\- '

 
 

   

 

 

“ Well, he’s a good fellow and perhaps you
could have won him over too, and he will rejoice
at Sloan's escape, while the letter of Doyle will
keep him out of trouble, although the night men
are responsible for the prisoners.

“ Now what can I do?"

“ Simply go by the jail and leave word that
you are called away and to tell the prisoner
good-by for you; but see that themessage goes
to him, for his escape depends upon it.”

“ I Can call, aud~—‘7

" No, I have thought of that, but did not wish
to mix you up in it, so arranged for your send-
ing him good—by."

” You are a most thoughtful young lady, I
assure you.

“ i will go at once and send the message, so
tell me what else 1 can do?"

"Kindly drive out to the Dell and bring my
maid in to take the train with us to-night, for if
we go it may be known.”

“ i will gladly do it, and am only sorry I have
not been able to help you more, young ladies.

“ I will take the train north myself to—night,
asl have business in S———, and in a couple of
days will see you in the city and we can talk
over the success of your plot, which I must say
is equal to any detective Work I ever heard of.

“ NOW, until we meet in the city, (Ht TPL‘UH‘P,

The judge took his departure and left the two
girls to their own meditations.

They had a late dinner in their rooms, sent for
and paid the bill up to the following morning,
but had their trunk when it arrived, with Anita’s
maid, taken over to the depOt.

The maid went over and bought the tickets
and checked the trunk, and told them she had
seen the judge there who told her to say that his
message had been delivered.

Then they waited until time to go over to the

d00r unlocked and gas burning. '
Soon after they were being whirled rapidly

and hoping.
(To be continued—commenced in N0. 594.)

—._————

Blondel's Nerve;

OR,
D0\VN lN THE EBONY SHAFT.

 

 

BY HENRI MONTCALM.

 

amount of energy and nerve.

nerve to control them.
Blondel out.

than Evans did.
the same way.”

mines.”

town Coal and Iron Company.

evenings with Miss Ingersoll.

smoking and talking together.
del evilly as he approached.
betrayed their feelings.

and he was getting out of patience with it.
halted beside the “ boss” of the gang.

Those barges will never unload themselves.”
look showing through the soot on his face.

ever and getting less pay.”
advanced a step.

is too much of this back talk, altogether.
got to stop or—I’ll know the reason!”

two stood face to face.

and mustaches. For my part—”

he fell back into a comrade’s arms.

would rush upon him.
went leisurely on to the office.

fall suddenly across his ledger.

look into the window.

things,” cried Miss Ingersoll, gayly.
you think I want of you now i”

its wonted mask of indifference.
done.” he answered, with lazy conciseness.
“ Very well!

mount him
through Morrowblack Woods.”

from the servant.

held out the paper.

cern.

night.
murder!"

a delicate and not ungraceful female hand.
was its author.
ever.

all he said; and she hurried away.
Then he turned to Blanche.

home by the river road f”

 

 

 

note.

at college.

train, and slipped out of the hotel, leaving the

toward the city on the Express train, wondering

BLONDEL was a young man of good family
and fine physique, who, under an appearance
of indolence and indecision, concealed a vast
It was this latter
quality that made him agent of the Pottstown
Colliery. The Pottstowu miners were a notori-
ously rough set of men, and it needed a man of

It was not long before the hands began to find

“ \Vhy,” said they, “ this young blood with
red cheeks and nobby clothes works as harder
We will have to serve him

So,for a week past, Blondel, when he went
home to his room, had found each day upon the
table an illy-spelled scrawl, signed by “ Grave-
filler,” or “ Smooth-bore,” or " Molly McGuire,”
profusely illustrated with skulls and crossbones
and coffins, and assuring him in mysterious
terms that“ there was one man too many in
Pottstown Colliery,” or that “ Billy Evans left
the mines before he was shot; but Brooks of
Shefiield was likely to be shot before he left the

At all of which Blondel smiled lazily, and then
threw them into the waste-basket. After which
he would dress himself faultlessly and go over
to spend the evening with Miss Blanche Inger-
Soll, whose father was president of the Potts-
Blondel was
getting into the habit, lately, of spending his

About four o’clock one hot afternoon, Blondel
was coming up the path that led across the canal
and up the hill to the office. There was a gang
of men lying there on the bank under a tree,
They eyed Blon-

They hated him with a blind, unreasoning
hatred, and they had grown careless how they

Blondel understood all this, perfectly Wefil,
e

“ What are you loafing here for, Bayley?

Bayley arose slowly from the ground—a stal-
wart, broadeshouldered fellow, with a dogged

“ It’s a pity if we can’t rest a bit now and
then,” said he, grufiiy; “working longer than

Blondel’s handsome face flushed a little and he

“ Look here, Bayley,” he said, sharply, “ thfre
t’s

The man, too, came a step nearer, so that the

“ This is a free country,” he growled, “ and a
man may say what he pleases, I suppose—in
spite of every whiDper-snapper with fine clothes

He left what he had to say unfinished. He
saw a fist, white and hard, with a diamond glit-
tering on the little finger, shoot straight out
from the agent’s shoulder, and the next moment

He uttered afierce oath and would have
advmiced again, but the others held him back.
As for Blondel, he stood a moment scornful and
nonchalant, half expecting the whole gang
Then he turned and

It was nearly three hours after that, that
Blondel, working late at his desk, saw a shadow
He looked up,
and his face broke into a pleased smile as he saw
who it was that bent down from her saddle to

“ You know 1 am always doing unconventional
“ What do

Blondel hastened to oover his face again with
“ Whatever it is that yen want, it shall be

I had Thomas bring Zip along;
and ride around home with me

So Blondel put away his papers: and coming
out the office door presently, took Zip‘s bridle
He stood still a moment,
however, before mounting. A neatly-dressed,
attractive-looking girl, whom he recognized as
Bayley’s sweetheart, was coming toward them
with a bit of paper in her hand. She did not
answer Blondel’s kindly greeting, but shyly
He took it and read it
slowly through. while‘Miss Ingersoll sat there
on her black horse, with pretended uncon-

“ Don’t go through Morrowblack Woods to-
There are men waiting there who mean

That was what the note contained, written in

Blondel looked down keenly at the girl who
had brought it, and guessed that she also
He did not question her, how-

“Thank you, Katey; I will not forget,” was

“ Miss Ingersoll, what do you say to going

She looked up at him with a sudden suspicion.
She was of a haughty, perhaps jealous disposi-
tion, and in spite of herself she could not help
putting together this rather strange proposal
(the river road was very difficult and round-
about) aud the appearance of the girl with the
And there flashed through her mind cer-
tain stories she had heard of Blondel's wild life c0

“ Thank you 1” she responded, curtly.
fer the forest road.”

“ But it is so lonesome after dark.”
She raised her eyes with sharp scorn.
“ Are you afraid?” she said. ” If so, stay be-
hind. I am going home through Morrowblack
Woods!”

She struck her horse fiercely and galloped
down acr0ss the bridge. Of course there was
nothing for Blondel to do but to follOW.

For some time Blanche did not allow him to
overtake her. And he, on his part, was quite
content that it should be so. He half expected
every moment to be shot at from the thicket
beside the road, and be preferred she should be
at a safe distance. Nothing of the sort took
place, however; and he breathed more freely
as they emerged at length into more open coun—
tr .

Iiere she slackened her pace a little; and
Blondel, who always did things in his own way
and thought little of circumstances, suddenly
reined up beside her and put his hand on her
bridle.

“ Blanche, I want to finish what I was saying
last night. IV ill you marry me?" ' I
Her dark eyes, raised swiftly, looked straight
into his blue eyes, and he saw, in their very
depths, her defiant mood changing to one softer
and more tender. That was the way, after all,
to win such a woman as that. He had his an-
swer without one word from her lips.

He bent over toward her from his saddle—
perhaps to take her in his arms an instant—but
suddenly she stretched forth her hand and put
him hack.

“Wait a moment," she said, with a half—
serious smile. “ Tell me first why you did not
wish to come through the Woois.”

At this, Blondel, too, suddenly drew back;
and she saw in his face that he meant to keep
something from her.

“ I did not think it safe," he answered, brief-

1 . --
y“ Tell me what was in the note!” demanded
she, and then flushed hotly at the apparent
meanness of the demand. .
Blondel was proud, too; and he felt now that
his rights were being infringed upon.

“ Excuse me,” he coldly replied. “I would
rather not.”
" Then you are either a coward or something
worse! In either case I never wish to see you
again!”
And before Blondel could fairly realize the
words she had uttered, her black horse was gal-
loping on far ahead. He followed her as far as
her own door, and then went slowly home him-

self. a

Shortly after he received another mysterious
epistle. ‘
“They ride safely who ride with the boss’s
daughter. It will not be always so i"
I “No,” muttered he, bitterly. “ I don’t think
it will be always so. I am not likely to ride
with the ‘ boss‘s daughter’ again very soon.”

 

A boy came up to the office one day crying
out that there had been an explosion of fire-
damp down at the Ebony Shaft and that there
were eight or ten men killed. Blondel did not
wait for further particulars, but strode away to
the spot. He found a crowd of excited men
and women gathered about the shaft; and from
one of the men, who had escaped unhurt, he
learned all there was to tell of the story.
Eleven of the men, it seemed, had been en-
gaged in “robbing a gangway "in a Worked-
out portion of the shaft. In removing one of
the pillars, a fall of rock had taken place, and,
as is often the case, a volume of gas, which had
accumulated in the cavity above, being thus
freed, rushed forth and took fire instantly from
the miners’ lamps, causing the explosion. Of
the entire number, Meacham alone had escaped
to tell how, of the remainder, nine had been in-
stantly blown to atoms or crushed to death, and
one, who had stood by his own side, while turn—

though he never knew clearly how it was that
he did it. He only knew that, reeling and faint,
he braced himself again and again, and by sheer
force of will compelled himself to stagger on
until at last the blood and the life quickened
within him as he caught sight of the gleaming
light of day far ahead.
And at last the anxious crowd outside, the
weeping girl, the president and his lovely
daughter, the mass of. still-breathed men and
women, saw a white-faced, reeling man, with a
dark burden upon his back, stagger forth from
the mouth of the shaft and fall senseless to the
ground.

Blondel came to himself almost immediately,
however, and unwilling just then to meet
Blanche, he made his way out of the crowd and
went home to his quarters.

At evening he awoke'from a refreshing nap,
quite himself again. On the table he found,
once more, a mysterious note without signa-
ture.

He knew the writing this time, however; and
it told him that Blanche Ingersoll had read, on
the back of the note he had sent her, the reason
why he had hesitated to go through Morrow-
black TvVoods the night he had last been with
her. And it begged him to come over and for-
give her.

He Went, of course, and he left her, some
hours later, an engaged man.

He never got any more threatening letters
from the miners, either; and today there is
not one of them but would work for him
twenty hours in twenty-four, if he asked it, not-
withstanding their pay has been reduced ten
per cent.

 

 

NOT ALL GOLD.

discover that the cellar was the only place in
the house guarded by a look.

And he was considerably surprised when
he discovered what sort of a prison-pen the
captors of the girl had provided for her re-
ception. ‘

- When the supposed Italian entered, Jean-
ette looked at him with inquiring eyes.

From his appearance she did not think that
he came to free her from her imprisonment.
but judged him to be one of the tools of the
conspirators.

In a few well-chosen words the disguised
detective explained who he was.

So delighted was the girl that she almost
fainted from excess of joy, and she over-
whelmed her rescuer with thanks.

“Let us get out of this dreadful place,"
the sleuth-hound remarked.

“ \Ve will ascend to the kitchen. and you
can tell me your story there, for this cellar is
enough to give any one the horrors.”

As soon as she reached the apartment,
Jeanette happened to glance through the
window, and so behold the three conspirators
Willi the handcuffs on their wrists, guarded
by the Irishman with the drawn revolver.

“ Oh, you have captured all of them ‘2” she
exclaimed.

“ Yes, I have bagged the lot!”

And then the disguised detective brought
a chair for the girl, and,when she was seated,
took another himself, then proceeded to ex-
plain how it was that he happened, just by
pure accident, to become interested in her

A search soon revealed that the articles
were in the dingy parlor.

"‘ As I do not suppose that you will care to
encounter these wretclics, perhaps it will be
as well for you to remain in this room until
I get them into the coiled,” the detective sug-
gestcd.

“Yes, I should prefer to have the matter
arranged in that way.”

So the girl remained in the parlor while '
Bob Ridley proceeded to the yard.

“ Now, then, 1 will have to trouble you to
walk to the house," he said to his prisoners.

“ What game are you going to try now?”
the bunco-man asked, sullenly.

" You will find out all in good time,” the
detective replied.

“But at present all you have to do is to
obey instructions.” .
“ \ '01]. I suppose that we can’t help our-
selves,” Curbstone Charley observed.

“Not a bit!” the disguised detective rc-
plied, promptly. “ So you may as well
comply with as good a grace as possible.
There was no misiakin g the soundness of
this reasoning, and the crooks did not say
anything more until they discovered that
they were to be put in the cellar, then they
re monstrntcd .

“ It isn’t of any use for you to say a
word!" Bob Ridley declared in a dogmatic
way.

“ I have got to put you in some safe place,
until I can make arrangements to land you
in jail, and as it will take me some time to

 

BY MARK WILTON LARKINS.

Who shall judge a man from his manner,
Who shall know him by his dress,
Paupers may be fit for princes;
Princes fit for something less.
Crumpled shirt and dirty jacket

May beclothe the golden ore
Of the deepest thoughts and feelings ;—

Satin vest can do no more.

There are streams of crystal nectar

Ever flowing out of stone,—

There are purple beds and golden,

Hidden, crushed and overthrown.

God, who counts by souls, not costume,
Loves and prospers you and me,

While he values thrones the highest
But as pebbles in the sea.

Truth and justice are eternal,

Born with loveliness and light;

Severe wrongs shall never prosper

While there is a sunny right;

Though some have severest trials,
God, who speaks for you and me,

Ranks oppression with its titles
But as pebbles in the sea.

 

 

. Joe Phenix’s Mascot;

The Gentleman Crook’s Decoy.

A Story of Detective Transformations.

 

BY ALBERT W. AIKEN,

AUTHOR or THE “Jon PHENIX" NOVELS,

THE “Don TALBOT” SERIES, “ THE
FRESH OF FRISCO" TALES, ETC.

 

CHAPTER XXIV.
RELEASED.

 

ing to escape. had been caught beneath the fall-
ing timber. and would .douhtless are now be
burned to death if he was not, happily, already
dead of suffocation.
A weeping, sweet-faced girl came and stood
by Blondel as 'the man finished. It was Bay-
ley’s sweetheart again.
“Oh, Mr. Blondel!” she cried. “It is Joe
who’s caught under the timber! And he is
alive still. Oh, I kn0w he is! I went half~way
in myself, and I heard him groan. Can’t some-
thing be done?”
Blondel looked down at the girl, his whole
soul filled with pity.
" How is it, Meacham?” he asked of the man.
“ Is he alive yet?"
Meacham answered that he might be alive,

and save him.

Blondel stood in deep thought.

effortto help his comrade to escape.
man as to be murdered by these brutes.

mines; and that he would never do.

Blanche on the seat. That decided him.

least!" he. thought, doggedly.
And then he said aloud:

“ I’ll do what I can, Katey.
would not forget.” ..

He drew a bit of paper from his vest-pocket
upon the back of it a request that Miss lngersol
carriage.

the material he desired. He, without hesita

his intention was guessed.

while almost impossible to enter 'a shaft. Th

henever faltered at all. He knew where th
man Bayley was, and he meant to reach him 0
fall insensible while attempting it. That we
Blondel’s way—to make no fuss at all, but to 9;
straight on and do a thing in spite of all ol
stacles.

die.

the sound of a feeble groan in reply.
ed more loudly yet and rushed onward. I
a moment more he found himself beside
crushed and mangled human form,
beams

was warm, however, and life not extinct.

strength.

was weak and dizzy.

laborer.

but that it was all a man’s life was worth to try

Maybe
Meacham was misrepresenting the matter a
little, ashamed that he himself had made no
At any
rate, it were as well to die trying to save the
That
was what it would come to unless he left the

And then, looking up, he saw, a little way off,
a carriage drawn up. with Mr. Ingersoll and

“I’ll show her that I’m not a coward: at
I told you I

not noticmg what it was, and hastily scribbling

would lend him her cloak, dispatched it to the
The messenger returned at once with
the article—a thin woolen “ Dolmen ” of just

tion. dipped it into a. water-trough near by, and
then proceeded to wrap it about his head and
mouth, leaving just space enough to see out of.
Then, seizing a safety—lamp and crowbar, he
made his way through the crowd and disap-
peared in the mouth of the shaft almost before

Blondel knew the shaft well, and advanced
steadily along the deserted passageways, choked
and oppressed by the volumes of thick smoke
and the fumes of the “ after-damp,” which al—
ways follow an explosion and render it for a

difficulty, too, did not lessen as he went on: but

And so he walked rapidly forward, breath-
ing faster and heavier under Blanche’s cloak,
until it seemed to him that he must turn back or

And then, all at once, calling out as he had
already done repeatedly, he fancied he caught
He shout~

held
firmly to the ground by a network of fallen

Blondel bent down and spoke, but could de-
tect no sound or motion in reply. The body
If
Bayley was to be saved, Blondel most free
him, and carry him forth by his own unaided

To release him from the debris would have
been easy enough in the open air, but Blondel

Nerve and desperation, however, supplied the
place of strength, and with a few skillful ad-
justments of the lever he so lifted aside the
beams as to be able to draw out the body of the

Then, once more rearranging the cloak about
his face, he nerved himself for the return
journey, took the maimed and helpless form
upon his shoulders, and started, with slow and
staggering footsteps, back along the way he had

“THAT is exactly what I am going to do,”
the con uering sleuth-hound declared.
“ Midliael, will you have the kindness to
keep your eyes on these three until I return?”
he said to the Irishman. -
“ 0h, yis, I will be afther doing that same,
sort” the peddler replied.
“ I know that it is a little out of your line.
but I think you will be able to do it all
right.” ,
“ Yis, sorl Begob! ye may say that with-
out the l'asle taste of a lie!”
“By the way, I will have to trouble you
people for any keys that you may possess,”
the disguised detective remarked, abruptly.
The crooks looked at each other, and the
sleuth-hound, who had his keen eyes upon
them, noticed that both of the men gazed at
the woman, while she tried her best to put
on an air of unconcern.
Thereupon this shrewd and quick-witted
observer at once jumped to the conclusion
that it was the woman who had the keys.
“I presume that you have the young lady
locked up,” the spy remarked.
“ It would not be a difficult matter for an
expert ‘bunco~man like you, Charley, to in-
duce the girl to come with you to this lonely
spot.
“ You are just the man to get up a plan—
sible fairy-story, but after you got the lady
here it would not be so easy a matter for you
1 to get her to remain, and so I think the odds
are big that you have made her a prisoner.
“And you, madam, undoubtedly are at-
tending to the girl,” he continued, turning to
Mrs. Blister, who glared at him with eyes
full of race.
“ So oblige me with the keys.”
“ Hain’t got none!” the woman exclaimed,
angrily.
“ Come now, this will not do!” the dis-
guised detective declared, impatiently.
“ I mean business, you know, every time!
“ And I am not the kind of man to stand
any nonsense,” he continued, with the air of
one who 'meant What he said. -
e “If I find that the young lady is behind
a locked door I shall most assuredly beat the
6 door in with the first thing that comes handy
: —that ax yonder, on the wood-pile, for in-
o stance,” the spy added, happening to catch
,_ sight of the tool.
Then he noticed that the woman cast an
involuntary glance at her pocket, and he im-
mediately conjectured that the keys were in
it.

)

ct," he insisted.
“ Hand them over, lively now!

D
a you any harm.“

keysl”

said:
have got any keys let him have them.”

produced a couple of keys.

escape, proceeded to the farmhouse.

case. '
you to my aid!” the girl declared.

told him that Providence would certainly
come to my assistance.”

to proceed in this matter,” the detective
said.

“ Come, madam, the keys are in your pock-

If the girl
isn’t in the house the examination will not do

“And if she is in the house you are quite
safe in betting your life that I am going to
find and have a talk with her, keys or no

Curbstone Charley saw that the sleuth-
hound was in thorough earnest, and so came
to the conclusion that there wasn’t anything
to be gained by withholding the ke s, partic-
ularly as it was certain that if the eys were
denied him he would search for them, so he

“Look in your pockets, Sally, and if you
With a very bad grace indeed the woman
The disguised detective tookvthem, and
with an injunction to the Irishman to keep

his eyes on the prisoners, and not hesitate to
use his revolvers if any of‘them attempted to

“It was surely Heaven itself which sent

“ And yet my jailer laughed at me when I
“ Tell me your story, so I may know how 1

Then Jeanette related all that had passed.
The sleuth-hound listened with the utmost
attention, and when she had finished the re-
cital. remarked:

“ Upon my word this is one of the most
remarkable stories that Ihave ever heard.”

“ But it is all true—I give you my word
for that, sir, and I do hope that you will be-
lieve me!” Jeanette exclaimed anxiously, as
though she was afraid she might be
doubted. .
“Oh, yes; I feel quite sure of that,” the
spy declared.

“ I was so afraid that you might not be-
licve me, for it seems t0‘bc a very improb-
able story,” the girl said.
“ Yes, I am aware of that fact,” the deiec~
tive observed, slowly.
“ On the face of it the story does seem to
be very improbable.
“The idea that a man like this,wealthy
banker, General Hubherion, should descend
to a plot of this kind for the sake of avoiding
the payment of thirty or forty thousand dol-
lars is monstrous.” '
“ Yes, so it seems to me,” the girl ob-
served, slowly.
“But all rich men are not angels, and I
have known millionaires who did not scruple
to use means to avoid the payment of money
that a common day laborer would have
despised.”

the acqu ition of wealth will not make him
so," Jeanette observed.
“ That is very true,” the detective assent-
ed. “I happen to know something about
this General Hubberton’s operations, and I
am aware that he is a man who is disposed
to use foul means if fair will not answer,
but he has always been careful to keep with-
in the law, as far as everybody knows.
“ I wonder, though, that a respectable
lawyer, such as from your description this
Mr. Kankershaw appears to he, should lend
himself to an outrageous plot of this kind,”
the spy observed, in a thoughtful way.
“ Of course he pretends to believe that I
am crazy,” Jeanette remarked, in a timid
way, and as she spoke she looked askance at
her rescuer, as though she was afraid he
might have a lurking suspicion that her
head was not all right. ,
“That was a device on his part to cover
up his guilt,” the sleuth-hound explained.
“ If the man had any sense at all, he must
have known that your head was all right.”
“ Oh, I am so glad to hear you say that!”
the girl exclaimed, joyously.
“ This is a _vcry peculiar affair,” the de-
tective remarked, with an air of deep reflec-
tion. ‘
“I am really puzzled how to proceed.
“ You have been abducted, and as that is
a criminal offense, there will not be any dif-
ficulty in punishing the people who really
committed the act — the two men who
brought you here, and the woman who acted
as your jailer. ‘
“ )Iy evidence will easily prove that all
three are guilty.
“But the three are only the paid instru-
ments of the lawyer and the banker, who are
in the background.
“ Your story brings the old lawyer into
the matter, but. if he chooses to swear falsely
and declares that he did not have you con-
fined, nor visit you after you were a prisoner,
and these people here swear that he never
came, as they will undoubtedly, it may be a
difficult matter to punish him.”
“ And I do not really want to punish them,
although I was treated dreadfully,” the girl
remarked.
“Still I am not really injured, and I am
ready to forgive all of them, but I do think
I ought to have the property which my father
left,” Jeanette added.
“ Yes, most certainly you should -have the
money!” the detective assented.
“And there isn't a doubt in my mind that
your case is a strong one, or else they never
would have taken all this trouble to get you
to sign off.
“ Suppose you come to New York with me
and see my principal, Mr. Joe Phenix? He
will be able to give you good advice,” the
other said. abruptly.
“ Oh, yes, I will be glad to go!” Jeanette
assented, eagerly.

CHAPTER XXV.
PHEle TAKES THE CASE.

“ GOOD! We will set out at once!" the de~
tective exclaimed, springing to his feet.
“ And while we are gone‘I will have this
precious three locked up in the cellar.
“It will be something of a joke to give
your jailere a chance to see just what sort of
an experience they put you through,” the
sleuth-hound added with a laugh. 7
“I am sure that they richly deserve it!”
Jeanette remarked. '
"I don’t know what they did with my hat
and coat, but I presume they are around the

communicate with the proper officers, you
must go into the cellar.”

powerless to help themselves, they were com-
pelled to submit. c

you, and give him strict instructions not to
be afraid‘ to use his revolver if any of you
attempt to escape," he remarked.

matter—only a simple abduction case, and,
although you are certain to be convicted if
the case is pushed, yet there is a possibility
that the thing can be squared.

up the job, and through him I may be able
to get. at the principal who concocted the
scheme.

I should not be surprised if the matter
The girl looked delighted. can be arranged so that you will all get out
of this hole without getting hurt.”

man declared.
than 1 do a snake, still. if you are inclined to
square the thing, and the bosses ain’t disposed
to be reasonable, mcbbc I wouldn’t mind giv-
idg you a few tips.”

disguised detective declared.

'escaping conviction, if the case. is pushed,

men at the back of this scheme have got lots
of money, and will undoubtedly put up the
cash in a liberal way to get you out of this
  . box,” the sleuth-hound continued. .
“Oh, es; if a man isn’t honest at heart. »~ _ ,
not to comprehend that in a plain, straight- .

The crooks grumbled. but as they were

Bob Ridley addressed a parting warning to

hem. ,
“I shall leave my assistant here to watch

“As I said before, this isn’t a hanging

“ I am going for the old lawyer who put
“ The young lady wants satisfaction, and

“I never poached on a pal yet,” the hunco-
“ And I hate a squealer worse

“That is where your head is level!” the

"I have got you dead to rights in this
case, and you don’t stand any more show of

than you do of getting out of this State by
flying through the air.
“ I understand, you comprehend, that the

“’But you are too sensible a man, ,
forward case of this kind all the money in
the world would not be able to get you
clear. '

“ The evidence is so direct and conclusive
that no judge or jury would dare to refrain
from punishing you.”

The bunco-man reflected over the matter
for a moment, and then he nodded assent.

“1 think on are right,” he admitted.
" We do stand a big chance of getting salt-
ed, and unless the judge and jury can be
both fixed—which isn’t likely—money will
not save us, so if the bosses ain’t Willing to
do the ri ht thing, we will have to look out
for ourse ves‘.”

“Right you are, and, no mistake!" Bob
Ridley exclaimed.

“ I am glad to see that you take so sensible
a view of the matter,” he continued.

“ In this affair I am going to act with the
idea of doing all I can for this young lady,
and it is my impression at present that a
compromise will be much the best for her.”

“ Cert! there isn’t any doubt about that!”
the bunco-man declared.

“ It may take some little time to arrange
the matter, so you must possess your souls
with patience,” the sleuth o hound re-
marked.

“ You may depend upon my hurrying the
matter forward as fast as poss1ble.”

“ All right: I reckon we will live through
it,” Curbstone Charley acquiesced.

The detective saw the crooks safely con-
fined in the- cellar, then departed with
Jeanette. -

He took the liberty of borrowing the horse
and wagon which the crooks had used to
bring the young lady to the old farm
house.

Bob Ridley drove directly to the depot,
put the horse and wagon‘ in an adjacent
stable, and then, with Jeanette, took a train
for New York which. came along a few
minutes after he completed his prepara-
tions.

Nothing of interest occurred during the
trip, and when the pair arrived in New
York, Bob Ridley conducted Jeanette to the
office of Joe Phenix.

Fortune was favoring the disguised sleuth-
hound, for the veteran detective was in the
office, and disengaged, so speech was had
with him immediately.

Joe Phenix listened attentively while his
Mascot related what had occurred. ‘

And then Bob Ridley explained his idea in
regard to taking advantage of the affair to
force the banker, General Huhberton, to do
justice to the girl.

“ Of course, I don’t think there is a doubt
but what the banker is the man who is at
the back of the business,” the disguised de-
tective said in conclusion.

“ Certainly you are right in that opinion,”
Joe Phenix coincided.

“The man is anxious to save his money,
and it was his idea that the girl could be
forced into accepting a few thousand dol~

are." '

“He is an atrocious scoundrel!” Bob Rid-
ley declared.

“And it seems so strange to me that a
man who has as much money as the general
is said to possess, should grudge me the

   
   

  
    
 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

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small—to him—inheritance which my father
left,” Jeanette observed.

“ I have come in contact with this banker
twice in connection with certain matters,
and so have a personal knowledge of the
man," Joe Phenix remarked.

~“And, from what I have seen of him, I

 

 

 

 

 

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me.
And be accomplished his dreadful task at last,

It did not take the sleuth-hound long to

house somewhere,” she continued.

am satisfied that he is totally unscrupulous,

 

 

 

 

 

 

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