Detective Bob Bridger — page 175: what you’re looking at

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

168 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. **You heard so ?” “Ves. 7? “Then you want me to go over with you to Jersey, and have Jersey justice put a noose about my neck as an acces- sory before the fact, eh?” ‘“‘T have made a mistake. The man is imprisoned at Alton, Pennsylvania.” “Well, it’s all the same where he is. I am here.” “It’s no crime to sell a weapon, man, and I give you my oath that you shall not see the inside of a prison, that I will shield you, you shall not be in any way implicated, and shall be well paid for the service.” “Well, .ow, right here, I give you my oath that I don’t want you to shield me, that you don’t implicate me, and that I don’t go on no such racket from New York.” Goucher’s tones were loud and violent, and he glared fiercely at Bridger as he spoke. Bridger thought he detected him making a motion, as if outstretching his right foot forcibly upon the floor. As he did so, “Tom, the Frog’s” hands stretched lazily forth upon the table, in close proximity to the candle. A slight draft of chilly air, with a tainted, cellar odor, which the detective had not before noticed, caused Bridger to cast down his eyes as if in the act of ejecting a spittle, and he noticed that a crack extended between two of the boards more marked than the other joinings. This crack ran entirely across the floor close to the legs of the table, and four feet from the wall at the detective’s back. The suspicion that he was sitting on a trap struck Bridger at once. Placing his left hand on the table, so that he might readily grasp its edge, he trust his left foot beyond the crack, and rested his weight upon it. Then gesticulating with his right over the table toward Goucher, as if anxious to impress his words upon him, he Said : “Goucher, I did not anticipate trouble. In fact, I thought I was doing you a kindness in making you the offer Ihave. But as you take it differently, you may blunder yourself into the trouble you fear.” “Not much I won’t, my ‘cocum covey.’ And this is the reason why.” On the instant, “Tom, the Frog’s” hands snuffed. out the candle, leaving the room in black darkness, and the floor, with a dull crash, gave away beneath Bridger’s chair, _ ‘ no) << “ . ; ‘a | Awe ly ‘> ; ; ( ¢ | — --ecomicbooks.com 4 ‘ y ee he bh dl 4 : , - : - Ces f. * 3 ¢ “) © or) =