Fritz to the Front, or, the Ventriloquist Scamp-Hunter

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE GHASTLY RELIC.

  Meantime Fritz had been in the old rookery some time prior to thearrival of the bearded men.

  No sooner had he entered the large hall, and closed the door behindhim, than he felt a sort of dread of something, he knew not what.There was a damp, musty, deathly smell about the place that he did notquite like.

  "I don'd know vedder I vas afraid of ghosts or not," he soliloquized,pausing and gazing around him. "It looks ash uff dis might be a blacevere dey manufacture ghost shows; but somebody has liffed here vonceupon a time."

  The carpet yet remained upon the floor of the long hall, and also uponthe staircase which led to the upper floor. There was also a largepicture hung upon the wall.

  Passing along the hall, Fritz tried each of the doors which opened offfrom it, but in each instance he found them locked, and was unable toeffect an entrance.

  "Vel, dot looks like ash uff nopody vas to home," he muttered. "I'lltry der upstairs part, und if I don'd haff no better success, I vilstay out mit der hall."

  He accordingly ascended the hall staircase, and proceeded to take atour of the upper part of the rambling old structure.

  Here the doors were all locked, with one exception, and this hadevidently been left as locked, the bolt being turned, but the door nothaving been tightly closed, the bolt failed to enter the socket.

  Opening this door, Fritz entered, and found himself in a largefurnished apartment, there being a carpet, old and moth-eaten, uponthe floor; several pieces of stuffed furniture, which had also beenvictims of moth and worm, and a large round oaken table in the centerof the room.

  And over this, suspended by a cord, which was fastened to the ceiling,was an object which caused Fritz to utter a grunt of startled alarm.

  It was a man's head, cut from the body at the throat, and held insuspension by a cord fastened to the long hair.

  The head had probably hung there for a year or so, for the flesh haddried down upon the bones. The eyes, however, retained their glassystare, the teeth showed to ghastly advantage, and the heavy blackmustache and goatee bristled ferociously.

  Fritz gave a startled cry, and his hair fairly raised on end, as hebeheld the strange spectacle, but the longer he stared at it, the lesshis alarm, and he finally advanced into the room.

  "By shimminy--I vas skeardt like ash der duyfel at first, put now Idon'd vas a bit afraid. Somepody hang dot up there yoost for ascare-crow. Uff der ghosts vas to see it, I'll bet a half-dollar deyvould run."

  Just then there was a flash of lightning and a heavy roll of thunder,which caused Fritz to start, and give a nervous glance at the swinginghead.

  "I don'd quite vas like id here," he muttered, uneasily. "I'd makes aveller t'ink he's goin' der get smashed up effery minute. I vonder votdey keep up there?" and his eyes rested upon an aperture in theceiling, such as is often provided in houses as a means of reachingthe roof. A stout rope hung down through this opening to the floor ofthe room, and had evidently been used to climb up into the attic.

  Fritz was just contemplating it, when a sound of footsteps in the halloutside aroused him to quicker thoughts.

  "I'll bet a half-dollar it's a ghost comin'," he gasped, the tendencyof his hair being again decidedly upward. "But, it was a cold day vendey scalb me mit der tommyhawk, ash long ash I can climb."

  Accordingly, up the rope he went, hand-over-hand, with the agility ofa monkey, and soon gained the attic immediately above the chamber.

  It was a dark, ill-smelling place, and so far as Fritz could see, usedfor no particular purpose whatever.

  Ensconcing himself directly beside the aperture through which he hadcome up, Fritz prepared to await developments.

  He was not a little anxious to know who the new-comer was--whether ahuman or spiritual being, for if the latter, he had a curiosity toinspect it.

  In a few moments the door opened and a strapping Irishman stalked intothe chamber, a lank, lean specimen of humanity, with a Killkenny face,red hair, a fringe of reddish beard under his lower jaw, extending tohis ears, and attired in brogans, short pantaloons, and a bluesoldier coat, with a grimy clay pipe in his mouth, and battered plughat on his head. Of the "rale old" race of Irishmen, he was certainlya good specimen.

  "Arrah! sure it's divil one room but they have locked, an' a sorryplace it is, too, for a dacent Irish gintlemon--an the son of a dukeat that! Bad 'cess to sich a counthry, onny-how. It's wurruk like thedivil for a bit of grub, and when a mon gits out ov wurruk surestomick has to pay for it. If yez ax a mon will he be afther givin'yez a nip off bread, he tell yez, 'Arrah! off wid ye, ye murdtherin'tromp, or I'll sick tha purrup on yez!' bedad."

  "I'll yoost pet half-dollar der Irishman vas pin stoppin' mitSamples!" Fritz muttered, with a grin, taking a peep at the son ofErin. "He vas hungry like as vot I vas. Vonder off he haff discoveredder skelegon, yet avile."

  The Hibernian had not, evidently, for he was perched composedlybeneath the suspended head.

  "Sorry a place this is for the son of a duke," he went on muttering."Sure, it looks as if the ould divil himself had been here. Guess thisproperty would be sellin' moighty cheap, tha while. Ugh!" as a heavyclap of thunder caused the house to shake from stem to stern, "a sorrywild night it's a-goin' to be, an' it's meself that's wishin' I wasback forninst the furdther side av the big puddle."

  "Ha! ha!" laughed Fritz, throwing his voice to the farther side of theroom.

  "Yis, ha! ha! bad 'cess to the loikes av yez, whoever ye may be!" theIrishman cried, fiercely, gazing in vain around the apartment, insearch of the author of the laugh.

  "Ho! ho! itchy, dirdty Irish!" Fritz caused a different voice to say,in a still opposite part of the room.

  "No, I'm divil a wan av the likes!" the son of Erin cried, gettingangry. "Bad luck to yez! ef I gits me hands on yez, it's a divil's owntrouncin' you'll get, ontirely. I'll have yez know my name is PatrickGrogan, an' it's the dacent, gintlemonly son av a duke and a duchess Iam, bedad."

  "A son off a gun, more likely. Look out, you bloody Irish, or I vilspit on you!" Fritz caused the suspended head to say, in a hoarse,gurgling voice.

  "Aha! it's spittin' on me yez'll be, eh?" the Hibernian cried, leapingfrom his seat, his walking-stick in hand--a formidable piece of realthorn. "Oh! you black-livered omadhaun, if I catch yez, _won't_ Itache yez to be dacent and civil to a gintlemon!"

  Then, chancing to glance upward, he saw for the first the swinginghead, and in utter horror dropped upon his knees and raised his handsupward in supplication.

  "Oh, holy Virgin Mary, protect me!" he howled, his terrified gazeglued upon the unsightly object. "Oh, murdtherin Maria! och, bad luck!fot have I done, Mr. Divil? shure it's nary a thing wrong I've did,nor sthalin' I've never been guilty of!"

  "You vas von son-off-a-sea-cook!" came from the head.

  "Yis--och, sure I'se anything yez wants, Mr. Divil! only don't beafther hurtin' the loikes av me!"

  "Then arise, dirdty Irish, and climb into the attic, before thespirits come to wrap their icy clutches around you!"

  "Sure, I'll be afther goin'," Pat cried, and he did go--not up therope, but out of the room, as fast as he could go.

  Nor did he pause until outside of the house, as Fritz could tell bythe sound of his rapidly retreating footsteps.

  "Vel, dot vas purdy goot fun," Fritz muttered with a grin. "I dink Ivil vait dil some vone else comes."

  He had not long to wait before footsteps sounded once more, coming upthe stairs, just as the storm broke loose outside, and torrents ofrain poured down upon the roof, while the thunder rumbled ominously.

  Presently two men entered, one carrying a lantern, for it was nowquite dark.

  Both were roughly dressed and brutal-looking fellows, wearing heavyblack beards.

  "Humph!" was Fritz's mental comment, as he beheld them. "I'll bet ahalf-dollar I smells von mice. Uff I haff not made a big mistake, Idinks I haff stumbled right inder the smugglers' den vot I am lookingfor."

 
It was only a sudden suspicion, to be sure; nevertheless it struck himvery forcibly.

  One of the men set the lantern upon the table, and then perchedhimself beside it, while the other sat down upon a chair and gazedspeculatively at the ghastly object which hung suspended from theceiling.

  "I wonder how long afore the rest o' ther boys will be here," hegrowled.

  "Dunno," the other fellow replied. "Hope they'll come afore long andsettle the matter, so that we'll know what we've got to do."

  "How d'ye think it's going?"

  "Dunno. Reckon the majority'll be ag'in' the poor cuss."

  "I'm thinkin' that way, too. I kinder hope not, though, for I don'tfancy the job."

  "Pshaw! you're chicken-hearted, without cause. He's never made love toyou."

  "Darn it, no; but he's too fine a specimen of manhood to feed to thesharks."

  "Pooh! Many's the one better'n he wot's enriched the bottom o' thesea. I wonder who the Irishman was, we met at the front?"

  "Some tramp, I allow, who'd sought a night's shelter here, and gotskeered at our friend Bill," and he glanced at the swinging head witha laugh. "Hello! I say, Bill, how are you getting along in your newplace o' residence?"

  "First-rate!" apparently answered the grinning head, followed by aghostly sort of a gurgling laugh.

  "Jehosaphat!" cried the questioner, leaping to his feet. "Thunder andlightning! Did ye hear that, Hand?"

  "Waal, I should murmur," Hank grunted, leaving the table with aspring, and landing near the door. "What the devil's the matter?"

  "Cussed ef the cadaver o' Bill Budge didn't speak," the first mancried.

  "Git out! Budge has bin dead over a year; how in thunder could hespeak?"

  "Mebbe his spirit hes come back inter his head."

  "Pooh! impossible! It was our fancy; we didn't hear nothin'," Hankgrowled, edging a little nearer to the door.

  "You're a liar!" thundered a voice, seeming to come directly frombetween the pearly teeth of the suspended head, and to make mattersworse, the head began to swing slowly to and fro.

  With howls and curses, the two masked men made the hastiest kind of anexit from the room and down the stairs, while Fritz in the attic wasconvulsed with laughter.

  "Dot was better as half-a-dozen suppers, py shimminy!" he snorted,holding his sides.

  All was now quiet for some time, except for the howling of the stormwithout.

  But, finally, footsteps were again heard, and eight men, all maskedbut one, filed into the room.

  The eighth man was a young man, of prepossessing appearance, unmasked,and had his hands bound behind his back.

  He was better dressed than his grim captors, and there was a fearless,cool expression upon his face, that at once won Fritz's admiration.

  "Ha! Hank and Jim have been here already, and gone!" a tall,broad-shouldered member of the party said. "They'll be back directly,no doubt. And now, Hal Hartly, we will proceed to review your case,and dispose of it according to the decision of the majority."

  "Go ahead, captain!" the prisoner replied, calmly. "I am as wellprepared now, as I shall be."