Ralph Boston

“ The lawyer’s face softened. “My dear young lady, I agree with you heartily,” he said. “I, too, took a great liking to the young man the very first time I saw him. I am not a man of quick impressions. Long experience has taught me that appearances are sadly deceiving, but there are some men whose personalities compel confidence and respect the minute you meet them. Owen Sheridan is one of these. I, too, am absolutely confident that he is innocent of this charge of robbing the mails. If I were not, I should not have undertaken his defense. ”

“ You’ve got nothing on Padillo for stabbing Taggart. He did it in self-defense to protect his property. He had a legal right to do that.”
“Hang it, that’s too true for a joke,” frowned Sadie, biting her lips.
“You see,” Nick added; “you’ll do much better to put the Mexican away and compromise with me.”
“Mebbe so, Goulard, after all,” admitted the woman reluctantly.
“Besides, there is another reason why you should do so.”
“What is that?”
“I am the man who made the job possible,” Nick forcibly argued. “If it hadn’t been for Taggart and me, your gang would never have laid hands on the stuff.” ”

“ Whenever you meet any of Coggswell’s bunch, pretend to be overwhelmed with despair. Make those fellows think that you are on the verge of a breakdown as a result of brooding over your impending fate. That will make the shock all the greater when we spring our little surprise on them in court.”
Thus it happened that when, the following day, Jake Hines, on his way to the headquarters of the Samuel J. Coggswell Association, encountered Owen on the street, the latter looked so worried and cast down that Jake almost felt sorry for him. ”

“ As the day set for Owen Sheridan’s trial approached, ex-Judge Lawrence grew more and more pessimistic as to the outcome. Although he was quite certain that his client was the victim of a dastardly plot, he realized that simply to make such an assertion in a court of law could do no good unless he was able to prove it to a jury’s complete satisfaction.
He had obtained a bondsman for Owen, and the latter had been freed from a cell at police headquarters, and was able to take an active part in the preparing of his own defense. ”

“ When Dallas saw Owen a little later she repeated to him what Hines had said, and the young man, greatly mystified, went to report the incident to his friend and counselor, Judge Lawrence.
“What on earth does it mean, judge?” he inquired. “What is their game in offering me money?”
The lawyer laughed. “It is very clear what their game is, my boy. They are in hopes that you are in such terror of the coming trial that you can be tempted to seek safety in flight. The two thousand dollars is intended to pay your expenses.” ”

“ Hines, I should feel very much afraid of you. But let me tell you that there is one great difference between love and politics: In love the best man generally wins; in politics, from what I have heard, the reverse is usually the case.”
As she spoke, she glanced at a solitaire diamond ring which flashed from the third finger of her left hand.
The young man looked at her admiringly. “Say, that’s pretty clever of you. It sounds like a couple of lines [Pg 41] out of a book. You can take it from me, though, Miss Dallas, that the best man is goin’ to win in this case—and his name is Jake Hines.” ”

“ I am a detective, as you may see, and I am anxious to watch the doings of a man who, I think, is going into the back door of that house. Would you like to earn five dollars without lifting your finger?”
The woman laughed softly, with eyes lighting.
“I could use five dollars very nicely,” she replied. “I don’t often get an opportunity to earn as much so easily. I infer that you want something of me.”
“I merely wish to use your second-floor back windows for the purpose of watching the man and that side of the house,” Patsy informed her. ”

“ The heavens open, and while the fanfare is loudest and the lightning is lividest, our fair lady is soaked to the skin with real water and falls to earth, beaten down by the very force of the torrent from on high. ”

“ As he now closed the door behind him, turned the key in the lock, and stepped across the soft, thick Persian rug to the mahogany roll-top desk at which sat Samuel J. Coggswell, the latter swung around in his desk chair, and confronted him eagerly.
“Well, Jake?” he said.
“Everything’s went fine, boss,” replied Hines, with a grin, seating himself beside the desk. “Your scheme worked like a clock from start to finish. Sheridan was pinched at half past twelve, and is in the jug at this minute.”
Boss Coggswell’s face lighted up. “Good!” he said. ”

“ He was gazing at the windows of the Badger house.
Presently, after glancing sharply around, Goulard emerged from his concealment and approached the entrance to the porch mentioned.
At the same moment, giving Patsy a second surprise, he caught sight of a man coming rapidly through the passageway from the lime shed.
“Great guns! that’s Ben Badger himself, the king-pin of his knavish gang,” he said to himself, instantly recognizing the notorious gangster. “He’s bound to meet Goulard in the alley. I wonder if that’s been fixed.” ”

“ If there is one man on earth whom I hate, you’re the man.”
“Better your hatred, Goulard, than your friendship,” Nick said sternly. “Mr. Henry Mantell, your late partner in business, will vouch for that.”
“Curse you, I——”
“Cut that!” snapped Badger, thrusting Goulard aside when he reached for a weapon. “You’ll be given a chance to have your say a little later. Just now, Goulard, I’ll do the talking with the dick.”
Goulard drew back, white and frowning, and glanced again toward one of the windows. ”

“ The films of the fleeing people were merely super-imposed on the film of the fake volcano, studio made.
You have seen your favorite heroine jump unhesitatingly off a tall cliff? Or swim an ice-choked river? You never knew she could swim. Nor does she. Another movie trick is what you have seen. Movie stars seldom do such things. Professionals, dressed exactly as they are, and made up to resemble them, do this part of the stunt for the real actors. Jumping from a burning building is another movie feat which is only a trick. The real people get only as far as the windows. ”

“ She seemed unable to realize how completely she had been duped, how completely she had exposed herself and her confederates.
“Get his bracelets,” growled Badger, who was the coolest of the gang. “It’s the dick, all right. Run your duke under his coat, Knocker, and get his irons. We’ll soon fix him so he can wag nothing more dangerous than his tongue.”
Freeland hastened to obey, dragging Nick’s handcuffs from his pocket, also the revolver he had partly drawn. He thrust the weapon into his own pocket. Then, with the help of the others, he quickly snapped the handcuffs on the detective’s wrists. ”

“ She had a fine figure, the better clad of the two, a woman in the twenties, with regular features, dark hair and complexion, a firm mouth and chin. Hers was a decidedly strong and quite handsome face, lighted with eyes that had a habitual searching and defiant expression.
The first words that passed between them, uttered by the woman with red hair, fell upon the ears of a man who was about emerging from the near barroom, and who instantly passed back of the swinging doors and lingered to listen.
“Oh, I say!” exclaimed the woman. “You’re just the skirt I want to see. ”

“ Joseph, Mo., post-office force, broached the thought that considerable valuable time would be saved if the overland mail could be sorted on the cars, and made up for offices at the end of and along the routes. The department allowed him to carry out this idea, which, starting in such a humble way, is now one of the most important branches of the department.
Before the “catcher” on the mail cars and the “crane” at small stations came into use, twenty years later, the process of catching and delivering the pouches was indeed strenuous, both for the mail clerk and the local postmaster. ”

“ Chick questioned.
“Cornelius Taggart,” said Nick. “Better known to the police as Connie Taggart.”
“By Jove, you’re right,” Chick declared, gazing. “I recognize him, now. Connie Taggart, the yegg and cracksman.”
“He’s the man,” Nick nodded. “He has cracked his last crib and paid the price. He has been about as bad an egg, Chick, as one often finds in a basket. Have you examined this body, Doctor Boyden?”
Sergeant Kennedy and the physician had approached as far as the open door. ”

“ They rather show the working of one of the finest minds ever conceived by a writer. The name of Nick Carter is familiar all over the world, for the stories of his adventures may be read in twenty languages. No other stories have withstood the severe test of time so well as those contained in the Nick Carter Stories. It proves conclusively that they are the best. We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print. You can have your news dealer order them, or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps. ”

“ Upon arriving at the last door, moreover, he merely glanced at it and walked on, not stopping until he came to the river wall, and opposite a two-story building, on which was the lime sign previously mentioned.
“Gee! I wonder what that signifies,” thought Patsy. “He’s got something on his mind. He seems to fear that the house may be watched.”
That, as a matter of fact, was precisely what Goulard feared, and he resolved not to enter the front door—which was the one and only reason why Nick Carter was discovered and caught by the gang a little later. ”

“ He says that yesterday afternoon, when he had given up all hope of being able to raise the cash for the ring, he unexpectedly encountered a prosperous friend, a Boston man named Cowan, whom he had not seen for several years. Owen declares that Cowan loaned him the thirty dollars.”
“And he’s telling the truth, of course,” said Dallas. [Pg 47] “Surely it ought to be easy to prove that, Judge Lawrence. All we have to do is to get this Mr. Cowan to corroborate Owen’s statement.”
The lawyer smiled sadly. “That is where fate has dealt our young friend a nasty blow. Sheridan is a most unlucky fellow. ”

“ They are square, honest, fearless men. Not even a politician as influential as Boss Coggswell could persuade them to do anything crooked. I am thoroughly convinced as to that. If they say they found the pawn ticket in Sheridan’s trunk, I am quite sure that such was the case.”
“Then how did it get there?” demanded Dallas. “You say you believe in Owen’s innocence.”
“Somebody else put it there before the inspectors visited the house—somebody who is in this shameful conspiracy to railroad our unfortunate young friend to jail,” declared the lawyer grimly. ”

“ Goulard turned back after viewing the river and the near-by lime shed for several moments. He retraced his steps with the air of a man having no special business in that locality. But upon approaching the entrance to a narrow alley making in between the end of the block and an old wooden building, and seeing no sign of any person observing him, he darted quickly into the alley and disappeared.
“Gee! that does settle it,” thought Patsy, at first impelled to follow him. “He thinks the Badger house is being watched. ”

“ Nick added. “Badger is a tough ticket, also that notorious sister of his, Sadie Badger. They’re the kingpins of about as bad a bunch as can be found in the East Side.”
“Right again, Nick.”
“I never have heard, however, that Connie Taggart was friendly with them. If any of them were with Lang last night, we may be able to find positive evidence of it and to force a squeal from them. Otherwise—hello!”
Nick broke off abruptly when they turned the corner, and Chick also saw the occasion for it.
“Goodness!” he exclaimed. “There is Patsy, and—yes, by Jove, it’s Frank Mantell. ”

“ And yet, now that the faces have been reconstructed, we find no close resemblance to the ape type, as many of the most excitable scientists have expected. “The truth is,” says Doctor Poynter, “if man sprang from the same original stem as the ape, the ape branch sprang off so far back in antiquity that none of the skulls of the missing links could possibly be expected to withstand the weathering to the present day. No one will ever find a skull that will carry man back even anywhere near the ape days, and the remotest skull we can find is already very much a man’s.” ”