes filled with surprise when she saw the large man on the the steps, but instead of refusing him admittance she waited for him to announce his business, ** Could I see Miss Nora?’ asked the Cali- fornian, The giyl retired, but soon came back, In another moment Cinnabar was in the dead | a Eomiecbooks