Cad Metti, The Female Detective Strategist | Page 9

But see here, pards, we'd better get up and git, or mebbe some of our
misdeeds may rise up in judgment against us. Instead of our putting the
dude in jail he may jug us."
"Right you are; let's scatter."
"Where will we meet?"
"In the city, and we'd better lay low. There is more in this little
experience than a crack on the head. We're lucky if we get away."
The three men rose to their feet, held a few moments' talk and then
scattered. Each man determined to make his way to the city on his own
hook, and they considered it was possibly by hook or by crook that they
would get there.
Oscar and Cad had disappeared. Indeed, the rogues had hardly dared
look at each other or speak until the "singulars" had gotten out of sight.
Once well away Oscar said:

"All right, Cad, I must leave you now to shift for yourself awhile. I am
going to finish up this business. We know where to meet."
"Yes."
They were standing in a hollow between two sandbanks and it was
dark.
"Change," said Oscar.
Immediately there followed a most wonderful transformation. Cad
Metti dropped her fine feathers as though by magic, and in her stead
appeared a plain-looking country girl, while the dude vanished, and in
his stead appeared a regular sporting appearing young fellow. No one
would have recognized in either the two who had sat on the piazza of
the hotel eating their dinner and cooing like two turtle-doves.
"Well done," said Oscar as he gazed at the wonderful girl, Cad Metti,
and an instant later he said:
"Now I will leave you. I must get on the track of those scoundrels."
Cad and Oscar did not stop to exchange farewells. The latter moved
away rapidly toward the point where he had had the encounter with the
three ruffians whom he and his female comrade had served out so well.
Oscar desired to follow the leader and he arrived behind a rift of sand
in time to watch them, and he was able to discern the fellow he desired
to shadow. His man made a roundabout tour toward the depot and then
started afoot down the track, not daring to take the train at the
Manhattan station. Our hero, however, proceeded to the station,
knowing his man would board the train at Sheepshead Bay, and his
conclusion was verified, for all three men had arrived at the
Sheepshead Bay station and boarded the train as individuals, not
exchanging one word. Indeed, all had worked a sort of half-and-half
transform.
Oscar maintained his seat; he did not go to the car boarded by the men.
He remained one car behind, but he was on the alert lest at any moment

the rascals might desert the train, and so he arrived at Long Island City.
The men went to the Twenty-third street boat, the detective followed
them, and still they kept apart.
"Those fellows are scared," he muttered. "The surprise they got has
taken all the life out of them."
Once in New York the special chap whom he was following walked up
Twenty-third street to First avenue, then he turned down and finally
entered a low tenement house. Oscar was at his heels and noted the
house he entered, and took up a position directly opposite. There were
lights in some of the front rooms, but the windows of the top floor front
reflected no brilliance until a few moments after our hero had taken his
position, when there shot forth from the small windows a sickly gleam
of light.
"Top floor front," was our hero's comment. He had located the room
where the man had entered.
Oscar stood a little time revolving his next move in his mind, and
finally he determined upon the old trick played so often and still played
daily by officers on a quiet "lay."
He entered the tenement house and ascended the creaking stairs, and
not a muscle in his sturdy form quivered, although it was a dangerous
undertaking to enter that sort of a house on such an errand. There was a
possibility that there were a dozen villains scattered around in the
several apartments, for as the old saying has it, "Thieves flock
together."
Oscar, however, was well-armed, cool, strong and agile, and he arrived
in front of the door of the room and heard voices. He peeped in, as the
keyhole was large and there was no key in the door. He saw the man to
whom he had given the sore head, and a woman. The latter was a
remarkable-looking person. She was about forty, as it appeared; her
complexion was sallow, her features pointed, her eyes large and sunken,
and the latter were very expressive,