A Sharper's Downfall; Or, Into the Net — John Shaqi
A Sharper's Downfall; Or, Into the NetCarter, Nicholas (House name)
General
A Sharper's Downfall; Or, Into the Net
Carter, Nicholas (House name)
American fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Dime novels
Entrance to the house is secured through a door reached by one or two
steps from the pavement. The dining-room of the house is nearly on a
level with the street, while the parlors are on the second floor,
reached from the lower hall by a flight of stairs.
The front parlor is enlarged and the front of the house ornamented by a
bay window extending some three feet beyond the line of the house.
It was not so long ago that, at an early hour in the morning, a man
carefully and cautiously lifted a sash in this bay window, and,
thrusting out his head, sounded a low whistle as a signal.
Had any one been present on the opposite side of the street, or looking
from the windows of the houses opposite, they might have seen another
man cautiously come from a corner of the little courtyard in front, and,
after a careful look up and down the street, return the signal in the
same cautious manner.
Thereupon a bundle was let down from the bay window, which was quickly
detached, the rope drawn back and another bundle lowered, which, as the
other had been, was detached and the rope drawn up again, and this time
to lower what appeared to be a heavy box.
Immediately after, something was thrown from the window which in shape
looked like an old-fashioned portmanteau, but was smaller.
Then a man rapidly let himself down from the window until he was within
four feet of the ground, when he drew a knife, cutting the rope above
him.
This gave him a drop of at least four feet, but it left only a short end
of the rope dangling from the bay window at a height not likely to
attract the attention of a passer-by, the evident object of cutting the
rope.
In the meantime, the man below had shouldered the heavy box and rapidly
run down to the east, to the corner below, where he had been met by a
man who had come from a carriage standing around the corner.
This one took the box from him, and the man rapidly returned to pick up
one of the bundles concealed behind the fence and the article that had
been thrown from the window.
As rapidly he ran down the street as before, the while the other man,
who had come from the parlor floor by the rope, stationed himself across
the street and anxiously looked up and down as if standing ready to make
a signal.
As the man with the bundles disappeared around the corner, with no
interference, the other dashed across the street, and, seizing the last
bundle left, hurriedly ran to the east.
He had hardly shouldered this bundle and set out on his run when a man
came into view at the corner on the west, quickly catching sight of the
fellow running to the east.
He came from the west on a run, and, arriving opposite the house where
these strange things had occurred, stopped a brief instant to look. He
noted the open window and the dangling rope.
Without hesitation he hastily ran down the street to the east, but
reached the corner too late for any purpose except to see a carriage
some distance off, going at full speed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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