The Safe Breakers' Gang — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

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I was to send him enough for his needs, and later. when the chase ceased, and he felt himself to be secure, I would join himin his chosen retreat. And,” addeu the young woman, while her pallor was suddenly illumined by a glow of triumph, “we would not have to starve, or would we be so despised by those we had robbed as we would be if we were ignominously captured and humbled! “Good !” smiled Jules Jepworth. “Now I have told you all. I do not think we can afford to betray each other, although of course Ido not expect now to succeed in my mission.” ‘You think I mean to take what the vault contains and leave you and Edgar out in the cold, eh!” | “A thousand dollars would enable me to join my hus- band. There are ninety thousand in the vault—in cash ! If you could generously spare one ninetieth part of the treasure, when if you had been ten minutes later I should have had all!” Jules Jepworth stepped silently to the open vault and beckoned her to follow. She stood at his side, trembling with strange emotions. “You. know where the cash is,” he said, quietly. “Get it and bring it out. Lose no time!” She stepped into the vault, and with keys opened sev- eral compartments. In another moment she rejoined the safe-breaker and her hands clutched bulky bunches of greenbacks. “Give a thousand to pay my expenses,” meeting her gaze. “ And keep the rest! Don’t stop to utter. thanks—thrust the money under your cloak, and go! I will cover your retreat !” Was there ever a stranger compact than this 2 CHAPTER VIII. BALKED ! The morning papers chronicled the robbery of the small railway station safe; and also, in prominent head-lines, a, 7. A) Neth eye tig i CABL 199 f > ; - 409% ’ us 7 J in rs : Pit ae, dal y ad Py Pe 4 Gud s Patsy 7A ~“ lous "" ase att a4 ie Ay VY tae ? + Pala os ee 7 of Ele aee ey | tte . oS =. “ Ss . , > 5 -— < * > Li « ha ¥ ra ce a iy! , ott ; ay a F e Papal > r + Ew ity 4 i 2! + 6 : Wy ‘Se “ a's Sok ta Se ; “ei Bla ae “f Pie me . 1% ’ AS 7 i ce, <n . ae Wgee ae a us Having lodged his prisoners in the nearest jail for safe- keeping, Kirk Hyde, the dwarf-detective, returned to the railway station where Tad Silsby reigned as night oper- ator. Tad was there, although it was the time of day when he should have been asleep. But the exciting events of the previous night had been too great to allow him to sleep until he had repeated the details of his experience to every person in the neighborhood whom he could secure as a listener. “Well, Silsby,” said the dwarf, sidling up to the youth- ful giant in his squirming fashion. ‘“ You found out that the three H’s were on deck last night, after all. At the rate of two at a scoop, Jules Jepworth’s gang won’t last a great while—eh ?” “Gosh !—but I didn’t think you had anything in the wind but followin’ Jepworth himself when you went away from here last night,” said Tad, looking down at the un- couth figure before him. “And what do you think is in the wind, now’? Do you suppose the tail-ender of the three H’s is squirming around here without an object?” “Likely he ain’t. I guess you’re in for another scoop.” ‘A tolerable close guess, only this is to be a slow scoop, instead of a quick one like the last. I knew there was no use in my trying to follow Jules Jepworth last night, for I didn’t know where he was steering for, and no man living can follow him when he is out on one ot his expe- ditions, without his detecting the fact. Oh, Jules is a hard «man to beat, and I knew he was up to somethng, and didn’t know exactly what! He cleaned out your safe here, but that was just one of his jokes. He doesn’t call that serious business, and likely he didn’t think of doing it till he come in here and saw the safe. So it follows that he was not so anxious to reach a certain destination last night without having an object. Now, do you know said Jepworth, | where he went after leaving here?” “Hain’t got ’ary an idea,” said Tad. The dwarf had entered the little office, and closed the ‘door. So they were alone, although there were loungers in the waiting-room and outside on the platform. “Did you read about the affair in the bank in the little city which is the nearest to this station ?” ' ‘? Bout the cashier runnin’ off with the funds?” “That’s it.” ‘Wall, Jepworth didn’t do that.” “Perhaps not; but Jules Jepworth meant to go through proclaimed the flight of Edgar Winthrop, the defaulting that bank last night, just the same !” bank cashier. This, however, was not all the important news on this theme, which the newspapers of that morning had to record. ‘‘How d’ye know 2” “Read this. Mind, I’m telling you this because I need ‘your help and I expect you to keep your mouth close. ‘I’m told by the station agent here that you may be de- There was one case in which lawlessness had played a| pended upon, and that I may have your hlep, if you are losing game. By a brilliant and unexpected stroke of detective skill willing to take a hand in the capture of the man who made you do what you didn’t want to do last night. engineered by Kirk Hyde, the eccentric “tail-ender” of “What do you say?” the “three H’s,” two members of Jules Jepworth’s safe- breakers’ gang had been captured and foiled in an attempt to break into another bank, in a tcwn ten miles distant from that where Jepworth himself had operated so success- fully. These two safe-breakers had been right-hand men of | their leader’s, and with the exception of Jepworth him- | self, there were no others whom it would be so difficult to “T’ll pitch in in that cause, tooth and nail, by hickory !” “There may be some tooth and nail business in the racket before we are through. But you will work under my orders, if you work at all; and my orders are those under which the three H’s eek in harmony.” “That’s straight, and I’l] do as you say.” “First, to the telegram which I received this morning. It is from Rexford Hunt, whom we sometimes call the head- pent of the three H’s. This is what he says: Te) re Sew, —s ee Ae Nee en owe a eS Oo 5 as “LES — oe mh ae ete Sancacers ate. Piece Come oa oe sass , . ms 4 . “> 4 on + ~ < REN . are = : ‘ z ee i Does aha) sae ok Apa ¥: oa a ey i aes sift / : ; : = or - Ayr’ pe > - - a é =) TAD OTE. 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