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The Grammar School Boys of Gridley, a fiction by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 14. Dick Steps Into A Death-Trap |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. DICK STEPS INTO A DEATH-TRAP "Hullo, Dave!" "Hullo, Dick. I've been looking for you. My, but you're dressed up to-night. Going to a party that I haven't heard about?" "Not exactly," laughed Dick. "I'm going to call on Mrs. Dexter." "Oho!" "She sent a note that she'd like to have me call this evening. What it's about I don't know." "Then I can guess," offered Dave. "What?" "Mrs. Dexter was set on getting football uniforms for us. When the league dropped out at the bottom that spoiled her chance. Mrs. Dexter feels that she's under obligations, and so has sent for you in order to find what she can do in the place of buying uniforms." "Do you think that's it?" questioned young Prescott, looking bothered. "I'm sure of it." "Then I wish I weren't going up there to-night." "Have you got to?" asked Darrin. "It would hardly look polite if I didn't go. But I'll tell you what, Dave." "What?" "You come along with me." "Not much!" "Why not?" "First place, I'm not invited. Second place, I'm not dressed up, and you are. Extra, I don't want to look as though I were trotting up there after a reward." "I'm not, either," Dick retorted with considerable spirit. "I know you're not, but you can say 'no' for both of us, and for Greg thrown in." "Then you won't come with me?" "I'll feel more comfortable down here on Main Street," laughed Dave. "If you get back early enough you can tell me about it." "If Mrs. Dexter doesn't want anything except to talk about rewarding us," grunted Prescott, "I can promise you that I'll be back bright and early." "So long, then, and good luck!" "What?" "Good luck in getting away, I mean." So Dick pursued his course alone, and feeling a good deal more uncomfortable, now that he had a suspicion of Mrs. Dexter's business. Up at the pretty little Dexter cottage things had been moving serenely of late. Ab. Dexter had not been heard from, and his wife imagined that the fellow had gone to other parts. For weeks she had kept a special policeman in the house at night. On this particular evening the man wanted to be away at a lodge meeting, and Mrs. Dexter had felt that it was wholly safe to let him go, more especially, as resourceful Dick Prescott would put in part of the evening there. When the bell rang, Jane being upstairs with little Myra, Mrs. Dexter herself opened the front door. Then she sprang back suddenly, stifling a dismayed little scream, for Abner Dexter stood facing her. "Didn't expect me, did you?" jeered the fellow, pushing his way into the hall. "Jennie, I'm at the end of my rope, and of my patience, too. I'm broke--have hardly a dollar in the world, and now you've got to do your duty and provide for me in the way that a rich wife should. In there with you!" Ab. pushed her into a little room just beyond the parlor, and stepped in after her. "Nice, comfortable place you have here, while I'm wondering where my next meal is coming from!" sneered the fellow. "Abner, I gave you ten thousand dollars, and you promised to leave me alone," protested the woman, afraid of the evil look that she now saw in her worthless husband's face. "Well, I haven't any of that money, and I've got to have more," retorted Dexter emphatically. "Jennie, I want twenty-five thousand dollars. Give me that, and I'll leave the country for good." "I--I couldn't trust you," she faltered. "Don't talk that way to me!" "I have good reason to, Abner, and you know it." "You thought I had forgotten you, didn't you?" he sneered harshly. "I hoped that you had at last made up your mind to let me alone," replied the woman, trying to summon a bravery that she did not feel. "I haven't forgotten you. Jennie, you will have to find and turn over to me the twenty-five thousand dollars that I want. You will never know any peace until you do do it, and you will never see me again after you have given me the money. Now, aren't you going to be sensible?" "Yes," she flashed. "I'm going to be too sensible to listen to you any longer. You have been watching this house, and you came to-night because you knew I was alone. If you won't go, at least I shall not stay here to listen to you." "Oh, yes, you will," replied the man angrily, barring the doorway. At that instant the telephone bell in a niche in the hallway sounded. "Let me answer that call," cried Mrs. Dexter. "No, I won't!" Then both heard, with very different feelings, a voice speaking these words: "Central, I am Dick Prescott, at Mrs. Dexter's. I shall probably be interfered with. Call up the police station in a hurry and say that Dexter is here, threatening Mrs. Dexter, who is without defense. I----" Slam! Dick felt himself seized by the collar. He was banged up roughly against the wall. "You young hound!" blazed Ab. Dexter. "Don't hurt him!" screamed Mrs. Dexter. "I'll do as I please with this young hound!" snarled Dexter hoarsely. "What right has he interfering with me in this manner? Come along, you meddling youngster!" As the telephone connection was still open, the girl at central office was able to hear every word. Ab. Dexter, still gripping struggling Prescott by the collar, dragged him down the hallway and into the same room where he had recently been talking with his unfortunate wife. Mrs. Dexter followed, pleading. "What are you doing here?" blazed Dexter, giving Dick a shaking that made his teeth rattle. "I sent for him, Abner. I wanted to find how I could best reward him for----" "For interfering with me on another occasion--yes, I know!" finished her husband, glaring at her. "You'd spend a lot of money on any one who tried to injure me, but you wouldn't give me a cent to keep me from starving!" As Dexter rattled off this charge he worked himself up into a passion. He shook Dick again, until he espied a closet in the room, in the lock of which was the key. "In there for you!" snarled Dexter, still shaking Prescott and dragging him across the room. Slam! Into the closet went Dick. Click! went the lock, and Dexter thrust the key into his pocket. "I'll take command of things here, as I ought to," growled the man. "As for you, Jennie, here's another closet on the other side of the room. Come, for I don't want to hurt you." Frightened badly now, the woman obeyed the impulse of Dexter's hand on her arm. She sank, cowering, into the other closet. Dexter turned the key in that lock also. "Now, are you going to come to your senses?" He called through the locked door to his wife. "If you mean am I going to give you any more money, I am not!" came Mrs. Dexter's reply, in a firmer tone, for she had been stung anew into defiance. "Then good night--and good-bye!" he laughed harshly. Both captives heard the scratching of a match. Dexter held the small flame against a drapery until it was burning freely. He had no intention of having his wife burn up in the house, for, dead, her money would be lost to him forever. He planned only to scare her into nervous collapse. But Jane, the housekeeper, did not liberate the captives in the two closets as Dexter had expected. Instead, as the housekeeper came to the head of the stairs, heard the crackling of flames and smelled the rising smoke, she fell on the landing in a faint. "Dick! Dick!" screamed Mrs. Dexter's voice. "The house is afire. Can't you break down the door and save us both?" "I'm trying to," shouted back young Prescott above the din of his own blows. "I'm trying to--but I'm afraid this door is too strong for me!" _ |
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