Diamond Dick, Jr.'s Call Down; or, The King of the Silver Box — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

No. 178. understand that you have some diamonds which. will shortly be for sale and——”’ ‘*That’s a lie out of whole cloth!”’ As the supposed woman said this she stepped out of her comige disguise and confronted the gambler, revolvers in and. ‘‘My name is Diamond Dick, Jr., and you have a chance to meet me now, according to the code, or in any other way. I have balked your little game, and I am now ready to wipe out the insult you offered me last night.”’ The Don recoiled in consternation for a moment, and then a black scowl came over his face, and a light of anger darted from his eyes. | ‘You must be the devil himself, Diamond Dick, Jr., to be able to foil me in this way. But you have made a fool of yourself, for you have run your neck directly into the noose ”’ ‘“This is no time for trifling. If you are nota braggart and a coward, draw and defend yourself.”’ Noiselessly as though it worked on hinges of rubbera DIAMOND DICK LIBRARY. 3) — lock continued, and then the door opened and Handsome Harry stepped into the room. ‘‘Wall, by thunder!’’ he exclaimed. ‘‘You don’t look as though you’d had much of a picnic, me son.”’ ‘‘The sight of you is good for sore eyes,’’ said Bertie. “IT wouldn’t have missed what I've gone through for a ‘cool thousand. Here—cut me loose. I’ve got something to Show you.”’ Handsome Harry lost no time in freeing his friend. ‘‘So this is an assay office, is it?”’ “Not by along shot! It’s a plant for turning out queer money, and the assay business is only a blind.”’ ‘‘What d’ye mean, Bertie?’’ ‘‘Look at this bill.’’ Bertie handed to his friend the bank-note that had dropped down with the section of the wall. ‘Why, it’s counterfeit! It’s the same bill ye got at the hotel yesterday.’’ “It’s not the same bill, Harry, although it is identical with the counterfeit I had passed on me. It’s a strange door opened behind Diamond Dick, Jr., and two men crept. coincidence, but I’m positive the Don is the author of like serpents into the room. Quick of hearing though the youth was, his ears yet failed to inform him of the entrance of these two men. ‘‘You are bound to fight me, are you?’’ asked the Don, allowing his hand to wander in the direction of his hip- pocket. ‘“*You say Colorado is not big enough for both of us,”’ replied Bertie, coolly, ‘‘and Ilintend to remain here for some time.’’ At that moment, in response to an almost imperceptible sign from the Don, the two men sprang upon Bertie from behind and bore him to the floor. | The youth struggled desperately, but his strength availed little against that of the two desperadoes who held him. In afew moments he was bound securely and lying helpless at the Don’s feet. ‘‘Rieht you are,’’ said the Don, sarcastically. ‘“‘You will remain in Colorado for some time, but your stay here won’t bother me any. I'll see that you’re taken care of. You thought I was playing this job single-handed, did you?”’ | those twenty-dollar bills.”’ ‘‘A counterfeiter, hey?”’ ‘‘No doubt of it.”’ ‘Then yere’s yer chance to operate yer great call-down with blue fire an’ all the extra trimmin’s.’’ ‘“That’s just what I intend to do,”’ ‘‘But whar’s the Don’s plant?”’ ‘‘Out through that door,’’ replied Bertie, pointing to the door behind him through which the two men had entered and taken him by surprise. The youth now began to understand why it was that those white aprons were smeared with printers’ ink. “Tf that door leads to anythin’ we want ter see, we'll just go through it.”’ The Californian started for the door, but Bertie laida restraining hand on his arm. ‘‘Hold up, Harry. Let’s investigate this part of the lay- out first.’’ ‘‘T don’t see anythin’ ter investigate yere.’’ Bertie walked to the wall and removed the false section, revealing the cupboard behind it. “That’s where that twenty-dollar bill came from,”’ said Bertie cast his eyes over the two men who had assaulted | Diamond Dick, Jr. — him. Both had their sleeves rolled up to their elbows and wore long aprons that were plentifully smeared with printer’s ink. _ Bertie thought this a strange condition for two men in an assayer’s office. ‘J have balked your designs upon Miss Bicknell, at any rate,’’ said he. ‘‘ At the expense of your own life,’’ replied the gambler, with a’shrug of the shoulders. ‘‘You shall pay dearly for what you have done, Diamond Dick, Jr.” ‘That remains to be seen,’’ said Bertie, coolly. The Don motioned to the two men, and they withdrew through the door by which they had so silently entered. Then, without another word, Ortego left the room through the front entrance, locking the door carefully be- hind him. Left to himself, Bertie tried the strength of his bonds | and found that to release himself from them was out of | the question. Rolling over and over until he reached the board sides of the room, he began pounding upon the wall with his feet in hopes that the sound would attract the attention of some passer-by. At the third kick a singular thing happened. A section of the board wall, some three gave way, and, as it dropped into the room, & bank-note fluttered down with it and dropped on the floor but a few feet from the spot where Bertie was lying. “Great Czesar!’? exclaimed the youth, as he looked at ill. ae that moment he heard a hand trying the knob of the door, and he managed, bound as he was, to get the section of wall back into place and to throw himself over the bill. | ‘nal machine. Some one was working at the lock. Who could it be? For ten minutes longer at least the tampering with the ‘‘An’ thar’s a pile of the stuff,’’ cried Handsome Harry, making a dive at a bundle of the bills. The bundle was about six inches deep and appeared to be fastened together with two rubber bands, one at either end. As the Serpent of Siskiyou picked up the bank-notes he paused a moment and weighed them carefully in his hand. ‘‘What’s the matter, Harry?’’ queried Bertie. ‘‘T’ll be hornswiggled if this yere bunch of the long green doesn’t weigh as much as a chunk of lead.”’ . Handsome Harry thereupon gave the supposed bundle of bills a closer examination. ‘““Why,’’ he exclaimed, ‘‘thar’s only two bank-notes in this hull pack, one on the top, an t’other on the bottom! It’s a box, that’s what it is, got up ter look like a passel of money.’’ ‘‘Perhaps he uses that in some way in working the egrangers.’’ “That’s his game, sure enough; but durned if I 99 wouldn’t Handsome Harry was interrupted by a loud buzzing ‘sound that came from the interior of the box he was holding. ‘‘Now what ther blazes do ye reckon that is?’’ Bertie leaped forward, dashed the box from his friend’s feet square, |hand, and dragged him back to the farther wall of the building. ‘‘Dash it, boy! What did ye do that fer?”’ Almvust as soon as asked, Handsome Harry’s question was answered. . There came a tremendous explosion, followed by a crash of bricks and other debris, and the interior of the room ‘was full of smoke in an instant, That supposed bundle of bills was nothing but an infer- Bertie had divined its nature just in time to save the lives of himself and his companion. CONN DOO m (C SaCO