Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 580 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

. Swe _ a 2S oF y a t+ roe i> ~ Poe r ws r yak v Shadowing a Shadow. 5 + b a, * YA - . a? ‘Tee ee, he > . 5 ; ” ; short, to marry him, conditionally. Condition- ally Mrs, Soipes was willing to do so, but not otherwise. As neither was just willing to comply with the conditions, they were still drifting along in single blessedness, but both willing to marry as soon as an agreement satisfactory to both could be reached,” Mrs. Snipes bad a big cat, now about as old as herself, in proportion, of which sbe was very fond. In asking her to marry him, Mr. Woggs had expressly stated that in doing soshe must part with the cat, He hated cuts with a hatred intense, While Mrs, Suipes expressed herself as_ per- fectiy willing to marry Mr, Woggs, condition- ally, she avowed that she could not think of parting with ‘‘ McAliester”—that was the cat’s name, Her condition was that Mr. Woggs should give up smoking. Mr. Woggs, by the way, wusa constant smoker, and bis little pipe was about as strong as years of constant smoking could make ib, The little old man could not think of parting with his little old pipe, and just upon these points the proceedings bitched, and still re- mained at a stendstil, But, enough sail, It was on the morning of the second day after the deato of Mr. Sigbert Parmilye, and these two old persons had just opened their stands, The banking house of Biackwall, Parmilye & Co., by the way, was on a corner opposite to both the stands, on the right from Mr, Woggs’s, and on the left from Mrs, Snipes’s. The windows and doors of the bank were now draped with mourning, and as the hour was quite early it was not yet open, Mr, Blackwall had answered the telegram sent to him at New Orleans, directing Mr, Griffit to attend to the draping, and stating that he would start for home at once. Of course he would not arrive in time for the funeral. When he had opened his stand, and had made everything ready for the day’s business, Mr, Woggs had ag te over to see Mrs, Sni greeting her in the words with which this chap- ter me and the quoted dialogue followed, ‘‘T see they have finished puttin’ up the mournin’ for Mr, Parmilye,” Mrs. Snipes ob- served, continuing the conversation. ‘‘ Yes, so I see,” responded Woggs. ‘“‘ Poor Parmilye! he is gone, and right in the prime of life, too, as we may say, Missus Snipes. I don’t think he was over sixty-five, was he?” ‘* Was he as old as that, Mister Woggs?” It was always * Missus” and ‘ Mister” with them, full and rounded and never varying. Well, yes, I think he was that old; but, then, that is just getting well out of boyhood, Truly all flesb is grass, Missus Snipes, and we can’t tell whose turn it will be to go next,” * You are right, when you say that, Mister oggs. ‘and all the more reason why we should make use of the time while it is ours, Missus Snipes, and get all the happiness out of life that wecan. I suppose you are set on keepin’ that tom-cat forever, though, in spite of all,’ ‘*T cannot think of parting with McAllester, Mister Woggs: you ought to know that by this time. I suppose you are still bent upon stick- ing to that stinking old pipe, on your part, as long as you have breath to draw on it?” ‘*Missus Snipes, if you take away my pipe and bakky, you may as well take away my bread and butter; one is as necessary to me as the other.” ‘* Well, well, we may as well never mention the subject again.” ** Alas! no, I sup could never consen ouse. “Nor could I abear the smell of that old pi 2 Alas, alas!” . ** I sup Mr. Parmilye will have a grand funeral, Mister W ogee. ‘*Oh! undoubted Ys undoubtedly. He must have been very rich, I should think, for this banking business is a business of money, you know. I hear said that Mr, Blackwall is awa from home, and can’t get here for the funera I know | haven’t seen him around for a week or more.” ** Yes, he is away, and between you and me and the lamp-post, Mister Woggs, it would not be any. great loss to the city if he staid away, too. The janitor told me he bad gone to New Orleans.” ‘*T have heard you give out hints like that a good many times, Missus Snipes, in the years I have known you here; what do you mean?” ‘‘Never do you mind what I mean, Mister Wogg-,” with a wink of the eye and a very knowing nod of the bead, ‘never do you mind what I mean, I mean just that, though, that it wouldn’t be any great, loss to the city if he did not come back at all.” ** Well, well, you have your reasons for say- ing so, of course, but I have always looked upon Mr. Blackwall as a very nice kind of gentle- map.” | ‘Yes, yes, he is nice enough; I ain’t findin’ not, Missus Snipes, for I to have a tom-cat in the any fault with him that way; but he wasn’t allus as nice as he is now, Mister Woggs, not by any means he wa’n’t.” “So you bave hinted before, Missus Snipes— so you have hinted before.” * And a wink is as good asa nod from me, Mister Woggs; every bit as good as a nod, sir, a wink is, from me. This is a wink, sir,” exem- plifying, ‘‘ and this is a nod; and you can’t say that the wink isn’t just as good as the nod, now can you?” ‘* Well, no, Missus Snipes, I cannot say that 1 can,” Woges admitted. ‘*That proves that it is so, then,” Mrs, Snipes asserted. ‘‘Now,I would not mind tellin’ you what I know about Blackwall, Mister Woggs, but itissaid thata woman can’t keep a secret, an’ I know that she can, For that reason I am sure you will excuse meif I say eta ES. do you mind what { mean, Mister Woggs,” with another of her winks and nods. ‘“You are a smart woman, Missus Snipes, that’s what you are,” declared Woggs, as he looked upon her with admiration, ‘‘ and that’s what I haveallus said of you. You are as smart as they make ’em, to be plain with you. [If it wasn’t for that tom-cat-—” ‘And that stinkin’ pipe,” Mrs, Snipes has- tened to interrupt. ‘‘ Well, well, no more of that. I suppose Mr. Blackwall will go it alone in the business now, Missus Snipes,” ‘‘How can he, when there is ‘ company’ on the sign?” demanded Mrs. Sni “‘That’s so—how can he? my is?” ‘*You ask me too much, Mister Woggs. A bank is a place where so many folks is going in and out all the time that one can’t tell who is who. Poor Parmilye wasn’t there often, and I guens the ‘ company’ has been there a good deal ess, ** You may be right, Missus Snipes.” “Tf they was all as ‘lar in their comin’s and goin’s as that little Mr. Griffitis— And there he comes now! If they was all as reg’lar as him, I say, we could keep track of ’em easy —eh?” It was Griffit’s hour, and he was on band to open the bank for the business of the day. * Right yqu are, Missus Snipes; rigbt as a trivit. “Tf you only knowed what that little Griffit knows, Mister Woggs, then you would know what I know,” Mrs. Snipes chatted. ‘ And maybe you would know a good deal more, too,” she added, with another wink, accompanied with a nod, ** About Mr. Blackwall, do you mean?” ** About nobody else Mister Woggs. If you knowed what Griffit knows, you would know what I know; and may be a good deal more,” “You seem to talk as though Parmilye was the best man of the two, when he was livin’,” Woges observed. ‘*] wouldn’t be surprised if he was, Mister Woggs,” was the response; ‘‘ I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he was, this mornin’? What is the news to-day?” ** Why, to tell the truth, Missus Snipes, I haven’t opened the paper yet,” was the answer. ‘*T came right over bere to | good-mornin’ to ou. If I find anything that 1 think will be of nterest to you, I will come over and read it to you. **T hope you will, Mister Woggs. I like to hear you read the news.” ‘* You might hear me read it every mornin’ of your life,” declared Woggs, leaning a little nearer, ‘‘and it would give me the greatest of pleasure to read it to you. Think how nice it would be to have our two stands combined into one, with nice httle cozy places for you and me, Then I could sit and read to you and smoke—” ‘* Stop right there,” Mrs, Snipesorderel, ‘It was al wrat nice till you came to the ‘ smoky’ part of it. Itisa happiness that we shall never enjoy, Mister Woggs. * But you are willin’—” **T allus bave been willin’, Mister Woggs, but only on condition that you give up that nasty pipe. ** Well, just s’posin’ I could give up the pipe, ust s’posin’ I could, you understand; would you ick out that hateful tom-cat?” ** Kick McAllester out! No, sir.” ** Then alas, alas! the dream of happiness can never be realized!” and fetching a heavy sigh Mr. Woggs turned mournfully away and went back to his old corner, wonder who the CHAPTER X. UNDER THE SCALPEL. AS has been said, Mr, Blackwall could not get home from New Orleans in time to attend the funeral of bis partner. Mr, Griffit kad telegraphed to him promptty, and the banker had replied, expressing. his re- grets and cirecting the head clerk what to do, saying that he would start for home immediate- “On the third day after his death, Mr. Par- pre Ae funeral took place. During the forenoon of that day the boay was lying in its handsome / a, But, where 1s your paper a a a coffin in the parlor of his late residence, and many bankers and merchants dropped in to take a last look at the remains, Among others who called were special agents representing various insurance companies. It was their business to learn that Mr, Parmilye was really dead, as a matter of form, and they all went away satisfied. In the afternoon a funeral sermon was preach- ed in one of the neighboring churches, and after — preaching the coffia was opened to the pub- ic gaze, The funeral was quite largely attended, but it was noticed that the family in attendance was small, and that the mourners were few. There were only three or four besides Miss Parmilye and the housekeeper. No one was curious to learn who they were. One person who was there was Detective Kin- worth, With little on hand to do, pending the arrival of Mrs, Milburn, whom he had telegraphed for and who had answered that she would start im- mediately, he was passing the time in various ways. Learning through the press when the funeral was to take place, and having a desire to see the face of the dead man, now that he was in a measure interested in the Blackwall, Parmilye & Co, establishment, the hour of the fuveral found him at the church. When the coffin was opened to the public, he fell in line and passed around to where it rested. He saw an older and greatly different looking man from what he had expected to see. He had pictured in mind a man about fifty or fifty- five years old, with close-cut hair and past trimmed whiskers. On the contrary, be beheld aman whom he judged to have been at least sixty-five. He had but a brief view, of course, but he got an accurate mental photograph of the dead man’s features, He saw, as said, a man who appeared to have been not less than sixty-five years ofage. A wig of rather long sandy-brown hair was on bis head; there was a big mole on the right cheek; his jaws were tight closed, and his cheeks were somewhat sunken, What the detective noted most particularly, however, was that the corpse had on spec- tacles ! He on, after a momentary stop, and that peculiar feature—the spectacles—hummed in his mind like a buzzing interrogation. Why spectacles on a a gs t was sometting he had never heard of before, though it might be all right for what he knew to the contrary, He went on and out, and seeing the under- taker’s assistant near the hearse, stepped to him and said: ‘*T would like to ask you a civil question, my friend.” ‘Go right ahead with it,” the assistant re- turned. ‘‘T am something of a stranger here, and dropped in at this funeral out of curiosity as much as anything. I noticed that the corpse has been supplied with spectacles. Is that the proper thing in New York?” The undertaker’s assistant smiled. **'You have asked me the same question that I asked the undertaker,” he answered, “I had never seen it before, It seems that it is not unusual, though, where the deceased bas always worn spon, It goes to maintain the life-like expression, you see.” ‘Thank you,” said Kinworth, and he went away. That explanation made it seem all right; still the detective coula not help feeling that spectacles on a corpse were a little out of place, When the service at the church was conclud- ed, and the coffin sess clesed, the little pro- cession moved away to the ferry, and when the evening sun sunk to rest, as it is figuratively said to do, the body of Sigbert Parmilye reposed in Greenwood, At about that same hour, the hour of sun- set, a small, neat-looking yacht was pushed out from one of the up-town piers on the North River, its sail was spread to the breeze, and it moved gracefully down toward the bay, There were three or four men on board, one of whom was none other than Dr, Gonda Gon- salvo, He seemed to he in charge of the yacht, though anotber person was sailing it. Very little conversation was bad among them, and that only of an ordinary sort upon ordinary topics, and the little craft headed for the Narrows, As it grew dark the.signal-lights were lighted and put into position, and the yacht on, skillfully handled, and by the time the Narrows was reached it was quite dark. The yacht was turned, then, and headed to- ward the eastern shore, and finally it ran in under the bluff a little north of Bay Ridge, the sail wae run down, and it came to an anchor, A little skiff bad been in tow, and that was now breught into use and all the men but one went ashore, When the shore was made, Dr. Gonsalvo and one man climbed up the bank. leaving the other man to take care of the skiff By thetr return. co EI NMIUCEL Ooo) ‘ bo