Fame and Fortune Weekly, No. 801, February 4, 1921
TekstCHAPTER X. – Dick's Strenuous Experience
Dick, alive to his danger, side-stepped and launched out his fist at his assailant, catching him in the jaw with a blow that staggered him and caused him to drop the weapon. Before Dick could get in another effective blow, the man had him in his grasp, and a desperate struggle for the mastery took place between them. Over and over they rolled upon the rug, first one on top and then the other, but neither could maintain the temporary advantage. In the midst of it the door slowly opened and a woman looked in – the short, blonde lady who had made the purchases at the store. She gazed with dilated eyes on the struggle that was going on. Neither of the combatants saw her at the moment so intent were they on their own exertions. Slowly she opened the door until her handsome form stood fully revealed. She appeared to be nerving herself to go to the aid of the man who had represented himself as her husband. Gradually she entered the room, with an almost imperceptible motion, until her gaze rested on the slungshot. The sight of it brought animation into her movements. She swooped down on it with a rush, and then the man took notice of her presence.
"Grab him, Fanny; he's as strong as a young bear," he cried.
At that moment Dick managed to get on top of his man again. He saw the woman's dress and looked up. She had the weapon raised to strike him.
"You – you here!" she cried, in startled tones, as she recognized the young clerk who had waited on her with such polite attention that she had felt attracted to him.
The blow did not fall. She crouched in the act of delivering it as if she had suddenly been transformed into a nerveless thing.
"Hit him – hit him!" hissed her husband, making no move to upset the boy, but trying his best to hold him at the woman's mercy.
"No, no, I can't, Jim; I can't strike that boy. He ought not to have come here. I did not dream that he would. He must not be hurt," she articulated, in an agitated voice.
"Are you mad, Fan? The boy has us in his power unless he is done up. Strike him and get it over with, do you hear me!"
"I can't," returned the woman, almost pathetically. "He reminds me of – "
"Blast your squeamishness! You will ruin us."
"We must adopt other means to silence him till we are safe," she said.
She looked feverishly about the room. Her eyes rested on a small bottle on the mantel. Flinging the slungshot down, she bounded over and seized it. Tearing a lace handkerchief from her bosom, she dashed some of the contents of the bottle on it. In the meantime the struggle between Dick and the man was renewed. Patterson succeeded in pulling the boy over on the rug again. As he held him there, the woman slipped over, threw her weight on Dick's side and pressed the handkerchief over his face. Dick struggled desperately, for he knew he was being drugged, but he had not the ghost of a show.
"It is better this way, Jim," she said. "Oh, why did he come here? Why did he come?"
"What's the matter with you?" growled Patterson, allowing matters to take their course. "What interest have you in that boy?"
"I don't know, indeed I don't; but he is a nice boy, and he looks so like my brother!" she faltered.
"Oh, hang your brother! What has your brother got to do with him?"
As Dick's struggles ceased the woman lifted the handkerchief. The boy was unconscious.
"Look at him, Jim; isn't he a handsome boy? And he treated me at the store as if I were a real lady."
Jim Patterson, if his name really was Patterson, which seemed doubtful after what had happened, uttered an imprecation as he got up.
"Now, then, you soft-hearted thing, go and find a piece of line for me to tie him with," he said.
"You won't do anything to him while I'm gone, will you, Jim?" she said anxiously.
"Why should I? He's down and out now for six or eight hours, which will give us time to skip. There's nothing in the house, except our trunks and duds that belong to us, for we took the place furnished. When the servant returns in the morning she'll find the boy and liberate him. By that time we'll be a long way on our way West. We have cleaned up quite a stake since we've been here, and can live on Easy street for a while. I'm afraid I made a mistake in pulling off this last trick. There isn't enough in it for the risk we ran. You ought to have bought more diamonds while you were about it."
"I was afraid to buy too much lest it should have excited suspicion," she said.
"We won't quarrel over it. Go and get the line."
The woman left the room, her dress rustling on the stairs. In a short time, during which Patterson took the money from the table and put it in his pocket and paced up and down the room, she came back with a length of clothes-line. Dick was carried into a small bedroom on that floor and his arms bound to his sides by half a dozen turns of the rope, which was then knotted at his back. There he was left to lie like a dead one on the bed until well along in the evening, when the Pattersons were ready to leave the house for good, when Jim intended to carry him downstairs to the basement where the servant would find him in the morning when she returned. After the woman had completed the balance of the packing, she and Jim went out to their dinner. When they got back the expressman Patterson had arranged with early in the day to take their trunks to the Pennsylvania ferry was waiting for them. He took away all their baggage. Soon afterward Patterson carried the unconscious boy downstairs, placed him upright in a kitchen chair, with the table for a support, and then the rascal locked up the house and placed the key of the front door under the iron area gate where the servant would see it when she came in the morning, and with his wife started for the railroad station.
They had been gone about an hour when Dick recovered his senses. He discovered his bound condition at once, and wondered where he was, for the room he was in was pitch dark. He pushed back the chair with his feet, which he saw were not tied, and got up. His eyes were accustomed to the darkness so he soon made out the outline of the stove and other things that showed him that he was in the kitchen, which he judged was in the basement of the house. Walking toward the door, which he found standing open, he passed into the lower hall up which he went to the door that opened on to the small space within the area gate and directly under the stoop and the stairs to the sidewalk. Bending sideways a little, he seized the handle and turned, but it was, as he supposed, locked. He bent lower and felt for the key, but it was missing, for the servant had taken it with her, along with the key of the gate. He saw that he couldn't get out there, so he thought he would venture to try the front door. He walked softly upstairs, for he supposed the man and his wife were still in the house. There was no light in the hall and the house was as silent as the grave, from which fact Dick circulated that it was very late.
He went to the front door, the inner one, but again he was stumped, for that key was missing, too. That seemed to indicate that Patterson and his wife had left the premises. This appeared to be a reasonable conclusion under the circumstances. They would hardly remain all night after what they had been guilty of. If they had fled the place, they had left a furnished house behind them, and the boy presumed that the furnishings belonged to them. He wondered if the man had intended to kill him, and that the woman had saved his life.
The recollection of that awful sight of the descending slungshot he had caught sight of in the mirror, and which he shuddered to recall, and would never forget as long as he lived, made him think so. Believing that he was probably alone in the house, after all, he became less cautious in moving about. He turned the knob of the parlor door and walked into that big room. He could see the ghostly-looking pieces of furniture standing about, an upright piano, and the dim effect of walls covered with pictures. He went through into the back room, the folding doors of which stood open.
Here for the first time he heard a sound – the ticking of the gilt ormulo clock on a fancy shelf. The room was furnished as a library. There were bookcases filled with books, and a desk by the back window, the shades of which were down. Suddenly the thought occurred to him to see if there was a telephone in the room. He believed that houses of that class were nearly always equipped with one. Whether Patterson had use for such a convenience or not he could not say. When the man rented the house there was a telephone in it, and though he had little use for it, and as he did not intend to occupy the place long, he let it remain, and Dick discovered it attached to the wall beside the desk. He humped his shoulder and knocked the receiver off the hook. It fell upon his shoulder and lay close to his ear.
As soon as he heard the voice of the girl ask for the number wanted he put his mouth near the mouthpiece and said:
"Give me police headquarters – very urgent!"
Then he tilted his ear toward the receiver again. Presently he heard a man's voice call, "Hello!"
"Is this police headquarters?"
"Yes," came back the answer.
"Send a policeman to No. 164 West – street at once. I am locked in the house and my arms are bound to my sides. I am the victim of a pair of crooks, a man and a woman. The doors are locked so the officer will have to come prepared to force his entrance through the area gate or one of the windows. I am telephoning under great difficulties, so please don't ask questions, but act at once."
"All right," was the answer returned, and the officer closed his circuit.
As Dick couldn't replace the receiver, he had to let it drop the length of its covered wire, and the telephone girl soon saw that something was wrong, and she began ringing.
"Hello!" said Dick, returning to the phone. "The receiver is hanging and I can't replace it because my arms are bound. The circuit will have to remain open till the police get here. That's all," said Dick, judging that the call came from the girl at the central office.
She evidently understood and reported the situation, for the bell did not ring any more. Dick left the library and made his way down to the dining room in the front of the basement to watch for the coming of the policeman. In a short time he saw an officer come in sight and stop in front of the house next door. A second policeman joined him a moment later and pointed to the right house. They started down into the areaway.
Dick at once pounded on the window with his forehead, the best he could do. The policeman heard the sounds and came up to the window, which was protected by diamond-shaped iron-work. Through this they peered and could just make out the boy's face pressed against the pane. One of them took an electric flashlight cylinder from his pocket and turned the light on Dick's form. They saw at once how his arms were bound alongside his body.
Then the officer turned the light on the iron area gate. As he looked it over, he saw the key on the floor just inside. He reached for it and tried it on the gate, but saw right away that it wouldn't fit. They conversed a minute, then leaving the area, they went up to the front door and found no trouble in opening the outer portal. Flashing the light on the inside door, they saw the key standing in the lock. In another moment they were in the house and Dick heard their heavy tread on the stairs, coming down. Within a minute he stood in the full glare of the flashlight, while the policemen were sizing him up.
CHAPTER XI. – Guilt Sees Its Finish
"My, but I'm glad you've come!" said Dick, in a tone of relief. "Cut me free, please."
"How came you to be in this shape?" asked the officer with the flashlight, while the other produced his knife and began severing the clothes line.
Dick told his story in as few words as possible, beginning with the appearance of the richly dressed blonde woman at his store that morning. The policeman listened with attention.
"That fellow is no common rascal," said one of them, "and his name isn't Patterson, for a dollar bill. They have left the house of course?"
"I judge so, for I haven't heard a sound since I recovered my senses nearly an hour ago. Besides, the house appears to be locked up from the outside, or was until you came and got in. How did you manage to do it?"
The policeman told him about finding the key inside of the area gate, where it had evidently been placed by the man when he and the woman left.
"Well, come along to the police station with us, and we'll lock up the house again after we search it thoroughly. How much was the package worth you brought here?"
"Seven hundred dollars."
"They've got away with that, at any rate."
On their way upstairs Dick went into the library and replaced the telephone receiver on its hook. The officers were astonished to find the house so elegantly furnished, and they came to the erroneous conclusion that the family who occupied it was away, and that the crook and his accomplice had learned of the fact and taken possession of it for the purpose of working that particular job. The truth came out later when the police made a thorough investigation of the case.
The house was looked over from cellar to the top floor, and nothing was to be seen but the furniture and furnishings, just as the house had been rented. The officers were of the opinion that Patterson had cleaned out everything that was worth carrying off. It was about midnight now, and Dick went with the policemen to the station to which they were attached, and told his story over again, with more detail, to the man at the desk. He furnished a first-rate description of Patterson and of the woman he claimed as his wife, and after Dick was allowed to go home several detectives were put out on the case. Dick got home about one o'clock and found his family all exercised over his failure to come home at a reasonable hour.
Only two of his sisters were now living in the flat, as Gertie, the elder, had succeeded in hooking Clarence Peck, and the young couple were living in a small genteel flat of their own. Dick had to explain the cause that had detained him, and his mother and two sisters were horrified over the recital.
"What a narrow escape you had, my dear boy!" said his mother tearfully.
"That's right, but don't let us talk about it. Is there anything handy that I can eat?" he said.
"I'll warm up something," said Nellie, "while May will make you a cup of tea."
The girls prepared him a meal and after eating it he turned in with the others. His story was in the morning papers, and the first inkling that Mr. Bacon, his manager and the clerks got of it was through the morning journals. Dick appeared at the store on time, and in advance of the other employees, and as they arrived they gathered around him and bombarded him with questions. He satisfied their curiosity as well as he could, and when the manager turned up he took the boy in his room and asked him to give him the whole story. Then Mr. Bacon appeared and Dick was closeted with him for half an hour.
The manager in the meanwhile had communicated with the police, who told him they were working on the case, but so far without results. During the day one of the people who lived opposite the house where the adventure happened to Dick, after reading the story in the paper, reported to the police that he had seen an expressman take two trunks and two suitcases out of the house at about half-past eight on the evening before. By that time the police had learned the name of the owner of the house and its contents, and learned from his representative that Patterson had leased the place for a year, giving certain references. He had paid only one month's rent – the first. The second month would be due in a few days, thereby showing that Patterson and his accomplice had occupied the house but one month. The servant had been found in the house and interviewed by a policeman. She was very much astonished to learn of the character of the parties who had engaged her as a cook and general domestic.
She had been with them since they took possession, and thought them very nice people, though she saw little of the man. Under close questioning she called to mind many things which the detectives regarded as suspicious. In the course of a day or two some of Patterson's operations came to light, and the police picked up many clues concerning his movements while he was living at the house.
It was three days before the expressman who carried the trunks to the ferry was found, for he had been paid to keep a stiff upper lip, and had tried to keep out of the way, then the authorities got wise to the fact that the guilty couple had gone out of the city via the Pennsylvania road. By following the clue, the pair was traced to Pittsburg, and from there to Cincinnati, thence to St. Louis, where they were caught and brought back to New York.
Dick was called on to identify them, which he readily did. As he felt a certain gratitude toward the little blonde woman who had refused to lay him out with the slungshot, he would liked to have made matters as easy for her as possible; but there was no getting around her part of the business, and so she was held for grand larceny, and criminal participation in the other operations which were brought against the man who was supposed to be her husband. In the end she was sent to Auburn, while Patterson got a long sentence at Sing Sing, but Mr. Bacon recovered none of his loss, not even the diamond ring.
The merchant did not blame Dick for the loss of his goods. It was clear that the game had been too slickly worked for the boy to have acted differently than he had done. On the whole, Mr. Bacon thought his young clerk a lucky boy to have escaped with his life. Dick spent his third Christmas week with the Masons, and made further progress in the good opinion of the gentleman, his wife and the sister-in-law, and more firmly established himself in the heart of Madge. He visited the gypsy camp again and told Miriam of the peril he had passed through in connection with the Pattersons.
"Did I not tell you to beware of a tall, dark man and a short, light woman?" said the gypsy queen.
"By George, you're right! Do you know, that fact has never occurred to me till this moment," admitted Dick. "The man was tall and dark, and the woman was a small blonde. I was lucky to fare no worse than I did."
"It was the benign influence of your favorable planets that saved you from death. How old are you?"
"I was eighteen about six months ago," said Dick.
"It is as I thought. You were threatened with a sudden and violent death through the position of Saturn in the sky at the moment you entered that house in the city; and but for other planetary influences in your favor you would have fared badly."
"How can you tell all that without even looking at my hand?"
"I recall much that your hand told me, and the circumstances you have related to me enables me to make those deductions."
"Hand-reading and astrology seem to be more or less alike."
"They must agree, or there would be nothing in either. Cartomancy, which means the reading of the past, present or future through cards, also coincides with the other two, reaching the same results. Why, I can tell your character and all your characteristics by merely studying your physical appearance. You have a compact body, well-developed chest, and other traits that show at a glance the influence of the Sun and Jupiter at your birth, and indicate to an ordinary observer that you are endowed with good health and a resistance against disease. The color of your eyes, and hair, the size and shape of your hands, your ears, your eyebrows, all tell their story as clearly as if described in print. The very flush that you bear upon your cheeks shows beyond a doubt that you were born in the cycle of the Sun."
"You gypsies are a great people in your way, I am bound to say," said Dick, regarding Miriam with increased respect.
"Our ancestors came from Egypt. We are an old race."
"Well, I've got to be going," said Dick.
"You are bound back to the city – soon?"
"On the day after New Year's."
"When you return we will have departed, so I will say good-by forever."
"Maybe not. I expect to return at Easter."
"Unless the weather is backward, we will be on the move before then," she said. "One last look at your hand."
Dick gave it to her.
"I told you that you were coming into a fortune before long."
"I remember that you did. But there is very little chance of such a thing happening."
"The fortune will come to you around Easter."
"In what way?" asked Dick curiously.
"It is already yours. Indeed, you have been in possession of this fortune for three years."
"I have? Then it can't amount to much."
"It is a fortune in money."
"Why, I have been in possession of no money over a couple of hundred dollars."
"You have, but even now you know it not."
"How can I possess something and not be aware of the fact?"
"You will understand within four months. When the time comes, you will recall my words and say Miriam was right. She can read that which is hidden from most people. She has the power to see beyond the veil that hides from mankind the mysteries of life. And now good-by. Take this piece of bone and keep it as your emblem of good luck. Have it mounted in silver or gold and wear it as a charm on your watch chain. It will be worth your while. That is all."
With a smile she entered the tent, and Dick never saw her more; but he often had occasion to remember her and her words of truth.