United States or United Arab Emirates ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the railroad yards Dick Cronk hunted out his brother Ernie, and, standing over him in a manner so threatening that the astonished hunchback shrank down in fear, he bluntly accused him of informing on David Jenison. "I know you did it, Ernie," he said, when the other began to whimper his denials. "You've done a lot of sneakin' things, but this is the sneakin'est.
I'll be in room five until twelve o'clock to-night. Any time after eight he will find me there alone. You know where he lives; go and find him. Then make sure that Braddock is at Dick Cronk's room. That's all." At half-past eight o'clock that evening Ernie Cronk stole up the stairway in the rear of Broads's saloon.
"Who do you want to see down the lake this time of the year?" asked Burnes, with a sidelong look at his tall companion. "Lon Cronk." "Ho! ho!" laughed Middy. "I jest brought him and Lem Crabbe up from Tarrytown, with one of Lon's kids. She's a pretty little 'un. I pity her, 'cause she didn't do nothin' but cry all the way up, and once she jumped into the lake." "Did what?"
She at once put out her hand, that seemed like a snowflake in the great horny paw of the drover, and said, "Indeed, Mr. Cronk, I will permit no one to claim stronger friendship to Mr. Fleet than mine." "I can take any friend of Mr. Fleet's to my buzzom at once," said Bill, speaking figuratively, but Christine instinctively shrank nearer Dennis.
"It's Flea, it's Flea Cronk!" he gasped. The girl advanced into the room. "What do you want here, Pappy Lon? Did you come to steal?" She saw Lem grimacing at her through the rays of the lantern. The scowman looked so evil, so awful, as he grinningly raised his steel hook, that her faith very nearly fled. Crabbe's heavy face was working with violent emotion.
That was all she had to say of herself or her plans. In the next sentence she spoke of Dick Cronk: "I suppose you have read of that unhappy boy's arrest. Joey is trying to raise means with which to employ capable counsel for him. I have sent him a check for a thousand dollars, with the understanding that my name is not to be mentioned as a donor.
You can always prove it, whether you are one or not." He drew forth a short black pipe. "Heigho! I'm glad to be back with the show." There was a world of satisfaction in the way he said it. "Are you a performer?" asked David, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the long, supple figure. The fellow was filling his pipe. Dick Cronk laughed softly. "Yes.
"Can you tell me," his agitation did not allow him to speak calmly, "can you tell me, please, where Lon Cronk lives?" Although his question was low and broken, Scraggy caught each word. "Down to the edge of the lake, Mister," she replied. "It's a goin' to be a dark night to be out in, ain't it?" In his relief, Brimbecomb drew a long breath. She had not recognized him!
He motioned to a chair beyond the table, and, bowing politely, settled himself in one nearer the door. "What's the game?" demanded Ernie Cronk, his long, bony fingers fumbling his flat derby hat. "Brown said you wanted to see me." "Where's your brother Dick?" asked the Colonel irrelevantly, leaning forward a trifle. "Dick? Why, he's he's I don't know where he is.
He laughed at her and playfully accused her of being tired of him, of being homesick. Nevertheless, he was troubled. He had seen the newspaper accounts of the murder of Colonel Grand, and he had been horrified, immeasurably shocked, to find that Dick Cronk was the self-confessed assassin.
Word Of The Day