Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Previous Page
–
Next Page
OCR
32
A chorus of “No’s!” was the answer, but the men on the Szwal-
low’s deck only looked at each other and smiled defiance.
The menace of rifle and revolver was too much for the mob.
It was not quite drunk enough to rush to death, and at the
suggestion of one of its number the rest adjourned to the wine
shops once more.
The woman’s figure remained on the dock.
Belle Demona’s form was seen in the starlight as she faced
_ the detective.
“T missed you this morning,” she exclaimed, her voice having
the old-time, silvery ring. “I fired at your heart, Josiah Broad-
brim, but your horse saved it. Now I have you at my mercy!”
She finished by throwing up her hand, and the detective looked
again into the muzzle of the deadly revolver.
This time her hand did not quiver.
The men of the vessel seemed to lose nerve at the danger that
threatened the man from across the sea.
“Tt is my time, ferret!” said Belle Demona.
of your trail, and the sun of Australia will
“defeat!” ;
- There followed a flash and a report, but not from the six-
shooter in the hand of Belle Demona.
The fair-faced witch of two worlds threw up her hands and
reeled away as the pistol dropped from her grasp.
“Shot! Retribution!” said the captain of the coaster.
“But look! the avenger is one of her own sex,” was the re-
sponse, as all saw a figure run to Belle Demona’s side and stoop
over her.
“Stareyes !”
“This is the end
shine on your
And with the word on his lips Old Broadbrim bounded over
_the ship’s side and dashed forward.
“T have found her. I told you I would some day settle. with
the queen of the ranch,” said the young girl who encountered the
detective’s gaze from the side of the prostrate woman. “Don’t
say that Starcyes forgets. Merle is yours, but this women—this
creature who sent him across the sea, and who would have seen
me starve, who would have burned me in the sheepsheds—she
belongs to Stareyes.””
Belle Demona was not dead, nor was she likely to-cross the
bar from Stareyes’ weapon.
The girl was led away, and the queen of the ranch was after-
ward found by Meg, her friend, who took her heme.
/ Long before daylight, and before the mob could again muster
its motley spirits, the little Swallow spread her wings and once
mere stood out to sea. :
And when Merle looked out upon the water he realized that the
" first stages of the journey back to doom had begun.
As for Belle Demona, that same, day she rode homeward, but
in her wake was the same implacable shadow destined in time
to settle the old score forever. .
There was a wait of a week in Melbourne, but’ at the end of
that time Old Broadbrim and his prisoner, accompanied by Dick
Waters, stepped on board a United States man-of-war, and the
sea trail stretched once more toward the New World.
* * * * * * *
One bright morning while Clippers was in the act of opening
his little house near the famous alley in New York, a footfall
greeted his ear, and the next moment he fell back with a cry of
astonishment.
Old Broadbrim stood before him.
“Back!” cried. Clippers. “I’d given you up, and Hargraves
and Irwin are still at fault. They declare that the mystery of
Fifth Avenue is as dark as ever, and no one can throw any light
upon the death of Jason Marrow.”
ee
OLD BROADBRIM WEEKLY.
- Kipp, who soon afterward became Nora’s husband, and the young
_ hides, nor how long the trail is.
|
é
ope ce rad gemma amnesty en er Ft
“Wait, Clippers,” smiled the detective. “Wait till you see
Merle, the murderer——” a a e
“What, did you find him?” — : me
- “What did I start out to do, Clippers, my boy?” :
“I see—I see! You are back with the man who killed thet two
that night—the strangler of.the millionaire and the recluse. Mr.
Broadbrim, you are invincible!” S
That same day the Quaker Stood face to face with a young girl’
whose eyes sparkled with delight, and when he placed his hand
on a four-leaved clover she could not keep back her enthusiasm.
“Tt brought you luck, Mr. Broadbrim!” cried Nora Doon. “I |
.
o ~
ee
knew when I placed it in your keeping that it would make certain
your triumph, and at the same time become your protector. You
kept it through thick and thin.” |
“Through the perils of land and sea, Miss Nora. In the midst «|
of London it was my talisman, in the heart of the Atlantic, and
eyen in the shadow of death in the Australian bush.”
* * * * * * :
OY ene rere a OY
*
)
¢
. |
The law dealt terribly, but justly with Merle Macray. ‘ |
Weeks and even months had elapsed since the double murder of
the night of the 12th of April; but from‘across the ocean, whither |
he had tracked his man with the persistence of the bloodhound,
Old Broadbrim handed him over to the mercies.of the ncose.....
Both the detective and Dick Waters were rewarded by Foster ~-
Briton remained in America. :
As for Belle Demona, she found her ranch plundered when she | .
returned, and, rather than remain in the shadow of: desolation, she
fled from the avenging hand of Stareyes, and never again set” foot"
within the boundaries of Ranch Robin.
A year later she was found dead in one of the darkest districts
of London, and the young girl who was seen in her shadow a few
moments before was arrested and discharged. -
No one followed her, and no one saw Stareyes step from a .
vessel in the Bay of Perth a few weeks later, with the secret of
the end of the ranch queen’s life known only to her and. Deity. ,
Darny, of Melbourne, was discharged, after the arrest of Merle,
and he went back to his den with the broken stairs.
Old Broacbrim was received in New York with profuse con- - ’ >
gratulations, but he took all with his usual modesty, feeling that
he had kept his promise with Nora to find the murderer of Custer \
Kipp, even fuough he were compelled to track him around the : ar
world. :
He had virtually done so, for he caught him in . the bush, and,
under guard, had brought him back across the occan to. expiate
his terrible crimes within a few blocks of the spot where he had |
|
lr
‘
i
i
ip
,
tie
yd.
perpetrated them.
“It’s just like Josiah Broadbrim,” said Clippers, in an outburst oo
of enthusiasm. “He always gets his game, no matter where ‘it :
Old Broadbrim i is as certain as
death and taxes. You can bank on that.”
THE END,
Think what it must be to have a hidden hand ever ‘ready to do
you injury, never to know when or where it is about to strike!
This was the ordeal which the great Quaker detective had to
undergo, when he was called into the famous Stark case, 2 case -
which created an unparalleled sensation at the time. What it
was and how Broadbrim worked it up, in the face of extraordi-
nary difficulties and dangers, will be found splendidly told in the
next issue, No. 33, entitled “Old Broadbrim Doomed by an In-.- -
visible Hand; or, The Victims of the Vial of Death.”