“I do not feel that it is right for me to permit you to support myself and my child, and as soon as my health is fully restored I shall recommence to earn my own living.”
“We will talk about that when your health is restored. In the meantime, you are to act as counselor and friend to me.”
A few days passed and Ike was casting around for an opening, not on the boards, but in reality a chance to start in and make a dollar, as he put it. He had a home but no money, and there were three to feed; all his provisions were gone and also all his money, and it was absolutely necessary that he should get on to something that would bring in a dollar or two, and in a most remarkable and really dramatic manner the opportunity at last opened up to him.
CHAPTER II.
Ike was a curious little fellow. We mean, he possessed the bump of curiosity to a great degree and he was constantly poking around into all manner of odd places. It had become a mania with him, and one evening he was walking along the street when he beheld a gentlemanly looking man walking in company with two of the worst-looking characters to be seen anywhere. Our hero had knocked around the world long enough to know that strange and even tragic incidents were of constant occurrence. In support of the above opinions we will state that the writer was once asked where he got so many weird and tragic incidents to record, and the answer was a reference to a morning paper. In that paper there was a record of two abductions, one secret murder, a poisoning case, eleven assaults, seven cases of robbery, one case of illegal confinement in an insane asylum, the account of a trial for will forgery, four mysterious disappearances and several minor accounts of odd and strange occurrences. We called our friend’s attention to the several startling records and then said:
“This is our guide book; we go to the detective bureau for further information. There are more strange, startling and romantic cases occurring than we can follow, or possibly record.”
And this is true, if the municipalities of our great cities were to keep a history, follow to the end and record the denouement of one year’s thrilling experiences in a great city like New York, more strange, marvelous stories would go on record than can be found in a dozen so-called works of fiction.
Ike had become quite a detective in one respect—in knocking around the world. He had become very observant; he was quick to notice anything unconventional or odd, and as stated, when he saw a gentleman walking along in company with men who looked like veritable rogues, he made up his mind that “something was up” and that he possibly had got on to a startling drama in real life. One who has observation and time can easily do so. The lad started to follow the men and saw them enter a hotel on a side street; he followed in by the side door. The three men went to the bar and had a drink, and then ascended to a room on the top floor of the building. Ike was not dismayed; when once starting in on a “lay” he followed by taking all the chances. He saw the men enter a room, and he entered the adjoining one, which happened to be vacant, and he muttered:
“If I am caught, I am in for it, but there is something going on, and I want to know what it is.”
Fortune favored the lad. The rooms were a sort of attic apartments, and extended out on a projection. He crawled out and stationed himself by the window of the room in which the three men had assembled. He lay down, face forward, and was prepared to listen, having discovered that he could plainly overhear every word spoken above a whisper, and all his suspicions were verified in the most remarkable manner. The men had just finished a drink from a bottle of whiskey which they had brought upstairs with them, when one of them said: