New Nick Carter Weekly, No. 9 — page 22: what you’re looking at

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

20 lightning rod. ‘““That part of it is explained,’’ he said | upon the :atter. down to the street by clinging to the NEW NICK CARTER WEEKLY. In the course of his pursuit through the streets Trim had had time to reflect He felt certain at the to himself, ‘‘and I shouldn’t wonder if/start, as he had told Dobbin, that his as- that should prove to be a clew; it isn’t one sailant was not a Malay. man in ten thousand who could make his way down in that fashion. “Tt wasn’t any fiend, Dobbin,’’ he said aloud ; a very unustal one. “Ves,” Diced Dobbin, who had) been reaching out of the window and’ feeling of the lightning rod. Malays— —’’. “It wasn’t a Malay,”’ Trim. ‘*Bless your soul! who else could it be, lad ?”’ ‘““That’s what I’m going to find out.”’ “Going to tell the police?’ asked Dobbin. Trim shrugged his shoulders... ‘“‘I’m going to do everything that can be doné,’’ he said, ‘‘to get that fellow. under lock and key before morning.’’ ‘Then I'll go with ’ee.”’ Together they left the hotel and began a series of inquiries that occupied them for several -hours. | ‘2 abroad at that time of night, but it hap- Be | vicinity of the hotel who had seen a man} > Bic? hurrying away. pened that there were two or three in the Trim questioned them as to the dizec: on Siok he took, and then took as nearly the same course as he could. = $ Ex By frequent repeating of his questions - from other persons he met, he traced the fugitive to a tough part of the town near __ the docks. There he lost the — en- = firely. * All coiiad them were narrow streets : and alleys that ended generally i in dark "Te was an ideal Place for a Aras to 2 on was, at a ‘loss for a monent as to) |anything to do with.the Malays.”’ Naturally there were not many people| | reflected, His main reason for this was that the fellow had neglected an opportunity to murder Dobbin, who was the one upon Be ware human being, but | whom the Malays were trying to get revenge. ‘‘Tf it had been any of the Malays,’’ was the way Trim put it to himself, “the Them) t woukde’ have risked losing Dobbin for the sake of getting a stab. at me first; interrupted therefore, if it wasn’t a white man it must have been somebody who hadn’t From this as a_ starting point, Trim reasoned that the assault must have been committed by one who wanted revenge upon him for something that had oc- curred in the past, or who feared him for something that might happen in the future. - Trim could think of nobody connected } with his Australian investigations who — could possibly be in Africa at this time;~ in other words, he could not believe that the assault was intended as revenge. The only other reason for it must lie in his. undertaking to discover the frauds in the South African Railway affairs. ‘“but I must say that this seems to take the cake, for I’ve hardly been en-. gaged upon this case before an attempt is made to do me up. _“Tve heard of shrewd criminals,’’ he eee Seen eee we _ “Now, only the president of the com-_ | pany and the chief of the bookkeepi n ; department know about me; that is, I - | Suppose they are the only ones. | ‘At the same time, there were plenty of men who saw me go to the president’s office yesterday afternoon. Among them may have been the guilty party, and he may have suspecte1 that I was a detective “Acting o 1 that. ‘suspicion, he ‘may have made ial wm that I'd betees S ) = ‘ “z 3 ~ 7 4 { who was about to = employed on the |