Beadle's Dime Library No. 724 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

; Kt ib 4 | i - . = — a Se | denly turnin ‘““ Where is that door?” He led her on, but again she drew back, ‘There was a time when a thing like this didn’t alarm you. You bave become childish.” ‘““T haven’t forgotten,” she answered, ‘‘I remember the undergound river—the wild rush of the waters that night as they seemed to break through the walls of the mine, It was ter- rible,” ‘* But that is past history, This is the door.” ‘* Don’t open it. The water will rush ia and we will be drowned,” ‘Nonsense, The threshold is higher than the water. I will show you.” He opened the door before which they stood and thrust his torch into the darkness ahead, A cold wind came in from over the water and sent a chill to the woman’s heart, ** Mon Dieu!” she cried, “ Is that the river?” ‘Yes, Look out and you wil! see lights now and then, Those are boats. Now and then something sweeps by witbouta light. That is the craft of some river rat On an errand of theft. You seldom hear them, I have stood at the end of this passage and heard the last cry of more than one despairing wretch tired of life, The other night I came down here and found a man lying dead in the passage. He had fallen into the river, but had managed to crawl into the corridor, “‘ What did you do with the body?” ‘*T sent it whore it belonged—to the water.” **Did you know the man?” ‘*No, He was one of the waifs of the city. We used to bave them in Sundown, you know?” * Yes, yes,” ** Have you seen enough, or would you like to go to the end of the passage and look down upon the water?” ‘*T would like to see if, You know oy, curi- osity, You will pardon it, but I would like to ’ ‘* You shall see it all, he said, and the next moment they were moving on again. | They were now in the dark tor the man bad extinguished the torch lest its glare should be- tray them. : Amie Gleason, with her gloved hand hidden - beneath the folds of her dark dress, stopped at the very edge of the corridor which was sev- eral feet higher than the tide and leaned for- ward, The river at her feet flowed on with the cease- less murmur which had besn the dirge of thou- sands of unfortunates, Now and then she saw alight as it flitted like a will-o’-the-wisp over the water and ever and anon the voices of men came to her ears. **A person could plunge into the river from this place and disappear forever?” sbe said, in audible tones, ‘*T don’t know about the latter. The Harbor Patrol might find them,” ‘** But it does not find all?” ‘No. There are thousands, I suppose, who have never been found,” He tried to catch sight of her face as the light of av approaching boat for a moment streamed ms the place and revealed them side by side there, He saw that it was tensely drawn and that the eyes were fixed on the water asit swished against the logs, breaking into cold foam and filling the silent night with a sound that drove terror to the listener’s soul, They were under New York; they were be- neath the sleeping city of the mystery, and the river was fiowing over the next day’s tenants of the morgue. ‘‘Come! I have seen enough!” she cried, sud- to him and hastening back, ‘I don’t think I shall ever come here again, but beavens! what a place to hide if one were bunted.” He said nothing, but went back with ber, and, unlocking the door, led the way into the cham- ber where the dais was, Amie sunk into a chair, ‘lve had ap adventure,” she said. seen the man-hunter,” ‘‘ You have, eh?” ‘Ves, I saw bim at the house. He wanted to know everything. He had me on the rack some time.” ‘‘ What did you tell him?” ‘* All | knew,” she answered, a smile stealing over her face. ‘“You mean you told him what the Black Tie wanted told?’ She said nothing for a moment, but finding the dark eyes of the man fastened upon her, she turned her head away and murmured: **- Yes, I told him that.” . ‘* Well, what did he say?” y * T do not know.” | ‘‘Look here, woman, You know what you were to do, You know that you belong to us, You must go back, Your station is there,” The French girl rose and stood before him, “T will go back!” she said, clinching her hands. “I will carry out the orders, and will not fail you. But—” — “* Well, what is it.” _ “T would like to go home if only for a day.” ** You can’t—not now.” “sy submit,” ~ ‘““T have ° A x fis _ . f i 4 Yel “Tis ; } $ 7 « Be ‘ is gf © wt i > : , = a vee ; all ‘ LE EEE EEE rc rr eee v “ - 7 ie ‘ 5 ‘ . — a Captain Hiram. “Go back. But whois thisman? Who isthe detective who faced you and wormed from you what you know?” ‘“I did not know at the time, but I have dis- covered since, They call him Hiram Hercules; his office is on Broadway.” ‘Very well. You will go back to your post. What does Portia say?” ‘*T never saw her like. She says but little, She stands silent in one spot and looks—nothing more, Now and then I see her shut her hands, like a person taking a vow,” ‘“* Has she questioned you?” ‘** But once,” ‘Well?’ ‘*T knew nothing,” ‘Yet, when it came to the detective, you knew something.” That same strange emile again, ‘**You will do, girl Remember the Un- crowned Angel and its terrible underground river! You will never forget the ride we took on it. It was as dread as Marcia’s, on the black colt, ‘*Tt was dreadful,” echoed the French girl, **T will go back,” ‘*Now play your hand with the subtlety that becomes you and yourrace, Thereis no danger if you are true to the oath and the Order, 0 are just as powerful here as when we crushed the power of the Nine Nabobs—” ‘** But the last one was too much for us,” “For the time being,” was the replv, accom- panied byalaugh. “I will come boldly to the surface in a short time, Up to this moment I have shown my hand in the dark. I am almost ready to come to the surface, ‘The Man from Montana is at the door of his last success,” Annie touched his arm and said: **T don’t know. I may have dreamed it, It seems a dream, yet I was in the Park that day.” ** Well, what is it?” ““T saw a woman’s face that day that thrilled me, You recollect what eyes Marcia had?” ‘*Pish! L know what you would say, super- stitious, girl,” be cried. ‘‘ There is nothing in it —nothing at all. Don’t you know that the horse and his rider were found in Satan’s Canyon, the remnants of the vultures’ banquet,” ‘*T know that, but—” | “Come! You can’t have such foolish fancies in my presence, You want to go up to the pure air and tack to your post.” ‘“They may drag me before the examining court,” ‘*Then, you tell all. Remember.” Amie hung her bead, ‘But you tell it unwillingly. They get the secret out of Ke word by word. It must be like taking your blood drop by drop. ‘You under- stand, girl?” ~ Amie made no peek He led her to the upper room; they reached the door and as she stepped into the street she said ‘* good-night” and hastened away with ber nails buried in her palms, and in her eyes a desperate look that would have at- tracted all she met if they could have seen it, CHAPTER VIII. THE FERRET AND PORTIA. THE Broadway Sifter, Hiram Hercules, found himself once more beneath the roof which had sheltered Laban Joyce the millionaire, This time he was there by appointment and it ho the fifth Gay after the tragedy of the Black ie, He was alone in the library waiting for the young mistress of the mansion and when the door opened Portia stood before him. He bad seen her before. He had watched her driving in the Park even in the shadow of that strange crime and had seen her in the funeral cab, but now she confronted him, wonderfully p Sergei and not at all the woman of other ays. As she came forward she smiled and sunk into the velvet-cushioned arm-chair, ** You are very kind in offering to find out if you can what took my father off, but I cannot accept your offer.” The words seemed to stun the ferret, He looked at the beautiful girl and saw her lips close firmly behind the words, She was calm, There was no sign of excitement in ber mien and she was looking at him with all the coolness of a cool-headed person, ‘““I must decline to have anything to do with the sifting of this matter,” she went on, “I have had enougb publicity and sorrow. Let it stop here. After all it may bave been a case of heart disease, 1 know what the newspapers have said about it. I know, too, the verdict of the coroner’s jury. It seems to be a matter for the police, but I don’t want the matter sifted, I don’t want to be dragged into further pub- licity, as I have already said. It is dreadful enough as it is. I bave no suspicions, Let him sleep without having his name continually in the papers.” ‘* But,” said Hiram, calmly, ‘‘ this may not be & matter which you can control, however much you may shrink from further publicity.” ‘You mean that you intend to take the trail?” . He looked into her white face, sh did not reply. . iz 5 a * 3 iy a vy) 7 ‘ - Miers per. i 4 - be ; ; 7 ‘ . iy 7 ‘You must not. For my sake, Hiram Her- cules, you will drop the matter, won’t you?’ It was the appeal of a lovely creature, and the detective thought of a thousand and one things while he watched the play of intense eagerness and fear on her face, ‘*] have never yet stepped from a trail until I was at the end of it,” he said at last. ‘‘I must persist in getting at the bottom of this mys- tery. Portia passed her hand over her brow.and seemed to reflect. r ‘*T think I know how you look at this matter. You detectives are eager to beat one another. You always strive for the reward.” ‘No reward has been offered for the solving of this case.” ‘Indeed? I thought they always offered re- wards,” ** Not always.” The millionaire’s child wheeled her chair to the table and opened a drawer there. Hiram Hercules saw her take out a check book which she deliberately opened and then picked up a pen. He said nothing while she wrote and when she handed hima bitof pink paper he smiled and looked at the figures thereon, It was a check for two thousand dollars, Hiram politely handed it back to Portia, ‘** Will you not accept it for services rendered up to date and remain out of the hunt from this time on?” she asked, astonished, **T will accept nothing.” She tore the check across and cast the pieces upon the table, ‘*'You are determined to drag me back before the public, You will take up the trail and make bad work in the end,” Bad work? W bat did she mean? He thought of what Amie told him—of the figure that came up from the library that fatal night—of the trail it made to her door, and while he looked at Portia he wondered if the French girl had made ber story strong enough. ‘““Very well,” said Portia with a sigh, “I can dono more, It is in your bands; but woe to you or any one who harms the man I love!” ‘*The man you love?’ Hiram found himself repeating. Portia flushed. “if you must hear that sentence again;— Woe to youif you, in your merciless investizga- tions, cast suspicion on the innocent—if you harm the man | love!” She stood erect now, towering above him as} he sat in the chair like a queen of tragedy. There were flasbes in her dark eyes, there was a red flush on each cheek, and looking down, he saw that the nails had sunk into the white, silken palms, . ‘*T will tell you the truth, I ama betrothed woman. This has been a secret for two, Father did not know it. He might not have approved if I had told him; but it is too late now, and I am my own mistress, I will say no more,” ** But bow can my investigations barm the man of your choice?” asked the detective. - ** Was be io the house that night?” but her hand, Portia seemed to fall back be chair and she opening, caught the back of t steadied herself. “You have beard me, You are not my de- tective. You bunt on your own responsibility. You accept the dangers that may befall you and you will receive no help from me.” She swept ont of the room leaving an odor of strange perfume behind her, and Hiram Her- cules looked at the door which closed upon her with a smile which he could not suppress, **A living mystery,” he said to himself and aloud, ‘One of the strangest women I ever met. Iam not to solve this crime with her as- sistance, She will throw every obstacle into my oathway—tbat’s what she means, I have only Marcia to help me and we have the Black Tie to fight.” | He waited awhile and finding that Portia was not coming back, he let bimself out of the house and stood half-bewildered on the sidewalk, Night was falling again. The Broadway Sifter looked up at the million- aire’s house and then moved away, ‘“*T don’t know who tbis lover is, She didn’t tell me and I didn’t see anything of Awie the French girl.” ‘ er He did not go far, but fell to watching the house, Perbaps some one would come out or go in, The shadows deepened; the lamps were light- ed and the streets took on their evening garb, The figure of the ferret did not stir. He wanted to see the door of Laban Joyce’s man- sion open to let out or admit; be cared not which. _Two hours waned. At last the portal opened and a female form appeared on the step. “The French girl!” said Hiram. Amie looked all around with a good deal of caution before she started off, and when she did, as a matter of course, she had the man- hunter in ber wake. Amie was well protected from casual observa- tion, but Hiram Hercules kept = in sight S OP eomilcboo ‘ ‘ \