Fritz to the Front, or, the Ventriloquist Scamp-Hunter, Page 2

  CHAPTER II.

  THE STRANGE MARRIAGE.

  In the course of little over an hour, the carriage stopped at theinlet, where Fritz was told to get out and take a small boat and rowacross the water to the other shore, where he would find anothercarriage to complete his journey in.

  He accordingly did as directed, and had soon crossed the inlet, foundthe second carriage, and was once more rolling northward, along thesandy beach.

  It seemed hours to him ere his conductor drew rein in front of ajutting bluff which interrupted their further progress along thebeach, from the fact that it reached to the water's edge; for anotherhour he followed the driver, a grim, uncommunicative fisherman, onfoot up a jagged path, which finally led into a lonely ocean cavewhich the high tides of many centuries had washed out to about thesize of an ordinary room. A torch thrust in a crevice in the rockywall, lit up the scene in rather a ghostly way.

  About in the center of the cave stood three parties--Madge, aclerical-looking party, and another well-dressed man, with black hairand full beard.

  He stepped forward as Fritz and the fisherman entered the cave, andsaid:

  "Ah! I am glad you have come. Was fearing that you would notaccommodate us, sir."

  "Vel, I didn't vas know vedder to come or not," Fritz answered, "butash I am here, vot you want off me?"

  "I will tell you. The young lady yonder and myself are about to bemarried, and, to make things legal, we prefer to have a couple ofwitnesses to the ceremony. You will only be required to attach yoursignature to the marriage certificate, and will then be taken back toAtlantic City."

  "Vel, off dot ish all, go ahead mit der pizness," Fritz said, perchinghimself on a rock. "I don'd know off id is a legal dransaction or not,but I'll do vot ish right by der lady."

  "Then let's have the ceremony," the prospective bridegroom said. "Areyou ready, Madge?"

  "Quite ready," the young lady replied, smilingly.

  Then they clasped hands, and the aged clerical-looking gentleman reada marriage-service, asked the usual questions, and pronounced them manand wife.

  The parties to the consummation were announced as Miss Madge Thurstonand Major Paul Atkins.

  At the conclusion of the ceremony the clergyman filled out acertificate, signed it himself, and then requested Fritz to comeforward and do likewise, and also the old fisherman.

  His request being obeyed, Major Atkins said:

  "Your favor is duly appreciated, Mr. Snyder, and, if an opportunityoffers, I shall be happy to be of service to you. You may now returnto town in the manner you came."

  Accordingly, Fritz did so, not a little puzzled at his adventure andthe strange wedding in the coast cave.

  Day was just beginning to lighten the eastern horizon when he arrivedback at Atlantic City, and went to his room for a nap.

  But he found that sleep would not come to his relief, and so he wasamong the early fashionable bathers at the beach.

  After a good, refreshing bath he went back to the Brighton and took aseat on the veranda.

  He had not been seated long when a rapidly driven carriage whirled upbefore the hotel, and an elderly, portly man leaped out and hurriedinto the hotel, his face flushed with excitement.

  He was well-dressed, wore a little bunch of gray side-whiskers oneither cheek, and was evidently all of sixty years of age.

  Fritz surveyed him closely with the short glimpse he got of him, andthen scratched his head as if in quest of an idea.

  "I'll bet a half-dollar I see into der whole pizness now," hemuttered, with a chuckle. "Id vas plainer ash mud to me. Dot couplevot got married vas elopers mit each odder, und dis pe der old man onder war-path after 'em, madder ash a hornet. Der next t'ing is, whovas der bully veller, vot ish honest und haff der rocks to support dotvirtue?"

  After a few minutes the old gentleman came out of the hotel, and stoodlooking out upon the ocean, with rather a savage expression ofcountenance--and his was a face that could be very stern, whenoccasion required it.

  "I don'd know vedder I better poke mine nose inder dis pizness, ornot," Fritz muttered, taking a second survey of him. "He looks likeash if he might swaller a veller off he got mad, und I don'd vas careapoud imitadin' Jonah."

  As if interpreting his thoughts, the old gent turned rather gruffly,and took a searching glance at the young man.

  "Well?" he said, "I suppose I look as if I wanted to cut some one'sthroat, don't I?"

  Fritz laughed lightly.

  "Vel, I vas t'inking somedings like dot," he admitted.

  "I thought so. I ain't a fool; I know when I am mad, I _look_ mad. Doyou know of any party around here who's particularly anxious to endhis career, and ain't got the grit to do the job?--I would like tooperate on such a chap."

  "You feels like ash off you could pulverize some one, eh?"

  "Humph! I'll contract to lay out the first man that durst lookcross-eyed at me. I'm mad, I am--mad as thunder, and I come fromLeadville, too, where they raise thunder occasionally. Bah! I wishsome one would step up and kick me!"

  "Well, I'm your man, if you really want a _bona fide_ jobdone!" Fritz caused a pompous-looking man to say, who stoodnear--ventriloquially, of course. "I'm the champion patent kicker fromKalamazoo!"

  The old gent from Leadville turned and gazed at the pompous-lookingman a moment, his dander rising several degrees.

  "Oh! so you're anxious to kick me, are you, my Christian friend? Youwant to kick me, do you?" he ejaculated.

  "Who has said anything about kicking you, sir?" the pompous partydemanded, in haughty surprise. "You'd evidently better go to bed andsleep off your 'cups,' my friend."

  "I haven't drank a drop, sir, in ten years. And for you to denyexpressing a desire to boot me, sir--why, man, I heard you!"

  "You are a liar, sir; I said nothing of the kind. Besides, I am not inthe habit of picking quarrels with strangers."

  And with a shrug, the pompous man turned on his heel, and walked off,indignantly.

  Leadville's angered delegate gazed after him a moment, withunutterable contempt--then turned to Fritz:

  "Poor fool. He's no sand, or he'd not cut and run, after calling a mana liar. Up in Leadville things are supremely different, but herealas! is a lack of back-bone. I say, young fellow, have you evercherished dreams of becoming rich?--a man of millions, as it were?"

  "Vel, I don'd know but I haff some off dose anxiety to get rich, voncein a vile," Fritz admitted.

  "Well, sir, I can tell you just how you can do it the easiest, if youwill stroll upon the beach with me."

  Accordingly Fritz arose, and sauntered down to the beach with thiseccentric Leadvillian, whoever he might prove to be.

  "Now, I suppose you'd like to know what I'm mad at," the old gentbegan, pushing his gold-headed cane into the sand, as they strolledalong. "Well, before I tell you, I want to know who you are, and whatyour business is?"

  "My name vos Fritz Snyder, und I vas vot you might call adetective--or, dot is, I vas trying my luck at der pizness."

  "Indeed? Then perhaps it is well I have met you, for I have a case,and if you can win that case, you can also win five thousand dollars.How does that strike you?"

  "It hits me right vere I liff, ven I ish at home," Fritz grinned."Yoost you give me der p'ints, und I'm your bologna, you can bet ahalf-dollar on dot five t'ousand-dollar job. Vot's der lay--suicides,murder, sdole somedings, or run avay mit anodder vife's veller?"

  "Neither. A girl has run away from her home, and is wanted--fivethousand dollars' worth. She is my daughter, and is a somnambulist,and consequently of unsound mind, at times. She frequently goes into atrance, and remains thus for weeks at a time, eating and drinkingnaturally enough, but knowing nothing what she has been doing, whenshe awakens--though to outward appearance, she is awake, when in thistrance, but not in her right mind. I have consulted eminentphysicians, but they pronounce her case incurable, and say she willsome day die in one of these trances."

  Here the man from Leadville grew pathetic in h
is story, and wiped atear from his eye; but finally went on:

  "Well, as you may imagine, I have had a deal of trouble with her, forin her state of trance she has often robbed me of sums of money. Andwandered off, too, sometimes; but this last blow has been the mostsevere. It came to my knowledge that she had become the prey of anunprincipled Eastern rascal. He had met her during her somnambulisticwanderings, and prejudiced her against me, and caused her to rob notonly me but others, and surrender the stolen booty to him. On learningthis, myself and neighbors formed into a vigilance committee to huntthe rascal down, but he took to his heels, and fled Eastward. A fewdays later, my poor child turned up missing, and with her the sum oftwenty thousand dollars, which had been paid me from the sale of amine, and which I had lodged in my safe for safe keeping until I coulddeposit it, the next day!"

  "Twenty t'ousand--so much ash dot?"

  "Yes--a big sum, and likewise nearly all the money I then possessed. Iimmediately took up the trail, but egad! 'twas no use. The girl issharper than lightning, and eluded me at every turn. I found that herdestination was Eastward--doubtless to join her evil genius--and so Itelegraphed to Chicago and St. Louis for the detectives to look out,and intercept her, if possible. But all to no avail. She was seen inthose places, but owing to some irregularity beyond my comprehension,was not captured. When I arrived in Chicago, I found that she had twodays before left the city, Eastward bound. I trailed her toPhiladelphia, and there lost all track of her. Thinking quite likelyshe would come to this summer resort, I came on, to-day, in hopes ofstriking the trail, but all to no avail. I have as yet heard of noclew to her whereabouts."

  "Vel, dot ish purdy bad," Fritz assented. "Vot ish your name?"

  "My name is Thornton--I am a mining speculator from Leadville,Colorado."

  "Und your daughter's name vos--?"

  "Madge. She is a pretty young maiden, aged eighteen, and left her homevery well dressed."

  "Und der feller vot vas pocketing der money--vot vos his name?"

  "It is hard to guess what his true name was. At Leadville he wascalled Pirate Johnson--at Pueblo he was known as Griffith Gregg."

  "Gregg--Gregg?" Fritz said, meditatively. "I am on the look-out for aman by that name. But my man is a smuggler."

  "This villain may be connected with any nefarious piece of rascality.If I only had him here one or the other of us would get laid out--thatis as good as sworn to. God only knows what perils my poor child willpass through before I succeed in finding her, if I ever do."

  "Vel, I reckon ve can find her, uff der ish such a t'ing in derdictionary," Fritz asserted.

  He then went on to relate the particulars of his assisting the lady onthe boat, and of the marriage in the cave, which excited Mr. Thorntongreatly.

  "By Heaven! I see through it all! Madge Thurston is no more or lessthan my daughter, and she has wedded this rascal, Atkins, who is oneand the same person who was the Gregg or Johnson out West. God forbidthat my child is married to such a wretch. Describe him."

  Fritz obeyed, giving a description according as he remembered thebridegroom--also of the man who took Madge Thurston from the hotel.

  "The latter was undoubtedly Gregg," the speculator declared, "and theother also, was, it is likely, disguised for the occasion, with afalse beard. Now, Fritz, I want you to help me find my child, andbreak the neck of this rascal, and you shall have for reward the sum Ipromised you. We'll search this world high and dry but what we'llrecover my child. Come, let's seek a conveyance to take us to thecave."

  They accordingly went back to the Hotel Brighton, ate dinner, andafterward secured a carriage and set out for the scene of the strangewedding the night before.

  And thus Fritz entered into a five-thousand-dollar chase, which wasdestined to lead him into more adventures than he had yetexperienced.