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Old Broadbrim into the Heart of Australia or, A Strange Bargain and Its Consequences

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<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> OLD BROADBRIM'S CATCH IN PERTH. Meantime Old Broadbrim was riding toward Perth. Totally oblivious to what was then taking place on Round Robin Ranch, the detective thought of his strange mission, and wondered why Belle Demona should send him to Perth with her jewels just at that time. Once beyond the ranch he gave Black Duke the spur, for he was anxious to reach Perth and deliver the packet. Besides this, he could consult the authorities and discover when he and Waters could get away with their man after taking him, and with such thoughts for his companions he galloped on. It was a long ride, and not until after night had fallen and reigned supreme did the detective enter the capital of the western province. The streets of Perth were dark enough, but he heard the sounds of revel which emanated from more than one den of sin and crime, but he kept on. Suddenly he was startled to discover that he was followed, that a silent figure crept after him on the narrow sidewalk. Old Broadbrim watched the shadower for some time and came to the conclusion that he was really watched. In front of the main hotel he dismounted and turned to the door. The spy had stopped and stood over against the building across the street statue-like in his pose and keen-eyed. Belle Demona had a spy in Perth! Old Broadbrim entered the hotel and had Black Duke cared for. All at once as he turned a corner he came face to face with a man who started back. There was something familiar in the shape, and the next moment the detective seized the arm before him. He dragged the resisting figure into the light and laughed as he looked down into the face. "You?" he cried. "I thought you were up to something mean and startling. Come with me!" He fell back with the prisoner in his grip, for he had looked into the scarred face of Old Danny of Melbourne. The detective dragged his man back to the hotel and forced him up to the room to which he had been assigned. There he thrust the old man into a chair and looked triumphantly at him. Old Danny showed a pair of blazing eyes and growled like a maddened beast. "You've left Melbourne, I see?" said Old Broadbrim. No answer. "Who pays you to watch people on the street?" "No one. I was watching no one." Old Broadbrim laughed derisively. "You are very innocent. You were not watching me, not keeping track of me? Whom do you serve in this part of the island?" "I serve myself!" cried Danny, his little eyes blazing like stars. "I'm an old man who does no wrong, but I come from Melbourne, now and then, on business." "The business of a spy!" The next minute Old Danny sprang up with the agility of a cat and his face seemed transformed. In one of his bony hands he gripped a dagger, which he threw above his head with all the fiendishness of a thug, and in another instant he made at Old Broadbrim like a panther. But the detective threw up one hand and caught the descending arm in a grip of steel. He looked down into the old man's face and laughed at the expression of baffled rage that seamed it. "So you are the innocent old man of Melbourne!" he cried. "You carry a knife all the same." Danny showed his teeth and batted his eyes. Suddenly Old Broadbrim forced him back into a chair and then stood over him. "Now, sir, why did you shadow me?" he asked. "I didn't." "No lies, sir. "You were on the sidewalk watching me like a hawk; I am Roland Riggs, yet you shadow me." "Roland Riggs?" grinned Danny of Melbourne. "When did you get that name?" "It has always belonged to me—the name my parents gave me." It was evident from his glance that the old man did not believe this, for he grinned again and looked into Old Broadbrim's face. "Come! You must tell me the truth. I'll hand you over to the authorities if you keep it back." Danny winced. "Out with it!" and the hand of the New York spotter caught the old man's arm and pulled him suddenly forward. "They know this scarred face of yours beyond Melbourne, and if they once have you in their hands they won't give you up very readily." "I'll tell if you'll let me go." "The truth, then." "It's a bargain, eh?" "Yes." "I came here to help Merle." "I don't know Merle." "You don't, eh? You are not Roland Riggs; you have eyes like——" The old man paused. "Eyes like who?" queried the detective. "I don't like to tell you that. But I've seen your eyes before to-night." "Where?" "In Melbourne." "In your house?" "Yes—yes!"—eagerly. "Why should I visit you?" Old Danny looked away for a second, and then his eyes slowly came back to Old Broadbrim. "You can't deceive me," he cried. "You are the government's spotter." "How the government's spotter?" "You are the man who followed Merle across the sea!" "That's only a dream of yours, Danny. Did Merle tell you to come to Perth to watch me?" "No." "But you came, all the same. Didn't you send him a letter?" "I did." "And in it you told him that I needed watching." "Did you see my letter?" "Never mind that. I know something about it, you see." "That's true. You've robbed Merle!" Old Broadbrim did not reply to this assertion, but continued to look into the eyes before him. "How's the pit?" he suddenly queried. There was a start on the old man's part, and he would have leaped from the chair, if Old Broadbrim had not held him down. "I knew it. You're the man!" he cried. "There was no tenth step, Danny." "You found that out, did you?" "There are loose stones in the wall of the round dungeon." "I found that out when I looked with the light." "And didn't find the victim there, eh?" "That's it. You were gone." "Now, Danny, tell me why you serve Merle." "I am under his thumb." "I thought so. If you refuse to do his bidding he hands you over to the authorities?" "He has threatened to do that." "Yet you serve him and all the time have a deathtrap in your den." "It takes a good trap to catch Merle. He is as shrewd as a fox, and that's saying a good deal." "But you hadn't the courage to try to spring a trap on Merle. You served him on, and it was to warn him that you came to Perth. When Merle went to America——" "That's right. He went to America!" cried Danny. "I wished the sea would engulf him." "But it didn't. It brought him back to you and to Belle Demona, the queen of Round Robin Ranch." "You've seen her, have you?" "Perhaps." "She is pretty as was her mother." "You knew the mother, did you?" The little eyes sparkled like twin carbuncles. "I knew her mother," slowly said Old Danny, as if recalling the past. "Belle Demona is well named. She has her mother's traits and her temper, but she is cool and cunning." [Pg 23] "She is cool, as you say, Danny. She has seen a good deal of the world." "That is true—she has seen life." "She has been in London?" "And Paris!" "She has traveled in Italy." "She nearly broke the bank at Monaco." "I have heard of this." "But for an American whom she had netted with her beauty, she would have struck it very rich there. She had him in the toils, but all at once at a public ball he spurned her and got her hatred." "What was that man's name?" Danny of Melbourne shook his head. "I don't know. Belle told me once, and swore that she would have his life for the insult." Old Broadbrim dropped his voice to a solemn whisper. "Look here, Danny," he said, "the man is dead." "What, the person who incurred Belle's vengeance at Monaco?" "Yes." "Does she know it?" cried the old man. "Did you tell her?" "She knows it. Not only this, but Merle went to America months ago charged with a commission from her." "To kill him?" exclaimed Danny of Melbourne, his face losing every particle of color and his eyes seeming to leap from his head. "Do you think Merle would cross the sea to serve Belle Demona?" quietly asked the detective. "He would raze the gates of hades for her," was the prompt reply. "He is her slave and is under her thumb, as I have been under his for years." "Then you shall soon escape," said Old Broadbrim. "He will soon cease to lord it over you. Keep a still tongue in your head and you are safe. But you must go with me." "Whither?" "You must go to the high sheriff and remain with him till I see you again." "I see. You are not Riggs. You are the man-hunter from across the sea." Old Broadbrim merely smiled. <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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