Mezzoni the Brigand — page 135: what you’re looking at

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

MEZZONI THE BRIGAND. 3 127 “The white powder acted as a trail, and stopped at his gates,’’ was the reply. “Ah, we had heard of that. Who first discovered this ‘trail,’ as you call it?” ‘I first noticed it. After that I followed and watched Alberto Corrello, and found that without any visible means of support, he had unlimited gold.”’ ‘‘A suspicious fact.’ “One day I managed to get into his rear yard, on a simple pretext, and as it was the nearest point to where the trail stopped, I examined it.”’ ‘‘And there found the trap-door?”’ ““Hxactly.”’ “All this is very plain business now, since your in- genuity has worked the matter to its present is- -~sue,’’ said the official. Proper officers were dispatched to the secret vault, and the goods of various kinds were transported to the government rooms, where they were taken proper recognizance of. The palace itself was then _ searched, especially the apartments immediately oc- cupied by Alberto Corrello himself. Here, in secret closets built within the walls, and so hidden as to re- quire the most careful search to find them, was dis- covered an elaborate system of disguises, relating to nearly every station in life, and designed to repre- sent either sex. A great variety of the best weapons were also dis- covered here—pistols, knives, dirks, and short rifles for horsemen’s use, with repeating arms from Amer- ica and England, of the latest and most effective manufacture. His apartments were a private ar- senal in themselves. It seemed almost impossible that one man could have accumulated such a com- Eomicbooks com