The Bradys Beyond Their Depth; Or, The Great Swamp MysteryDoughty, Francis Worcester
General
The Bradys Beyond Their Depth; Or, The Great Swamp Mystery
Doughty, Francis Worcester
American fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Dime novels
The detectives had gone to the broker's house in West Thirty-eighth
street to get the particulars privately. But the man's daughter,
Lizzie, told them her father had not yet come home. They waited for him
till nearly eight o'clock, and as Mr. Dalton did not appear, they were
going back to headquarters when they stumbled upon the suspicious case
already recorded here.
Old King Brady smiled at Harry's remark.
"There's no great hurry about that case," he remarked.
"Well," said the boy, "are you ready to go through the cars on a hunt
for Solomon Gloom? We must make sure of our man before he has a chance
to alight at a way station and elude us."
Old King Brady bent nearer to Harry, to reply, when suddenly a cloth
was thrown over their heads by a man who sat behind them.
The cloth was saturated with chloroform.
While the detectives were struggling to extricate their heads, they
inhaled the deadly fumes and were overcome by the drug.
Not until they were fast asleep did the man remove the cloth.
No one had seen the deed, as they occupied the last seats in the aisle
and not an undue noise had arisen to attract attention.
Seeing the detectives stupid from the drug, a low chuckle escaped the
man, and he rose to his feet and muttered:
"Sleep, you dogs! Tracked me, eh? Well, it won't do you any good.
You'll be snoring long after we reach Georgia. And when you do arouse
yourselves, you'll find the box gone from this train. This must be a
mighty good disguise, if you failed to recognize Solomon Gloom in
it--really, a very clever disguise."
And he chuckled again, glanced at the gray suit and bicycle cap he
wore, felt of the false beard covering his face and walked into one of
the forward cars where he had a chance to remain until the opportunity
came for him to alight at his destination.
The lightning express train went thundering along over the rails and
the Bradys slept on until mid-day.
When they aroused themselves, the cars had left Charleston.
Their fury knew no bounds, and Old King Brady said, bitterly:
"It must have been Gloom who did that."
"If it were, he was cleverly disguised and must have been the fellow
who sat behind us apparently reading a newspaper," replied Harry.
"Perhaps he's on the train yet."
"If he is, we'll find him."
"All I want is to get my hands on the rascal!"
"Are you ready to search for him?"
"Come ahead," replied Old King Brady, rising to his feet.
They passed slowly through the car, carefully studying each passenger.
There were two more passenger coaches, a smoking car and a baggage car
ahead, and the detectives searched them thoroughly for the undertaker.
But to their disgust he was not found.
They paused on the platform of the baggage car and Harry exclaimed:
"He must have checked the box through on a ticket he bought for
Savannah, and then hid somewhere on this train."
"Which shows what a foxy gentleman we have to contend with," muttered
Old King Brady, grimly. "He feared pursuit."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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