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!"