The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Science
The Lock and Key Library: The Most Interesting Stories of All Nations: Real Life
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Parapsychology
Of course someone had to keep watch over Dodge while Jesse hurried
to Austin to see the Governor, and it was decided to leave Sergeant
Herlihy, re-enforced by a number of local detectives for that
purpose. But while the watchful Jesse was away, Bracken proceeded
to get busy in the good old Howe and Hummel fashion. Lots of
people that Herlihy had never seen before turned up and protested
that he was the finest fellow they had ever met. And as Herlihy
was, in fact, a good fellow, he made them welcome and dined and
wined at their expense until he woke up in the Menger Hotel in San
Antonio and inquired where he was.
Jesse meantime had returned from Austin to discover that Dodge with
his companions, Kaffenburgh and Bracken, had slipped out of Houston
early in the morning of February 11th, after disposing of Herlihy
and eluding the watchfulness of Herlihy's assistants. Hummel was
leading and by ten o'clock the next morning Dodge and his comrades
were on board an English merchantman lying in the harbor of
Galveston. Later in the same day the Hummel interests chartered
from the Southern Pacific Railroad for the sum of three thousand
dollars the sea-going tug Hughes, to which Dodge was now
transferred for the purpose of being conveyed to the port of
Tampico in the Republic of Mexico.
But here Hummel's wires became crossed with Jerome's, and
unfortunately for the little lawyer, the persons from whom the tug
had been leased turned out to be closely allied with the
prosecution's interests, with the result that the captain of the
tug was instructed by his superiors under no consideration to put
into any Mexican port, but on the contrary, to delay his departure
from the harbor of Galveston for a period of two days and then to
proceed only as far as Brownsville, Texas, where he should compel
the debarkation of the fugitive. The captain, who was a good sport
as well as a good officer, promptly threw himself into the part and
told Bracken and Kaffenburgh that it was evident from the barometer
that a severe storm was approaching (which must have had a sinister
implication to these two unfortunate gentlemen), and that he could
not think of putting to sea. Once the "storm" had blown over, the
tug started out across the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But
now Bracken and Kaffenburgh were informed for the first time it was
impossible to consider putting into any port of the Republic of
Mexico, since to do so would cause international complications and
compel the revocation of the captain's license. In desperation the
Hummel interests offered the captain five thousand dollars in cash
to disregard his instructions and put into Tampico, but the worthy
sea-dog was adamant. It was probably worth five thousand dollars
to him to see three gentry of this pattern so much put about.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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