Detective Bob Bridger — page 251: what you’re looking at

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

4 ~e “ee ? = «* i = « o-? © Sg i 3 PA PW Se Se eRe Ce hed ; ow ie i 2. La oor te > Patil ce S i. ~~ es. h- Pe ." : * an ‘. er ah ae . “ rw, i 7 2. * : P he e #.™ ¢ 5 - . ” . . . O44 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. ke One by one Fandon lifted his three boys so that she might see them. Then he lifted to her gaze one of the blue-eyed baby girls on either arm. Meg looked at them, then slowly pointing to them, and looking toward Annette, said : ‘*Like you—lke you were.’ Then suddenly exerting Hel little remaining strength as if she had something important to reveal which she had almost forgotten, she grasped Annette’s arm. ‘ Annette—Annette!” she gasped. ‘“There—there—get it—get it—the little black satchel !” Among her trunks and bandboxes near was a small, black traveling-bag, and Roe Fandon, Jr., Fandon’s eldest boy, ran and got it. “There’s a letter—a letter in it for you. Billy wrote it— just—before—he—died,” gasped the dying woman, address- ing Fandon. “The—rest—is—yours—Annette.” Meg’s eyes assumed a vacant stare as she spoke, and she seemed lapsing into unconsciousness. Her skinny hands trembled violently, and the doctor shook his head. Fandon and Annette in their solicitude for the dying woman, had almost forgotten the satchel and letter of which she had spoken, when young Roe, who had opened the bag and taken from it the crumpled scrawl, which proved to be “Silly” Billy’s letter, and, reading its entire contents, piped out: ‘“See-ree go! Master Fandon, see-ree-go!”. The boy’s musical pronunciation sounded much as that of the crazy giant had done when he had felt cheerful and glad of heart, and the dying woman, as she heard it, started up in the bed. Her eyes beamed with pleasure, a glad smile grew upon her thin features, and, extending her arms as if to infold a dearly loved friend, she ejaculated : ‘Oh, Billy !” And, still smiling, as if in glad recognition of one she loved, she sank back upon the bed, dead. Fandon wiped the tears from his eyes, and placed Billy’s brief letter in his pocket-book. Annette carried the little satchel home with her, too much overcome with grief to look at its contents. That night it was found to contain United States Govern- ment bonds to the amount of forty thousnd dollars. | The undertaker brought the dead woman’s body to Fan- comicbooks.com