Old Specie, the Treasury Detective; or, The Harbor Lights of New York — page 117: what you’re looking at

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

OLD SPECIE. pant [it All these things Old Specie was ruining over in his mind as he watched and listened. One half his work was done. He would set the machinery in motion that should overwhelm these conspirators against the credit of the government. What he wanted to»do now was to find out just where the press lay. The captain knew. Perhaps Ben Bolt did, too, but he was not so sure of this. | Ah! the meeting was breaking up. He had heard Ben propose a new member, and some rigmarole was gone through with in electing Caddy Cole. The detective took no interest in this now, for he had given up all intention of joining, since his ob- ject had been accomplished without. He wondered if he could get out in time to follow the captain. By dogging Delmar’s footsteps he believed he could eventually discover what he wished. How to do it was the question. Some of the men were already leaving, and if he could mix in with them—but no, this was too dan- -gerous a plan. He already knew too much to risk losing it. So he waited until the last man was gone before he crept down, opened the door, and crawled along the timbers over the gurgling water toward the opening in the pier. Eomicbooks (Ee)