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January 5, 1912.

N0. 754. jazz. ’ 5135235. V01. XXIX.

 

 

 

NO. 954 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK.

 

 

 

 

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The Vinamy  Did Not Pay;

BY '1‘. c. HARBAUUH,

AUTHOR. OF “ BUCKBKIN DETECTIVE,” “ Pun.
FLASH,” “ BOY SIIAIIQWJ’ ‘- wmm AWAKE
LEM,” “DAISY DELL.” “ DUDUEH max”

NOVELS, mu, ETC.

CHAPTER 1.
ONE VICTIM CAUGHT.

TOWARD the close of a. warm dag7 two men eu-
tered a room near the top of a flight .of dusty
steps, and carefully locked the door behmd them.

They were in a pnrt of New York where
-——————-—»~ ~-~ v —“___._—_w  r “ shady ” characters abound, and they~uple did
CLUTCBING THE WEAPON FIRMLY. THE UNDAUNTED BILLY FACED THE PIERCE HIIUTE, not b...“- many marks of gnnd ropqtatlon.

“'AITING FOR THE SIGNAL mum HER EQUALLY VICIOUS MASTER. The room itsflf was almost downlol‘ furniture

 

 

    

2

Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

7‘1";

 

 

of every kind, and but two chairs and a rickety
table greeted them when one turned on the gas.

“ Don’t you see that everything is working
right to our hand?” remarked one of them. “ We
are on the right road to the biggest fortune ever
picked up in this city, and, so far as I can see,
nothing can get between us.”

“Unless the old man himself should do that.”

There was a coarse laugh.

“ Which, of course, he could not do if he want
ed to,” was the reply. “ Timothy Turk is utter-
ly incapable of doing anything of the kind, and
that makes our game doubly sure.”

“ Of course Mother Magog will never “ peach”
on us.”

“ I’d like to see her do itl” and the speaker
snapped his fingers. “She kn0ws better than to
say anything that would give our game away,
for she has heard of me before and knows what
I know about her and her beautiful son.”

“ That’s a good club, Simon.”

“ I want no better. Mother Magog, who is
slippery I acknowledge, won’t dare to say a word
whi eI have that club in my hands, and that
W11] be furevm it necessary."

Both men now tOok out cigars and lighted
them, after which they cocked their feet upon
the table and began to smoke.

By and by a footstep came up the stair, and
they looked at one another.

“ I guess that’s the captain i” said one. " Now,
let me do the talking and you listen, nothing
more.”

The steps approached the door, and a knock
was heard.

Simon Slyboots arose and opened the portal,
admitting a distinguished -lookmg man who bow-
ed rather stiffly as he came forward.

“Captain Ortiz, this is the friend I told you
about the other night,” said Simon, waving his
hand toward his companion, who went by the
name of Reck Sloper. “ I assure you he can be
trusted in every particular. I have the utmost
confidence in him, for I have seen him tried on
more than one occasion.”

The man designated as, Captain Ortiz, looked
likea sea-faring man and a Spaniard, for his
skin was dark and his eyes of the same hue.

Simon stood up to give the captain his chair,
when the new-comer said:

“ I have the papers with me and you can look
them own 1 think you will know better just
what to do when you have done so.”

Slyboots took the papers which the captain
drew from an inner pocket and began to ex-
amine them.

“ These papers say plainly that the money be-
longing to one Napoleon Gregg'will fall to the
boy Tom if he should survive his grandfather,"
he observed after‘examinatlon.

“ That’s exactly what they sa .”

“ And we are to have ten thousand if the boy
should not survive his grandfather?”

There was a nod and a flash in the eyes that
r arded Simon Slyboots and his pard.

‘ I guess we understand one another, cap-
tain,” continued Simon. “'You need have no
alarm. By the way, how is the old gentleman?”

“About the same. The sea breeze did not
help him one whit and be is slowly approaching
death.”

“ There is but the one will?”

“ There is but one.”

“ And the boy?——”

“ He lives in expectation of being the richest
kid in this city when the old man shuflles off.”

“ If he lives he will be, of course," was the

reply.

Captain Ortiz put on his hat.

“ I must get back to the ship. I have business
there, and now I leave everything in your
hands.”

“ The confidence you repose in as shall not be
misplaced.”

In another moment the two rascals Were alone
again.

“Ten thousand is but a starter,” cried Simon
Slyboots, clutching Sloper’s hand and grinning
in his face. “ We will have Captain Ortiz in
our power as well as the money. Don’t you see?
The boy will be nothing to handle. I have
already made his acquaintance and he seems to
have taken quite a fancy to me. Going back to
his vessel, eh? That isn’t true, Reck. He isn’t
a square from the house and you have eyes
sharp enough to track him. Go and do it.
Track him wherever he goes and don’t lose sight
of In!“ until he dOes go back to the ship, if that
be not till morning.”

Beck Sloper bolted from the room on hunt of

' Captain Ortiz while Simon remained a moment
longer and then went out himself, locking the
door behind him.

Half an hour later Simon turned up on a

 

 

handsome street and seemed to take some delight
in watching a fine house of three stories.

Presently a be came out and the moment
Simon saw the sight figure his eyes lighted up
and he went forward.

“ Hello, Toml” the shar called out.

The boy, who was good- ooking, well built and
perhaps seventeen, looked up a little startled
and changed color the moment he saw who had
spoken.

“ How’s your grandfather?” asked Simon.

“ About the same.”

“ No better, no worse, eh?”

“ That’s about it.”

“ Where were you going? out for a walk?”

“ I was about to take a stroll throu h the
Park to catch a little fresh air; it’s so c one in
the house, you know.”

“ I was going over to the other side and there
is where you get the purest air.”

Tom Wagner, the boy, Seemed to hesitate.

“ We wouldn’t begone long and, then, I would
like to talk with you, anyhow.”

Somehow or other. Simon Slyboots, the black-
log, had secured a strange ascendancy over the
heir to thousands, and for some time had been
meeting him in odd places and talking about
his grandfather who was dying of a singular
malady which the shrewdest doctors in the city
could not control. Tom could not have told
why this man had gained his confidence, and it
never occurred to him that he was in the pay of
such a deep villain as Captain Ortiz, of the ship
Centipede, which had come back from the West
Indies Within the last few days.

In a little time Tom found himself moving
alongside of Simon, and both were headed to-
ward the opposite side of the metropolis.

All the time Simon was talking and Tom
would now and then get to put in a word or two.

By and by they reached a house which Simon
said was occupied by a friend of his, and pro-
posed that they should enter, at the same time
saying that his friend was a traveler and had a
museum of curiosities which he had picked up
during his tours of the globe.

Now, Tom Wagner was fond of looking at
such things, and this overcame his hesitancy
and he entered the building.

Simon ushered him into a room which was
rather dark and left him. ,

For some time the boy waited for his return,
when he thought the chamber would be lighted
up, and'nearly an hour elapsed before he heard
any noise.

All at once the door opened and a woman, in-
stead of Simon Slyboots, came in.

“ Well, how are you getting along?” she asked,
and the moment she spoke a sense of fear seemed
to take‘possession of the young heir.

“ Not ver well,_as you might see. I am here
3“ 1139a here 13 the man who left me in the
ar

“ Gone away.”

In an instant Tom Wagner was upon his feet.

“What! did he decoy me to this house and
then desert me?” he exclaimed.

“You may call it what you please.
here and—”

“ But I won’t remain l” was the sudden inter-
ruption.

“ Cone, don’t be foolish. You are here and
are liab e to stay some time,” the woman coolly
announced.

She was tall of figure and strongly built.

“ I have to go back to my grandfather. He
will fret himself to death over my absence and,
then. I am his only heir.”

“‘You are, eh ?” laughed the woman, bending
toward Tom and looking into his face. “ If
that’s the case, I gueSS you’re worth keeping.”

In another moment the boy had sprung to a
chair, and was holding it in a menacing manner
abovc his head.

“ Get out of my way, or I will bring this
chair dOWn upon your head. I am going back
home, and you shti’n’t stand between me and
Grandfather Gregg.”

But, instead of falling back, the woman threw
out one hand and caught the chair. There was
a brief struggle for its possession, and in the
end it was twisted from Tom Wagner’s grip, and
he was flung across the room.

“ You’ll be almighty lucky if you oversee that
grandfather again!” grinned the Amazon, and
Tom from his corner. half-stunned, realized that
he had fallen among wolves, and that Simon
Slyboots was the head monster of the pack.

“ I ought to suffer for having ever listened to
that oily rascal.” he thought. “ This will kill
grandfather, and some one besides myself will
get the fortune."

Just then the door was slammed in his face,
and he was alone in the room.

You are

 

CHAPTER II.
SEND FOR THE POLICE.
CAPTAIN ORTIZ, unwutched as he thought,
moved down the street until he reached the first

(corner, which he turned abruptly and went in

another direction.

If he had looked back he might have discover-
ed that he had Reck Sloper at his heels, and also
that Mr. Sloper was watched in turn by a boy
who had the movements of a young panther.

This boy was bright-faced and strong-limbed,
and had the velvet step of a cat.

He kept Reck Sloper in sight, and was not
long finding out that he was shadowing the Cap-
tain of the Centipede.

Captain Ortiz kept on until he came to a com-
mon-looking house, at the front door of which
he knocked and was admitted.

“ That is right where I thought he would
land,” mentally ejaculated Sloper. “ There is
where Mother Magog holds forth, and there
seems to be a connecting link between her and
the Captain of the Centipede.”

Mr. Sloper drew off and began to watch the
house, and the boy ferret kept his eye on him.

“ I don’t get tired watching the two pards, for
they give me a good deal to do,” the young
beagle said to himself, while he watched Sloper.
“ They are up to something mean and dark. In
the first place, they are hand-in—glove with Cap-
tain Ortiz, the Cuban; then, Simon Slyboots has
wormed himself into the good graces of the boy,
Tom, who is old Gregg’s heir, as I found out last
week. Secondly, the old man is near death’s
door, and there don’t seem to be any living kin
but Tom, his daughter’s child. Now, Captain
Ortiz, who came in the other day from the
Tropics, and Slyboots and Sloper wouldn’t be
holding secret caucuses if there wasn’t a deep
game on hand. And from the way Simon has

lgained control over the boy, Napoleon Gregg’s

money is what the stake is. They can’t get hold
of it while the boy lives, that’s pretty certain,
but this sweet-scented crowd wouldn’t stop at
anything. This very night yet I will see the
boy himself, and put him on his guard. I met
him last week and struck up asort of friendship,
so I won’t have to introduce myself now."

While Billy Winks, the young detective, is
watching Mr. Reck Sloper who is waiting like a
fox for Captain Ortiz to come out of the house,
let us enter the building and see with whom the
ca tain of the Centipede is talking.

I] a small room rather loudly furnished sat
Captain Ortiz and a woman, the latter about
forty and rather handsome.

Her figure was immense in size, she looked
like a giantess, hence the nickname she had
secured, that of “ Mother Magog.”

The captain of the Centipede was smokingla
long slender cigar which he took from is
mouth whenever he wanted to talk.

“I think you’ve employed a precious pair of
rascals to help ou,” said the woman.

“Why so? on told me yourself that there
wasn’t a cooler man in the city than Simon
Slyboots.” _

“I don’t go back on that either, but he 18 an
unconscionable villain all the same.”

“ I couldn’t get any satisfactory work out of
an angel,” smiled Captain Ortiz.

“Of course you couldn’t. Now, I want to
tell you one thing. When you pay them oi! it
must be once for all.”

“ Will they try to bleed me?”

“They will do nothing else.”

The hands of the Cuban captain were seen to

ut.

“ Oh, I know what you’re thinking about,”
continued the woman smiling again. “You
may think that you can turn on them and
silence them. That will do to think about, but
when it comes to doing it, that isahorse of
another color.”

“ They don’t know Captain Ortiz 1”

“Yes, they do, and that is why they are
serving you. Simon has promised you that the
boy shall not outlive his grandfather, hasn’t
he?” ‘

There was no reply.

“ Your silence tells me that he has.” she went
on. “ Well, he will see to it that the boy dis-
appears—that he is put out of the way and so
well that all the detectives of this city can’t
strike the trail. I know Simon Slyboots, [tell

on. I could send him to where do 5 never

ark at people and no one knows th 8 better
than Simon and his pard, Sloper. NOW—"

Mother Magog crossed the room and looked
out into the hallway before she resumed.

“ You must be sure that the boy is dead before
you pay them one dollar,” she continued.
“They may swear that he is out of the we ,
but you know that so long as he lives he will

   
  

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Napoleon Gregg’s heir. You must know every-
thing, and guess at nothin . Simon Sl boots
willtake your money and st ll hold a w nning
card—a card stolen from the deck to help out his
game. Then, there is Timothy Turk-—

“ The eCCentric old man who haunts my foot-
steps with the story that he was beaten out of
his money some years ago by a man who shipped
in the Centipede?”

“The same old maul Timothy Turk is the
boy heir’s uncle; he has been aged by trouble,
and is not so crazy as he lets on. He is on the
trail of these men, Slyboots and Sloper, and
they can’t altogether silence him, though they
think they need not fear him any more. Old
Timothy will break up the whole game if he
can. When do you sail again?”

“ I can hoist anchor and go at any time, but I
don’t want to sail until I know that everything
is well and that the sod covers Napoleon Gregg.”

“The boy gets evilrything if he survives his
grandfather, does he?”

H

“ If he dies first, what?”

Ca tain Ortiz laughed.

“ you ought to know without asking me,” he
anSWered. “The last clause in the will settles
that matter. The whole estate falls to me.”

“ Why to you?”

The captain of the Centipede looked sharply
for a moment‘ at Mother Magog. _

“ I used to have another name,” he explained.
“There was a time when I was not the captain
of the Centipede. I used to be Pedron Jui'illo.
Napoleon Gregg came to Cuba and I secured
for him a handsome wife. That was years ago;
she is dead, and he isn’t far from the grave. He
told me once that he would remember me in his
will, for he lived happiu" with his Cuban wife.
What has he done? ell, he gives his grand-
son, Tom Wagner, the whole estate in case he
survives him and if he should not, it falls to
Pedron Jarilo, ‘if he be living,’ so reads the
will; and the executors are empowered to hunt
me up and see that I get the thousands left by
the old man.”

Mother Ma 0g had listened to this with a
smile at her ips, and when Captain Ortiz had
finished, she spoke.

“In one sense I don’t wonder that you are at
the head of the game new being played. The
stakes are worth playing for, for the old man is
worth nearly a half million. That would en-
rich even you, and you would have to become
Pedron Jarillo again.-

“I would do that with pleasure. I have all
the papers necassary to establish my identity. I
am Captain Ortiz only for the present, and
whenever the prooer time comes, I will be Pe-
dron Jarillo once more. ”

He stood erect and looked at the woman.

“ But, remember: you must watch your tools,”
she warned.

“ I will if you say so.”

“ I do sa so,” said Magog, firmly. “ I know
this man. imon Slyboots, know and hate him.”

“ Don’t you fear him, too?”

The cheek of the woman 10st color.

“I do. I will be fair with you.

‘ 7‘

He looked her over and seemed to make a
mental note of her strength. . .

“ You are strong enough to finish him in a
fair fight. but I don’t Want you to do anything
of the kind until after he has served me in the
game."

“ I don’t want to have to meet; him, I have

I do fear

cause for fearing him, thOugh perhaps I am
, strong enough to b01d him against the wall and

choke him to death. He is so full of tricks that
are dark and devilish. I would sooner tackle his
partner, Reck 2510i)”, 501‘ I believe he fears
me.”

“ I will look out for the_afterwork,” assured
Captain Ortiz. “ Idon’t think I have lived fifty
years for nothing.”

“ I hope you have not." _

The next minute the captain of the Centipede
was on the sidewalk, and Slope”, Who had not
left his place, looked delighted.

Once more he started after the Cuban, whom
he tracked to the whnrves, where he took a
boat, and was propelled toward a vessel lying in
the harbor. .

“ I can go back and see Tom now,” said Billy
Winks, taming back with Sloper. “There is
being played a dark game, and if I am not mis-
taken the boy 18 in danger. Mother Magog
seems to be mixed up in the scheme. and that is
bad. I’ve got my hands full, but I’ve had ’em
fall before.’

It took him some time to reach the street
where lived the man human as Napoleon Gregg.
and when he rung the bell at the side door he

 

looked into the face of a man who started at
sight of him.

“ Have you seen Tom?” asked this person, who
was much excited.

“ No. I came to see him myself, and—”

“ He went off several hours ago, and the old
gentleman is nearly dead with fright over his
absence. I’ve been to the Park where he usually
goes for a little air, and all I could learn was
that he was there awhile in company with a
strange man. We’re about to notify the police,
for Mr. Gregg will have it so, and—’

At that moment a loud voice rung throughout
the house.

“ Send for the police at once! My dream is
Coming true. Tom Wagner has been kidnap-
pod!”

“ That is him now,” said the servant. “ What
a voice he has for a dying man l”

Billy Winks did not wait to hear another
word, but bounded away.

“ I guess my work has begun ” he cried.
“ The. plot has already begun, and Tom Wagner
is in the meshes, or I miss my flue-INS."

In another minute the Boss Boy finauowei-
was a square from the scene of the excitement.

 

CHAPTER III.
BILLY WiNks 0N DUTY.

NAPOLEON GREGG, the rich man gasping in
bed and closely watched by three doctors, was
waiting for news from Tom Wagner, his grand-
son, whom the police of New York were hunting
for as though he had been gone several days and
not a few hours.

The old man had but a few hours to live, and
the doctors were doing their best to keep life in
a frail body.

Outside, eying the house like a hawk with his
body half in shadow, stood a man who had not
taken his eyes from the building for a long
time.

He seemed to be waiting for the announce-
ment of old man Gregg’s death, but as the mo-
ments flew by without bringing him that wel-
come intelligence, he grew nervous, like a man
about to lose his prey.

This person was no less a character than the
captain of the Centipede.

He knew what was up, and the failure of the
man-hunters of New York to find Tom Wagner
told him that Simon Slyboots had carried out
his part of the game, and that there stood no one
between him and the stricken man's fortune but
old Gregg himself.

Captain Ortiz had disguised himself so that it
Would have been difficult for any one to have
recognized him, and he was waiting in the shad-
ows for tidings of the old man’s death.

Meantime Billy Winks, the Boy Shadower, had
not been idle.

Determined to look after the. case without
calling to his aid the several detectives whom
be well knew, and to share with them no secret
which he might pick up, he was hunting for
Tom on his own book and it would be very
itrange if he did not soon strike a trail of some
'llln.

He had discovered that the boy had been seen
in the Park in company with a strange man,
and he had guessed that that person was Simon
Si boots, the sharper. I

gtep by step he had tracked the pair almost
across the City, but he lest the trail so suddenly
that for a moment he was entirely nonplused.

It seemed as if the pavement had opened and
swallowed boih Tom and his kidnapper, and
Billy Winks was in a quandary.

He came back to the house on the avmiue
while Captain Ortiz of the Centipede was still
on guard waiting for news from the inside.

The keen eyes of the Boy Shadower caught
sight of the Cuban, and ina moment he was
shadOWing him.

By and by a man came out of the house and
walked away. _

In an instant the Cuban left his hiding-place
and touched the person on the arm. It hop.
pened to be one of the doctors. ‘

“ How is the old gentleman now ?” Billy heard
the captain ask.

“ A little better,” was the reply. “ We are
determined to keep life in him until they find
the boy.”

Captain Ortiz made an effort to seem uncon-
cerned, but his countenance betrayed his ex-
citement.

He did not see the little figure that hugged one
of the trees on the sidewalk.

“ Confound the doctors! they are ready to do
anything.” he snarled, as heOpassed the boy
beagle. “Going to keep life in him till they
find the boy, are they? We’ll see about that.”

 

When he started 011’ he had a figure at his
heels, but not for long.

A form flitted past Billy Winks, going toward
the house. and the boy turned back.

“ VVhat’s up now, Sleperl" queried Billy, eying
the man whom he followed. “ Are. you, too,
going in search of information, and when you
have obtained it Will you take it to your pard?"

Keck Sloper, also disguised, walked to within
a few feet ol’ the Gregg residence when he took
up a position convenient for watching.

Of course he was watched by the boy detec-
tiVe, who, after awhile slipped to the Side door
and was admitted.

By and by Billy Winks came out at the front
and walked toward Sloper. -

Just as he expected, he was seized by the man
on watch, who asked in eager tones:

“ Is be dead yet?"

Billy Winks turned upon the inquirer with a
comical leer. .

“ What is it to you whether he lives or dies?”
he asked.

“ I’m interested in the old gent] mm! “90W”
I’ve and mum pieasant taik Wll him in the

Park,” he managed to say.

“ Oh, that’s why, is it? Well, he’s apt to
drop oil‘ in a few hours. Why don’t you go in
and see him?”

Sloper seemed to demur to this and looked
away. ‘

“ hey haven’t found the boy yet,” Billy in-
formed.

“ What boy i” innocently asked the sleek rasv
cal.

“ Why, Tom, his grandson; but I guess he‘ll
turn up after the funeral."

“ Likely,” assented the uneasy Sloper, at the
same time trying to get away without exciting
sus iicion.

her some little time the two walked along to-
gether, when Sloiier, suddenly remembering that
he bad business in another part of the city
Separated himself from the ,Boy Shadower and
was gone.

Billy had hard work following Slopor, but
managed to track him to a certain honsewhich
he quickly discovered had an addition, with a.
low-down roof. This roof he was not long in
mounting.

Billy had barely reached the new point of ob-
servation when he saw a light straight ahead,
and the next moment he saw Sloper carrying a
match in one hand.

Sloper lighted the gas and took a chair, as if
to wait for some one.

He did not have to wait very long for the door
opened and Simon Slyboots came into view.

Billy now listened intently, and while he did
so his keen eyes were not idle.

“ Well, how is he?” asked Blyboots.

“ Nearly gone. I saw a boy who came out of
the house with the latest news.

“ He ought to have known something."

" 1 think he told the truth.”

A gleam of victory came into Simon‘s eyes. ,

“ We’re sure of the ten thousand anyhow,” he:
said. “You see, Sloper, we’ve got part of it‘
alread and of course have had a time with
it. hen we havo our hands on the ca itain’s
purse-strings we’ll make tho rest of it fly and
will feather our nest in great shape."

“Unless Mother Magog gets her dander up
and lets the cat out of the bag.”

“There you go again. Don’t you know that
I hold a club over her head and at the first sign
of her opening her mouth, out comes what I
know about her son and shut goes that month
you may be sure.”

“ I hope so. I haven’t seen old Timothy for
some days, but I shouldn’t be surprised if he
turned up.” _

“Sloper, you have no right to be in a game
of this sort and have such foolish fears,” cried
Simon.

“ Confo'und it, I’m built that way,”

Simon seemed to eye his (‘mnpunjon with man.
ciousness for a moment and Billy Winks saw
that Sloper was actually afraid of him.

H Do you think there’s any danger of the do-
tectiVes ever discoVi-ring,r anything?” asked Reck.

“ Would I be Simon Slyboots if there was?”
was the quick retort. “ Do you think I would
play for half a inillion——for mind you we don’t
intend to stop till we have had a finger on every
dollar of it—if I hadn’t looked ahead far enoug
to see the outcome? I know what these inan-
hunters are and how to treat them. I’ve had to
deal with them before this and I know them
thoroughly. Catch Simon Slyboots napping,
especial! with such a plum at stakel’

For a ittle while Sloper seemed reassured and
his courage came back.

The two men smode and discussed the game.

 

  

but not a Word was uttered that gave Billy
Winks the. slightest clew to Tom Wagner’s
wherealmns.

“ I’m VII)!” suddenly announced Simon.

Slopci' looked at him but said nothing.

“ We’ll want. to see the papers to-morrow,” he
went on. “ Grout excitement! Young heir
missing ~kidnapped, and held for ransom!
That will be the story told by the newspapers.
They won’t say one word about thoflnding of
the boy, nor of the arrest of his kidnappers.
That they will leave for another chapter, ha,
ha!

Simon threw his cigar into a corner and went
toward the door.

Pausing there, he looked back at Sloper and
0 ed him for a moment, but did not speak.

hen lie shut the door and left his friend alone.

“Now’s my time,” decided Billy Winks.
“ Simon is the man I am to follow.”

Ho scrambled from the roof and hurried to
the front of the building, but as he emerged
from the alley he saw a man step into a cab and
drive off.

“'l‘horc'a u-nyn qlin.” said Billy, laughing
in spite of the misfortune. ‘I’ll have to go
back and play on Reck Sloper’s fear-i.”

Just then a hand fell heavily upon his shoulder
and he looked up.

A man hl- had

 

flound you at last,” said the man.
“ Molly Would like to see you.”

“Moll yf‘

“ Molly Marks, my niece.”

 

CHAPTER IV.
MOLLY MARKS.

“ I m be lasing much time,” thought the
boy detective, as he signified his willingness to
acoom ny the man. “ So Molly wants to see
me? wonder what is up now 3”

He followed the man, and halted at last at a
door, which they had reached by climbing two
flights of dark stairs.

“Did you find him l” cried a girlish voice the
moment the door opened.

“ You shall see for yourself,” and Billy was
led into a little room, where he stood face to face
with a fair-faced creaturo, whose face lit up with
joy the moment he was seen.

‘ He found me by accident, for I don’t know
why we should meet just where we did,“ the boy
detective explained. .

“ I’ll tell you some other time,” replied the
man. “ It wasn’t so much of an accident as you
seem to imagine. But. here he is, Molly, and I
turn him over to you ;” and the speaker stepped
lnttli‘)! another room, leaving Billy and the girl to-
ge er.

Molly Marks was one of the thousands who
who work with the needle for a. living in the
great metropolis. She had not toiled hard
enalgh to take all the glow from her cheeks, nor
the gleam from her bewitching eyes: but she
worked hard. nevertheless, and was counted one
of the best stitchers on the street.

“Maybe you will think this visit time lost,”
said Molly. with a smile. “But I have had
Uncle Josh looking for you these three days, and
to think that, sharp as he is. he could not find
you.

“ I haven’t tried to keep out of his way. He
couldn’t find me, that’s all.”

“ The other day I came across a man whose

resenoe strangely thrilled inc,” continued Mol-
y. “I can’t tell you why, on] I know that the
moment his eyes fell upon me started and al-
most let my bundle fall. It was on Broadway,
which you know I have to cross on my way to
the shop. Well, he was sauntoi‘ing down the
street, talking confidentially to another man,
but I didn’t pay much attuntion to the compan-
ion. I had to look at Captain Ortiz.”

“ At Captain Ortiz?” cried the young shad-
ower.

“ Yes, for I accidentally dismVered that to be
his name,” answered Molly Marks. “ 1 icll you,
he thrilled me as I was never thrilled before. and
I almost forgot my business for lookingr at him.”

“ But why should he interest you?"

Molly glanced toward the door, and then un_-
lotéked a drawer in a little stand at which she
so. .

Her hand took out a. package of papers which
she untied and selected from the middle of the
lot a letter, which she handed to Billy Winks.

“ Road that," she said at the some time.

The youthful detective drew the letter from
the old-time envelope and began to read.

" I don’t think I ought to read this; it is some-
body’s love-letter."

 

Billy Winks. the Boss Boy Shadower.

“ Don’t let that stop you. You will find there
the name of Captain Ui‘tiZ.”

“l have reached it alcady,” said Billy, with-
out looking up.

“ 'l‘hut lctLPl' ivns written by my father to my

mother during tllt‘lr courtship, which of course
was some year: ago. thliel‘ was lost some-
how in the \Vest Indies, from whence that
very litter came, and, by the way. it was writ-
ten from Cuba. Three years alter my birth he
was )0er. They say the ship foundered in a
storm, but you see that at one time father in-
curred the undying hatred of one Captain Or-
tiz.’

“ The same man you encountered on the
street?”

“ I am sure it is the same one.
number two.”

Molly went back to the pacth and drew forth
another letter, which she also handed to the
young ferret. .

“Why, this is from Captain Ortiz himself,”
exclaimed Billy WinkS.

“ Yes. He writes mother that the ship was
lost; in a storm and that my father, who was
ca tain, perished With the crew.”

illy read to the end of the Cuban’s letter,
and then looked up into Molly’s eyes.

“I want this man to confess the truth i" she
cried. “I want him to tell all about the death
of my father. I have heard rumors of a duel; I
have been told that the Fleetwing Was burned
at sea, and not iugulfed by astorm. So you see
there are two stories out—one by this Captain
Ortiz and another by those who ought to know
just as much. I have no money to employ any
one to hunt up this mystery, and if I had not
seen this very man on the streets of New York,
the probability is that I would have left these
letters in the stand. Mind you, I never saw this
man till the other day; but the moment I caught
his eye—oi course he didn’t know inr——I know I
stood face to law with the man who haul some.
thing to do with my father’s death. That blow
killed my mother, and threw me upon the
charity of Uncle Josh, who is pHCllllal‘, and
whom I now support with the needle.”

Molly ceased and Billy’s eyes wandered back
to the letters. He recalled the case of old man
Gregg (lying at home, of Tom Wagner lest
somewhere in the toils of a. plot. at the head of
which was this very Captain Ortiz; and when
he brought his hand down upon the work-stand,
with an emphasis which sinrtled the girl, he
said something that brought color to his cheeks.

“ A bigger rascal than this mun Captain Ortiz
does not exist 1” he exclaimed. “ I am going to
run him down, and those with whom he has
united his fortunes. The man mentioned in
your father’s letter and the one Who wrote to
your mother are one and the same. You saw
the right man, Molly. You stand face to face
with Captain Ortiz, of the Centipede, aCnban
serpent and a scoun irell villain 1”

Molly Marks took bac the two letters and re-
stored them to the pack.

“ Then you have seen him?” she said.

“ Haven’t I, though? Didn’t I see him on the
lookout this very night, watching for death to
come to an old man whose fortune is in the
scales? I know Captain Ortiz and thoSe letters
will make me stick to his trail till I have un-
masked him.” '

“I won’t know how to thank you,” cried
Molly.

“‘ I won’t take even that for my services for I
Wlll be doing justice a service and that will be
reward enough.”

“ He isa dangerous man for his eyes are as
keen as a liuwk’s and he has a way that marks
him a polished rascal."

“ Like a good many others who come from
Cuba. He has two precious villains in his em-
ployhand from what lknow already, they are
playing about the coolest game that was ever
played in New York. I have had dealings with
Slime big scoundrels, but I guess Captain Ortiz
and his t0ols are the biggest of them all."

Billy Winks again promised Molly to be carc-
ful While at work and quitted the humble house
with new ideas in his head.

“I always did want to be of some service to
Molly and now I can help her. She’s one of the
girls that wear. and somehow or other when-
ever I look into her face, I seem to see new
h'fllltV there. I nevvr gnoswd that Captain
Ortiz was in any way connected with her life,
but he is and in a dark manner, at that."

it was not long before the boy detective stood
on a certain street looking at a man who was
walking slowly toward the river.

“ That is the renowned captain now,” said he.
“ That is Captain Ortiz of the Centipede."

All at once the man watched turned and came

Now for letter

... - -.....

 

toward him, and Billy, seeing that he could not
avoid being seen, stood his ground and waited
for the collision.

The master of the Centipede came on until he
had I'GiiCllt‘d a spot within ten feet of the boy
when he suddenly jerked alctter from his pocket
and deposited it in a letter-box.

At the some time a bit of paper fluttered to
the ground and was not missed by him when he
walked off.

Scarcer was his back turned when tho boy
detective pounced, eagle-like, upon the paper.

Half a minute later he was leaning toward the
light in a window and his eye was reading the
following:

“ MY DEAR CAmamz—Everything is goiv-g O. K. I
have the fly in the web and ti ore is no esca )0. From
What I hear. death, the old destroyer is ( ins: his
work in th big house on the avenue. 1 will occupy
No.11!) a fi-w dnys longer when I wiil move out.
Violctis »lio serpent I have on unrd. You m-i haw-
benrd of nor. We call her Vlo ct, the Death- IOWPT.
Will See y u to-morrow and when [he timccomcs
will have proofs of death. Bum this, of 600‘!ch H

Twice did Billy Winks read this terribly sug-
gestive letter in the light that emanated from
the window.

It thrilled him forit could have but one mean-
ing and that was that Tom Wagner was in the
clutches of the man who wrote it.

When Billy turned his attention to Captain
Ortiz that person was gone, but the sliadower
had the tell~tale letter Which mig t be of ser-
vice to him in the future.

He was about to quit the vicinity when a
figure came gliding back, and the boy ferret
dodged into a. doorway.

Captain Ortiz was returning, looking at the
ground.

“ He has missed his letter,” said Billy Winks
to himself.

Sure 'enOugli, the captain of the Centipede
walked to the letter-box under which be pros-
ported with the greatest care and at last turned
away disappointed.

“You ought to look in my ockct, captain,”
mused Billy with a grin that roadened on his
face. “You should have ink: 11 Simon’s advice
and burned the letter. If 1 am not mistaken, it
will rise to plague you One of these days.”

Not finding that which he looked for, Captain
Ortiz turned away and this time was followed
by the Boy Shadowei'. He proceeded to the wharf
where he stood solitary a few moments and then.
as if deeming everything snug on board his ship,
wheeled and started back.

Of course Billy Winks followed, but if he
could have foreseen the outcome of his udVeu—
ture, he might have followed with added caution.

He was tracking one of the shrewdest and
coolest men he had ever dealt with.

CHAPTER V.
A TERRIBLE OBDEAL.

THE young shadower kept Captain Ortiz iii
sight and when he saw him turn down adorken-
ed street and at last run up the steps of a very
common-looking house he was almost sure he
had made a strike. '

He was certain that the vessel lying in the
harbor was not the only haunt the Cuban bad,
that he wasdoniicilea on shore as permanently
as in his own ship, and that lie Would find him.
when not on the vessel, in the city and probably
in the very house to Which he had trucked him.

It was not Billy Winks’s Intf‘iitlmi to enter the
house and disturb Captain Ortiz at anything he
might be doing within its walls. There was
danger in such proceedings and he was not the
person to unnecessarily run his neck into
trouble.

While he watched the house, a man came out
but he did not look much like the person he had
just tracked. _

When he started off Billy Winks debated in
his mind v- -‘ to do and when he started after
him it was with the intention of foll0wing him a
short distance to get at his identity if ossible.

The truth is the man was Captain rtiz him-
self and the boy drier-five was to make this dis-
covery in no pleasant manner.

Billy was turning a corner when he was seized
and pulled toward the person who had captured
him.
“ The arch fiend himself!” he exclaimed, look-
ing no into the man’s face.

"‘ Tracking me, Were you?” answercd the
cantor and the next momcnt Billy felt the grip
sink into his flesh and he was on his way to the,
riwi which was not many squares distant.

Captain Ortiz 8 id nothing till he was very
near the wharves when, looking down into the
boy’s face, he remarked:

 

    

.anr.

.' 3. .s.

   

 

‘h.

“ Do you hunt people very often? Aren't you
one of these young ferrets I hear about?”

Billy smiled.

“ You may have of me whatever opinion you
please,” be said.

“Then, i call you a rascully young spy who
was prying into business not.your own when
caught. My boat will be here in a moment. It
is about the hour. Ah, here it isl”

At this moment the boy fi-rrct saw a bout
come in sight and Captain Ortiz forced him to
the edge of the pier.

Billy drow back, making a sudden and
desperate cfl’ort to release himself from the grip
that encircled him, but without avail, and he
was tumbled doivn into the captain’s gig without
much ceremony iuid in another instant was on
his way to the Cubiin’s vessel.

He could almost guess how his adventure was
going to end and resolved to betray nothing, he
fell back in the boat and saw himself closely
re arded by the captain.

file saw the boat pulled alongside a trim-
looking vessiil and he was taken on board and
guided to a cabin where he was left alone a few
moments.

He thought suddenly of the letter he had
found, and quick as a flash he pulled it forth
and rolling it into a small compass, swallowed it
just as the door opened and Captain Ortiz Came
back with a grin of triumph on his lace.

In another moment he would have" been de-
tected in the act.

Captain Ortiz looked like his old self and Billy
could not avoid noticing h0w black the eyes
were and how handsome he was in every par-
ticular.

” Why did you follow me?" queried the cap-
tain of the Centipede, looking Billy Winks in
the face while he took u. sent at a. table and
across the way from his young prisoner.

“ How do you know I was?”

“ Come, you can‘t fooliiiel
lowed before.”

“ Very well, then. If you know I was on your
truck I need not try to deny it.”

“ You make a business of following people,
don’t you P"

No answer. ,

Captain Ortiz turned toward the door and
struck the table with his hand.

The next moment the door opened and a face
of a cast decidedly Cuban made it»; appearance.

“ Is the Princess in good humor, Blanco?"
asked the captain.

“ She is all right, senor.”

“ Fetch her in.”

The head vanished and the door was shut.

Instead of turning again to the boy captive,
the Cuban captain relied a cigarette and lit it
without emotion. .

At the end of a minute Silken footsteps were
heard, anil the door opened once more.

Billy Winks, who was watching the door at
the time, fell back with a cry he could not re-
strain. -

Blauco had come back, but he was not alone.

On the contrary, he was accompanied by a
handsome jaguar that purred at his legs likea
kitten.

“ Come. Princes” said Captain Ortiz, snap-
ping his fingers, at which sound the animal ap-
proached and showed her teeth,

“ Here, this is a young spy from the gutters,”
he went on, looking towurl Billy wuo had not
for monicnt taken his_eyes from the jaguar.

H What, are you geing to turn me over to that
beast?" cried the. boy, the situation forcing the
words from his mouth.

“ Whv uni? You have followed me, and
while Princess has you in charge, you won’t get
to ly your calling.” _

lunco now withdreW, leaymg Captain Ortiz,
the animal and Billy Winks In the cabin.

he‘ jaguar was licking her master’s dark
hand, and the boy detective was leuking at her
beautiful skin, but not without feelings of four.

“ Confess to everything,” suddenly said Cap.
tain Ortiz. “ Why were you “'lltch ng me?”

The young ferret of the streets did not Speak.

All at Once the Cuban captain threw the
jaguar from him, and she crouohed on the floor
with a lung whine.

At the same moment Billy Winks sprang from
his chair and drew back,

He was armed with nothing but a knife. the
blade of which was barely long enough to pene-
trate the sleek hide of the beast,

Still he drew it forth and opened the blade.

“Fool!” laughed Captain Ortiz. “You can’t
km a jaguar with a jack—knife.”

There Was more truth in these words than
Billy Winks realized, but he did not abate his
resolution, and placing himself on the defensive

I have been fol-

 Winks, the Boss

 

. ,__.--.~wv- . \H

Boy Shadower. 5

 

while he eyed the beast, lieawuitcd the spring
which he felt was near at hand.

“ What, are you going to mar the skin of Prin-
cess With that blade? Throw that knife ucross
the cabin!"

lnslcud of obeying this command, Billv only
grasped the knife the more firmly and looked
from the animal to the Cuban captain.

Suddenly Captain ()riiz sprung to his feet and
let out a harsh Spaniin oath.

“ Eye hiui, l’riiici-ssl” he said, to the crouch-
ing terror on the floor. “At the snap of my
finger you Will spring forward and ‘ kiss’ iiinil"

The jaguar seemed to understand eVi-ry Word.

“ You young spy, you haVc liccn on my truil
longer than this day," continucd the cnrngcd
Cuban. “ You are in the employ of the police
of New York, and they are watching me through
your keen eyes."

“ It is not true.
at all.
hook.”

“ A confession!

Billy was silent.

“Now, what were you lifter!l Why were you
following me under the lamps of you city?"

“I hada right to,” and the lips of the boy
closed behind the last words in a manner which
must have told the captain that he would go no
further, jaguar or no jaguar.

Meantime the animal \\ us creeping forward
eager to get at the boy ferret.

She was covering, inch by inch, the ship’s floor,
slipping over it without the slightest noise and
all the time with her eyeballs riveted upon her
chosen victim.

Billy Winks had never been in sucha situation
before. He had had narr0w escapes and had
been in close situations, but never had he faced
a huge cat like the one crouching before him.

Captain Ortiz showed no mercy in look or
gesture. He was a Cuban to the backbone, and
Billy could see that he would let the j iguar rend
him in pieces.

In backing off the boy detective reached a
quaint old-fashioned cupboard set in the wall,
the door of which Was open.

A glance showcd liim half a dozen revolvers so
arranged on the shelves as to be ready for instant
use.

Captain Ortiz seemed to divine the boy’s iii-
teiitions, for all nt (1108 he cried out to him to
come forward, at the sumo time applying an epi-
thet calculated to nettle his courage.

But Billy Winks, driven to the wall by the
menace or tooth and claw, whirled suddenly to
ward the cupboard and scized one of the nearest
Six-shooters.

Clutching the weapon firmly, the undaunted
Billy faced the fierce brute, waiting for the sig-
nal from her equally vicious master, and leveled
the weapon at her head.

The jaguar show (1 her teeth and whined.

“ Princess is quicker than eye and finger," de-
rischly laughed the Cuban captain, and at the
same time be snapped his lingcrs.

Quick as a flash, up leaped the spotted terror,
and straight at the boy detective’s tnrontl

She was clear of the floor win 11 the cabin rung
with a Wild report, and there succecdcd a groan
almost human as the beautiful pet fcll back.

The white smoke lifted. Captain_0rtiz stood
like one petrified on the spot; Billy Winks, breath-
less, leaned forward with the smoking revolver
in his hand and—

The jaguar lay on the floor, shot through the
brainl

I am not serving the police
When I watch any one it is on my own

You were watching mel"

_-.—

CHAPTER VI.
IN THE oicNTirann's HOLD.

THE tigcrisli rage of Captain Ortiz at the
dcuih of his pI-t knew no bounds.

For a momcnt he sat spellbound in his chair,
glaring at the boy detective, and Billy fully ox-
pe-cicd to see him leap at him with as much ini-
pnlsivciiess us the jaguar had donc.

The animal had not moved since falling. The
shot had been decisive, and the terror of the
trOpics was dead at her mas'cr’s foot.

The sound of the shot brought a dark face
to the door and the boy once more saw the face
of Blanco.

The Cubsn’s man only waited for orders and
Stood ready to carry them out no matter what;
their might be.

This tableau lasted a full minute when the
hand of the Cuban captain came down upon the
“mic and he cried:

“ You have killed the best friend Captain
Ortiz ever bad, You shall pay dearly for this
murder!”

“lOne ought to be permitted to defend one’s

life,” was the unswcr. “ Tlic licust was lea in
at my throat when I fired and I saw my li e a
stake.”

f Captain Ortiz arose and faced the young
crrot.

“ Come in, Blanco,” he said, for he had caught
sight of the head at the door.

The door opened and Blunco stood in the
room.

“ Seize that young rascal i” said Ortiz.

Iiiancuslcppod forward, but in an instant he
was C(iVUl'l'd by the same weapon that had taken
the life of tho jaguar.

“I will kill you if you attempt any violence,” ,
the boy said coolly. “Captain Ortiz, as he
calls himself, had no right to bring n.e to this
Vcswl and I will act as Isee lit. Stand your dil-
tam-e.”

Blanco looked at the captain but did not
move.

“ Furies! are you afraid of a boy!" yelled
the infuriated mun, heating the table with his

st.

Blanco hit his lip and made ready foraspi‘ing,
pistol or no pistol.

The next moment he came at Billy Winks,
and when the trigger was pressed no report fol-
IOWed.

“ Ha, ha! I took the chaliccs,”luughed the
Cuban captain. “ One of the i'erolu rs Wus
sparingly loaded, and I thought you had itin your
hand. The only loaded chamber killed Princess,
and now it is useless.”

Billy felt like throwing the pistol away for
he was in Blaiico’s grip, and the hand of the
Cuban slave was sinking, as it seemed, to the
bone.

“Hold him well. Blanco, my bov. You shall
take the place of Princess as far as you can.”

Billy could only look at the man Who had
spoken and u (under what would happen ncxt.

“ 'l‘uke ilill‘ below to the cage till he is
wanted,” coutinurd Captain Ortiz and without
being permitted to have another word, the boy
ferret was ninrchcd oil’ under escort of Blanco
and in a little while he found himself in a small
room where he could hcar the swish of waters
as the vessels rocked on the tide.

The place was dark enough at first, but after
awhilc he discovcrcd a bit of light and watched
itus the beams stole across the floor, showing
him a room without furniture, and forbidding
enough to suggest a prison-house of death.

Billy Winks threw himself upon the out that
showed up in one corner, and thought over the
sudden change in his foriuncs.

He was in the hold of Captain Ortiz’s ship and
no person outside of its tenants knew uught of
his situation.

What had become of Tom Wagner the victim
of the plot, and was old man Grcgg dead?

These thoughts were enough to almost still
the heart of the couragcous boy, but one thing
he wus sure of, und that was that the jaguar
Would nchr lcup at another throat.

He had slain the bcnstof the tropics, and, as
a matter of course, cxpectcd to feel the yen-
geance of her niastcr._

Meantime Captain Ortiz had gone back to the
city, leavingr Billy Winks guarded by the shrewd
Blanco u ho was ready to carry out any com—
mands that uiiuhi be issued.

Captain Ortfllwas anxious to know what had
taken place since he was last in the metropolis,
and not long after his arrival he reached the
vicinity of Napoleon Gi'cgg’s house.

The plui-e wns as silent as the grave. and he
took it for granted that the end had Come, and
that the rich old man was dead.

He remained on the watch till the front door
opened and a man came out. _

Approaching this pcrscn cautiously, the cap-
tain or me Centipede was about to inquire after
(lrcgg’s health u hen the person turned upon him,
and he fell back \\ iili n cry.

It was Simon Blyliooisl

“ Well, you’rc the coolest man I ever saw ”
cried Captain OI'HZ. " You haven't been inside
of that house. 1 in pcl”

H Why not?” prinucd the other,

“ or gnome, I don’t object, but you ought to
be vcry careful.”

“ Who is more so?
know what l‘ni hill iii?” _

Captain Ortiz said no more for a SP?“- during
which the two nicn walked together-

In a little while they entered a certain place
whch they found themselves secluded. when
the captain leaned forward and clutched Simon’s
arm.

“ He'v is he?” he asked.

“ About the game, He has started the whole

olice force on hunt of the be). and as.“ he will
ive till Tom is found." -

I am serving you and I

 

 

 

6 Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

 

 

Captain Ortiz drew off and looked at Simon
Slyboots.

‘ Well, are you going to let the boy be
found?”

“I guess not.”

“ Of course not.”

“ I understand that he is to be lost forever.”

“Certainly. Nothing comes to you if he is
found.”

A curious smile overspread the face of Simon
Slyboots.

“ You know what you are doing, I’m sure you
do,” the captain went on. “ By the way, did
you ever hear of a boy detective who has the
faculty of hittingr on puzzles and solving them ’é”

“ I should say I have heard of him,” and
Simon laughed outright. “ Have you run across
him, captain?”

There was no reply for a moment, but the
face of the Cuban captain was a study.

“ They call him Billy, don’t they?” Simon
went on. “i have had him 011‘ my trail for some
time, but I manage to give him the slip so easily
that he hasn’t even bothered me any of late.”

“ I guess he won’t bother any one any more,”
said the captain significantly.

By and by Simon’s hand stole up OVer the
edge of the table at which they sat and he said:

“ You got my letter, captain?”

H 68.”

“ Did it suit?”

“It was all right. You said in it that when
we met again you would have proofs of death.”

Simon Slyboots took from under his coat a
small box which he 0 ened cautiously.

The moment the ubanca tain looked into
the box he fell back and star at the plotter.

“ Is that roof enough?” grinned Simon.
“ You know couldn’t bring the whole body
and I thought I would fetch you a bit—enough
to let you know that I carry out my parts of
the programmes."

The ob'ect that had chased the color from
Captain rtiz’s face was a human hand which
lay in the box and he was almost willing to
swear that it was the hand of a young person.

“Don't you think,” he said in a whisper,
“that if the old man had proof of the boy’s
death he wouldn’t last much longer himself?”

“ I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“ Then, why don’t you furnish the proof?”

“That wasn’t in my part of the bargain.”

Captain Ortiz must have thought of Mother
Magog’s words when he looked at Simon Sly-
boots. He was a cool fellow and knew how to
play a. deep game for himself.

“ I am aware that it wasn’t exactly in the
bargain, but you might do that much without
extra pay.”

In an instant Simon seemed to get angry.

“ You want us to take every ri=k,” said he,
“ while you sit back and rake in the big stakes.”

“ I ex t nothing of the kind. I am willing
to pay or every service I get out of you and
Sloper.”

“ That’s a horse of another color.”
“ I want the proof of the boy’s death to reach
Old”Man Gregg, and in the form of a shock,

“,Well, that will be worth two thousand ex-
tra.

The figures seemed to take Captain Ortiz’s
breath, but he did not betray himself.

“I consent,” he said. “I will pa the price
you name for the extra service. be money
will be paid when the old man closes his ac-
counts with mortality.”

Simon nodded and got up.

“You seem to have the entree to the house,”
remarked Ortiz. “ How did you get it?”

“ Ask no questions and get no lies. I tell you
I am risking my precious neck every time I en-
te" that house, for it is watched by the police,
and Napoleon Gregg’s money has employed the
best detectives in Gotham.”

“ But you are shrewder than all, eh, Simon?”

“Catch a weasel asleep!” laughed the great

rascal, and in a minute they were again on the
sidewalk, and some distance from the lace of
consultation they separated and went different
ways.
“ This is only the beginning,” muttered Simon,
looking after the Cuban. “ You won’t hava a
dollar of the pile when we et through with you.
I know a good thing when I see it.”

 

CHAPTER VII.
THE NOTE UNDER THE DOOR.
MOTHER MAGOG had a son who had been
criminal in some of his acts and a full knowledge
of this was the “club” which Simon Slyboots
haddf‘or some time been holding over the woman’s
ea

 

 

The reader will remember that she told Cap
tain Ortiz that she feared the sharp, and so she
did, for he had threatened to expose her boy and
get him into serious tiouble.

Soon after his interview with Captain Ortiz,
Simon made his way to Mother Magog’s house
and was met at the door by the giantess.

Her start when she saw who her visitor was
enough to confirm her statement that she actually
feared him when she was strong enough to hurl
him against the wall and choke him to death.

Simon slid into the house without the sem-
‘blgnceff invitation and immediately asked for
‘ im.

Mother Magog, who loved her son despite his
character, told the rascal that she did not know
where he was at that time, whereupon Simon
smiled one of his malicmus smiles and hinted
that it would be best for Jim to be about when
he was wanted.

Mother Magog sat and eyed the man, wonder-
ing what would be his next word, and he was for
some time silent.

“Tell Jim I want to see him when he comes
home and say it in such a way that he will know
that it will not do to disobey the summons.”

The woman started and seemed to shudder.

“Will he get into trouble if he obeys?” she
asked.

“ He will if he doesn’t,” was the quick retort.

“ Why can't you leave Jim alone, Simon Sly-
boots?”

The villain laughed.

“ I know that you happen to know something
about Jim’s past, but I don’t see why you should
all the time hold it over our heads like a club.
Let the boy have a moment’s peace; give him a
chance to be an honest man.”

“ Who? Jim?” grinned Simon. “ I’d like to
see him be that even if he tried. What’s bred in
the bone—”

He did not get to complete his sentence, for
like a tigress the woman sprung up and her face
was almost dark.

“That will dol You sha’n’t assault the mem-
ory of my husband, for that was what you were
about to do. He was honest, and if it hadn’t
been for men of your stamp, Jim wouldn’t have
gone astray, and you know it. ’

He looked at her towering above him like a
mountain and saw that her hands were clinched
and that hre was flying from the depths of her

6 ES.

yMother Magog glanced toward a door across
the room, and Simon feared that some ally was
within call. But what would a woman of her
strength want with an ally?

“ Well, do just what you like, but mind you,
you take the consequences," he went on. “ 1
want Jim, and he will do well by calling on me
as soon as p03sible.”

Mother Magog drew back and again looked
toward the door.

“ Who’s in that room?” asked Simon.

The nexn moment the door flew open and a
young man, whose face bore a hunted look, came
forward.

It was Jim himself.

“ Here you are, eh?” said Simon. “ Been in
the house all the time, and your mother would
never have told you to come forth.”

There was no reply for a little while, and Jim,
standing in the middle of the room, looked at
Simon Slyboots with a strange lare.

“ You want to see me,” he sai at last. “ What
is your business with mei”

“ This is not the place for business of the na-
ture I want to transact."

“You will proceed, for by Heavens! mother
and I understand one another, and whatever you
have to say to me you will spit it out here or
keep still.”

For a moment the oily rascal seemed to draw
within himself, but the youn man continued:

“Say it here I tell you. will listen to you
newheres else.”

At the same time Mother Ma 0g planted her-
self more firmly on the floor an smiled at Jim.

“ You told me the other day that you wanted
a job,” said Simon. “ I haVe found a place for
you, and one that will pay big wages for little
service. ’

It  r,

“ 1 can get you inside one of the finest houses
in the city and where an old man needs a little
care while he is dying.”

Mother Magog started.

“ Do you mean Napoleon Gregg?" she asked.

tSimon Slyboots looked at her with a sudden
s are.

“ What do you know about that man?” he ex-
claimed.

“ Never mind; go on with your talk to Jim.”

“ Well, I can get you that job,” continued

 

Simon. “It won’t cost you much labor. All
you have to do is to report to me every few

ours the progress of the old man’s disease and
follow out a few other instructions which you
may receive from time to time.”

Jim threw a swift glance toward his mother.

“ I will take the job,” said he. “ I won't run
any risk, will I?”

“ None whatever. You will use your eyes
and deliver a certain letter which you will find
under the door—deliver it to Napoleon Gregg.
and to no One else.”

“ How do you know I can get the place?”

“ I have already secured it for you.”

“ You are very kind. When am I to take it?”

“ As soon as possible. I have just come from
the house and they have agreed to accept the
nurse I am to send.”

As Simon Slyboots rose to go, the soft step of
Jim’s mother approached him and when he look—
ed back he saw her eying him intently.

“ Jim is going to Napoleon Gregg’s house,”
said she. “ He will serve on as far as he can
in the interests of justice; ut he shall commit
no crime for you.”

“ I haven’t asked him to commit one,” was the

reply. “All he has to do is to deliver a letter
to the old man himself. That’s not very much,
is it?‘

Simon laid his hand on the knob and opened
the door.

If he had looked at Jim he would have seen a
singular expression on the face of that young
man who was eyin‘g him like a hawk.

An hour later im presented himself at the
door of the Gregg mansion and was admitted.

When he said that he was the nurse sent by
Simon Slyboots he was placed on duty and for
the first time looked into the face of Napoleon
Gregg, Tom Wagner‘s grandfather.

For some time Jim watched the d ing man
who was propped up in bed with pi ows, and
when he t ought him asleep, he stole from the
goolm and at a certain hour went into the front

a .

He discovered a bit of paper protruding from
beneath the front door, and taking it in his hand,
knew that he had the identical note which he
was to hand to the old man.

Jim, the criminal, felt his fingers tremble
while he held the paper. He was alone and the
old house was quiet.

He went back to the little parlor near the old
man’s chamber and closcly eyed his find.

What did that letter contain!l

He stood there undecided, thinking, no doubt,
of the hold Simon Slyboots had on him, and of
his mother’s last words.

A hundred times did the young man turn ,the
sealed note in his hand, and more than once he
walked toward the door, only to fall back with a
shiver.

“ I don’t believe it can kill him,” suddenly
said Jim. “ It is something which Simon wants
him to see all by himself, and that is why I was
to deliver it to him alone.”

Jim left the room and went over to where old
Gregg lay.

t_ Hte opened the door and stole into the room on
1p~ 0e.

The patient had fallen into a doze, and he
stood and looked at him some time.

All at once the eyes opened and were fixed
upon Jim.

“ What is it?” asked Napoleon Gregg. “ You
have a letter for me. It is from Tom 1”

If Jim had tried to hide the note he would
have been unsuccessful, for the keen eyes of old
Gregg had already discovered it, and advancing
across the room, he placed it in the wrinkled
hands.

Napoleon Gregg’s eyes lit up with intense ex-
citement.

Jim was alone with him.

“Open it for me,” said the old man. “It is
from Tom, and I haven’t strength enough to
break the seal.”

Jim took the letter and opened it.

“ Hand it here!” cried the dying man. “ You
must not read it first.”

But Mother Magog’s son did not heed the last
injunction.

He Opened the paper, and in an instant his
face lost color and he looked toward Napoleon

Gregg.
“ ou can’t see this,” he said.

“ I must! I must! It is news from Tom,
and—”

“ It is as cool a plot as was ever batched in the
brain of man.” was the answer.

Napoleon Gregg held out his hands imploring—-
ly, but Jim drew back with the letter.

“ Give it to mei
plot yourself.”

If yon don’t, you are in the

    
 

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The old man fell forward, his voice ringing
through the house like a shriek.

Jim caught him and forced him back.

Tom Wagner’s grandfather fell back among
the pillows like a lifeless person, and when Jim
saw that he was unConscious, if not dead, he
stooped and hid the letter in his bosom.

“ 1 guess I am as Well armed as you are, Simon
Slyboots,” he said to himself. “ Now, if I could
only see the boy detective mother has told me
about, there would he a turning of the tide."

Mother Magog’s son was destined to see Billy
Winks, and that when he was not looking for
him.

 

CHAPTER VIII.
BILLY WINKS TURNS or.

NAPOLEON GREGG never recovered from the
shock of the letter which Jim refused to let
him see.

In less than an hour he was dead, and the doc-
tors who Were called in said that he died sudden-
ly because of a shock of some kind; but Mother
Magog’s son did not proceed to enlighten them.

When he was sure Tom VVagner‘s grandfather
was dead, he stole from the house and crept
down the streets.

He did not know for some time that he was
watched, but all at once he became aware that
this was so, and he found himself in the grip of
Simon Blyboots.

This time Simon was not alone, but was in
company with Sloper, and the three adjourned
to a room inhabited by Simon at odd times, and
there Jim was asked to tell what he knew about
the old man’s death.

Mother Magog’s son said he had carried the
letter to old Gregg, that he had shown it to the
dying man, who, when he had read it, fell back
unconscious, and in that condition died an hour
or so later.

“ You saved the letter for me?” said Simon,
putting out his hand.

“ I destroyed it.”

In an instant the eagle eyes of the sharper
were rivited upon the young man, and the
scgiitiny he had to undergo was something ter-
n e.

But Jim had prepared for the ordeal, and
when it was over mentally congratulated him-
self and thought that he was a consummate
actor.

“ I guess you’ll do,” said Simon, with a smile.

Jim was dismissed at last, and when on the
street again did not stop until he was under lllS
mother’s roof.

,All this time he had kept the fatal letter
Concealed, and was wondering where Billy
Winks was.

Mother Magog, who knew a good deal about the
boy detective, told her son where he might find
the young shadower, and, intent on finding
Billy, Jim started 011’.

If he had gone to the Centipede lying in the
harbor he might have found the object of his
search, but he never thought of looking on the
water for the boy. .

All at once—it was daylight now—Jim was
stopped by an odd-looking man who gazed up
into his face, and said:

“ You’re Mother Magog’s boy, aren’t you?”

Jim did not know what to say, but finally ad'
mitted that he here that relation to the famous
woman.

“They call me Timothy Turk, and I am re-
lated to, Tom Wagner, who has been kid-

n .

“ 0h,” said Jim, “ I am glad to see you, Mr.
Turk; but I can’t stop now, for I’ve got a job
on hand, and it can’t be ovarlooked.”

" It can’t, eh?” and the old man grinned. “ 1
haveajob. too: one of looking up Tom, but I
don’t know just how it will end.”

In another moment Jim felt the speaker’s
hand on his arm, and he was being dragged to—
ward the harbor. _ ,

“ Do you see that little ship lying out yonder?”
continued Tom Wagner’s relative, panting to-
ward the Centipede which was plainly Visible
from where they had stopped-

“ I’d be blind if I didn’t,” said Jim.

“ Well, she b’longs to Captain Ortiz and came
up from Cuba some days ago. There’s nothing
startling in that, be? No? Well, you don’t
know that Captain Ortiz will be the heir if Tom
never turns up.”_

“ Captain Ortiz, the Cuban?”

“ That’s- what.”

“ What relation to Napoleon Gregg was he?”

“NOBO, the serpent! bill'- he knew enough to
guy a good hand some years ago when Napoleon

708$ Was looking for a Wife and the will says
that, in case of the boy’s death, Captain J who
comes in next."

 

 

“ But you were just now talking about Cup—
tain Ortizé"

“I’m talking ’bout him yet, though I call
him by another name sometimes as it suits me
to. AsI was saying, that ship out yonder is
his, and i was lying hercabouts last night when
a very strange thing happened."

Jim was all attention now and was looking at
the Centipede with increasing curiosity.

“I saw a man whom I at once knew was
Captain Ortiz come down here with a boy who
seemed to be a prisoner from the way he was
held by the villain. They went out to the ship
in a boat which seemed to come from her to
meet them here.”

“ A boy, Mr. 'l‘urk?”

“ A boy, and he was a sharp-looking boy, at
that. I fancy he had been captured Somewhere
by the captain and he was taking him to the
Centipede where he would be safe and could not
gct to watch him any more.”

In an instant a thought of Billy Winks cross—
ed Jim’s mind.

“What was the boy like?” he asked, with
en eruess.

imothy Turk described the boy in as few
words as he could and Jim’s heart seemed to
stand still.

“It must have been Billy, the very boy I’m
looking fori” he said to himself. “ If he Went
out yonder with Captain Ortiz and use prisoner,
he is out there yet.”

Jim eyed the Centipede and tried to form a
plan for getting out to her. .

Meantime Timothy Turk was watching him
as though he would read his very thoughts.

“I don’t think the boy was 'a prisoner."h0
said at last. "Ican’t stop to think of such
things now but must go about my business.”

He tore himself from the old man’s grip and
started off.

Timothy Turk turned and watched him out
of sight when he burst into an immoderate fit
of laughter which reached the ears of it mun
who Was on the lookout and who followed the
old gentleman when he walked off.

Jim gave up his hunt for Billy Winks at last
and went home.

Theday passed and he did not venture into
the street until nightfall when he slipped down
stairs and glided out among tho lights.

He loungcd intoa chcnp outing-house which
he sometimes visited when he had some small
change in his pocket and on taking a seat at one
of the tables picked up the latest edition of an
afternoon paper.

Now a reference to Napoleon (iregg was the
last thing Jim expected to find in that paper:
but he was suddenly disturbed by the heading
of a short article and in a second he was reading
as follows:

“A NEW HEIR TURNS UP.

“Before Napoleon Gregg of M——- avenueis buried
an heir turns up, and unless the, [missing boy is
found, or if he is found (lead this new heir will
glide into one of the snuggest fortunes in ibis city.
One of ihe clauses (if the (iregg will nuich one
l’edron Jurillo next of kin. though, in roalit , the
kinship between Napoleon Gregg and .luri lo is
barely traceable. The man Jarillo. who is known
in certain circles as Captain Ortiz, of, the ship
Centipede. is here and has put in a claim l.) the
estate conditional, of Cuiu‘so, on the outcome of the
search for the missing grandson. if Tom Wagner
has disap cared for good, and this is not improb-
fiblOJlm regg estate will pass into the hands of
(laptaiu Ortiz who has the papers to prove flint ho
is the real Pcdron Jurilio, though he has been
ln11W]llcri'iding under the name of Ortiz for some
years.”

_The reader may imagine with what feeling
J mi read the startling paragraph.

H" forgot to order his supper though he had
entered the restaurant as ravenous as a Wolf, and
when he came fully to his senses, he was on the
pavement With his head in a whirl. .

“This beats the Jews." said Jim. “Captain
Ortiz Pedron Jurillo and the next in line? I
begin to see through a stone wall and when
mother told me that Simon Siyhoots and pard
were in the captain’s pay, I Wondered what it
all meant. But I think I see now.”

Jim started oil’, but had not gone far when
his arm was caught and he looked into the face
of a boy.

“ You are Jim and the very person I want to
see.” said the youth. “I have had aiight for
liberty, but here I am to prove'that I came oll‘
fonqnei'or. They never hold Billy Winks very
ong—

“ What, are you Billy Winks!”

“The only Billy, Jim, But we don’t want to
be seen talking here. I have just escaped from
thefl'mtins trap out in the harbor and there
may be some one on my track.”

 

Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower. 7

Billy Winks drew Jim into the first hallway
that iresonted itself and went on:

” but has happened, Jimf"

“ The old man is dead.”

” Napoleon Greggf"

“ Yes.”

Billy Winks was silent for a moment.

“ And what else has occurred?”

“ The new heir has turned up.”

“ Captain Ortiz!”

“The captain of the (,Ieiitipeile.”

“ I thought as much. And the boy, Tom, is
still missing?”

“ They are all at fault.”

“Jim, where is your mother!"

“ At home, sir. I guess she don’t fear theclub
as much as she did. I have armed myself. I
hold a paper pistol at Simon Slyboots’s head,
and the moment he lifts the club Itouch the
trigger. See!”

The couple remained in the hallway nearly an
hour, and when they slipped forth they hurried

away.

Billy “'iuks had told the story of his escape
from tho Centipede; how ho had managed to
elude even the watchful Blauco and secure one
of the ship’s boats in which he had effected his
escape to the city, and Jim had listened with a
smile on his lips.

“ They’ll look for you, Billy,” said Jim.

“Of course, but I will be too sharp for the
whole gang.”

“gun will have Siyboots and Sloper after

on.

y “ I know it. They will have to cage me or
get caged themselves, and they realize what that
means."

“ Sing Sing, eh?”

“ Yes, if not something worse than that."

A few squares from the hallway the two sep-
arated for the time being, and Billy Winks re-
solved to play a swift and deadly hand against
the plot for Napoleon (ircgg’s thousands.

“They’re all against inc—all but Jim and
Mother Mngog; but I won‘t throw down a feel-
ish card,” he said.

CHAPTER. 131.
uN'riiAi-rixu nntsnLi‘.

()Nic very remarkable thing astonished Cup-
tnin Ortiz before he was many hours older, and
that was that he was observed by nearly every
person who liuppcln‘d to run across him.

He was the observed of every one on Broad-
way, und did not know what it all meant until
he picked up a paper and read the paragraph
that had surprisei Jim in the restaurant.

H 1’11 go out to the mass l and see how [hiqu
are there,” he said, “and come bucknud lix my-
self solid, for the boy is one of those things that
don‘t turn up, and l mu the holder of the win—
ning Cards.”

As no boat came to take him out to the Centi—
pede, he had to hire his way to the Vessel, and
when he found himself on deck, he went below
in search of Blauco.

But Blanco was not to be found, nor was the
cage where he left Billy Winks occupied by the
young prisoner. _

Captain Ortiz stood like one thunderstruck on
the threshold of the dark cage, but all at once,
with a fierce oath, he ran back and burst into
his own private apartments, which were fitted
up without regard to cost.

In a moment he realized that he had been
robbed.

Everything indicated that the thief had taken
a good deal of valuable property, but hereund
there something of value remained.

Blunco was not to be 'l'ouud on board, and
when he questioned one ot’the half drunken sail-
ors, he learned that the Cuban had been gone
some time.

Back he went to the city.

Maybe after all Blunco had finished Billy
Winks before quitting the Vessel.

The harbor was deep and a body could be
lowered from the ship Without diseovory, and
Blanco had eVery reason for making away with
the Boy Shadowel‘.

This thought somewhat calmed the captain's
fears, and he found himself in the city, With his
mind made up what to do.

He cared but little for the stolen articles, for
was he not about to Come into possession of a
vast sum of money? He would soon in hold of
the Gregg estate, and never again wou d be sail
the deep, and be Captain Ortiz of the Centipede.

He was stopped when he thought no one was
near.

“ Come with me. I have news ” and he
walked off, looking into the face of imon Sly-
boots, wondering what news he could have.

 

Simon shut tne door of his nest carefully be—

 

 

   

 

.m - ....L_..-..o'....; x... ,

 

 

hind them, and Captain Ortiz waited for him to
speak.

“ When are you going to pay up?” abruptly
asked the hlackleg.

“ When everything is done."

" What more is there to do? The grandfathcr
is dead, the boy is not found, and the papch are
speaking of you as the only hoir. Set-ms tome
t 9 game is played out.”

The two men sat face to face in the little
room, and for some time Captain Urtiz looked
into the eyes of the cool spider.

“ Perhaps you would like to see more than the
hand,” said Simon. “I am prepared to furnish
you with all the proof you want. Will you
come with me?”

The (khan draw back. ‘

“I am willing to take your word, aftcr what
I have seen, but you must remember that I am
not yet in posscssion of the estate, that I will
not got it until certain weeks have passed, and
the police of New York are satisfied that Tom
Wagner will never bother me.”

“ Hang the police!" growled Simon. “ Me and
my par-«i can’t live on wind.”

“ I don’t ask you to confine yourself to so slim
a diet ” smiled the Cuban.

We‘ll take the check, then.”

“ Not all of it?"

“ The whole amount."

Captain Ortiz glared at his man.

Simon Slyboots had crossed his legs, and was
coolly looking, now at him and now at writing
materials that stood on a table near at hand.

“ We’ll take the ten thousand,” he continued.
“Life is uncertain, captain, and we want our
own very badly.”

The captain of the Centipede moved to the
table and bent over it, pen in hand. .

All this time there were eyes at the window
which opened on a sloping roof in the back-
yard.

These eyes were as keen as any in the city,
and when they saw Captain Ortiz seat himself
at the table they got a quick light.

Billy Winks was “ on deck ” as usual, and it
was his figure that lay on the roof and his eyes
that watched the two men in the room—the mas-
ter and his man.

For several moments Captain Ortiz wrote and
then tossed the paper to the watchful Simon.

Mr. Slyboots caught it up and looked it over
with a good deal of care.

Williouta word he put it in his pocket and

rnod to the Cuban.

“Thu; connfounded boy has turned up again,”
he remarked.

Captain Ortiz started as though stung by a
snake.

“ Where is he!"

“ Trucking, as usual. I have thought of
curbing him just to show him that I am still
in the ring; but, then, he can’t do me any par-
ticulgf damage. You’re not afraid of him, cap-

in

The color of the Cuban’s cheeks was answer
enough.

“ Simon, do you think you could be as success-
ful dealing with this young fox as you were with
the other one?” he asked.

“ \Vhen did I ever fail?” ‘

“Iciin’t recall a failure, of course; but you
must know that 1 don’t want any spies at my
heels at this stage of the game.”

“ Certainly not; but, captain, you see there
might be some trouble connected with the net.
ting of ashrewd young rascal who knows the
whole city like this boy does—”

“ I understand. I don’t knew who else to
trust. You have furnished the other game and
I don’t want you to work for nothing. Would a.
thousand do?”

“ That would only be five hundred apiece for
me an’ Sloper, for I would have to get him to
help me."

The captain of the Centipede hit his lip, and
turned once more toward the table.

He wrote a moment and handed the results of
his labor to Simon Sly boots.

It was a check for three thousand dollars, and
the eyes of the sharper emitted a gleam of
triumph as he looked at it.

He knew he had Captain Ortiz in his power.

“ We’ll do what we can,” he said, pocketing
the check. “I don’t propose to have any one
at my heels nor interfering with the happi-
ness of my friends. Yes, We’ll do what we can,

'Bloper an' I will. You needn’t fear Mother
Magog. I hold a club Over her head and she
knows it.”

“ I’m aware of that, Simon.”

Billy Winks did not slide from the roof until
the two worthies had left the room, and when
the door had closed upon their retrea ting

p’

 

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8  Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

 

forms, he left his perch and went back to tho
street. '

Simon Slyboots was the man he now tracked.

He followed him to a house on a very quiet
street, and was so near him when be shut the
door, that he heard his footsteps on the stairs in
tho hull.

Presently Simon was heard talking to some
one, and when he came out of the house and
walked away, Billy lingered and resolved to see
the person inside.

lPresently he slipped up to the door and knock-
ci .

It was opened half an inch, and he caughta
glimpse of a woman’s face.

“ What is it?” asked the person in the hall.

“The gentleman has sent me back on an er-
rand," and Billy squeezed into the house only to
be caught when across the threshold and held as
in a grip of iron.

There was light enough to show him the face
and figure of the woman who had captured him.

She was still young, but not beautiful. There
was something soft and sdken about her looks,
l ut there was at the same time that grip which
seemed to sink into his flesh to the very bone
and send a chill over it.

“ He sent you back, did ho?" she said, looking
down into Billy’s face. “ Young man, he never
did anything of the kind. If he wanted me to
have any news, or if he wanted anything, he
would have come back himself. You are play-
ing a game of your own, and this is a bad place
to do anything of the sort. But what does he
want?”

“ He won’t come back when he said he would,”
said Billy, boldly. “ He’s changed his mind, I
guess.”

The woman laughed.

“ I thought you wanted some excuse to get in-
side, and what are you going to do now that
you’re in?”

Billy thought of the letter he had picked up
under the lamp after Captain Ortiz had dropped
it.

This woman was the rson referred to in that
letter as “ Violet, the oath—Flower."

And he was in her grasp!

While he thought of these things he was drag-
ged back into the hall and a door alongside was
opened.

Billy Winks was carried into a dark room,
where he was released as suddenly as he had
been taken, but all was dark, and he did not
know which way to go to find a door.

“ This is almost as bad as the hold of the Gen-
tipede,” he said to himself. “ I am now in the
clutches of a woman, and she knows that I have
crossed the forbidden line by a lie. But there
must be a door somewhere.”

He started forward, with his hands in front of
his face, but had not advanced half a dozen
steps when his wrist was encircled by a hand
that had long fingers.

“ Step! To investigate in this house is death 1”
said a voice in a hiss, and Billy Winks stood
still, breathless, but calm.

 

CHAPTER X.
BILLY IN BONDAGE.

THE Bess Boy Detective knew that once more
he was in the grip of the creature whom he had
mentally named Violet the Death-Flower, that it
was her hand at his wrist, and that if be resisted
he Would, in all probability, be throttlcd in that
chamber of darkness.

For some little time after the last words, not a
sound broke the stillness of the plaCe, and he
stood still, waiting for the next move of the un-
seen foe.

At the end of this time he was hurried across
the room and a door was opened.

This time he was ushered into a chamber not
so dark as the first, nor quite light enough to
distinctly show him his surroundings.

“ KPep a cool head, Billy Winks,” the boy said
to himself. “You are in a trap of your own
making, and must get out of it as best you can.”

This was true. He had poked his head into
danger, but his motto-“ Nothing risked, noth-
ing gained ”-—was one he had followed a long
time, and he was not the boy to give it up be-
cause a little peril threatened.

“ Sit down, please,” said the woman, and
Billy was dumped into a chair, up over the
arms of which immediately came two hands
that held him fast.

Billy Icokcd foolish when he found himself
tho? caught, and the woman met his look with a
smi 9. ~

“ He " do you like it?” she queried.

“Oh, I’m contented anywhere,” was the reply,
but the boy detective did not look it.

 

He was left alone in the room, but the me-
chanical arms of the chair held him fast, and he
could not escape.

After a while his captor came back and looked
at him some time without speaking.

“ Playing a game, weren’t you ?” she said.

Billy did not speak.

“It’s all one; you may talk, or keep a still
tongue in your hcad. I am not particular. I
don’t like peOple who track other folks, and I de-
spiso the ferret.”

“ People who have fears of the police generally
don’t like ferrets.”

“ You don’t want to insinuate,” and she bent
forward and gazed into Billy’s face.

All at ouca she bounded from the room, and
presently the boy heard voices beyond the wall.

There was a man on the other side, and a
thought of Simon Slyboots rushed through his
mind. ‘

“That if that villain of villains had come
back?

By and by the noises died away and he heard
nothing again.

An hour passed, and he was still the occupant
of the chair. No one seemed to inhabit the
house. The dim light flickcred along the wall and
then went out altogether.

Billy was once more in darkness as deep as the
darkness of Egypt, nor was this all.

He seemed to be rising in midair, propelled
upward by unseen pewer, though he could not
feel any hands about him.

He had heard of traps opening in the floor and
letting the victims down into unknown depths;
but here this was reversed, and he was moving
up and up, higher and higher.

The strange movement continued till he ap-
peared to be fifty feet in the air.

When be stopped he leaned forward in hopes
of seeing how far he had risen, but could make
out nothing.

He tugged at his singular bonds, essayed with
all his strength to get out of the chair, even
though by so doing he would fall down and
down to the bottom of an unknown abyss; but
the mechanical claws would not open.

Presently there was a a strange click and
Billy was shot once more upward, the floor
seemed to open, and he was in a room well-
lighted and well-furnished.

As the chair stopped the hands fell off and he
sprung from its depths.

Free at last—free from the chair at any rate!

The Boy Shadower stood a moment and collect-
ed his thoughts. He was in a little chamber well-
carpeted and furnished with books. The walls
were adorned with paintings, and from the win-
dow, which was crossed and recrossed with bars
of steel, he could look dOWn upon a thriving por-
tion of the city and catch the lights and shadows
of the streets.

But the oddest thing about the apartment was
the apparent absence of a door.

The room did not seem to possess anything of
the kind. I

This so puzzled Billy Winks that he smiled in
spite of himself.

A room without a door was indeed a mystery
such as he had never heard of.

He was hunting for a door when a sound
caused him to turn suddenly and he saw that a
legend had appeared on the wall at his back.

Where a moment before there were no letters,
he now saw a line of words and this is what he
read:

“This room is as ood as a tomb to the unfor-
tunate who inlifihii-s t. It has no outlet and every
sound made within its walls dies here.”

This was not very pleasant reading for the boy
detective of New York and for a moment every
thing louked dark.

He went Closer to the letters and saw that
they were actually there. that it was not the
wild imagining of one’s brain.

“ Why don’t you come forward likea brave
person and face me?” exclaimed Billy. “I am
not afraid to facemy fate whateVer it be and
right here I want to say that I am net the sole

possessor of the secret for which the police of,

New York are hunting. The longer I am shut
up here the sooner will. the secret be given out
by the avengers of justice and though I perish
in this dOorless chamber, I Will be avenged by a,
hand as powerfqu as Fate’s.”

There was no i'espoiiSe to these words which
died away within the walls of the room, and
Billy Winks fell back and seemed to wait for
some sign.

While he watched the letters on the wall they
appeared to die out, but no others took their
place.

He went to the window and once more looked
out.

 

  

   

  
 

 

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Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower. 9'

 

 

Far below lay a small back-yard, and beyond
it the tall brick wall of a large building.

A group of children were playing in the back—
yard, and Billy longed to acquaint them with
his situation; but this was out of thoquestion.

He could see the little ones in the light that
fell from half a dozen windows, and for nearly
ten minutes he stood at the sill and watched
them.

The same sound that acquainted him with the
appearance of the letters on the wall, was
heard again, and-he turizc l to see another line.

This time it was very brief:

“ The font: knows he is caught / ”

Ah, how terribly true that was. Yes, Billy
Winks knew he had been netted, and that he
was cooped up in a. room from which there was
no escape.

All at once a certain frenzy seemed to seize
the boy detective; he sprung to where the books
were and jerked one from the shelves.

When he opened it a cry Welled from his
throat.

Every page was blank!

“ This is worse than death itself i” cried the
caged boy. “ This is the most terrible trap I
ever heard of,” and he flung himself into the
chair from which he had lately escaped, and sat
there with no color in his face.

The long night—it was the longest in his
history—passed, and he saw the welcome light of
another day.

He had slept but little, and was at the window
looking out over the city.

If the room was Without a door, how would his
food he brought to him, or perhaps none would
be brought.

After awhile a woman came out on a poi-ch
within a stone’s throw of his prison.

As she cast a look toward the barred window,
the boy detective caught up one of the books
and forced it through the bars.

The next moment he was beating the glass '

with all his might.

“ I will tell them that I am here. I will have
the police enter this den and rescue me. Simon
Slyboots and his friends sha’n’t triumph over me
very long."

But alas for Billy’s hopes, the glass was thick
and would not yield, and he was obliged to
withdraw the book without inflicting any in-
Jury.

The Woman was still on the porch, and Billy
imagined that he had been seen.

He drew back and taking out his pocket-knife,
hurled it at the window with all his might.

As luck weald have it, it spun between two
bars and striking the glass shattered it and let
in a breath of air.

The woman on the Opposite porch seemed to
have heard the noise of breaking glass for she
looked at the window and Billy sprung to the
openin with a cry of victory.

“ He pl help! help I” he shouted at the top of
his voice and looked toward the porch.

The young woman—he could see that she was
young—seemed to understand the situation, for
she waved her hand, looked another momentand
vanished. .

“ I don't know what effect it .will have,”
thought the boy prisoner of the League “ It
may tighten the coils around me, but nothing
risked nothing gained."

With his heart in his throat, as it were, he
StOOd ut the Window» eagerly watching the 0p-
posite porch. Seconds seemed hours to the boy
and he was on the point of despairing when the
girl came back.

“ She shakes her head at me, intimating that
she can’t help me,” gasped the young ferret of
New York, and even while he spoke sue vanish-
ed again and he saw her no more.

But at the same moment the floor seemed to

‘ tremble beneath his feet.

 

CHAPTER XI.
HOLLY MARKS snows HER GRIT.

CAPTAIN On'rlz, who was posing new as Pe-
dron Jarillo, the sole heir to Napoleon Gregg’s
estate. was in high feather. '

He did not see how he could be baffled. for the
boy, Tom Wagner, had not turned up and the
polige Were of the opinion that he was gone for

00 .

g No one seemed to think for a moment that
the captain himself had hm] a hand in the boy’s
disappearance. He did not, look like a villain,
but it Billy Winks could have been heard while
he was oooped up in the strange house he might
have Bpun a tale that would have created some
excitement.

The reader will remember that Molly Marks,
the fair seamstress and Billy Winks’s friend,

 

had encountered the Cuban captain on the street
and had suspected him of having to do with the
tie-ith of her father some years prior to the date
of our story.

The young girl was alone in her little room on
the night of Billy \Vinks’s adventure when a rap
sounded on the door and the next moment with-
out second thought she had bade the knocker
enter.

In he came, the tall dark man from Cuba, and
Molly gave vent to a sharp cry when her eyes
fell upon him.

Captain Ortiz—we will call him so to the end
of the game deSpito the other name he has as-
sumed for a purpose—came forward and took a
chalir, at the same ti .ne watching the girl like a
sea {0.

lie did not hold back very long, but proceeded
to business at once.

“ I thought your face resiembled a face I used
to see years ago,” said he. “ It was in Cuba and
when I encountered you on the street the other
day I could not help thinking about a man who
was lost at sea near the Ever Faithful Isle
when I was still there.”

Molly started, for the cunning rascal was talk-
ing about her father, and she watched him nar-
rowly hoping to see what he was after, for she
believed his mission to her home was one which
greatly concerned her welfare.

“The man of whom you speak must have
been my father for he was drowned at sea oil’
the coast of Cuba years ago,” she answered
him.

“ Captain Marks?”

“ Captain Marks.”

The Cuban was silent for a moment, but all
at once he took a packet from an inner pocket
and began to unwrap it.

The face of Molly, the sewing-girl, lost color
as she watched him and when she saw the pie
ture which he uncovered she started to her feet.

“ That is my mother’s face!” she cried, point-
ing at the portrait. “ Let me see it.”

But Captain Ortiz, looking up with a smile,
withheld the picture and seemed to draw out
of her reach.

“ What, do you withhold it from me?”

“ It is mine, for Captain Marks gave it to lne
when we were friends in Cuba and I was not to
part with it, not even for a moment.”

“ And you were friends there?" and the eyes
of Molly Marks seemed to look the captain
through.

“ We were friends and a tie strong as life it-
self united us.”

“ You wrote my mother about the loss of the
Flootwing,” said the girl, still eying him.

“ I did and a sorrowful task it was, too,”

For a moment longer Molly Marks sat and
seemed to make a study of the Cuban’s face.

“ Some time bcl'Ol‘O the loss of the ship mother
received a letter from father. In that letter
he wrote about one Captain Ortiz with whom
he had become acquainted. He told of the man’s

)lantation, how rich lie was, how many slaves
io had and what a wonderful forest; he had
where he used to hunt. One day a letter came
which told us that he had put the wrong esti-
niuteon this man, Ortiz, that he was not the
gentleman he had judged him, that, instead of
“mug his friend, he was, in fact, his foe. "1N1
that he had discovered a plot to seize the Fleet.-
Wmfl and perhaps murder all on board.”

'Molly pauswl, but the face or the man who
illstchcd did not change. I _

cuPtain Ortiz sat upright in his chair With his

k0?” Pyes fastened upon the fair girl; “0t 11 ""15-
cle moved.

His coolness did not flustrate Molly, indeed, it
only Seemed to nerve her to play the, game out,
for she had resolved to tell this man, now that
he had come to her, that she knew him for a
consuunnnte sooundrel.

“ When father came home he told us more
than he had commitmd to paper,” she Wont on.
“ He told us all he knew or had learned about
this Captain Ortiz, and, young as I Was at the
time, I recall the advice mother gave him—not
to go back, but to trade elsewhere where such
men did not eXIst.”

“ But it Seems he went back and the Ship Was
lost.”

“He went back and fought aduel With this

a I”

“ With Captain Ortiz?” coolly asked the
Cuba n.

“ Yes.”

Melly thought she saw a smile at the corners
of her Visitor’s mouth. _

“ I have every reason to believe that my
father was Wounded bv Captain Ortiz." she Went
on. “ We at first believed the letters we got
from him, telling abOut the fate of the vessel,

 

 

but by and by other tidings came from that
part of the world, and, then, we had other views.
You are Captain Ortiz: you are the man who
wrote those letters, and they tell me that you
have put in a claim for a large estate, claimin
to be the person called l’edron Jarillo in the wi
which makes you the heir after the death of the
boy, 'I‘eui Wagner. I got some of this from thev
papers, and Uncle Josh who is somewhat pecu-
liar, pieks up a good deal on the street.”

“ You are very knowing. I am I’edron Jarillo,
and in my time, for a purpose, I have been Cap-
tain Ortiz. You have strange thoughts about
the death of your father, an I want to sa that
you are making some grave charges. have ~
come to helpthe friend of my friend—to give
you brighter employment than that you have
now, and to take you out of this house for one
better and brighter. I Will want a frlend, a.
private secretary, when I am in the big house
on the nVenue, and I am here to offer the place
to the daughter of my old friend, Captain M rks
of the Fleetwing.”

Molly had to look at the man for his au-
dacity. .

“I refuse to accept the situation,” she said,
coldly. “I am content where I am. I am hap-
py here with Uncle Josh, and, then, I have other
friends who would advise me against the change
even though I wanted to make it."

“ But you will have a better home. You will
be surrounded w ith wealth and—”

“ I refuse!” broke in the girl. “ You must not
forget that your denial of the charges made by
my father has not altered my opinion of Cap-
tain ()rtiz.”

“ You believe,
founht’i”

“I do, and, what is more, I am inclined to
credit the story told me once by a man who
came from Cuba. that. the Fleetwing was burned
at Sea, and by the orders of the man who owned
the great plantation with the fine grozes."

The face of the handsome Cuban was now
livid. Captain Ortiz arose and for a moment
looked down upon the girl.

“ You may u ish you had not rejected the offer
I have made,” he said.

“ I don’t think 1 shall ever regret having
done so.”

“ Think a moment.”

“If to think means to come overto you and
accept the cilfer of the home on the avenue and
todwell under the same roof with the man sus-
pected of having had to do with the death of my
father, I will n .t think.” \

Molly Marks now stood erect with a smile on
her beautiful face and her eyes turned full upon
the man from Cuba.

“ You don’t want to breathe abroad what you
have told me here,” almost hissed the captain.

“ I shall tell my opinions where they are likely
tobring the guilty to justice I”

“ You are but a girl and years have interven-
ed since the li‘lcetwlng vanished from human
Sight.”

“ But all witnesses are not dead.”

Captain Ortiz laid one hand on the knob and
flamed toward Molly while his eyes got a sudden

ash.

“ Because I am a stranger here you must
not think that 1 am powerless,” he said. “ I
am as much Captain Ortiz as when I lived
and had my way in Cuba. Besides this, I am
not alone. I have friends as nellasothers. I
can strike and strike as hard as those who pro-
fess to have hands of iron. You can’t make
headan against me, girl. I can blight your
life and by the lifting of my hand. You are
foolish to combat me.”

At this juncture a noise was heard and Molly,
stepping across the room, threw open the door.

Captain ()rtiz recalled trom the young man
who rim-w himself into the apartment and then
laid one hand upon his hip.

“ Jim, thatis the man [ have told you about,"
said Molly, turning to the youth. “ Is he the
same one you have seen in consultation with
Simon Slyboois and his friend?"

“ He’s the some chicken, Molly, and the three
have got away with Billy Winks in some man-
ner.”

“ Who are you?” demanded Captain Ortiz.

“ I’m Jim, the son of Mother Mugog, for I guess
you know her best by that. name. I haven’t as
good a record as an angel, but it‘s as good as

ours, and I don’t intend to mince matters when
n your presence,”

Jim advanced a step, but threw a look to-
ward Molly,

“ Shall I throw him out, Molly?" he asked.

Captain Ortiz fell back against the deer and
jerked it open. He did not want a collision with
Jim, and instead of seeking one, he sprung

then, that the duel was

 

 

10 Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

 

across the step and halted a moment in the

“ I’ll see both of you later,” he cried.

“ You’ll have to do it almighty soon or the
warden of Sing Sing will prevent the interview,”
answered Jim, and the next moment the captain
of the Centipede was gone.

As he went down-stairs he growled to himself
and what he said boded Molly Marks no good.

CHAPTER XII.
rwo IN A TRAP.

“I WONDER what’s going to happen now?”
passed through Billy Winks’s mind when the
floor trembled under his feet.

He fully expected to see it open and send him
d0wn into some unknown abyss, but nothing of
the kind occurred.

Instead, the trembling passed off, and he was
left in the round room which had no doors.

The morning had fully come and he was hun-

ry.

“This isn’t a place where one has a chance to
order his breakfast,” he thought. “ I can’t get
drip cofl’ee here and talk back to the waiter if
the meat is underdone. »I will be lucky if 1 get
an thing at all.”

e went to the window once more, and looked
across the space that intervened between him
and the house where he had seen the girl who
had shewn no disposition to assist him, but she
was not there.

But in her place stood a man who looked Very
like one who was connected with the police.

Billy saw that the man was eying the broken
window, and drawing near it, he thrust his
hand through the opening and tried to wave it
at the stranger on the porch.

He thought he saw a nod telling that he had
been Seen, when the man disappeared as the girl
had done, and Billy was left to himself.

Click, click, went something on the wall
again.

The boy detective turned and saw another line
of letters on the wall.

“ The fuse is lighted and the fire runs!”

“ Heavens! am I to be blown up with the
house?” he cried, falling back from what he had
just read, and for a moment he stood in the mid-
dle of the room With the whitest face he had ever
had.

“ Where is the man who was on the porch?” he
cried, rushing to the window.

But the porch was quite deserted, and he could
not see any one who seemed to offer hel .

Once more the floor trembled, and this time it
began to settle.

In a short time Billy was out of the doorless
chamber, and found himself in another apart-
ment beneath it, and alone.

This room was dark, but he could feel the fur—
niture it contained, and he was on the point of
trying to open a door, when it seemed to open of
its own accord, and he fell back with a sharp
exclamation.

The woman—Violet the Death-Flower-stood
before him once morel

“ How did you like the upper story !” she asked
with a smile, leaning toward Billy.

The young beagle laughed.

“ I believe I would sooner live on board the
Centipede.”

The woman started.

“She knows Captain .Ortiz,” said the boy to
himself. “ This woman is in the pay of the gang
and has her orders.”

Violet, who had turned on the gas, stood off
and looked closely at Billy Winks.

“ You’re in the secret, aren’t you?” he asked.

“ In what secret?”

“ Why, in the one that puzzles the police. You
know something about Tom Wagner.”

“ W by, you little rascal, you must think I
am into everything,” was the quick retort, and
the young detective saw the woman bending
over him with flashing eyes.

“ I don’t say that, but a woman who is con-
nected in any way with Simon Slyboots is like-
ly to be into a good many things not exactly
straight.”

“ Do you think so?” and she laughed again.

It seemed to Billy that Violet was getting in
better humor and he also thought he could do-
tect a fear of something in her tone.

“ Don’t you know that they have their hands
over Simon’s head, that they can drop onto
him whenever they want to, and when they do,
don’t you see that they will take all connected
with the scheme?”

She did not speak.

“ They will even rake in the Cuban captain,
who is the real head of the plot against the

b0
3 What boy?”

 

“ Tom Wa ner, old Gregg’s grandson, for
whom the po ice are looking now, though they
are not as shrewd as some others who real]
hold the thread of the puzzle in their hands.’

“ Are you one of those?” asked Violet.

Billy smiled knowingly.

“If I am I was sharp enough to leave what I
know in the hands of somebody else before I be-
came your captive. You did not think 1 would
come into this trap without having some one
else on guard, ready to let the cat out of the bag
if I got into trouble?”

The look that had come into Violet’s eyes was
a comical one, yet it gave the Boy Shadower
some hope.

“ When they are all pulled in what will you
do. Violet?” he asked.

No answer. -

“Won’t you look fine behind the ten of dia—
monds, when you could have remained here and
been as free as a bird in the forest?"

“ Look here,” and the hand of the woman
clutched Billy VVinks’s arm. “I know what
you are trying to do; you want to get out of here
the worst kind, and you are trying to frighten
me into letting you out. It’s as plain as the
nose on your face, but I am not the person to
open the door contrary to orders.”

“ Just as you like. Iain in your powsr, but
all the time the hands of the clock of fate are
moving, and you must not complain if, when
they reach a certain point, they pronounce your
doom.”

“ What will it be?”

“ What do you think it ought to be after serv-
ing Captain Ortiz and Simon Slyboots?”

There was a shar cry from the woman’s
throat, and she fell ack and looked into Billy
Winks’s eyes.

“ It won’t be aflne house and a big parlor,” he
remarked.

“ Come, you can’t hoodwink me.”

“ I don’t want to. I am only giving you little
bits of truth, and if you don’t want to accept
them, why, I am through. You can’t win this
game. The boy is missing, but we know who
took him off; we know with whom he walked
out of the Park the night he vanished, and don’t
you think we have- been on the trail long
enough to have an idea where he is?”

The next moment a bell tinkled over the Wo-
man’s head, and she turned to the hall.

Billy heard her there a moment, and then fol-
lowed the shutting of a door.

In another instant the creature game back,
excitement in her eyes, and springing toward
him she seized his wrist and jerked him across
the floor.

“You have told the truth, but they slia’n’t
find you when they come in!” she cried.

Billy drew back, but the hand of Violet was
too strong for him, and he was dragged into an-
other room and down a flight of steps, as if some
infernal power clothed the woman’s muscles.

All at once a key clicked iii alock and as a
door opened he was thrown forwar . and the
last words he heard Were:

“I guess you’ll have company in there. Go
and see.”

Billy Winks fell upon his face, but rose and
stood in the dark till he heard a voice.

“ W be are you .3” asked the voice he heard.

The young ferret of Gotham started forward,
but brought up against a cot which he could feel
in the dark.

“I am here, and have been ever since I fell
into the trap they set for me. I am Tom Wag-
iiei', the lost boy for whom I guess grandfather
is looking in every hole and corner of the city.”

The words took Billy Winks’s breath, and for
some moments he could only press the hand he
had found, and could not use his tongue.

“ You seem to be a boy like myself.”

“ I am,” said the boy ferret, at last. “ I am
Billy Winks. You know we used to meet in the
Park—”

“ I remember you. But how came you here?”

“ I made a trap and walked into it. I am
looking for you—"

“ And you have found me! What is the news
outside? How is Grandfather Gregg?”

Billy did not answer.

“ I guess it’s all over with him,” continued the
lost boy of the avenue. “He was near death’s
door when they sprung the trap on me. I have
been here, I can‘t tell h0w long, for I can’t reck-
on time in this place. Simon Slyboots is at the
head of the plot, and he is the man who netted
me.”

“Netted you for Captain Ortiz!”

“ You may know more than I do,” said Tom.
“You once told me that you sometimes hunted
{18303.13 down and turned them over to the po-

08.

 

“ I do that yet, and when I get out of here I.
will have some lively Work.”

“When you get out, ch? Do you expect to

get out of this place?”

-“ \Vhy not? I have never been in a trap that
I did not get out and make somebody sweat for
springing it on me.”

“You’ve got the kind of grit I like, and of
course I will do my share of the business, but it
seems to me that we are two rats in a cage, and
that the key has been lost.”

Billy left the young heir and went to tin
door.

“ 1 was hustled (10wn here in a way that told
me that some one dangerous to the gang had
diSCovcred the trap. I was in the high roon:
and managed to signal a man on a porch, but I
can’t say what I accomplished.”

“They brought me here at once. Simon Sly»
boots turned me over to the tigress called Vio-
let, and I have been in her. power ever since.”

Suddenly a noise startled both boys.

In an instant they were on their feet, on!
were listening with all ears.

“ I will stand my ground, and the two are m-
safe here as at the bottom of the riverl” said a
voice. “1 have locked the door for the last
time, and when I quit the house it will never
open to let any one out."

That was all.

The voice ceased, and in the awful silence
Billy Winks and Tom Wagner heard the heat-
ing of their own hearts.

CHAPTER XIII.
THE IRON KEY.

IF the boys shut up in the dark place belong—
ing to the old house could have looked beyond
the door of their prison, they would have seen
and recognized the speaker.

It was Violet, the Death—Flower, and she faced
a man who looked in the demi-glooni very like
Simon Slyboots, the oily rascal of the city of
mysteries.

“That’s all right,” said Sinzon, with a grin.
“ All you have to do is to carry out your words
and keep a still tongue in your head. I haVe
finished With my employer for the present,
though I am by no means done with him.”

Violet walked away with Simon, looking up
into his face until they had gained a lighted
room when she sprung forward and caught his
arm.

“ I’ll take my pay now,” she said.

In an instant Simon Slyboots was gazing into
her face.

“ Your pay?” he echoed with a derisive smile.
“ I’d like to know what you’ve earned.”

“ What haven’t I earned?” said the woman.
“ I have been the slave of the whole plot and now
when I ask for my wages, I am laughed at and
by you, the last man who ought to be guilty of
that.”

“It seems to me you’re Very cool about this:
affair. I told you that I would see that you
were paid and I intend to.”

“ The game is out and I am waiting for what
is coming to me," and Violet held out her hand.

“ I am going to keep still, and that is pay
enough, I think.”

The look that the startled creature shot Simon
Slyboots was almost enough to shock him.

“ Is that my pay?” -

“ Isn’t it enough?”

“ What if I shouldn’t keep as still as you say
you intend to l”

“ You don’t think of giving the snap away, do

on?”

“ There is no telling what a woman will do.”

Simon laughed again and in her face.

“ I am goin away. I want to get as far from
New York as can. I want to put seas between
me and the door back there. I want to live in
such a manner as not to think of the past which
I am leaving behind.”

“ \Vcll, live as you please; it’s all one to me.”

Violet looked at him, and then came on With
her hands shut.

“I am desperate, Simon Slyboots. You have
made me as desperate a creature as this occurs-
ed city shelters. I have served you and your
master, the Cuban; I know what has been done,
and I have been a part of the game. I hays
played jailer, and played it well. Without me
you could not have succeeded, and the boy
would not be now a lost heir to half a million.
Give me enough to get away on. I won’t ask
anything more.”

Simon Slyboots, with a look that seemed to
freeze the beholder, shrugged his shoulders in an
insulting manner, and smiled provokingly.

“ Don’t you intend to give me my pay t”

“How much do you want?”

“ Five hundred.’

 

   

“Mm

. -‘....ma

 

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Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

11.

 

 

   

“ Heavens! I’m no millionaire. You must
think I’m a bank president, or the owner of a
Stock Exchange.”

“ But think what you get from Captain Ortiz,
without taking half the risks I have. ’

1 “’You don’t know that he is to pay me a dol-
ar. ‘

“ You don’t help men for nothing.”

“ I don’t, eh? I reckon I know what I get, if
anything, and here you want five hundred
merely for keeping the key to a certain door. I

_ guess not!” and he ran his hands into the depths

of his pockets and shook his head.

Just as he turned toward the door, Violet‘s
hand closed suddenly on his shoulder, and he
was jerked back into the middle of the room.

“ 1 can go away without pay,” she said, and
there was a desperate glare in her eyes. “ I
know where the river is.”

“ Well, go to it, then!”

He looked at her with a malicious eye and
opened the door.

“Let me say one thing before we part," he
went on. “ If you ever do anything looking to-
ward giving the snap into the hands of the
cops, I want to say here that you will wish you
had never seen the steeples of New York. Do it
if on dare!”

e shut the door in her face and went out.

Violet stood in the room for a moment, and
seemed to listen to his steps till the sound of
them died away.

“Have I helped them for this?” she cried.
“ He has received thousands for his share of the
work, and I have made success certain. What
did he do, anyhow? He decoyed the boy from
home, brought him to my house, and I have
acted as his Jailer, keeping him out of sight, and
the whole city believes him dead. Then, I kept
the boy ferret in the trap when he came on a.
mission which, if successful, would render the
play abortive, and here, when I ask for enough
to take me from the scenes of my life, I am re-
fused, even laughed at.” ~

She clinched her hands while she spoke, and
when she had finished she went to the window
and stood there some time, looking out upon the
street through the shutters.

“I could go and tell all. Then I could go
back and unlock the door which stands between
the boys and liberty. But I wou‘d have to put
many miles between me and Captain Ortiz and
his men. I would be hunted as mercilessly as
ever wolf was hunted. 1 know what they are—-
Simon Slyboots is one of the coolest cu t—throats
living, and Beck Sloper but little better. What
shall I do?”

She walked across the room, and seemed to
have made up her mind.

In another moment she was at the door lead-
ing to the steps that took one to the chamber
tensnted by Billy Winks and Tom Wagner.

“Are you going to let the rats out?” said a
voice behind her.

Violet turned as if a serpent had hissed at her
heels.

Near by, grinning from ear to ear, stood
Simon Slybootsl

“ What, have you come back ?” cried the wom-

. “ I thought you had gone away.”

“But I thought I would drop ack and see
how you were getting along.”

There was no reply for a moment, and the
half-frightened creature watched him with her
foot at the dungeon'door.

“ Listen,” said Billy Winks to his companion
in the dark. “ The woman, Violet, is out there
once more, and she is talking to some one.”

The boys were at the threshold, and their
eagerness was somethmgstartling.

“ Give me the key.” Bald Simon Slyboots.

“ I am jailer still.”

“No, you are discharged from this moment.
Give me the key l” ,

Violet felt in her pocket and grasped the iron
kevahich held the youm’. friends 1" durance.

ith a Word which the boys could not. com-
preheml. she threw it at Simon’s feet. and the
rattle of the iron on the stones was distinctly
heard.

“You wanted five hundred, I believe,”con-
tinned the sharp. ” There, tnke that.”

Violet stooped and picked up a roll of hills
which he had tossed at her feet, but the next mo-
ment they were in his face.

“It is three hundred short,” she cried. “I
want five hundred or nothing.”

Simon coolly transferred the money to his
pocket and at the same time secreted the iron

8 D
xGood-by,” said he with a laugh. “ You can
get away whenever yen Want to g0. You know
the road out of this house. But, as I have said,
beware!”

 

She nodded and looked after him with a sav-
age gleam under her long lashes and he went
whistling up the corridor till he disappeared.

Scarcely bad be gone when Violet threw her-
self against the heavy door.

“ Are you in there i” she asked.

“ Of course we’re here,” answured Billy Winks.

“ Well, you won’t stay very long. I am going
to see that both of you get out.”

“ That’s clever and we will see in return that
you lose nothing by your act.”

“ I don’t ask anything. I won’t expect to be
protected even. I am tired of serving a nest of
scoungrels and I want to see them lose the
prize.

She went off before either of the boys could
reply and they were left again in darkness with
no sounds of any sort to reach their ears.

Violet gained the street and hurried off.

There was an eagerness in her step and a cer-
tain whiteness to her face that boded evil to
Simon Slyboots and his game.

She did not trust herself to the cars, but walk-
ed on and on and at last turned into Mulberry
street.

Her last turn told of her destination. She
knew where the police station was.

“ In a few moments you will be unmasked,
Simon Slyboots,” she said half aloud. “I am
desperate and you have dared me. I will get out
of this infamous affair, even though it gets me
into prison. Captain Ortiz, who has won thou-
sands, may pay you, but you refuse to pay me
and the whole gang shall suffer. ”

In another five minutes’ walk she would have
reached the station, but some one was on her
track.

Violet looked back in time to see the hand that
descended upon her shoulder, and before she
could spring from beneath it, it fell with the
)ower of a trip-hammer.

“Going to give the snap away, were you?”
cried the owner of the hand. “ I LXIH‘SS you Will
come with me,”and as she was pulled back she
tried but vainly to articulate a single word,

Peer Violotl She was in the clutches of as
cool a villain as evor played a bold hand for big
stakes, and before she found her tongue she was
half a block back and the glowingr eyes of Simon
Slyboots were looking triumphantly into her
face.

There was no doubt that the rascal had fol-
lowed her from the house and had watched his
opportunity.

 

CHAPTER XIV.
AN orronrunn ARRIVAL.

MEANTIMF‘. Jim, Mother Magog’s son, was
again looking for Billy Winks, whom he had
lost for the second time.

Jim knew the city, and as he had an inkling
that Captain Ortiz was In ing his plans for the
final capturing of old regg’s money, he was
very anxious to discover the boy detective, for,
with their heads together, he was sure that he
and Billy could hutch out a plan that would
baffle the plotters. '

But one thing u as against Jim, and this was
his unen viable record.

He was no angel by any manner of means, but
he did not conceal this, though there were sever-
al crimes which only Simon Slybcots knew about
and this knowledge had been the club which the
rascal had held over his head for months.

But now Jim had a counter-club for, as we
know. he had preserVed the letter which, in
reality. had frightened old man Gregg to death,
and it was ready to come forth whenever occa-
smn should require,

,It hal’PPned that Jim was on the street when
Simon was leading Violet‘ofi.’ in triumph, and
56mm! ,thlaa be resolved to follow the pair.

If Simon Slybootg had seen the young man,
there nnizht have been a change of Play, but 110
kept so well in shadow that he was not Seen at
an, and succeeded in following Simon and his
charge to a house, which was the same one from
which Violet had fled.

Jim watched the place till he grew tired, and
as no one came Out, he fell to Wondering what
had taken place.

At last, bower, the door opened and the sleek
rascal came out, and after having been follOWed
some distanCe, was joined by Captain Ortiz, and
the two adjourned to a drinking-place which
Jim, with his hat pulled over his eyes, entered
on a mission of investigation.

Captain Ortiz was leaning over a small dark
table talking earnestly to Simon, who was listen-
")95 VGI'V closely.

The uban Captain was agitated.

H 1v

xou’ll become more excited than you are

 

now as the game goes on,” remarked Jim in an
undertone. “ You must have made a sudden
discovery that everything isn’t going along inst
as you would like to have it. Just wait till I’ve
found Billy \Vinksund we get our noggins to—
gether. Then look a little out, Captain Ortiz.”

Jim did not get to hear very much, and when
the two came out of the saloon they almost
cspied him, and would have done so if he had not
dodged behind a luau.

Captain Ortiz looked more hopeful when he
came out of the place than he had when be en-
tered it, nml Simon was whistling a merry tune
as if chI'y thing was niovmg along to suit him.

The Cuban walked oil”, followed by Jim, who
wanted to see where he went, and in time he had
him run down in a house where, as I’edron Ja-
rillo, he had rooms.

The captain found several letters on his table
when he entered the room on the second floor,
and one of these he took up with more haste
than the others. .

“ By Jove! this is the very hour named in this
letter, and I wonderif he will come,” he exclaim-
ed aloud. _ .

There wasa heavy step on the stair Just be—
yond the room, and before he could prevent the
entrance of any one the door opened and an old
man came in.

“ I guess I’m on time, ain’t I?” said this person
who was no one else than Timothy Turk, Tom
Wagner’s eccentric relative.

Captain Ortiz glared at him like a Cuban cat.
but (lid not Ipeak.

“You got my letter, I see, nndfl thought I
would be punctual.”

“ But I have not consented to the interview.”

“But we will have it all the iuunev-J’

Captain Ortiz broke the sentence with an oath,
and waved his yellow hand toward the door.

“Shut the door, ob? Of course. Now we are
alone and I will make my business known. You
are l’edron J nrillo’l”

"I am.”

“You will soon take possession of the estate
left by Napoleon Gregg as being the person next
to Tom Wagner in the will. The boy is a relav
five of mine, and I represent him here.”

" You do!"

“ That’s what I do, and I am glad to be able
to do so.”

The old man talked with emphasis, under
which the man from Cuba hit his lip.

“ I want to know where Tom is.”

The seeming absurdity of the words caused
Captain Ortiz to burst into a fit of laughter.

“Look here, old follow, I am in no mood for
joking, and you will have to excuse "'0 to-day."

Timothy ank’s features did not change.

“I am not joking. I never joke at all, and if
you don’t like my language, you will have to put
up with it while I am here.”

“ Go on.”

Perhaps Captain Ortiz thought that the more
he humorcd the old innii the sooner he would get
shut of him, and so be allowed him to proceed.

“ In the first place. I am one of the few who
don’t believe Tom Vl’agnerdcad,” he went on.
” The boy is the victim of a plot, and I think_i
know one or two people who are concerned in
it.”

“That’s good. Why don’t you take your in-
formation to the pollen?”

“ I’m not quite ready for that yet.” V

“And )‘ou have concluded to consult me in-
stead?”

“ Just so.”

Captain Ortiz glanced at the unopened letters,
and waited for the old man to [10 0“-

“ While the boy lives you can’t get your hands
on the property,” he said. I

“ That’s not troubling me one whit.”

“You will have to prove that Tom Wagner
is dead—”

“ That will not be hard to do, I am sorry to
say, from a certain point of view.”

“You mean that you are sorry for the boy's
sake?"

u Yes.” \ I

“ You once did Napoleon Gregg a service in
Cuba?” ”

“ I got him a wife there—Tom’s mother.

“ Yes. You seemed wry anxious to have the
match come ofl' just as if you looked ahead to
something of this sort.”

The Cuban’s face grew very dark for a mo-
ment.

“ Now, my dear captain, what would you say
if 1, Timothy Turk, were to tell the story of the
loss of the Fleetwing, and bow a_duel was fought
between you and her captain in your elegant
orange grove?” _

“I would say that it would be money in your
pockets, for, us I am one of the lions of the

 

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12

Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

hour, the newspapers are anxious to get all the
aeWS they can about me, and they would allow
you so much per column for the narrative."

The very coolness of the Cuban was perplex-
ing and eccentric Timothy Turk. could not over-
look it. _

“ I guess I’m about through,” he smd, leav-
ing his chair and retreating to the door with his
eyes riveted upon the man from Cuba.

Ortiz drew a breath of relief.

“ No, hold on a minute! I forgot something.
You haven’t told me Where Tom is.”

“ What if I should say I didn’t know?"

“ Then I, the last of the Turks, would say de-
liberately that Captain Ortiz lied.”

A flush of brightness came instantly to he
Cuban captain’s cheek, and he started reward
the old man, but suddenly checked himself.

“I guess you will tell me before you touch
me," cried old Timothy, suddenly drawing a re-
volver and thrusting it into Captain Ortiz’s face.

Taken aback by this sudden display of war,
the man from the tropics stopped and looked
into Timothy’s face over the leveled pistol.

“You know, for one of your minions took him
off,” continued Timothy Turk. “ I have no
compunctions, none at all, and would as soon
blow out your brains as those of a pig.”

His look confirmed these words, and the eyes
that glared behind the six-slimter told Captain
Ortiz that he must be dealing with a crazy man.

“ I am going to count three, and if at the end
of the count I haven’t been told where Tom
Wagner is, I will proceed to give the coroner of
New York a job.”

The breath of the Cuban came fast.

“ I shall begin without any further ceremony,
so here I go. One—7’

Captain Ortiz lookel toward the door for he
was almost sure he had caught the sound of
footsteps there.

“This weapon carries six bullets, captain. I
am going to find Tom or turn the man who is
playing such a cool hand into a lead mine, I am.

wo__i

The door opened.

On the threshold stood the tall figure of Reck
Sloper who had not dropped in for the purpose
of rescuing any one in particular, but on ii mis-
sion calculated to replenish his pockets through
the blackmailer’s arts.

He took in the situation at a glance, but did
not stir.

“Stand where you are! I am running this
thing,” said Timothy Turk with a mad glance at
the new-comer.

-Captiin Ortiz’s eyes made an appeal which
was hard to resist. Perhaps Mr. Sloper thought
that should Timothy press the trigger, a. certain
source of revenue would vanish, and in a mo-
ment, with more courage than he had ever dis-
played, be bounded across the room, knocked the
revolver into the air and threw the old man
against the wall.

It was like the sudden swoop of a thunder-

t.

Captain Ortiz Seized Slopcr’s hand and looked
into his eye.

“ I Won’t forget this,”
worth—”

“ About five thousand,” finished the money
shark.

“ Both of you are wrong," put in old Timothy
who was picking himself up in one corner. “ It
will 0085 you a term in Sing Sing if not a jig on
the gallows,” and before either could detain him
he had sprung across the room and was gone.

he. said. “It is

 

CHAPTER XV.
LIFE IN A LION’S DEN.

Wm Ruck Sloper left the room occupied by
Captain Oriiz he considered himself richer by
several thousands than he was when he crossed
its threshhold.

He had been the means of saving the Cuban’s
life from the pistol of Timothy Turk who would
havu pressed the trigger if the man from the
tropics had not given him the information he
was after.

Sloper, who lacked the ero'ness displnyed by
Simon Slyboots, was wiihul it man of some mod
points, and he was soon far from the scene of his
advanture in search of his friend Simon to
whom he was eager to detail his exiiloit.

If he had turned his face in another direc—
tion he might have ran across tWo boys sneak-
ing through the shadows of New York, the one
in advance being our friend Billy Winks and his
companion long-lost Tom Wagner who once
more found himself on the sin is of the city.

To alt a long story short, iolet had opened

I

the door of their prison and they were making
their way toa place where the boy ferret was
unkious that Tom should hide for a time.

Tney reached this place which turned out to

be Molly Murks’s little home, and there the 10st
boy heir was made as comfortable as possible.

“ I am out of the trap and now the ratcaioher
will have to look out,” said Billy W inks. “ The
first thing 1 shall turn my attention to will be
the looming of the captain’s house, but I. don’t
think that will be difficult.”

The following day Billy, looking over a news-
paper while he was “ tnking u. snip,” us he called
it, in the cheap restaurant he patronized, saw a
notice in the “want Column ” that rivoted his
gaze.

“I wonder if I Could get myself up so as to
hoodwink the hawk from Cuba,” he thought,
reading the notice for the second time. “ it is
risky, but worth trying, for it would give me an
insight into the very workings of the plot,
though, if I should be discovered, it wouldn’t go
very smoothly with yours truly.”

.Billy laid the paper down and went home.

Jim had been there looking for him, as he
found Out, and a note lying on the table, Jim
having tossed it over the transom, told him that,
unless he found him elsewhere, ho (Jim) would
return that. night.

“ I’ll play my new band and then run the
chances, ’ remarked Billy.

At ten o’clock a boy who did not look in the
least like the young ferret of New York present-
ed himself at the door of the house occupied by
Ca tain Ortiz.

he door was opened by a young woman who
asked him in, and in a moment he found himself
on the inside.

“Don’t look very much like a lion’s den. but
that’s what it is,” mutlered the boy detective,
taking in the scene that presented itself.

Just then he heard footsteps and in a second
Captain Ortiz, in smoking jacket, made his up-
pearanec.

The captain of the Centipede looked at the
boy and then nodded good-naturedly.

“ You’re the tenth I’ve had already,” said he.

“ Then I’m lucky, for it’s queer you haven’t
had ten hundred.”

Captain Ortiz told the young ferret to enter
a. room alongside the hall and wait for him
wihich he did and in a little while found himself
a one.

The Cuban was not out of sight very long
and when he came sauntering in he had changed
his apparel and looked more like his old self.

“I want a boy,” he began, crossing his legs
and taking a. cigar from an open box on the
table. “ You may have heard < f me. 1 am he-
sieged by cranks. They have bren calling ever
since the rascally papers have tulzl them that I
live here. You see I have been kicked into a
fortune, and they come to me thinking lhat
what comes easily will depart as easy, and that
I stand here all the time with my purse strings
open, ready to fill the pockets of every Tom,
Dick and Harry who calls.”

“ That’s just like some people, and you want a
boy who can tell a crank when he Sees one and
who will not let them inside?”

“ That’s it exactly. The girl who opened the
door to you won’t do at all. She thinks it her
duty to let everybod in and she religiously
olwys her Sweet will. on know the city?”

“ I ought to.”

“ Born here?’

“ Yes.”

“ Name?”

“ Nod Henley.”

“ Well, Master Henley, I guess you will do.
The job Won’t be a very long one, for I expect
to move to other quarters in a few days and
then I will be among people who don’t allow
cranks within a stone’s throw of their homes.”

And so Billy Winks found himself in the em-
.Iuy of the very man who had hissed a jaguar
u “111 ltiin.

He realized that he was in “ the lion’s den,” as
he (alled it, that if he was suspected, he Would
be in a predicament to which even the confine-
munt of the top Mom of the strange house would
boa pleasure, but he had Wrighed eveiything
hef re coming to the place, and he was prepared
to take the Consequences.

If the discuiw held out he was safe; if it failed,
his life might pay the penalty.

He had hnrolv taken his place when the bell
Sent its tones through the house and Billy an-
swered the ring.

A man smod on the step.

“ We ain’t giving our wealth away,” said
Billy. shutting the door in the man’s face and
watching his lips curl with scorn as he turned

 

away.

 

 

“Who was it, Ned?” asked Captain Ortiz,
coming into the hall.

“ One of the Crank family, and I sent him
off before he could get his request in. I don’t
know whether he wasnn orphnii or some agent
for the Senegumbian Society; but he didn’t get
a cent all the same, and off he went.”

Buck Went Billy to the little room where he
was to answer the bell and the long hours begun
to pass.

The interior of the house shut oil" from the
rays of the sun, was quite dark and the room
cool.

Billy knew that Captain Ortiz was in the ad-
joining rOom, for a subtle perfume of tobacco
stole into the chamber he occupied and he re-
solved to be on his guard.

The long day waned and the shadows of night
(381110.

He thought of Jim, and longed to have an in-
terview \\ ith Mother MagOg’s son.

“ I am here on duty and can’t steal out and
see Jim,” said the boy detective. “ I will have
to see him another time, for if I keep my post
here I will win. Something will come to me
hero and I will pick up the claw I want.

Suddenly the bell rung and be bounded from
his chair and sprung into the hull.

As he entered he saw the door open and a man
appeared to him.

Simon Slybootsl

The young detective knew him on sight, and
when the tall form of the rascal came forward
Billy dodged back into the room and let him go
on to Captain Ortiz.

He heard the door lending to the Cuban’s
room open and shut and master and man
were together.

Billy moved over to the door between the
rooms, and prepared to take mental notes of
the interview.

Captain Ortiz was surprised to see. Simon
there at that h or, and the first words dropped
by the sleek t0ol startled him.

“ What made you threaten the girl?” asked
Simon.

Captain Ortiz laughed.

“ Cont‘ound her, she don’t know a good thing
when she sees it,” he exclaimed. “ But who told
you that I have had an interview with Molly
Marks?”

“ I hear a good many things,” answered
Simon, in an off—hand manner. “She might
have been won over, but now it is too late, un-
less a good band is employed.”

“ That means ‘ hire me; I am the good hand,’ ”
said Billy, under his breath. “This man is a
gold-eater. He is money-hungry all the time,
and now is trying to bleed the captain before
he has had a chance to get his hands upon the
estate for which be has played his cards.”

“ Do you know Molly Marks, Simon?”

“ Don’t I? If you had come to me some time
ago and intimated so and so, I could have ar-
ranged this thing to your satisfaction, and you’
need not have had a riff with the girl. You
know how she lost her father?”

C ptain Ortiz said “Yes,” and then Simon
went fll‘ :

“You see she more than half believes that
the Fleetwing wasn’t lost, as at first reported,
but that a. duel was fought by her captain and
a certain Cuban gentleman, and that her father
was mortally Wounded.”

“ She as good as told me so.”

“You werca litPle too fast, captain.”

There was a moment’s silence, when the voice
of Simon Slyboots was heard again:

“You’ve got a boy, I noticed, when I came
in?"

“Got him through the papers, to give the
cranks the bounce, and he seems to fill the Lil].”

“He made himself source when he caught
Sight of me. I guess he saw I wouldn’t stand
any of his foolismiess, and concluded to let me
puSs. About the some sum of the boy I stopped
from tracking us. He was really dangerous,
captain, but it‘s all O. K. MW, and we don’t
have to look Ililf'k when we are abroad.”

It was an hour before the interview ended
and the footsteps of Simon Slyboots went toward
the door.

Billy Winks did not escort him out, but stood
near the door, more than half fearing that some
sudden impulse to look at him would take posses-
sion of Simon’s noggin; but he was agreeably
disappointed, and when he heard the door close
on the figure of the oily villain of the streets he
breathed free once more.

Verilv life in a “lion’s den” was somewhat
exciting. ,

“Nothing risked nothing gained,” said the
boy ferret. “I am here for business, and here
I will stay till I am ready to go back to Jim.”

Q

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

/

 
  

 v. .  ... _ .. - . .. .. -. .u . - ....

13

 

Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

CHAPTER XVI.
AN EXCITED RASCA'L.

MORE than once, Mother Mugog’s son cauaht
himsle wondering what had become of Billy
Winks. the boy detective.

He did not know that he had entered the em-
ploy of the most dangerous man of the whole
gang, Captain Ortiz himself, and if he had dis-
covered this he would have feared for Billy’s
safety.

Meantime the young ferret had his eyes open
and was watching every move made by the cap-
tain of the Centipede.

He knew that discovery meant danger, and he
was resolved not to let such an event take place.

Captain Ortiz was so puffed up with the suc-
cess he had achieved, that he was relaxnin his
watchfnlness, and Billy observed this with a
good deal of secret satisfaction.

Tom Wagner, awaiting the course of events at

Molly Mark's house, was foruiinga friendship
which promised to become permanent. The sew-
in -girl told him her history as she knew it, and
led him to have a deeper seated hatred for the
Cuban who had played such a bold game against
him.
The night after Billy’s adventure with Simon
Slyboots, in Captain Ortiz’s house, Tom and
Holly Were in the little sewing~room occupied by
the girl when a rap sounded on the dour.

In an instant the boy sprung behind a curtain
that hung across one corner of the place, while
Molly slowly opened the door to her visitor.

What was her surprise when the artful Simon
presented himself!

The rascal was gotten up in style, and when he
bowed to the girl, there was a sleek smile on his
newly-shaven face.

“I thought I would call on a matter of busi-
ness,” said he, crnesing his long legs complacent-
li. “ YOU 56“, Miss Molly, I have an inkling of
t e fate of our father, an eyent that happened
10m; 320. s it true that he was lost at sea in
his vessel?"

Molly l inked at him, wondering what interest
he could be taking in her private affairs.

. “ I can not see how the event, saying that it is
true, can interest you," she began when he stop-
ped her.

“I beg your pardon, but it does all the same.
I am anxious to get at the truth for, though
years haVe pasSed and the vessel and its gallant
souls are at the bottom of the sea, we may make
discoveries that will put a new face on the mat—
ter.”

“Do you mean to say that the story of the
Fleetwmg, as it has been told so often, may not
be the true one!"

“ Stranger things than that have happened.”

Molly told as much of the story as she knew,
but leftout anv reference to her father’s duel
with Captain Ortiz on the latter’s plantation.

Simon Slyboots listened with a smile at his

When he was gone, Tom Wagner came from

'behind the curtain and said:

“ That Vlllfiln has a motive in all he does, and
he wanted to hear your story for the purp )88 of
blackmailing some one.”

“There is in doubt of in, and who would he
blackmail but Captain Ortiz?”

“The ""l‘)’ man] I wonder What has become
of Billy Winks? The boy ought to know of this
Visit; B” 0"” futll‘mn til“ man’s duplicity, and
I am anxuous to get back into the 0... “WW.”

“ But you won’t risk )'Olll‘~x¢.]f on we Street
while these own are in the gunk?"

“ I must   don’t Sillin (‘,[)1np__ I “yunt to
spring the trap on Captain Ortiz and his ftiondg‘
and it, can‘t he done Without the boy detectives

help.” I _ _
‘ I am for KINDS“, mm t'l‘e $1917 0" the catch,‘
said Molly, with a glow of pride. “ Billy \Vinks

'is worth his weight in go“, ("NI 1 am proud of

the boy."

To this 'l‘om assented,_and the two talker] (m
about the man Who had J‘ht left. and_were cuti-
Vassing the dark scheme that Was being played
when Molly’s uncle came in. _

Simon Slvmors went back to his rooms and
threw himself into a. chair with R lllllIZ".

.“ HO! I have another hold on him. ' That was
9- IHCICY Visit I made to the girl. I will hold him
tight With the new rope, and it “ill be worth a.
good many thousands lit-f. re 1 let go.”

The foil or was in his Moment. and he smoked
ha” a “01’- ‘” chars ovor his thoughts.

Ye§~ hc had another hold mi the man he “‘nS
bleedlnc; he could pull Captain Ortiz’i l‘ursei
String” "ml draw from the purse itself more
money for his needs.

Presently in came his partner, Ruck Sloper,
and the moment Simon saw the face hefore him
he knew “but Something had happened.

 

Sloper took a chair, and with the sullenuess of
a beaten wolf, said in hoarse tones:

“I guess we’re in for it, now.
out of the trap.”

“ Out. of what trap?" cried Simon, starting in
spite, of himself.

“ Why, out of the cellar in the old house—the
house once occupied by Violet.”

For a moment there was no reply.

“I mean every word I say, for I have been
there and seen for thyself,” was the answer. “ I
had a drcani that would not let me rest one mo-
ment. until 1 had investigated, and so I went to
the spot and found the rats gone.”

“ And Violet?”

“ , f course; she wasn’t there waiting for
me.‘

The clinched hand of Simon Slyboots came
dewn upon the table with emphasis.

“ A ihoustiml curSes upon the head of that
woman!” he cried.

“ That Won’t mcnd matters. I am going.”

A sneer curled the lips of Slyboots.

“ Cowards always run of! and leave the brave
to fight the battle single-handed,” he Buid.

Reck Sloper looked at his old companion.

“You and the captain ought; to be "big to
take care of the game as it is now," he replied.
“ I have something to live for-”

“ A neck to save, eh?”

“Just as you think,” grinned Beck. “ Since
you have said it, my neck is as dear to me as
anything: I possess. I don’t want to look out
from behind bars for I’m a young: man yet.”

“Of course. Mr. Slopcr, there is the door.
You can no!"

R.ch Slopcl' fell back, looking at his Old part],
and reached the portal before he spoke again.

“Good-by, Simon,” he said.

No answer.

“I wish you success, but, of course, I can't
help you.”

In an instant Simon Slyboots was on his feet,
and his eyes Were flashing lire.

“Get out of the house, or by the holy stars!
I won’t answer for what takes place,” he roared.
” I have put up “llll your coivardice long;
enough, and the wonder is you hew-n‘t betrayed
me to the cops before (Ill-‘7.”

“I don’t do that. Chh’t you give a fellow
credit for some virtues? Good-by, Simon.”

Sloper shut the door in Simon’s lace and went.
d0wn stairs.

“ Escaped? That may not he trim. but if it is
they could not have got out without the conniv-
BHCe of Violet. That. woman did not look at the
when no parted for nothing.  thought I saw
wickedness in her eye, and this is what she has
done." _

He put on his hat and followed Sloper to the
street. . .

I'Ie glided under the lampS, keeping in the
shadows of the buildings as much as possible
I‘lflltil he reached the house formerly occupied by

in let.

Opening the door with a key which he took
from his pocket, he went in and made his way to
the dungeon where he had left the young cup-
tives, Billy and Tom. ,

It was locked as usual, but when he opened it
and looked into the darkness ahead, a chill
swept to his heart.

The very silence told him that the birds had
escaped.

“1 Will get even with her! I think I know
Wb"|'e to find the truitress,” be ci'onlcd. “Sl‘e
C’In’b {let out of the reach of my arm, no mutlcr
where she goes. Ali! won’t I have vengeance
for this?”

Hc mrf‘ back with his anger at white heat.
He left the house, locking the doors Ili‘hlllil him.
and did not breathe freo'again until he was on
the street. ‘

An hour later he was standing: on the sidewalk
100M"; closely at a certain house.

u She nsod to come to this house when she got
out, of the “III place for a, spell. Hpr sister 0“ n-
erl it when sh“ dim, and I believe left it to her.
But I will see.”

The ht ur “ as not Vel‘v late, and he rang the
lu-ll that sent a musical tinkle through the hull.

A woman’s I809 flDlN’aI'cd at the threshold. and
catching a glimpse of it. Simon forced his body
into the house and stood bcl‘o-e Violot,

He had found the woman who had betrayed
hIllI.

“ Heavens! you?" cried the woman, whose fur-e
was it lute. '

“ Why not? Did you expect to escape me? I
would have followed you to the en s of the
world. I am here to demand an explanation,
and then to punish,”

For a moment there was no reply.

“ I could not see them die in that trap—”

The rats are

 

“When did you get chicken-hearted!" broke
in Simon. “ I always thought you had a heart
of stone.”

To this there was no reply, but the next mo-
ment the door at the end of the, hall (melted and
a tall, muscular foniulc came forward.

“Gm-at (Snider’s ghostl” exclaimed Simon,
falling back. “ i did not look for you hem."

“I guess not, but i am here all the same.
Stand where you urc,SimOn Slyboots I aunt
to talk to you.”

He kept his place, for the speaker caught him
by the shoulder, and with his vaunted cturage
oozinpr out at his finger ends, he looked up into
the face of Mother Magog.

CIlAPl ER XVII.
THE DEAD COMES BACK.

SHUT up in the house occupied b Ca tain
Oitiz, tho cool head of the plot, B' ly inks
found a good deal to occupy his time.

He had to kt-ep his eyes open, and 0t one
movemeiitof the captain escaped him.

Or course he could not follow the Cuban upon
the street—that was not his business—but he
could uatch those who came to sce him and take
all the mental notes he could.

On the second day Captain Ortiz made an
elnbornte toilet and went out.

This was jusl the Opportunity the boy detec-
tch bud lawn waiting for.

He wuiied sonn- time after the man’s depart tire
and tlienslipped into the room generally 0('('ll
])lHI by him. He tlionght that [it‘l‘liflps the
Cuban had gone for a visit to the Ce‘lltipwlc. aihi
that he would haw a good (lcal of time on his
hands.

lii a little while the young: ferret was looking
through the captain’s irivute room.

Of course he fonin eventliiug locked, but
with ii IlII of hire v~ liicli he found in the house,
he picked one (it the niiinei'ouslocks. and soon
fell to lOoking' at the contents of the Cullen‘s
desk.

Billy discovered there a good many papers,
the most. of Vi l:l('ll had no ospcrinl significance iti
his eyes, but all at once he came across a pecu-
linr~lool<ing package, which he turned (Ni-r and
over in his hands.

At last hacurcfullynnticd the itrings that
held it together and Iound in it, among other
things, a copy of Nill’inlwill Grrgg’s “ill.

“ it‘s very natural that this n ill should be here,
said the boy detective. “But here is another
paper which looksagood (lcnl like it. 1 don't
see why thn re should be two ct pics of the same
deciiineiu. It looks tone like somebody has
been practicing." and he carried the paper near-
or the vuudo‘w and Ml to examining it with
more curiosity than eVo-r.

“The “hole thing is a fraud!" he suddenly
cried. “ The will that gives the money to Cap-
tain Ortiz isa lorced docunu-nt. There papers
prove it. Son o-how-or-othcr it. was mil-:siiuited
for the rrul one which is missing. Captain
Jurillo, as he calls himself now, never was the
old man's heir in any light. I see through the
whole thing. He has bceii at work long before
the game really opened and has ftathercd his
nest, perhaps a ith the wen-t lirlp of Simon Sly-v
boots and his pard, Iii-cl: Siol't‘l'."

The rcadern'llv innit:in the t-xritcmcnt that
Illlcd Billy Winks’s heart when he made this
astounding “it““u'l‘l'.

He had new-r H‘l'll anything: like it. ‘

For some time he could not credit iheevldeiicn
of sight, but lliepnperg in his hand spoke for
thenisclws and he had to liPlioi‘l'.

After a“ bile be let laced the package as care-
fully as he could and shut the dv sk.

“ If I don’t spring, the trap soon ilie birds will
get away," he said, “ Captain ()rtiz is liable to
discover oni- escape from the (‘ld lion-‘0 nim‘ then
the “hole g‘tiniu would be up._ TlH' wins could
Ho aboard the Centipede which. lacistihc the
Cuban flog, would steam away for foreign parts
and I uould have my tl'mli‘li‘ I“? my pains—the
first l‘iiilm-o sinco I have hm‘“ DISH lllg loin-t.”

lie was waiting anxiously for Captain Oitiz’s
rotui'n ulwn he heard 1| “W'Elcp on thc stoop
and the h. 1| rnnz.

Billr, bounding into the lialluny, opcm‘d the
door and looked at the permit who fucod him.

A Wl‘ll lluilt iiiiin WM) 80! mod to be sorta-“lint
disguised, hllll n M n he mentioned _C"l't""‘
Orliz‘s name in harsh fonts he was mlmitlrd.

“ Ain’r at home. (-l ?” cried the ciillcf. lfl‘ihing
past the boy and enterimr thel captain’s mom.
“ Wharf: is he, any hint!" Is he going M get
away from me in this manner?”

“I can‘t tell you, sir.”

“You can‘l,ch? You are his rows “WY. i
presume!" ”

“ I am not, but am in his employ.

 

‘I

 

  

 

 

14

.4..~ am...“

 M i

s - I 41...... L -5...

. ._. ,
. two“. ,+,_ "3 ‘ . U.

Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

 

 

 

There was a half insane look in the eyes that
regarded Billy Winks and all at once with the
agility of a tiger the man sprung to the very
desk the boy ferret had just searched and tried
to open the lid.

“Give me the key! I want to see if he has
kept any records of the past.”

“ I have no key. It is in Captain Jarillo’s
pocket.”

“ But you are shrewd enough to open the desk
for me. , You look like a boy who can do almost
anything. I want to see into that piece of fur-
niture.”

Billy stepped toward the man and looked him
squarely in the face.

“ Who are you?” he asked.

“ That’s a pretty question. I hardly know
who I am—I have been living a blank life so
long. I used to be— Yes, there was a time
when I had a name; but I haven’t heard it
spoken in so many years, that I have almost for-
gotten it.”

“ You don’t mean to say—”

“ Ha, are you going to guess who I am?” and
the [1,1,3[1 laughed. “I don’t think you can do
that.

Billy continued to look at the man, and felt
that be was cenfrouted by a mystery.

“ Won’t you open the desk for me?’ asked the
stranger.

“ I half-believe it ought to be done.”

“ That is right. This man, Captain Ortiz——
that is what Icall him—is one of the big est vil-
lains alive. When we fought our due in the
dark, he—”

The boy detective could not keep back a cry.

“ I know you n0wl You have come back
from the dead 1” he exclaimed.

“ Back from the dead? That’s right, boy. I
have come from nowhere else. Gradually the

ast has come back to me, incident by incident.

am once more Captain Marks of the Fleetwing,
and I curse the day I first met Captain Ortiz,
the pirate planter of Cuba. There was a time
when I was the head of a happy family, but now
.I am alone in the world.”

Billy thought of Molly the sewing-girl, but he
did not mention her name.

“ Now that I know you as Captain Marks, of
whom I have heard, I want to say that I am
playing a hand against this very man, Captain

arillo. I am a s y in his house—”

“You, boy?
nected with new?"

“ One of the coolest and dee st you ever
heard of,” was the reply. “ I can t tell the story
rioxv, for he is liable to come back and interrupt
l O

“I wish he would come!” and the hands of
Captain Marks shut and his eyes gleamed mad-
ly. “I have longed to meet this wretch, and I
have lived in hopes of encountering him some

dag:
if an hour later, Captain Ortiz came back
and threw himself upon a sofa in his libra .

“ Where’s that confounded boy i” he cri .

Billy Winks heard the call and made his ap-
pearance. The room was darkened by lowered
curtains, and Captain Ortiz leaned forward and
eyed him closely.

“ \Vho’s been here?” he inquired.

“ The usual number of cranks.”

“ Hal and you gave all the bounce?”

Billy nodded.

Captain Ortiz strode hastily across the room.
Unlocking the desk, he dived his hand into it as
if looking for something and when he had found
the package he drew it forth and thrust it into
his bosom.

“That must not be lost,” passed through the
mind of the boy detective. “That is the proof
against him and he shall not make way with it
at this stage of the game.”

“I’ll be back later on,” said Captain Ortiz,
looking at the boy. “ I want you to keep a
sharp eye in your head and not to let the callers
who want to fleece me because I’ve struck it
rich, get a penny for their pains.”

“ Yes, sir "

He walked to the door, watched like a hawk
by the boy, and in a moment he was gone.

“If I lose him now [lose the proof of guilt,”
said Billy.

Captain Ortiz had reached the nearest corner
before he had any one at his heels and then he
had a tracker in the boy he had employed to
keg) the bleeders of the city at bay.

. e led Billy agood long chase through the
at and at last turned into a narrow street and
30 ed closely at the numbers of the houses

ere.

“ He is going to Simon Slyboots ” thought the
.young ferret. “The two will p ay the game
out very speedily if they are left alone.”

hat piece of infamy is be con-

 

At that moment a footstep sounded behind
the boy and he had turned half way round when
his arm was clutched by a hand that seemed to
have the grip of a vise, and he looked up into
the grinning face of Simon himself.

Simon had caught him fairly and there was

- no doubt in the boy’s mind that he was recog-

nized.

“ I thought I would run accross you i” hissed
the oily rascal. “ I never let any one get away
from me very long, so come along and I will
introduce you to a trap that will hold you.”

Billy felt himself dragged away by Simon,
but this time he did not intend that the door
of another trap should open to hide him from
the world.

He drew back the full length of Simon Sly-
boots’s arm and threw into the villain’s face a
100k of grim defiance. ~

“You sha’n’t put me in another of your traps.
I know all and the hand of justice is hovering
over every mother’s son of you. Even now
the cops are moving and in less than an hour
you will be in the toils, it makes no matter what
you do with me.”

Billy felt the grip suddenly loosen on his arm.
His words seemed to have soared it loose, and
all at once he jerked back and was free.

Simon Slyboots stood like a man nonplused for
a second; he glared at the boy detective, and
even smiled.

“ It is you who are in the trap, Simon,” said
Billy. “ The toils are all about you, and yonder
comes Captain Sharpe of the police.”

The scoundrel turned, looked once at the
oflicer who had turned the corner and bounded
into the house entered by Captain Ortiz.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LAST BIRD CAGED.

BILLY WINKS did not expect to find either
Simon Slyboots of Captain Ortiz in the house
when it was searched by the officer who had
made his appearance in the nick of time, for
there isno doubt that Simon intended to execute
a. tigerish leap at the young detective if such an
arrival had not taken place.

Both worthies had disappeared, but the officer
and the boy looked at each other and smiled.

Billy went back to Jim and told his adven-
tures while a watch was placed on Captain
Ortiz’s cit house, besides one on the ship lying
in the bar or.

Nothing was said to Molly Marks about her
father’s return, and it was agreed that Tom
should remain with her for the present.

Several days passed, but nothing was heard
of Simon or the captain.

Billy and Jim followed every clew that oflered
itself, but without avail.

They did not want to see the game get away,
for the boy ferret’s victory Would not be com-

lete without them, and he went everywhere
ooking for the pair.

One night, nearly a week after these events,
the young shadower was seated in one of the
numerous parks of the city when he saw a man
glide into view, and after eying him for a mo-
ment, sli away as rapidly as possible.

“ Ah, imon, my sleek fox, so you are still in
the city?” cried Billy, following the vanishing
figure. “ If I track you will I find the captain,
or has be gone back to his dear Cuba, laughing
in his sleeve how he gave me the slip?”

Billy was sure he had discovered the subtile
Slyboots, and for nearly an hour he followed
him up one street and down another till he was
beginning to dos air.

All at once imon was joined by another
figure, with whom be exchanged words and
they separated.

But the keen eyes of the young detective had
noticed the conversation, and in another instant
he was after Simon once more.

“Catch the blackmailer, and he will tell on
his employer,” thought Billy.

Simon stopped at last.

Dodging down a flight of steps that led to a
baseirent room, the city fox vanished, and when
Billy came up he saw a. shoemaker’s sign hang-
ing conspicuously on the door.

At the same time he heard the sound of a
hammer, and smiled when he crept down the
ate 9 and saw a man half-solin a pair of boots.

en minutes later the boer
door and walked in.

The shoemaker looked up with a start, and
then went on with his work.

The man at work was Simon Slyboots, turned
shoemaker, not because he liked the business, but
to deceive his hunters.

Billy knew him at once, in Spite of his cun-
ning isguise.

rret opened the ,

 

“ Come, we will go up,” said the boy, at
which words Simon’s hammer rested and he said:

“What do you mean? I am busy now and
can’t go away from the job.”

“ You can’t, eh?”

Billy Winks was standing near the door on
the outside of which leaned a man in blue.

“ But you will go with me, job or no job.
I am here, Simon, to turn you over to the
police.”

The “shoemaker” lifted himself from the
bench and threw the boot past the Boy Shad-
ower’s head.

The next instant he was looking into the
muzzle of a revolver and behind it was the
grinning face of Billy Winks.

“You have turned Crispin and it was a sly
thought of yours, too. If I wanted a sleek job
done I would give it to you, Simon.”

“I had you once and was a fool for letting
you escape. But do you think I am afraid of
the gun you carry?”

“Just as you like. I am here to take you to
the police and you are to give up your trade
this very night.”

“ Which trade?”smiled Simon.

Billy gave the signal agreed upon between
him and the officer waiting on the basement
steps, and in a moment the door opened and
Simon saw that he was fairly captured.

“ Here’s a shoe—shop for sale,” laughed he with
the nonchalance of a practiced Villain. “ I was
going to give it up in a day, or so, but I am
done with it now.”

He seemed to reflect for a moment and then
broke out fiercely:

“ Have you captured the captain? Have you
nailed the Cuban scoundrel whose cause I have
served?”

“ Not yet, but—”

“Maybe you don’t know where he is. I want
him with me. It will look better to have both
of us together.”

Simon continued and told the oflicer and Billy
where to find the captain, and then saw up his
hands for the manacles, remarking that be had
had a good time playing the. game for gold and
that if he had been let alone, he would have
bled Captain Ortiz till he had tleeced him out of
ever dollar of his ill-gotten gains.

“ t Was leech suck leech, but that’s no mat-
ter,” said Simon. “ I don’t think it a crime for
one wolf to eat another, and I always act on
that principle.”

When he found himself in the cell at the sta-
tion he felt of the iron bars and laughed.

“I guess you won’t find Sloper. He got
frightened and sloped, but if you run across the
woman called Violet, the Death-Flower, I will
esteem it a personal favor if you let me have an
interview.”

“And let her throat be in danger, Simon?”
said Billy Winks. “ We may want to use Vio-
let, and she sha’n’t get within reach of your
hands.”

 

Captain Ortiz was watching his chance, for
when Billy and the officer went secretly to the
house where Simon said he was to be found, he
was not there, and Billy felt a pang of disap-
pointment.

Was the head of the plot to get away at last!
Was he to lose the pleasure of seeing the Cuban
captain behind the bars, and thus fail to carry
out the v0w he had taken?

Sloper had sloped, as Simon said, and was not
in the city; but as he was not such a very great
rascal, he was not looked after with very much
care.

 

Jim and Billy were on the pave the second
night after Simon’s capture, when Mother Ma-
gog’s son grasped the boy detective’s arm and
called his attention to a man who was about to
cross a street.

“That’s the captain! Any one would know
him by the way he carries his head.”

In a flash the young Vidocq was dashing for-
ward, and was at the man’s heels when he and-
denly turned. _

“ Don’t let him grip you, Pillyl" cried Jim.

That seemed to tell the hunted man who was
in his front, for he caught Sight of the boy sharp,
and instead of flying from him, he darted at him
with a mad curse. '

There was the gleam of desperation in the
eyes of Captain Ortiz that reminded Billy of the
light seen there when he hissed the Jaguar at
him on board the Centipede.

“ Found at last! Now I will settle everything
and then they can have Captain Ortiz l" peeled
from his throat.

Billy tried to meet the sudden attack but it
was too cyclonic in its nature to be avoid

 
   

 

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Billy Winks, the Boss Boy Shadower.

 

The Cuban captain came down upon him like
a thunderbolt, and he was seized and lifted from
his feet in an instant.

“ I’ll throw you under a car!” he cried, turn-
ins.r toward the middle of the street with his
prisoner. '

A car was near at hand, and Billy felt the
fingers of Captain Ortiz sinking into his throat
and shutting off his breath.

He was lifted above the rascal’s head, and in
another moment would have been thrown under
the rapidly passing car, if Captain Ortiz had not
staggered back with u groan.

Jim had recovered his presence of mind and
leaped to the rescue.

The young man had thrown himself upon
the maddened captain with all his strength, and
it was his hand dealing a blow that sent the
Cuban to the stones.

The blow had been dealt in the very nick of
time, and when Cafitain ()rtiz pulled himself to-
gether he knew t at the game for Napoleon
G-regg’s gold had failed.

 

It was a hop ypnrty that assembled under
the roof of the regg mansion on the avenue a
few nights after the last events.

It consisted of Billy Winks, Tom Wagner,
Molly, Timothy Turk, Molly’s “Uncle Josh ”
and another person who had a wonderful story
to tell.

The narrator was Captain Marks, for years
believed to be dead, but while Molly listened to
his story with her hand in his, she knew that a.
father had come back to her from the tropics.

Simon Slyboots took his defeat with grim good
nature but he maintained that if he had thought
that Vziolet intended to turn against them and
liberate Billy and Tom. he would have blocked
her game for, as he said, “as long as we had
Captain Ortiz under our thumb, there was a. for-
tune at our command.”

It was never known whose hand he had shown
the Cuban in proof of Tom \Vngnrr’s death, as
he would never tell; but it is believed that one of
the dissenting rooms furnished him with it.

The Cuban was convicted of fraud and sent
“_up the river” for a long term, and Simon was
his companion.

Rock Sloper never turned up, and Violet also
vanished, but not until after the trial.

Jim and Mother Magog were rewarded for
their art in helping to outwit the conspirators,
and illy Winks, proud of his last con nest,
went back to his little “office” to wait for
“ another job.”

I have but to add that the friendship between
Molly and Tom has ripened into something
deeper, and that “ in the course of human
events,” as Billy remarks when he refers to the
matter, there is apt to~he a. wedding.

We congratulate Tom and Molly in advance

THE END.

 

Beadle’s Half-Dime library,

BY WILLIAM It. EYRTER.

190 "flay “Brim; or. The Tiger of High Pine.
Q10 Faro Frank 3 or, Dandy Durkue'n (lo-Down Pardl

 

ll Y FREDERICK DEW E"

818 Cimarron Jack the Kin -Pl . i. .
41B 'l‘ungomnud, iii; Desert Deteztivffime Sho .
542 The Cunyou l’urda.

BY ARTHUR C. GRISSDM.

440 Little F‘oxi‘ooi. lhii Gold Bowie Kid.
8 The Sure-Shot l’nrda.
821 ’l‘ruthl'ul Jul-ion, the "Pecoonm." Mm.

uY MAJOR HENRY n. s’ronnium. [Ex-Scout.

800 Neck-Tie Nod: or, The Dug-Out, mm“.
346 Hn ior Raphael: or.'i‘im Swordsman when“...
391 Kl! -(:lovo Kit, the Dandy of the Knuth“.
898 Kid-Glove‘flt tllllld tPart1: gill: Th: (lldolrl King,
0 ‘ . . . am no or: or. e u on G
:0: 'll’zsve‘lilead Paul: or, The One-Armed Giant. “Ml Myauw’

BY 00].. A. F. "0LT.

899 Black lluoknkln: 01". The MMhd Man 01' Duth Canyon,
419 Kenneth. iln- Kniie-Klnr- '

48.". Little Lhrhti'ooi, the Pilot or a... it node.

53 The Dandy Sport: HIST“. Kmfl 1"" (3“"5i‘lfflnr.
678 Ralph Renwood, ilu- Lizhinlnz Expreaa Detective.
1391 Headlight. 'Hurry'a Hulll.

737 Headlight llurry'u Siren.

BY CAPT. J. 1". C. ADAMS.

34 (lregon Sol: or, Nick Whifilex’s Boy Spy.
4“ (Hm-Eye. the Great Shot of the Wm“!!-
M Ned Hazel. the Bov Trapper.
‘3 Niel: Whiflieu’s Pet: or, in The anle of Death.
6 '“0 White Indian; or, The Scout oft ie Yellowstono.
70 Old er’a Cabin: or, The Greenlmm in the Woods.
2!“ '4an n. Jo. the Terror oi the Prairie.
7 “"01: “twin-am ; or, Ben, the Female 'l‘rl MP.
'4 0F “Hilly and Ill: Peta; or,Ths Wil Hunirou.
, .1. Glue Line I or, Osceola, the Flrobrand.
8 The Amt Hunters: nr.The Underground Camp.
’8 ° 5°“! King: or. The Human Thunderbolt.

1
- 203 The Ho

 

BY EDW ARD WILLETT.

187 Ann Scott, the Steamboat Boy.

199 Featherweight the lloy Champion ol‘tho Mulklngum.
223 "mark Ali” or, Featherweight Among the Ouilawn.

31%2 The Typo Detective; or, Wuanul, tlio liuy ’l‘r-mp.
995 Foul-lent I’lilll or,'l'hr Klug oi'Qnurlzvlile.

ill 1 The Rovingi sport: or. The Pride oHTliurknlllcli Camp.
322 Nemo. the letoeilvoi or, Kit Knnyou‘l Vendetta.
840 Clip the Contortionlntz or.’i‘ho Montana Vigilantu.

DY LIEUT. A. K. SIMS.

546 Cuptulu ('iu-tuu.th‘hapnrml Cock.

mm The Dandy of Dodge.

5’36 'I‘llo filth-r Hpori.

588 Hull'ron Sol. ilm Mun \l'lth u Shadow

589 'l‘oIn-(‘ut und I’urd: or. Thu- Dund Set at Silver City.
001 Iln Ipy Ilnnn, thu- Dulrii Vliiuri.

611 “ill ud Ilill‘lliu-lo. the Detective] urcnlr-n.

622 Texas ’l‘oin l‘ut’a 'I‘rlud

631 Tom (‘ni’n 1 Tank.

(ml-l ’l‘om-i‘nt'u 'l‘rlnlnph; Ur. “lll‘k Dun'u Grunt Combine.
(l-Hl ('(Iwhof’ Gill. lhn- i‘nitlr-Rnugi- nutri'tlvo.

651' “’nrbl n2 “'Illlnln, ihu- Mountain Mountubunk.
665 Jolly Jrromlnh, tlu- l‘iuinu Duiectiw.

“Til lenul Hum. thu Lookout Scout.

6H9 Billy the Gypsy Spy.

699 Simple Nlln, ihe iiroiu-no lluutur.

712 The Mount-rial Sport: or, The hiyntiflud Detective.
788 'l‘olteo Tom, Ilu- Mud l'ruupector.

 

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BY ALBERT “3 AIKEN.

11 The Two Detectives: or. The Fortunes oil Bowery Girl.
76 Abe Colt, the Crow—Killer.
79 Hol Ginger, ihu (llunt 'l'ru ipur.
283 Joe Hui-k oi'Augeln "III III». Hoy I’m-d,
447 New 'orl.‘ Nut. A Title oi'i‘rlizlin and Trapl in Goth-m,
45).; New Ruth...“ Nh-k; or, The Fortunes of. Foundliug.
4il4 Nimble Nick, the Cirrus l'rlucu.
498 Tune 'l‘od. tun Arizonn S )Ufl..
510 Cool Colorado, the llilli-lireod Detective,
518 Cool Colorado in New York.

BY MAJDR E. L. RT. VRAIN.

39$ Rlllll'ho Pedro, the lioy linudit.

no! Li-ndvlllo Nick, ii:.- is... Sport.

812 Hedtop Rube, ihu Vigilante Prim-e.

838 Hrlinntolm Iloh, uud lliw Lightning llorne Quartet“.
85B Tombstone Tom. lilo Arizona Boy ui’“Snnd.”
859 Dnrnniro limo, 1h.- \' illi;"'i|iiil|iilul| Wruntiur.
871 Klngbolt Chris. ih» Y rung ilunLShell Detective.
8H0 Avulum-ho All', the Foothills Guide.

890 Jnxuur Joe. or tlm lllouutiln Mull-Lino.

BY EDlVAIlD R. ELLIS.

ll “Ill lllililon. 'l'rup or. '
)4 Myth Jtlllt'll: or. The Cuptlvun of the Frontier.

)0 l\ at Todd 1 "r. The Fate oi'thu Sioux Cuptlvo.

.1 Tue Frontier Angel.

98 The Boy Mint-rug or. The Enrhnntml lulnnd.
182 The lluniod Hunter; or, Tim Strun eilomman.
854 The Iluli'JIlood: or, ’l‘hu Panther o the Plum--
271 The Huge Hunter; or, The Steam Pmlrlo Man.

II" EAI’TAIN FRED. “'III'I‘TAKEH.

15 The iii-34'." ; or. The “'lteh oi“ Dario-n.

29 The Dumb 1'11 0; ur,’i‘he Dogu’a Dnugnior.

48 Dir-k Durliuu. lw l‘nny Expronn Rider.
150 Lance and l‘unlo: or, The (‘hlldren 0f the Char-o.
154 The chird Hunter»: or. The Land nitho Elephant Riders.
159 1"... Lo", (in “an; or, Skipper .lnbuz Coilln’l Cruiu.
.00 The Boy Ho uulnu; or. The Brother: oi the Plumod Luce.
214 \Voii‘gaug, the Robber of the Rhine.
249 .Vlilo Homer the Anhnnl King; or, Round the World.
365 The TI or Tumor: or, The League of the Jungle.
881 llluuk Iok. the Demon Rider.
895 California Joe’s “'nr Trail.

DY JDSEI‘II E. BADGER. JR.

2 Yellowstone Jul-k: or, The Tm: or.

4,; "luck John. the Monti-Agent; or, w Outlaw’l Retreat.

65 llurrii-nm- lllll; or. Muuiimz Sam and Hi- Paul.
I“. “"“anf flnmlr‘orfl‘ho King oi'the Plains.
136 Night-i uwk 'lt: or, The Iluughler oi'tho Ranch.
144 Duinty Lam-e the lioy Sport.
‘5‘ pang“..- |Iau|; or, Duiuiy laflllf‘ll to the Remus.
“m 'n“. uhwk mm.“ or. Dniuiy Lnnroiu Juopnrdy.
um Downy "min; or, Fighting Fire with Fire.

g The Bay Trunern; or, Dainty Lunco on the War-Path.

’urilu; or. lhiluiy Lnuru Uniuaului.
all (lrookoi (lulu, the (Tullbuu m' (‘ela'xiini Cli)‘.
810 The Human...“ “in”; nr, 'l‘he llmiutlful honey.
3“! Thu “Int-k Hillel-z or, 'i'ln~ llorno-Thievel' 1.011110.
88» Did Double Fir-ii or, The Strange Guide
855 [he Klnir ol‘i lll‘ \Vmuln: ur lluuiel lloono'l Loot Trail.
‘19 RH. Fox. the llordor iloy Dolortlvo.
“25' ‘J'I'W'HMII Dun. the Boy Trailer.
6. | i‘rhlucupln Dun‘a iii-«mid 'l‘rnll.
“NH ( lilni'llnln Dnn‘u Honw Hi roll-ll.

£9" 01d Crazy. iln- Mun “’llhuui. n Head.

‘0" Illillli-Ilvnrt Luio'a Lomu-y.
7 "i lglclit-Ilenrt Luto'u Lust ’l‘ruil.
~29 :l'llrt‘flrllud'o. t'lu-lrllonliono. B l B
s r! ' ‘ b m o, lm nlr-iiloud; or, The “order an a at I -
739 hllverbiudo, lhu Iluutilr. K y

I!" J. C. CDWDIIICK.

369 Rilvcr-Maak. the Man of Myuory.
3*” 'f‘llllllu. iiu‘ Gold King; or, For Seven Your- Dead.
4”” Eh“ "“W‘MW'I Apprentice; or. A Boy Without a Name.
424 (vrlbutu .lohn ; ..r_ “"1440, rpm,“ M Am. B".
43” "n'ldy ““III. the Strert Smut.
407 Dim-o Dun. the man‘- nu,”
49" ""mdw'w “"h’. t n- iioothlark Bravo.
506 Iledllizht Hui ll tin- PM“, “rum no“.
51-1 Broadway Ill ly'. noodle.
521 The lunglneor "0“."th
586 Broadway llllly'. «I'l'nknty.»
51R .“urt, llh- Nluhi Rum-u. “4,111,.”-
55? Ilroudwuy Hilly'n Iron“, lhmkct‘
I Alr-le- Luke the Young Erwin...“
579 The :;l'l"'l','|“3i‘ “131': W. Broadway llllly’l Surprise-PM“.
592 The oy n 'rr .0".
805 “'lllluui 0‘ llroudwny; or, 'l‘lu- Buy “inter-"v.0. ma “mug.
615 Flghiiuu Hurry thr- Chm nf' mmmd cydom,_
“Bl-l Hroudvuv llllly'n Doud Ari.
“40 Hurt-bid“ lll'ill. 1hr ('t-utnur oi' the Circle.
647 1 pov‘ltor 'l‘lll)’. ill? Mn-rt‘lmui'u “'Md,
"59 \ oonllght . lorgun, the H Pin-rum " Mm. MM,“ BM.
669 lroud \vny “lily Abroad.
“75 Iroudwuy llllly‘e “out: mum-Ming San Francisco'lFinefl.
8 wuy Hilly i|u gl'im'or.
um. wuy llllly u 'rxml.
 gI'omlwuy llllly‘u Drum]. ‘
7.." """ldway Billy ui fiuuiu Ito.
n~ llrondwny lillly‘u Full llulld.
*8” Broadway Billy's “ruinous.
"""dey Hilly‘a (‘urloul (hue.

   
   

 

 

 

 

 

 

15

HY PHILIP ll. “’AHNE. ‘

of Patent-Leather Joe; or, ()ld llaliielnnlo, the Charmer.
175 (mpunn Arlnonn; or, l‘nluui-Leutll-r Juo'l lily Gym.
198 (luptnin M ask: or, l'uiuiit-l.imiliur Jou’u Defeat.
919 De-pnrd, the Duelist: cr.'i‘lu~ Mountain V-mplru.
158“ A 'l‘ou II lloyi "f. The liwuri'u Revenge.
86!! Little ‘oruudox hr. The Outwutu ui'ilm (lien.
37" LIMJO Jlllfl‘o; or, the Queer l‘nrd.
8“! Little Din-my! or, Caught in "in Own 'l‘rnn.
401 Little Dillon-I‘ ly or, A Race for n llnm'h.
408 Little Lcutlier-I rel-«lion; or, 0ch Jumbo’l Cum.
4i“ Little. A h liln: or, 'l'hu Curse of lllood.
451 (lolornllo Knit‘.
‘3" Three Jolly I'urdn.
51‘." Jim Glnddon’n Deputy.
527 The Jolly I'urdu to the Hot-rue.
547 Hudy Andy; or, A (loud Mun Down.
5515 Lurint LII; or, ’i‘lu- (‘nnt for u Life.
571 (Nd “'oqul-iop. lhu Mun with the Dogl.
593 Keen (liq-m. the liunrh imp.
599 Jim Dandy thu Nu-Nnuu- Sport.
(“if Hilly Hinze-n; or,’l‘hu- Skuluton'n Logacy.‘
635 llkluhomu III. the lil‘lr-(‘i-ui. Scout.
0-18 llnppy llurry‘n lllg Film.
664 Cheeky Chm-Icy, the Special.

\

I! Y J 0 1’1 E It CE.

Bil? llob o’ the Bowery: or, The Prince of Mulberry Street.
415 The Vugubond Detective: or, Bowery Bob's-Boom.
452 llotn ur Hob: the mnwi-liuy Duurtlvo.
460 The ‘Luwyrr ll Muulowi or, Lulm'n Legacy.
4?” Juuuty Joe. thu Young Honwle'inu.
404 flurly Him, ilu~ Young ll‘urryumn Duiuctive.
501 FIHI l'oluia l'hll.
509 J nt'k Juggera. thr lluirlu-r Boy Duh-rilvu.
5|“ 'I'urinr 'l lln; or. hire l'uiliiu l'hll‘u Mrnnyerlt‘.
526 Norill Ilivor Nut. lhr l‘in-r Duh-cure.
51$: \l'ro-tllng lit-x. illu- l'rid.-uiileixi.h Ward.
5 H Jull' l“l|(-l.‘('r. thv Sinhiu lloy Detective.
551 Niel. V ‘l‘llt‘, iln- lloy Shudow.
Junk. ilu- (lilli‘l' liuy pun-rm...
lion, the ()n-lln-(lwn-llmk Detective.
PM (I ilii' Sui'In-t Sifter.
.unirrn. ilu- iludrrsl-u l'ronprclor.
( wan Ill-rt. Llu-h‘ir -.\'i«-rmr.
t lull o'lll'illl. tho Dun. in")! Aid.
4‘ Hnlnhlobov, iill‘ llnrh-m Humnwr.
IM' Haul ihr Expn-nw'l'rniu Furrol.
0-19 Gnu Illlll.lllfl lion-wry lindgur; or, Si’impllll a Slippery Sol.
D iu'i "oh. the Lllwfillvrr.
ll‘ii'l‘ Sol, the New York Navigator.
(ill-l leoy Jlln, ihv (inlv Um- of "in l\'lnd
I‘t 'l‘lllullo. Iln- Rood-ll:qu iii-ivcilvv.
717 Mouqnlio Jun-k, ilm lludlrr i-‘uniln.
72“ lM-nnlu llull’ the llrowu Sport‘s Kid.

 
 
  
  
 
 
 
   

   
     

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liY IHTCKHKIN RAM (ll‘lulor Plum. 8. Hull.)

284 Did llm-ky a " lloyooa: or, “will”. uu- ilorne-llrcnliur
B40 (Hunt George; or, The Auu’l ol th-- Range.

375 A rizonu Jui-k; 0r, (Hunt iii-uruu'x i’urd.

997 Thu 'l‘nruutnln ui' Tuna: or, (lluui (lunrgu'n Rrveugv.
807 The Htrnum- Paul; or, l.iul.- liou'n Ihmih Hunt.
818 Ker-whoa ). KI-r-wlmox or, 'l‘hu 'l'uruutulu ui'Tnon.
B27 Uri-oping Yul, ilio (lndilo; or,’l'ln~ iled and White Pardl.
332 Frio Fri-ill or, 'l‘hr 'l'unkimuy'u 'l'runt.

3-14 The Fighting- Trlo: or. Ruttleumlm, illr Toukaway.
349 \Vllil “'0” x or, Big-Fool “'nlluro lo ilw Front.

851' The Rum-h Holder: or. The Siege of Fort Purgatory.
Bil-l flnup-Hllot, the. lioy hunger.

875 (lliioiiu. the Creek; ur,The 'i‘lirer Thunderbolts.

881 Ilunderu “Hit or. Friu Fruuk to the Front.

8913 Romeo and the Roda; or, The Heleauuorod Ranch.
404 Little Lnrluti or, Peron Poto'l Hig lliunpnuo.

414 The Daily from Denver.

42? The Three Trailer-x 0?. Old Rocky on tho levuo
448 Blufl "III; or, The Lynx of tho Leona.

4155 Lu“, Lone Hun-x or. The lloile of tho Clbolo.

334 (Mu-ho Curl, thi- Chico (llnrt

M [ICELLAN‘ED Us A Il'l‘IID ll 8.

4 The Wild-Horne lluuiera. By Capt, Mayne Reid and
Frederick “'hlttnkrr.
0 Adventurou- oi' Huron Munobau-en.
I Gulliver‘s Tron-In. Ry Donn Swift.
4 Aladdin: or, The Wuriduriul Lamp.
6 (‘11 illustrations.)
lill Nlndbud the Huilor. llln Seven Voyngu.
2’3 Tin-i lieu flerpi-nt; or,'l'he Boy Robin-on (.‘rmo. By Jan
mw I.
88 The Ocean Bloodhound; or. The Rad Pint“ of the
Carrion-n. y S. W. Pierre.
36 The Iloy Clown: or, Tho Arum Quwon. by F 8. Finn.
“N Null “'yldo. iln- lioy Raoul. My 'l‘uxnu Jack.
51 The "my Hillel! or. The lluderlronnd (‘Ian. By A. CJI’DHI.
95 Tim Rival “oven: or. The Freehold-arr! oi the Mluinippi.
By Linn-(fol. Iiazeitlne.
98 Robin flood. the nutlnwed Earl: or,1'lm Merry Men oiGroon.
wood. By Prof. Gilili-rulimvo.
105 "Id Ilu Io, tho Hunter; or, The Crow Cnnlln. lly Captain
Hamilton iiolmrn.
[19 The Mad Hunter: or, Ilanvu of Dvnih. By Bur‘on Sue.
194 Tippy. thi- ’l‘exung or, The Young Champion. lly Goorg.
G anon.
128 The Young I'rlvgteor; or, The Pirnto'l Stronghold. By
Hurry (Tavmulllh. .
148 Hlmrp Rm“; “n Th. Adunturu Oi a l‘riemiluu Boy. By J,
Alexander Fallen.
“7 Dusky Darrell. 'l‘raEpor: 0r. The (lroon Ramp-r of the Yal-
lowntmm. By Edward monon-
Qfll F‘nfz“. [renrngu hi. the New Y irh llov. lly G, |,_ Aikflh
Dilil Killb’nr. the (in (lei "unavytmckeil'n Crooked 'l'raii.
ily Enaiun C. D. Warren. V ‘
293 lied Cliiw. th» One-Eyed "WP": of. 1m Mold oi the Clll.
lly Cnptuln Coruutork.
81'! Peacock 1‘0“!le Livoli' Lad (mm Luann... by Lin-
ti-unnt Alfred Thomm I
833 Thr- Rky Iroti-oiilvei 0": A 305' I Fight ior Life and Honor.
By Mnioy Mickey FIN“-
850 um llulvlh the "'V" “over: "nTha Brother's Ro-
vnnw’ By Ned iluntllno. V
365 llnlilmoro “0" "l" “‘“l‘l’lfl‘l‘ “Martin. By A. P. No"!!-
87/1 “old-Duet Toni: lir.‘liv-"’u Dnuhl» Trinirh. Eva H Mom.
874$ Culli'ornln Jor I l‘ in“, 'l‘rull. by Colonel Thoma-
Hm'ur Ninnnlery.
418 inin lion-MIMI. um (‘nucummn n. r. s. Winthrop.
415 The Him-k Hlilp. llv John s “'nrncr,
484 Comm-«ho Dli-l.‘ and Ill- 'l‘hroe lnvinolblol. “Y
"nan J. Thomas.
589 The (‘owbo Duke. ily Edwin Brooke Formi-
552 Ariel lhv Al ilmv. By David Druid.
585 will “’utrrn. lie ilov Ferret. RV H.lnton.
032 The Dead “ainn‘nnu “on”... By Gerald Cumin.
721 Maverick Mono, gm. “mm. pumuve; nr,'i‘iio Wizard ni
Urko» Pm- By Will Lino-oboe.

A NOW Inna Every Tuculny
The "Elf-Dime Luppgry in for Ialo by an newndnalen, ii”
“it” P" 1“'99. or uni by mail on receipt of IL! cum ouch.
BEADLE AND ADAMB. Pulllillhcrl.
98 William Street. New York.

Iloblnnon Orin-or.

A 'l'ulu of the ulinel. I

 

A» /-‘—~ '< ,

 

-__....._..4.—

, 668 The Bnceanecr Midshipman; or. The Sea Rover‘s

 

 

632 The Dead Detective’s Double. 3y Gerald Carlion.

633 Pluckv Paul, the Boy l’rwspeetor; or, The Dead-
wood Dcsperaoo's L tst innings. By J. W. O.~l)0l)

634 Cache Carl, the Chico Giant: or, Tin-True Hearts
of Ra: E, o Roost. By Buckskin Sam.

685 Oklahoma Hi, the Blue—(float Scout; or, The
Boomer‘s Last Battle. By 1’. S. Wnrne.

636 Deadwood Dick, Jr. Ai’n-r the Queer; or, Saw-
dust Sun's Last Green Game. By Elward L.
\Vhoel r.

637 Dick Dean. the Dock
Hurbaugh.

638 Tom Cat’s Triumph; or. Black Ivan’s Great
Combine. By Lieut A. K. Sims.

639 Sunrise Saul, tho Express-Train Ferret.

erce

640 Bar-ob -ck Both, the Centaur of the Circle.
J. C. Cowdlick.

611 Dismal Dave‘s Dandy Pard; or, The Claw to
Oapmin Claw. By M illiam G. Patten.

642 Dead vood Dick, Jr. in Bufi‘alo; or, 4-11-44.
Edward L. Wheeler.

643 Hap y Harry‘s Big Find; or, The Beautiful
Jena cl'fi Last Stake. By I’. S. Warne.

644 The Hercules Iiiqhwayman: or, The Mounted
Miners of the Overland. 5y Col 1’. lngraham.

645 Kit. the Pavement. Sharp. By T. C. ilarhaugh.

616 Cowboy Gi-l, the Cittil"vR'lllge Detective; or.
The Grand Corral at Cross-Notch. By Lieut. A.

Sims.

617 Typewriter Tilly, the Merchant‘s Ward; or.
Amateur Detective against Professional. By J.
0. Cowdrick.

646 Deadvmol Dick Jr's. Chase Across the Conti-
nent. By E tward L. Wheeler.

649 Gamin Bob, the Bowery Badger; or, Sconping a
Slippery Set. By Jo l‘iurec.

650 Butterfly Billy, the Pony Rider Dotec‘ivu; or,
Buffalo Bill 6 Boy Pard. By Col. P. lngraham.

651 Bound-B iy Frank the Young Amateur Detective.
By William G. Bitten.

652 Don Barr. the l’lain’s Freelance. By Oil 00011108.

653 Billy Bantam, the Boy Beagle. By T. C. Har-
bauzh.

6M Deadwood Dick, Jr.. Among the Smugglers. By
EJward L. \Vln—elcr.

655 Plucky Paul. the Boy S pcculator. By C. Morris.

656 Butterfly Billy’s Mun Ilunt. By Colonel Prentiss
Ingiaham.

657 Wan-Win: William, the Mountain Mountcbank.
By Llnut. A. K. Sims.

658 Sky-R ekwt Bob. the Liwa'ivrr; or, The Storm-
Waif of Gi nt’s Boot. By Jo Pierce.

659 Moonlight Morgan. the “ Pizenost " Man of Ante

20y Detective. 2y T. C

By J0

By

By

Bar; or. (Jihuta John‘s Champion Chase. By
J. C. 0.;wdiictr.
660 Dourlwnod Dick, Jr’s, Insurance Case; or,

Oomalinu; a Cunning Trio. By Ed. L. \\ heelor.

661 Old Kit Bandy‘s Deliyerance; 0", Banner Ben,
the -\ ildflre of the Prairies. By 011 Coomes.

662 Bum-rily Billy‘s Bonanza; or. The Specter Soldier
of the U Jerlaud. By Colmiel Prentiss lnm‘aham.

66:} Violet V:lil(“~l Victory: or. The Jaspar City Clean
Out. By William G. Patten.

661 Cheeky Charley. the Special: or. The Life Racket
at Raul. snake Rid e. By P. S. Warn. .

665 Joilv Jeremiah. the Plains
Warming William‘s Home Run.
A. K. Sims.

666 DeadWood Dick. Jr.. Back in the Mines; or. The

Mountai: Amazon’s Double Game. By Edward

L. Wheeler.

Bob nnl Sam. the Daisy Detectives; or, The

(larnin Spies” Bi; Sta e. 13y Carlos Morris.

I)etectivv:_ or,
By Lieut.

617

Ruse. By Colonel Prentiss ingruham.

Broadway Billy Abroad; or, The, Boot‘hlack

Draw) in San Francisco. l y J. C. Cowdriek.

670 Norway Nels, the Bi;r Buy M luntaineer; or. The

Rival Ra clnnen. By 011 Uomnr 5

J away Jed, the Buy lins'ln-r; or, Shadowing the

Shadower. By 'I‘. C ilarhuutdn.

672 Deadwood Dick. Jr , in Durmigvi; or, “ Gathered
lu " By Edward L \Vne- lt'l'.

67‘! Ralph l’wnwoo . the Lightiin': Express Detec-

tive. By A F. Holt.

The Wizard nilor: or. Roi Ralph. the Rover.

By Colour-1 Prenti s lngr..h::tn.

Broad 'av Billy‘s Bis': or. Boatingr San Fran-

cisco‘s Finest. By J. C. (lorrdiick.

676 ‘s‘izrnol S-nn. the Lookout Swazi; t r. 'i'_ho Tussle
at the Bi: Bonaner By Limit. A K. Suns.

677 OlllnClllrlll Dan’s Second 'l‘rnil; or. The Baffled

 

 

Black Hawk‘s Fate. By Joseph E. Badger. J..
678 Deadwool Dick. Jr‘s ,' llisrrivcry; or, Found a '
Fortune. By Elward L. \i holler.

679 TheSna Shadower; or. The Freebcoter’s Legacy. 1
By Mono! Prentis~i lugru ham. l

,, BEADLE’SrHALF-DIMErLIBRARY.

Published Every Tuesday. Each Issue Complete and Sold at the Uniform Price of Five Cmfs. .No Double Numbers.

680 lmnnllv-ss Dan, the Fl't'i'llllN'CZ or, Old Kit Bandy

in Arcadia. By Oil (,‘oonii-s.

681 The Pitcher Detectivv’s Toughest Tussle; or,
{liable Curve Dan‘s Bend Ball. By Georg.)
‘. . nnks.

682 Wild Vulcan, the Long Range Rider. By William
l

(l. Patten.
68‘} Saltpcter Sol, the New York Navigator; or, The
Unseen Enemy. ly Jo Pierce.

68-1D‘adwo'nl Dick‘s Dazzle; or. The Nemesis of I

Nutmeg Bonanza. By Edward L. “lit-0101‘.

685 Hippv Hugh, the loy Musician Driemivc; or, ‘

Bro kin}: the Eureka Spider‘s Web. By '1‘. C.
Iiarbaugh.

686 Orlando, the Ocean Free Flag; or. The Tarnishcd
Name By (‘01 inel Prentiss Iurmham. 1

687 Broadway luly in ()‘ovt'rt (1'. The Ruction at
Lake 'l‘ulare. ly J. C. C(HVdI'lt'k.

688 Chincapin Dan‘s Home Stretch: or, The Con-
spirators of No Man‘s Land. By Joseph E.
Badger, Jr.

689 Bi ly, the Gy sy Spy; or, Wovking out The Mys- .
tery of Two .iw-s. By Lieut. A. K. Sims. I

690 Deadwood Dick. Jr‘s, Do lars: or, The Humming
Bird of Honeysuckle. By Edward L. \\ heeler. L

691 Headlight Harry’s Haul; or, The Railroad Purds‘ 1
big Day. By A F. iiolt.

692 The Iival Sharps: or. Br-di‘ern. the Secret. Ser-
vice Scout. By t'ol. P. Ingrnlium.

693 Vi l t and Daisy, the Posy P'vrds; or, The Racket r
atl ed lIot. Ry Wm. (i. Patten.

694 Spit-y Jim, the Only One of His Kind; or, Head-
ing Oil? the Crooks. By J ,. Pit-rec.

695 Deadwood Dick, .711, at Danger Ilivi’lo; or, De.
\‘ol ping the Dead Secret. By E. L. Wheeler.

696 Broadway Billy in Trxas; or, Rounding Up the
Red Rivm- RllSth‘l‘~. By J. (I. Cowdiick.

697 The. Scarlet Somhrm ; or, The Sharp from
’l‘exas. By Col. P. ln,_;raham.

69"? Old Crazy, the Man Without a Heal; or. Light- l
llt‘nl‘t Luke‘s Clean Sweep. By Jos. E. Badger, Jr. l

699 Simple. Sim, thw- llrnncho Buster: or, Playing the l
Fool for Bi.r Stakes. By Lieutenant A. K. Sims.

700 Deadwoo'l Diet. .l- ‘s, Drop; or. The Sojourn at l
Satan‘s Sp: ing. By E lward L. Wheeler. 1

701 Photograph IFred, the Camera Sharp; or, The ‘
Fight to the Finish. By ’I‘. C. Ilarhaugh. |

702 Blue Jacket Bill; or. The Red Hat Ranger‘s Red
llot Razlud. By Col. l’l‘rllllSS lngrahain.

703 Broadway Billy's Brand: CI‘. The New York I
Dulugatt-s in ilurd~np Camp. By J. C. Cowdn‘ck.

701 l)-'"l(l“'00:l Dir-k, Jr.. at Jack Pot' or, Making
Crookc-l l‘hings S might. 1'») Eli. L. n heeler.

705 Violet Vane‘s Vow: or. The Crafty Detective’s
Craft. By William G. Patten.

706 Tom Thistle, the Road-House Detective: or. The
Harlem Sport‘s Star-Faced. Pacer. By Jo Pierce.

70? The Red Sombrero Rangers; or. Redfnrn's Last 1
Trail. By Col. Prentiss ingraham. '

708 Light-Heart Lutc‘s Irgacy; or, The Lucky Lad's
Winning Hand. By Joseph E Badmr, Jr.

709 The Curb~tone Detective; or, Harry Hale’s Big
Beat. By Charles Morris.

710 Deadwood Dir-k Jr.. in San Francisco; or, Kodak
Kate. the Snap Shot B J Edward L Wheeler.

711 Broadway Billy at Santa Fe. or. The Pard De
tectivcs' CleVer Deal. By J. C. Cowdriek.

712 The Musinerist. Sport: or, The Mystiflcd Detec-
tive. By Lieut. A K. Sins.

713 Cul, the Mad Cowboy- or. The Lariat Queen.
By Coi. Prentiss lngra 1am. '

714 Ol'l Misery, the Man from Missouri; or. The
Mystery of the Mountain League. By \an. G.
Patten.

715 Wi ’e Awake Lon, the Quaker (‘it erret; or,
Cztging the (Yorinorans. By T. C. arbaugh.

716 Deadwood Dick, JI‘.’H. Still Hunt; or. The Sec-
ond 1. nnd in Sm ll‘l'anClSCl. By Edward L. '
“'hecler.

717 lilo-‘qui‘o Jac‘r. th ~ Hustler Gunin; or. Move-on
Mike s Grand Catch. By Jo Pic-re .

718 Light—Heart Luth Lftst 'l'rai‘: or The Gold
Crau-r‘s Secret. By Jo mph E. Badger, Jr.

719 Pawnu I Bill’s Pledge; or, The (l )wboy Kidnap
per. By Col Prentiss lngraham.

720 Broadway Billy’s Full Hand; or. The Gamin De-
te-‘ive's Double Snap at San a Fe. By J. C.
Cowdi iek.

7‘31 illnvurick Mose. the Arizona 'Dot'clivc; or, The ‘
Wizard of Urkos Pass. By \‘. ill Lisenhee. :

722 Deadwood Dielr. Jr.'s, Dominoes; or. The Rival
Camps of the Northern Border. By Edward L.
Wheeler. "

 

72'; Silver-blade. the Shoshone: or. The Border
Beagle‘s Secret Mission. By Jos E. B..dger, Jr.
Violet Vane‘s Ven’rennoo; or. The, Wipe-Out at
White Water. By William G. Patten.

721

 

0

7:25 Dzirine‘ Dir-k, Pa - no-t- Bill’s l’nrd; or. The Red.
(Iax'nlry ll lid. By (.‘01. Prentiss ln.',rdham.

726 Dennis Luil'. the
Covers and Blinds of Gotham.

7‘27 Headligh Barry‘s Siren; or, Mad Madge, the
Uutla Queen. :y Col. A. I". iloit.

728 ])l‘ll(l\\'0' (1 Dick, Jr.‘s. Disguise; or. Ivan, the
Man of iron. By Edward L. Wheeler.

729 Silver-blade, the lIa'f-lllood; or. the Border
Beat-.1.~ at Bay. By Jos. E. Badger, Jr.

730 Violet Vane's Verdict; or, The Crooked Game at
Coffin City. By Wm. G. Patten.

731 Ruth Redmond. the Girl Shadower: or, Tin-
Rivals 111 Buckskin. By Col. Prentiss Ingraham.

732 Daisy Dell. the Pavement Detective: or, Trap-
ping Bibr Game. By T. C. Ilarhaugli.

733 Toltec Tom the M ad Prospector: or, Unearthing
the Cavern league. By Lieut. A. K. Sims.

734 Deathod Dick, Jr.’s, Double Deal; or, The All-
Ar Juud Surprise. By Ed ward L. Wheeler.

735 Broadway Billy’s Business; or, Waking Up Wind
Canyon Camp. By J. C. (.‘owdrick.

736 Larry, the 'I‘hOI‘OUEllhl't'd: or. Beaten on Every
Side. By George C. Jents.

737 Buck Taylor, the Comanche‘s Captive; or, Buck»
skin Sam to the Rescue. By Col. l’fcflli‘fl lngra
ham.

738 Broadway Billy‘s'Cin-ious Case; or. The Mys
teriom Disappeiu-auev at Manitou Spruigs. «I;
J. C. Cowurick.

739 Silverblade. the Hostile; or,’l‘he Bordon lkfagle‘s
Ghost Trail. By Jos. E. Badger. Jr.

740 Deadwood Dick, Jr’s Deathwatch;

Moving Mystery at Mexicali Mustang.

ward L. W nwler.

Vi let Vane, the Velitriloqulst. Vidocq; or. Sport

against, Sport. By Wm. G. Patten.

742 Billy \Vinks, the Bell Boy Detective; or, Break
ing the Meshes of the Golden Coil. By T. (‘.
II..rbaugh.

743 Buck 'l‘ayl )r’s Boys; or The Red Riders of th.~
RlJ Grando. By Col. Prentiss ingraham.

Brown Sport’s Kid; or, The
By Jo Pfl‘l‘ce.

or. The
By Ed.

' 744 Dick 01’. the Docks, the NightrWatch; or, The

\. ater Wall’s Dead Past. By Jo Pier-06.

745 Kansas Jim. the, Cr.ss-(.‘ut Detective; or, Th.
Raiders of the Range. By Lieiit. A. K. Suns.

746 Quiet Jack. the Secret Service Spv: or, Too

Much fur Red Leary. By Dan Dunning. (of the
S eret Service Curps).

' I‘ea ‘wood Dick. Jr. 8, Double- ; or. The Tandem
'l‘« a n of ’i‘eddy’s Tailings. By Ed. L. Wheeler.
7'18 Silverhlade, the Friendly; or. the Border Beagle's

Buy Yard. By Joseph E. Badger. Jr.

749 Dashing: Charlie, the Younv Scalp-Taker: or, Thu
Kentucky 'l‘enderl'oot’s First: Trail. By Col.
Prentiss ingraham.

750 Violet Vane, the Vanquished; or 'l‘htefeStrng
gle aLShauty City. By Wm. e. Patten.

751 Gold-Dust Dan, the Trail Patrol. By John W-
Osbon.

752 Deadwood Dick, Jr.‘s, Deathhlow; or. The Little
Circus at Last Chance. By Edward L. Wheeler.

753 Broadway Billy in Denver; or, The On the-Catch
Combination. By J. C. Cowdrit-k.

754 Billy Wink-i, the Boss Boy Shadow. By T. (Y.
Harbaugh.

75-3 Gold Dust Dan’s Oath; or, Reckless Roy, the ,
Regulator. By J. W. Osbon.

756 Dashing Charlie‘s Destiny' or.‘ The Renmnde‘s
Captive. By 001. Prentiss‘lngraham.

757 Detective Frank’s Sweep-stakes; or,.A Very
Reaarkab e Expose. By Charles Moms.

758 Deadwood Dick. Jr.’.~‘, Desperate Strait; of, The
Demon Doctor of Dixon‘s Deposit. By Edward
L. Wlleelrl‘.

759 Headlight Harry’s Heritage; or Th’ Railroad
Pm‘rls in Fortune City. By A. l“. liolt.

Ready Februa y 9th.

760 Dashing; Charlie’s PaWnee Pard; or, Red Hair,

the Rea-rude lay Col. Prentiss lngraham.
Ready February 16th.

A new issue em'ry Tuesday.
The “alpnimo Library is for sale by all

74

.3

‘ Newsdealers, five cents per copy, or sent by mail”

on receipt of six cents each.
BEADLE AND ADAMS, PUbliehers.
98 William street, New York.