Chapter XXIII: On Lannigan’s Trail

While Ida had been having her forceful interview with Miss Rainforth, Chick and Patsy had journeyed to Philadelphia.

On their way thither, on the train, they had become aware that the woman, Mrs. Ladew, was also a fellow passenger.

She was alone, having no attendant.

Chick had said to Patsy:

“I don’t know what value there will be in following Mrs. Ladew. What she probably will do will be to go directly to her home. However, I think one of us ought to follow her to see if she has any communication with the parties we are after.”

Patsy had said that he would undertake that work and they made arrangements for meeting after he had finished the shadow.

But, as the train drew into the Broad Street station, Patsy, looking out of the window, caught the glimpse of a man trying to board the train before it had fairly stopped. It seemed to him that the man was Lannigan.

Quickly warning Chick, they both of them ran back to the car in which Mrs. Ladew was seated and were in time to see Lannigan hastily pass through the car, stopping only long enough to whisper something in the ear of Mrs. Ladew and hurriedly pass on.

He went by both Chick and Patsy so closely that their clothes touched, but he did not recognize either and was soon out of sight.

Chick and Patsy kept Mrs. Ladew under close observation and saw from her manner that she had evidently been prepared for something by a warning from Lannigan.

As the train stopped and Mrs. Ladew descended, they followed her along the stone platform until the iron gates were reached, where were gathered the friends of the arriving passengers.

Keeping close enough to Mrs. Ladew to watch all that occurred to her, they saw a gentleman step out from the throng, as she passed through the gate, and, kissing her warmly, ask:

“Did you have a pleasant trip?”

“Very pleasant, indeed,” replied Mrs. Ladew. “But, Tom, I am surprised and delighted at your meeting me. I did not suppose you would give up so much of your morning to me.”

“Oh,” responded the gentleman called Tom, “I was not so busy this morning, and I am glad to get you back.”

He laughed a little and added:

“You see, I did not know but that Ellison would marry you instead of Miss Sanborn.”

“Oh, Tom,” replied Mrs. Ladew, “There has been an awful, awful happening. Ellison disappeared right after the ceremony and the reception guests were dismissed because of it.”

By this time the crowd had grown so great about the two that Chick and Patsy could hear no more that passed between the husband and wife.

But they followed to the street and saw the pair enter a handsome private carriage.

“There’s no use in following them,” said Chick, “for that is Mr. Ladew with her and they will go straight home.”

“And she’ll have no chance to talk to any of the people we are after.”

“No,” replied Chick.

They turned to move away and, in doing so, saw Lannigan watching the carriage drive off, a little way apart.

“S--sh,” warned Chick. “There’s Lannigan. He evidently warned Mrs. Ladew that her husband was waiting for her. We must follow him.”

“I’m glad of it,” said Patsy. “I was thinking one of us ought to have kept a peeper on him.”

Drawing back under the cover of a pillar, they watched to see what direction Lannigan would take.

It seemed as if he were waiting for some one, for he did not move until nearly all of those who had been attracted by the incoming train had moved away.

But others were gathered to meet another train and so neither Lannigan nor the two young detectives were conspicuous.

A moment or two later, a man hurried up and spoke to Lannigan. Lannigan greeted the man warmly and taking his arm, led him aside, talking very earnestly to him.

Whatever was said by the chief was not received pleasantly by the other, but, in the end, they walked away together, followed by Chick and Patsy.

They passed out to Filbert Street, where they stood for some little time in further conversation, when the man who had met Lannigan left him with the remark:

“I suppose it couldn’t be helped, but better luck next time.”

The man went in one direction and Lannigan in another.

The direction of the latter led him to the front of the City Hall, at the bottom step of which he stopped, and then, as if thinking better of his intention to enter the hall, turned and went up the street.

If he was aware that he was being followed by the two young men, he gave no indication of it in his manner, but walked along steadily without looking behind him.

He went on until a drinking saloon was reached which was, as Chick knew, a favorite resort for sporting men.

He entered this as if familiar to the place and the two, Chick and Patsy, undisguised as they were, entered also.

Lannigan, on entering, stood still a moment or two, looking over the room. Seeing two persons standing on one side, he went to them and entered into conversation with them.

They were too far away for Chick and Patsy, who had gone to the bar, to hear.

But, a moment later, the three came to the bar, also, and standing near Chick and Patsy, ordered drinks.

The two young detectives overheard Lannigan say, as if it were the conclusion of his previous conversation:

“They will be over with him to-night and the thing ought to be fixed now. I will go with you right away.”

They took their drinks and went out of the place without noticing Chick or Patsy.

As they went out, Chick said:

“Follow them, Patsy, and leave a trace behind you. I will stop long enough to change a bit and will pick you up so that you can change.”

Patsy started off and Chick, finding a convenient place, changed his appearance in so short a time that he had little difficulty in soon coming up with Patsy.

In fact, the slow progress of the three and their frequent stoppages for drinks on the way, helped him greatly.

Indeed, after Chick had come up with Patsy, they stayed so long in one saloon that Patsy was enabled to slip away, make a change in his own appearance, and join Chick.

After this, their way was more rapid and led to the outskirts of the town until a house, standing almost alone in its square, was reached.

Into this house the three entered.

“Well, we’re here,” said Patsy, “and what now?”

“I’m hanged if I know,” said Chick. “I should like to know what this house is and what goes on in there.”

“It looks all right,” said Patsy, “and is a regular Philadelphia house with its red brick, and white trimmings.”

“Who’s coming on to-night?” asked Chick.

“And what ought to be fixed right away?” added Patsy.

“Well, it isn’t the stuff that’s coming on,” said Chick, “for there was nothing doing for Lannigan and his lads when we got in.”

“No,” replied Patsy. “I don’t suppose there’s anything else for us to do but to hold and keep Lannigan under watch.”

“We can hardly undertake to enter that house,” said Chick; “but we’re on to it, and, perhaps, we can find something out about it afterward.”

This conversation had taken place in a doorway on the other side of the street in which they were hiding.

In a moment or two their appearances were wholly changed and they were ready when Lannigan and the two who had entered with him came out with a fourth and went up the street.

The two detectives followed, of course.

“I say, Chick,” said Patsy, “did you see how Lannigan came out of that house and how he looked to see if anybody was about?”

“Yes, I saw that,” said Chick. “He was suspicious.”

“Of being followed?”

“Not of us, probably, but of anybody seeing where they go.”

The way of the four was now back in the direction of the more thickly settled part of the city.

Finally they reached a corner house, the lower part of which was a drinking place.

The house was a peculiar structure, entrance to the upper story being gained by a high stoop from the outside. Back of it was another building, separated from it by narrow iron bridges on every one of the four floors.

This rear building was not as wide as the one in front, so that there was a space of a few feet between that building and the cross street.

This space was concealed by a high board fence, which, to the two young detectives, looked more like the side of a house than a fence.

There were large double doors in this fence. But they were closed.

The fourth man stopped the three on the corner and seemed to direct attention of the three to these double doors.

Lannigan walked up several steps and looked at the doors more closely. Then he went back to the three, saying something.

A little later, the four entered the drinking saloon.

The two detectives stood still in their place of concealment, wondering what all this meant.

“Chick,” said Patsy, “this is the place that Lannigan said he would go to with the others.”

“We must go in and see what it’s like,” said Chick.

Certain that they had not been observed, they stepped out on the sidewalk and inspected the house more closely.

A man came up and stood near them. The two detectives, looking at him closely, satisfied themselves that he had no purpose in this, but was merely lounging there.

“Live about here?” asked Patsy, of the man.

“Yes, all my life,” replied the man.

“That’s a queer place over there,” said Patsy, pointing to the saloon they had under watch.

“Fly-cops?” asked the man, in return.

Chick turned sharply on the man and then laughed.

“What makes you ask that question? Do we look like fly-cops?”

“No,” said the man, “I don’t know that you do. But that might be the very reason why you are.”

The man laughed a little bit, and added:

“I was a cop myself, for a while, but I got broke for letting a prisoner get away from me. It wasn’t my fault and I had only been on the force a month. But they broke me all the same, and I hadn’t pull enough to fix it up.”

“But what made you ask us if we were fly-cops?” asked Patsy.

“Oh, it was only because you asked about that house. There’s hardly been a time since that house was built that the fly-cops haven’t been hanging about it. That was fifteen years ago.”

“Tough place?” asked Patsy.

“Well,” replied the man, doubtfully, “it’s always been under sort of suspicions. It was built, and is owned now, by a man they call Stumpy Herrick. He’s got a sort of a club foot. That’s why they call him Stumpy.

“They say he used to be a maker of the queer and that he built this house out of a big rake off in shoving a lot of it.”

“Does he keep that saloon?” asked Chick.

“Oh, no,” replied the man. “He doesn’t do anything now but take care of his property and collect his rents. He owns not a little around here. No, the first man that kept the place was Fillingham. He rented it from Stumpy, and the next thing they knew the Secret Service men made a raid on the place and found a whole plant for printing notes in that rear building.

“Fillingham was sent up, you know. Then the house was kept by another man by the name of Locke. Everything was quiet for a year or two and then the fly-cops made a raid on the place and they found that it was a fence, and Locke doing more business in taking in swag in that rear building than in the saloon.

“They sent him up, and the saloon changed hands again.

“Things was quiet for two or three years and then there was another raid of the place. A man was taken out of that rear house that was in hiding there for having killed somebody downtown. I forget now who. Then it was shown that it was a great loafing place for crooks. And the business ran down and that man had to give up the place.

“By this time the place got a bad reputation and it was empty for several years.

“Now this man has taken it and, for anything that anybody knows, it’s all right. But I don’t like the crowd that hangs around here.”

“What’s the man’s name that keeps it now,” asked Chick.

“His name is Dempsey,” said the man. “My brother was telling me yesterday that, some years ago, he used to keep a game downtown which was a crooked one. But I don’t know about that.”

“The house has had a curious history,” said Chick. “I’m going in to look at it. Will you go over and have a drink?”

“I don’t care if I do,” said the man.

The three crossed and entered the saloon.

It was an ordinary drinking place, not well kept, and the floor was covered with sawdust. In the rear of the room were several tables, one of which was near a door.

At this table were seated the four men Chick and Patsy had followed, and another, who, from the fact that he was in his shirt sleeves, seemed to be the proprietor of the place.

Lannigan and the man in his shirt sleeves were in close conversation.

“That man in his shirt sleeves,” said the man, who had entered with Chick and Patsy, “is Dempsey. The man he is talking with is a rounder downtown--a swell gambler. I don’t know what his name is.”

While the three stood at the bar drinking, Lannigan and Dempsey arose from their seats and, leaving the others at the table, passed through the door near them, the door being closed after them.

Some minutes passed and then the other two men also passed through the door, this time leaving it partly ajar.

Chick and Patsy exchanged glances and, by moving about the room, managed to get to the rear of it without attracting attention.

Standing at the other end of the bar, they ordered more drinks, and as they were served, several entered from the street and claimed the attention of the barkeeper.

Chick seized the opportunity to open that door and saw that it opened into a little courtyard on which the rear building was and that the lower floor of that rear building seemed to be a private stable.

He saw also that there was a winding iron staircase from the courtyard to the balcony or bridge, connecting with the house in front, so that access to the rear building could be obtained from that courtyard.

He came back and said to Patsy:

“Patsy, I think we ought to make a break for that rear building. That’s where Lannigan and his party have gone.”

The man with them overheard the remark and said, warningly:

“Easy goes in this place.”

Neither Chick nor Patsy understood his meaning, but were satisfied that the man knew more of the place than he had been willing to tell them, though he did not seem to be a friend of the house.

Disregarding his warning, whatever it was, they passed through the door.

They had hardly gotten into the courtyard when they saw Dempsey and Lannigan with the others behind them, appear on the little bridge above them.

At the same moment, the large doors of the lower floor of the rear house were thrown open and a man appeared before the two detectives, who said:

“What in creation are you doing here?”

“Only looking around,” said Patsy.

“Well, look around somewhere else,” said the man.

“What is it, Tom?” asked Dempsey from the bridge.

“Oh,” said Chick, “he’s growling about our coming out here.”

“Well,” said Dempsey, “what are you doing there?”

“Nothing,” replied Chick. “We went out of the wrong door and are going back.”

Followed by Patsy, he returned to the saloon.

Once inside, Chick whispered to Patsy:

“Did you know that man in the stable?”

“No,” replied Patsy.

“It’s Tom Driscoll, an old New York crook. He hasn’t been long out of Sing Sing.”

They went to the bar again, where their acquaintance of the day was yet standing, and ordered some more drinks.

Dempsey and Lannigan came in.

“At ten to-night, you say?” asked Dempsey.

“In a close carriage,” was Lannigan’s reply.

Chick gave a signal to Patsy and walked out into the street.