“Certainly, you will meet her, but when you do will you know her game? She is the beautiful siren who is to lure Ulysses into the den where he is to be slain with merciless precision and cold-blooded exactness.”
Again Oscar stared, but seeing the glitter in Cad’s eyes he fell to a conclusion and asked:
“Is my beautiful partner jealous?”
“Yes, I am jealous for your life. I do not wish to see you beguiled and imperiled by that woman.”
“Cad, you speak like one who knows what she is talking about.”
“I do.”
“Have you information?”
“I have.”
“Forgive me.”
“No, there is no need to ask forgiveness, but let me tell you something: this little game they are playing is one of the shrewdest tricks ever attempted. I would have been deceived; you are deceived, for a more reasonable and probable tale has never been told; and yet, Oscar, that woman is the right bower of the criminals. Her fertile brain conceived the whole plan to entrap you. It is the play of these men to remove every one inimical to their success, and they, having marked your identity, have conceived a scheme to drop you out. They know you are dangerous. I know you are brave, strong, and valiant, but they have arranged a plan against which courage and cunning count as naught.”
“You are sure, Cad?”
“I am sure.”
“What are you on to?”
“I am jealous for your safety, and after those men had your identity I determined to get on the track of the man Girard. He is a wonderful man in his way. I followed him; I saw him dispatch a messenger boy. I kept upon his trail.”
“Under what disguise were you?”
Cad laughed.
“Great ginger! Cad, can it be possible?”
Again Cad laughed and said:
“Yes, I was at hand.”
“You were the messenger boy?”
“I was.”
“Girl, don’t call Girard a wonder. You are the wonder of the age; but go on.”
“I carried his message, and the sweet-faced girl who has been giving you the beautiful tale concerning her enchanted brother is the party to whom I carried the message. They met, and under a changed disguise I overheard a part of their scheme. I saw her when she accosted you, and I knew that from you I would learn enough to connect the whole plan; I have.”
“And what is their plan?”
“That girl’s purpose is to win your absolute confidence. She has a party who will represent her brother, and by degrees and methods of her own, aided by her confederates, they will run down our side of it, and then at the last moment every one of us will be separately lured and done up. And they will make their plans so there will be no help for us, or rather there would be no help for us did they catch us unawares. But that they will never do; we will catch them in their own netting.”
“Oh, Cad, how much I owe to you! and now what shall I do?”
“Meet her, and I will wager that there will be some of her gang hovering around. We can play a very ingenious trick and open up their scheme.”
“How will you do it?”
“I can make up for you.”
“You can do it perfectly.”
“To-night I will go to meet this siren.”
“No, no, I will meet her.”
“Yes, you shall meet her, but listen: I will go to meet her; you will be on my track. You will see who will follow me, believing that they are following you. We can arrange where, at a given point, I will disappear and you will reappear, and then when you go to meet this siren you will know just exactly how the ground lays. You will have the whole business down on them.”
“Cad, this is a great scheme.”
“It is, if we play it out right. This girl will be working you for an innocent; you can afford to give her a great deal of information, and—” The girl stopped short.
“Go on,” said Oscar, “what will you be doing?”
“Why, man, between us, matching them at their own game, we will get the identities of every member of the gang. We will learn where their shops and where their plates are.”
“How will we do it?”
“We will know just whom to shadow for each separate bit of information.”
“By ginger! you are right.”
“Now that you are up to this siren’s movements I can trust you, Oscar.”
“I might have gotten on to her plans. I was not about to surrender on demand, but it is better as it is. Time is saved, and to-night we will work our scheme. You shall be Oscar; I will be Cad, and at the proper moment we will resume and let the game go on.”
“That is my idea.”
That night at the proper hour an individual who looked very much like Oscar might have been seen hovering in the vicinity of the restaurant where the interview between the detective and the siren was to take place.
Our readers can grasp what was going on. Oscar, gotten up as a female, was on the “shadow,” and very speedily all that Cad Metti had told him was confirmed. He saw two men following his talented counterfeit, and he followed them, and at the proper moment rejoined Cad. The second change was made and Oscar proceeded to the restaurant to meet the siren. He found her at the appointed place, and together they entered the dining-room and took seats at the same table where they had held their original consultation. The woman appeared to be in excellent humor and said:
“Oh, I feel so greatly encouraged.”
“I will encourage you still further. I have considered the matter and I have determined to rescue your brother, but I must have your full confidence. What is your name?”
“Libbie Van Zant.”
“Very well, Miss Van Zant, when am I to meet your brother?”
“You are not to meet him right away.”
“Why not?”
“I do not wish him to suspect that I have betrayed him. I must have time to prepare him for the meeting with you.”
“That is all right.”
“And now let me tell you something: these are very desperate men; you must secure aid.”
“Oh, certainly.”
“I want you to select the men who will aid you. We must not make a mistake. You must have men with you when you make the raid on the place.”
“I certainly will.”
“Will you introduce them to me?”
“Why should I introduce them to you?”
“I wish to know them, so I can arrange for my brother’s safety.”
“Oh, I see; well, in good time you shall meet them.”
“We must go slow and sure in this matter.”
“Oh, certainly, and you are becoming quite a detective.”
“I am working for my brother’s safety—his salvation. I am willing to brave almost everything to save him.”
“We will save him.”
“By to-morrow I will arrange for my brother to have a meeting with some of those men with whom he is associated, and I will arrange that you shall be hidden in a place from where you can overhear everything that is said. You will secure considerable information. You will know how to use it. Yes, we will move slowly, but surely. There must be no mistake made, no failure, or it will cost my brother’s life, and I also may become their victim.”
“Very well, you can depend upon me.”
“I have your confidence?”
“Yes.”
“Can we not arrange signals between us?”
“Certainly.”
“I am going to start in as a regular detective in this affair, and at any moment I may want to signal to you; yes, warn you in case anything appears to be going wrong at a critical moment.”
“I am delighted to work with one as shrewd a
nd thoughtful as you are,” said Oscar.
“Can you not come to my home to-morrow?”
“I fear I will not have time.”
“We must practice those signals. I will not ask you to visit me across the river. I have the privilege of receiving company at the rooms of a friend of mine in this city. If we could meet there some time to-morrow morning, you might bring one or two of your friends with you and we will practice the signals together.”
“All right, it is not a bad idea.”
“Then I will take a walk in Washington Parade ground to-morrow at about eleven o’clock, and you shall meet me and I will lead you to my friend’s room, and then and there we will complete all our arrangements. Yes, yes, I will save my brother and earn the money to start him out on an honest course.”
“Your affection for your brother appears to be very great.”
“It is. I idolize him.”
“Then at eleven o’clock to-morrow we are to meet by chance.”
“Yes.”
Our hero and the siren separated. She said she was to meet her brother who was to accompany her to her home. The siren passed out ahead of our hero after a merry good-night. When Oscar came forth he had wrought a change. He stepped down to the curb and glanced. He saw a little chalk mark. It would have looked to an ordinary observer like a mere accidental scrape of chalk. To Oscar it spoke volumes, and he knew that his faithful strategist had succeeded in falling to a trail; and he knew that he would soon be on the trail like a sleuthhound following its prey. The detective started forward. At the first street corner he drew a little mask lantern and flashed its light around quickly and deftly, and there again under its glare he beheld a tiny chalk mark.
“Right,” he muttered as he read his sign and moved on; and so he proceeded until he arrived at a certain corner, when he came to a halt; and a few moments later a messenger boy came up close to him and said in a low tone:
“She met her man.”
“Well?”
“They went in that house across the street.”
“Great Scott!” ejaculated Oscar, “are you sure, Cad?”
“Yes.”
“The woman and how many men?”
“One man only.”
“And that man?”
“Was Girard.”
“Sis, you can call up our aids and have them ready.”
“We can snake them into the house.”
“It’s lucky; yes, it’s lucky, Cad, and yet, it’s risky.”
“Why?”
“Credo may be in with them.”
“But he knows you hold his life as it were in your hands, and——”
“Well?”
“He knows if you have trailed these fellows down so close that there is no show for him and he will be on your side.”
“By ginger! you are right, so here goes. We are down on these people for fair now.”
“We are, Oscar.”
Cad Metti, the strange, weird girl, who could flit from place to place like a shadow, who could change her appearances as readily as a change actress on the stage, glided away, and our hero, who also, as our readers will recall, had worked a change, boldly went to the house which Cad had indicated as the place where the woman and Girard had entered. He stepped into the dark hall of the house, and then quickly worked a second change; then he stepped to the street. The house was one well known to the police; its character, we will say, was established as the headquarters for the lowest sort of rogues. The owner pretended to keep a respectable hotel. He had rooms to let, and on the first floor he ran a barroom, and although the building itself was an old tumble-down affair the barroom was quite expensively fitted up.
Oscar staggered into the house, and as good luck would have it only the proprietor of the place was present at the moment and he was acting as bartender. Oscar staggered up to the bar, his eyes rolling in his head, but as they rolled, under their seemingly drunken glare shot forth a keen, observant glance.
As stated, he staggered up to the bar and fell over on to his elbows, demanding a drink.
“Where’s your pile?” came the answer from the proprietor, a fellow named Credo, who was a good-looking octoroon.
Oscar displayed a big roll of bills.
“All right; what will you have?”
“Whisky.”
The man placed a bottle and glasses on the bar when the detective reached over, caught the man’s eye, and said in a very low but sharp, decisive tone:
“Mart, on your life, look to business now.”
The man started, his swarthy face assumed a ghastly hue, and there came a look of terror to his eyes.
“You know me?”
“It’s Dunne.”
“Yes.”
“What’s your pull to-night?”
“You have visitors in your house.”
The man trembled.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, and mark me, I know it all; yes, all. There is nothing for you in it only through me. Mark well my words: I can trust you; if not, it’s bad for you.”
“What is it you’re after?”
“I am close down on this whole business.”
“What business?”
“You want it straight?”
“Yes.”
“Redalli.”
Credo fell back like a man suddenly surprised. He appeared for an instant to lose his breath, but he managed to almost gasp:
“Are you on to that?”
“I am on to the whole scheme and just ready to close in. I tell you there is nothing for you in it, and you’re lucky.”
“I am?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“You will make a good stake through me.”
“What do you want?”
“I want to overhear every word that is spoken here to-night.”
“You are dead on to it all?”
“I am.”
“Good enough, I am with you, and you know that when I say so I mean what I say.”
“I do.”
“You shall have the whole business if it’s opened up here to-night. Follow me.”
CHAPTER IX
Luck and Skill Run Our Hero Into a Great “Opening” on to the Big Organization, and Light Strikes in Very Dark Corners.
It is not necessary to explain to our readers our hero’s great hold on the man Credo; but he knew his man well and knew that when Credo said, “I am with you,” the fellow did mean just what he said. Credo led our hero to a rear room and once there he remarked:
“It’s dead against me what I am doing. I had a big stake in this enterprise.”
“You haven’t lost one, old man, the lines are drawn close.”
“That’s all right so far; but is it necessary that I tumble from anything you may pick up to-night?”
“No, you are safe; you will not come into it.”
The man’s face was at once wreathed into a smile.
“I know you, Mr. Dunne.”
“Yes, and I mean it. You will not in any way be involved.”
“They need never know that I keeled ’em over?”
“Never.”
“You know your business. When you talk you know what you say. I am satisfied, and I am going to let you into a secret, Mr. Dunne. I can fix you out just lovely. You will have the whole business, for the king-pin is to be here to-night. You’ll get the muggs of all the big men. If you were ready to close in you couldn’t have a better chance; for as I said the king-pins will all be here to-night. But I don’t see how I can run clear of suspicion.”
“I tell you that in no way will you be involved. I will open up from another quarter. What I pick up here to-nig
ht is only side evidence. I’ve got almost all I need.”
“And you won’t forget me?”
“No, sir.”
“You know I’ve always been faithful.”
“You have, and it’s a good streak of luck that they covied right here in your den.”
“Yes, they have covied here for a long time.”
“Are you into this affair?”
“Only partially. I am not one of them, but they have paid me well; never asked me to go in.”
“Then you can’t locate anything?”
“Only the men.”
“You know them all?”
“Only the big fellows, and they will all be here to-night. Their big gun, the boss of all of them, is in town, and to-night he receives reports up there. Yes, sir, you will get it all. Is it luck or Dunne?”
“It’s a little of both, old man.”
“You’ve got it good, that’s all. You are against the deck every time, and I did not look to you for a drop in on this thing—no, never. But you’ve got it all; yes, sir, that’s certain.”
The man Credo carefully locked the door leading into the room where he and the detective stood. He then disclosed a remarkable sight to Dunne. He slid aside a movable panel covered with paper at the side of the projecting fireplace and revealed a door. Oscar stared.
“You see, I like to know what’s going on, Mr. Dunne. I made this little arrangement myself. No out knows of it but you. This opens into the chimney, and there you see a spiral staircase that leads up to the room where the meetings are held. When these chaps come here I always give them that one room, and I have gathered some strange secrets at the head of those steps. You see I’ve let each party into the arrangements of the room where they meet. They think I have prepared for them a wonderful meeting place. I have arranged for escapes to the roof. Indeed, I’ve got all manner of ingenious contrivances for them; but you and I are the only ones who know of this little arrangement here. Yes, I am credited for picking up a great deal of criminal news. There’s where I get it, up there, and there is where you will get it to-night. I’ve given you the whole business, Mr. Dunne.”
The Lady Sleuths MEGAPACK ™: 20 Modern and Classic Tales of Female Detectives Page 167