Detective Bob Bridger — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

50 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. t ASE earth, he had left his charming widow in such comfortable — ¢eireumstances. **Alas! your conjecture is again wrong, Mr. Josalyn,’ “a -quoth the fair widow, witha sigh. ‘My late husband was good and kind to me, but very shiftless, and left me nota dollar. Ah, me! Mr. B. was not the kind of man I might have loved with my whole soul, nor should have wed. But giddy young girls dosome foolish things. Ah, me! ah, me !’ “Then suddenly brightening up, and poising her head coquettishly aside, she continued : **No, no, Mr. Josalyn—the truth is I have a secret busi- ness which has gained me all.’ “She then became very confidential, and explained that her brother was the chief-engineer on a Havana steamship. (I had heard at the hotel that he was an oiler on one of the lines, but it was no fault of his sister that he was not higher in rank, and perhaps she was mistaken.) He, how- ever, smuggled large lots of the finest cigars every trip. The captain, mates, and all hands were joined in the trade, and the ship always arrived off the heads, at Sandy Hook, during the night. Just before the ship came to anchor at quarantine the huge bales of cigars, tied in sea-proof sacks and rubber cloths, were hurled overboard, and a waiting boat in the ship’s wake picked them up. The men in the boat conveyed them ashore, and thence to their rendezvous © in New York. Here her brother boxed his share and for- warded them to her in Corydon, and in the oil regions and in the towns she rapidly disposed of them at great profit to friends. One-third of the net gain she pocketed herself, and the remaining money she inclosed to her brother. Why, she even furnished the hotel in which I stopped with cigars. “ Having given me these points, possibly to impress upon my mind that she was a splendid ‘catch’ for a traveling young man, she suggested that if I desired to store any of the pianos I was selling I could do so at her home. “In fact, the fair widow did everything but propose out- right to marry me, and set me going. “The year not being leap-year perhaps prevented this, but certainly never did a neat, lively, lovable little woman become so completely smitten with a fellow at such short acquaintance, I think. “And all the while, base man, I was revolving in my rs mind a plan to outwit her and meet Annette. . ; - *; - - b - - » oc ,. : I s.com comicbooks.com Saas aac We VE ben