Beadle's Dime Library No. 628 — page 20: what you’re looking at

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

- ye -ruffian exclaimed in an ug >= ki oe a J oe Phenix’s Combine. ——— e | but watched the movements of the ruffian as | mind at rest,” the detective remarked. ‘“* In the though he was some wild animal on exhibition. first place, I want to know why you picked me Finding that bis captors were not disposed to | out for a victim?” speak, Bridle Bill began the conversation. ‘‘ Yes, but wot right have you got to ask sich “Well, wot isthe meaning of this’ere thing, | a question—you ain’t no’beal:’!” the ruffian ex- any way?” he inquired in a sulky way. **T am not exactly certain that | understand | oe Phenix observed in his: put you through an examination just as well as what you mean,” calm, matter-of-fact tones. ‘“ W’ot have you brought me here for? That is plain enough, ain’t it?’ the ruffian explained, angrily. He was completely disgusted by the utter failure of his attack. ‘‘ Who are you?’ the detective demanded, abruptly. a, Wot is that to you?” the fellow replied in an insolent manner, ‘* Well, it does not make much difference, you don't want to introduce yourself it is all Tight. ‘* Wot kind of a game is this that you are playing?” Bridle Bill asked, with a questioning glance around, **Ob, come now, you must not ask questions if you object to answering when questions are put to you,” the detective retorted. “7 think I have got a right to ask when it comes to playiug a game like this on a man\” the ruffian declared in a sullen way. ‘* You huve clapped the darbies on my wrists, but this ain’t no prison by a jugful!” ‘* Oh, yes, it is,” Joe Phenix replied. ; ‘* That’s a lie!” the other exclaimed, promptly. ** You mustn’t try to fool me on no game of that kind, you know, I know the inside of a cell when I see it!” ‘¢ Yes, I have no doubt that you have had a deal of experience in that line,” the detective retorted, ‘‘That is another lie!” Bridle Bill cried, in- -dignant at the insinuation, ‘** Oh, no, itisn’t! You have seen the inside of more jails than you have fingers and toes!” Joe Phenix declared. ** You are a stranger to me but I know just what kind of a man you are by the cut of your jib,” the detective continued. * You are a transplant from across the water, an English jail-bird, and although this is our first meeting yet I know you as well as though I had snapped the bracelets on youadozen times!” re, yes, you are an awful smart man—in your mind!” the other retorted, **You will have to admit that I was smart enough to spoil your little game,” the detective remarked. ‘*MaybelI will get even with you for this thing before either of us is much older!” the iV way. ‘* Maybe you will, but I doubt it!” Joe Phenix declared, ‘“* But we are wasting time while we ought ‘to be getting down to business,” the detective continued, The ruffian stared for he did not comprehend ‘what the speaker meant. ‘* Business!” he exclaimed. ‘‘ W’ot do you mean? W’ot kind of business are you talking about?” , “Why, I want a little information out of you,” the detective replied. ‘* Well, you won’t get it!” the other retorted. ‘**T can tell you that right at the beginning!” ‘““f do not doubt that you think that is cor- tect but Iam sure you will change your mind before you are many hours older,” ‘“* You can bet all that you are worth that I won't!” the ruffian declared. “T think you will change your mind about that during the next four and twenty hours.” “6 Ob, no I won’t!” the other replied, doggedly. ** Well, time will settle that question and since you are not disposed to be agreeable, there isn’t “sponded. - any use of our wasving our time here,” and Joé Phenix rose to bis feet, Western followed his example, ‘* Take the lantern!” the detective commanded. ** A few hours in solitude and darkness may in-’ -duce him to be reasonable.” Western advanced toward the lantern, ** Hold on! w’ct are you about?” cried the ruf- fianin alarm, ‘* You ain’t a going to take the light away and leave me in this infernal hole in the darkness?” ‘‘That is my little game,” Joe Phenix re- en | get hold of amanof your kind who is dis be ugly I do my best conyince bim that he cannot make anything b playing a game of that sort. ‘** You are in the net, you know, and if youare wise you will make the best terms you can.” The prisoner pondered over the matter fora few moments and Western perceiving that he was inclined to ‘‘ weaken” did not take down ‘the lantern. ‘* Wot do you want, anyway?’ he asked ina -sullen tone. “If you are disposed to talk the matter over we may as well sit down again,” Joe Phenix re- marked, and then the tworesumed their seats. “ Well, I don’t s’pose it will do any harm for ‘me to find out w’ot you want,” the ruffian re- arked. ‘But I don’t understand this ’ere “thing at all.” “A few words of explanation will set your 4, ‘ = If claimed, ‘Oh, I know I am not a magistrate, but I can if | were one,” Joe Phenix replied. ‘‘ In fact, L bave got youina tighter place here than any police justice would be apt to put you, and if | you don’t answer my questions you will find | that I will put the serewson you in @ way you “ But this ere is alla’gin’ the law!” Bridle Bill will despise, ” A SSS protested, indignantry. ‘* You are a nice kind of a man to talk about anything being against the law!” the detective exclaimed. ‘* But as far as you are concerned it does not matter a straw whether it is against the law or not. ‘*T have got you foul and I intend to make you do as | want, or else put you through a course of sprouts which will be apt to be extreme- ly uncomfortable!” The ruffian glanced engelly at the detective, this exceedingly plain speaking angered him greatly. ‘* S’pose I don’t do as you want, w’ot can you do, anyway?’ Bridle Bill cried, in a dogged and defiant manner, ‘‘ Keep you here in the darkness without any- thing to eat or drink until you make up your mind to give in,” the detective replied, in the coolest possible way, For a few moments the ruffian gazed open- mouthed at the speaker, He could hardly bring himself to believe that his ears had not deceived him. ‘‘ Why this ’ereis the most outrageous thing that I ever heard of!” he declared. ‘* No beak would dare to do a think of the kind!” ‘*OFf course not! I know that well enough,” the detective answered. ‘‘ There would be a precious row kicked up if any magistrate, or police justice, should try a thing of the kind, ‘*But itis an old game of mine though, and I always use it when I get hold of a man who is inclined to be obstinate. It is a remarkable fact too that of all the men whom I have tried it on I have never found one yet who did not weaken in the long run. ‘‘T am aware’ that it is really taking an un- fair advantage, and it is one that the law would not justify, but then I only try it on men who have defied the law, and after a man has done that sort of thing be has no business to com- ee if his rights are not protected as they ougbt to be. ‘‘T fitted up this place on purpose to put re- fractory prisoners through a course of sprouts, ‘““Now, if [had gone to work in a regular way in your case I would have turned you over to a policeman and you would have been lugged off to jail, ‘‘There you would be examined and probably identified, but it would not be possible for any one to get the truth out of you in regard to this attack if you did not choose to speak. ‘‘ You would be punished for your attempted assault on me, but that would not reach the point that [am after. Iam anxious to know who put you up to this job, and I intend to get the truth cut of you in some way!” CHAPTER XXII. BROUGHT TO BOOK, THE ruffian pondered over the situation for a good five minutes before he made a ne He was a dull-witted fellow, but for all that he had sense enough to see that his captor was thoroughly in earnest. That he was completely in the power of the other was evident—tbhat the detective meant to improve the advantage which he had gained was plain, and Bridle Bill could not see any way to escape from the trap into which he had fallen. But with the obstinacy natural to all men of his stamp he resolved uot to give the detective the information he desired if he could possibly avoid it, hoping to be able to deceive him by a fey atic. ed devised lie. Joe Phenix did not tive. The fish was on the hook, and he was content to give the prey all the time he desired, but the acute detective made a shrewd guess at ‘the thoughts which were passing in the other’s mind. During the course of his long career as a de- tective he had encountered a large number of just such scoundrels, as his prisoner, and knew that when they were cornered, and realized that brute force was of no avail, they always tried to get out of the scrape by the use of low cunning. So the. detective was prepared to have the rufflan attempt to lie out of the matter. “Well, I don’t know why I shouldn’t speak,” fellow remarked at last; ‘‘ I haven’t got much say. ‘Tt will not take you long to tell it then,” the detective observed, “‘But, my friend, let me caution you before ou commence that it will be a great deal bet- r to tell the truth thau to attempt to he about attempt to hurry his cap- the matter, for I am an old bird, not one of the ' wouldn’t tell you any ee ee eS TT Sud kind to be caught by cbaff, and the moment you try to deceive me by a falsehocd I| shall discover it, s0 any attempt of that kind will not profit you in the least; all that it will amount to will be to use up time, for in the end I will surely have the truth out of you.” ‘*T ain’t a-going to tell you nothing but the truth!” Bridle Bill exclaimed, in a sulky way, He was amazed that the acute detective should make so shrewd a guess with regard to his in- tentions, but the warning did not induce him to make any change in his plans, for like the ma- jority of men of low intellects he fancied he was wonderfully cunning, and believed. he could de- ceive the detective without any trouble, ‘Just you stick to the truth!” Joe Phenix exclaimed, ‘* You will find that it will pay you better to do so than to attempt to trick me by any lies.” ‘*Oh, [ will give it to you as straight as a string!” the man protested. “But as I said afore, I ain’t got much to tell.” ‘*So much the better; it will take less time,” the detective observed, **'You see, 1 am a man who is down on his luck,” the fellow explained, endeavoring to as- sume an appearance of thorough honesty, “I am a stone-mason by trade, and I bave not been in this country long—I am an Enuglishman, you ‘‘Yes, I guessed as much, What is your name?’ Joe Phenix asked. ‘* Baker—William Baker,” ** And what do your pan call you?” ‘Wh?’ and the Englishman put on a stupid look, pretending not to understand, ‘‘ What is your professional name?—all you fellows who are on the cross usually have an alias,” “T ain't got any!” the other replied, my pals call me plain Billy Baker, and nothing else!” ‘¢ We will let it pass; it does not matter. I don’t think you are telling the truth, though,” the detective asserted. ‘‘ Wish I may die if I ha’n’t!” the ruffian ex- claimed, ‘Go ahead! it is not material.” ** Well, as I wassaying, | have bad hard work to get along since I came to this country, and as I was completely run out of money to-day I thought I would try and help myself to a little to-night, so I laid in wait in a dark corner, with the idea of making a raise out of some cove w’ot migbt come along.” ; ‘© And that is the reason you attacked me?” “ Sen ‘* Now, after I took the trouble to give youa warning, what is the use of telling me any such ridiculous yarn as this?” Joe Phenix asked, im- patiently. ‘ T told; you that lying wouldn’t do you any good |” ‘.?Tain’t no lie!” the ruffian declared, dog- gedly. ** Oh, yes, it is) and from the fact that you think you can impose on me with any such tale it is apparent that you have an extremely poor opinion of my powers of discernment, and I must say I am rather astonished by the circum- stance, for although you are unknown to me, and are a stranger in the country, yet your pals ought to have put you upto thetime of day, and any cross-man who knows me, either per- sonally or by reputation, should have been able to tell you that 1 am about the last man in the te art could be deceived by any tale of this ind, ‘‘T ain’t trying no game!” the ruffian declared, endeavoring to assume as honest an expression as possible. ‘* You attacked me then simply because you thought you could win a stake out of me?” ‘‘ That's the truth, and no mistake!” ‘And I suppose you don’t know who I am,” ‘Of course I don’t! How should I know?” ‘* You did not play the spy this morning on my house as a blind beggar with lead pencils?” *‘ No, I didn’t!” Bridle Bill responded, dog- edly. 3 Ho was evidently disgusted by this revelation, for although he suspected there was a chance that the detective might have recognized in him the man who was inquiring in the neighborhood of his office for the mythical Richard Phenix yet he had not anticipated that the other ha noticed him in the morning, ‘* And then in order to make sure that I was the man you wanted, you came to my Office,” the detective continued, ‘It would have been all right, of course, if you had succeeded in lay- ing me out, but as you didn’t, it may be consid- ig that you made the biggest kind of a blun- er. ; ‘But I understand how you came to doit. You were hired to lay me out, and as I was a stranger, you wanted to be certain in regard to my identity; but this precaution on ore art has got you into a hole, and now the best thing you can do is to make a clean breast of it. “T know that you are an English crook—I know that you were paid to assault me, anc am going to keep you in this.dungeon until I get the truth out of you!” ‘‘ Tz you’ were to keep me here for ten years I different story from w’ot ** All ; . | }- | (E(@) <r aniiiceleyxeye)