The Dock Rats of New York | Page 6

occurred that caused him
to await another opportunity.
As recorded, after his encounter with Sol Burton, he returned to where
his boat lay, determined to go off to the yacht, when a second time an
apparition glided to his side and whispered a few startling words in his

ear.
CHAPTER IV.
The detective stood by his boat thinking over the thrilling position of
affairs, when Renie Pearce once more appeared before him.
"Hello! you've come back, eh?" called the detective.
"Yes."
"Well, what now?"
"You are determined to go off to-night."
"Well?"
"You must not go, there's better game for you ashore!"
The detective was thrown off; he could not understand the girl. Renie
had confessed that she had originally betrayed him to the smugglers,
and then, when danger threatened, she came and warned him, and her
warning failing, she came tripping to him once more, barefooted,
ragged, and beautiful, and held out to him an alluring bait.
There was no misunderstanding the purport of her words. She betrayed
the fact that she knew his full purpose, and her words implied that she
was ready to throw him a larger and more certain game. Her wards
were, "There's better game for you ashore!"
"Are you, my friend, Renie?"
"Yes; I am your friend."
"If you are my friend, why did you betray me to the smugglers?"
"I was not your friend then, I am your friend now. I can serve you and
you can serve me! Your life is in danger. You will never return if you
go out in the yacht to-night. I had prepared you for your doom, but now

I will save you, and again I tell you that there's better game ashore."
"Why should I trust you! do you not confess to having betrayed me?"
"I only knew you then as a government detective; now I know you are a
man."
"You must have made the latter discovery very suddenly."
"I did."
"When?"
"When you knocked Sol Burton down; that man meant me harm. I
could have defended myself against him, but a greater peril menaces
me to-night."
"What peril menaces you?"
"I have no confidant in the world; shall I make one of you?"
"Yes."
"My confidence may get you into trouble."
"How sad."
"You are a brave, noble man; you will desire to act as my champion."
"You are a strange girl."
"Yes; mine is a hard lot; I am a waif; I am nothing; I am all outcast; a
thing, and yet--"
The girl ceased. She had spoken with a wild. energy, and she had
looked ravishingly beautiful while talking.
"And yet, what?" said the detective interrogatively.

"My heart is full of all the ambitions that might fill the heart of a girl
born in the midst of splendor and luxury; and although the companion
of smugglers, I love only what is pure and beautiful; I cherish the
fondest dreams, and yet--"
Again the detective supplemented:
"Well, go on."
"I am a poor, ragged, barefooted girl, the daughter of a boat-keeper, and
that is not all!"
"Tell me all."
"Shall I?"
"Yes."
"I had reason to suppose that my pretended father was my friend; one
thing is certain no millionaire ever guarded a fair daughter with more
tenderness than he has guarded me. He has sent me to school, and has
permitted me to become educated far above my station. You know in
this land that is an easy thing for a poor man to do, but within a few
days strange suspicions have crossed my mind; no man even among the
roughest of them ever dared insult me. Tom Pearce would have killed
the man who dared bring one faint flush to my cheek with his vile
tongue! but alas! I fear--fear."
"What do you fear?"
"Shall I say it?"
"Certainly."
"I fear his tender care of me has been a speculation."
"You do not believe he is your friend?"
"I fear he is not."

"Some enemy may have traduced Tom Pearce."
"No; the words that aroused my suspicions fell frown his own lips."
"And what do you fear?"
"You must learn from other lips."
"Who will tell me?"
"If you are to know at all, you must learn my fears from the lips of my
enemies."
"How shall I do that?"
"Are you willing to serve me?"
The detective was silent. He was certainly charmed and lured by this
beautiful child of the shore, but could he afford to undertake to be the
champion of a barefooted girl, though she did own a strangely beautiful
face?
"If you serve me I will serve you."
"What can you do for me?"
The girl's eyes gleamed as she answered:
"Let me but know that these men are my foes, that I owe them no
gratitude, and I