CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I. [A Reporter’s Mistake] 1 II. [Amateur Night] 10 III. [On Track of a Deal] 19 IV. [On a Chowder Party] 28 V. [Man Overboard!] 36 VI. [Larry in Danger] 45 VII. [Larry Has an Offer] 53 VIII. [The Agent’s Proposition] 61 IX. [The Big Safe-Robbery] 69 X. [Working up the Clew] 78 XI. [A Search for the Blue Hand] 86 XII. [Larry Meets His Old Enemy] 94 XIII. [In Which the Deed is Missing] 102 XIV. [A Strange Offer] 111 XV. [Sign of the Blue Hand] 119 XVI. [A Vain Quest] 127 XVII. [Setting a Trap] 136 XVIII. [Election Night] 145 XIX. [A Queer Letter] 155 XX. [Solving the Cipher] 162 XXI. [The Gas Explosion] 170 XXII. [A Family Heirloom] 178 XXIII. [Mysterious Notes] 186 XXIV. [The Circus] 195 XXV. [The Last Warning] 204 XXVI. [Larry’s Narrow Escape] 212 XXVII. [Jimmy is Missed] 221 XXVIII. [An Anxious Search] 230 XXIX. [In the Enemy’s Power] 238 XXX. [Jimmy Held Captive] 247 XXXI. [Searching for the Lost] 255 XXXII. [In Quest of Peter] 263 XXXIII. [On the Right Track] 271 XXXIV. [Closing In] 279 XXXV. [Nearing the End] 288 XXXVI. [The Raid] 296 XXXVII. [What the Old Deed Brought] 304
INTRODUCTION
My Dear Boys.—Those of you who were interested in the first story of this series, telling how Larry Dexter rose from a copy boy to become a reporter, may desire to follow his further adventures as a newspaper worker. Many of the occurrences told of in this volume are actual ones. In some I participated personally. In others newspaper friends of mine were concerned, though I have made some slight changes from what actually happened.
The tracing of the blue-handed man, who blew open the safe by means of nitro-glycerine, is an actual fact, having taken place in the city where I live. He was arrested afterwards because a detective observed the stains left by the acid on his fingers. The riot in Chinatown is similar to several that have occurred there, and kidnappings, such as befell Jimmy, are common enough in New York. There are few reporters, especially on the large papers, who have not gone through as thrilling incidents as those which happened to Larry, for, as I can vouch from many years’ experience, a newspaper man’s life is anything but a quiet and uneventful one.
Yours sincerely, Howard R. Garis.
July 1, 1907.
LARRY DEXTER,
REPORTER
CHAPTER I
A REPORTER’S MISTAKE
“Copy!”