Wichita eagle., 1889-05-10

70 make my IorGun6s anu Dy JoVe, IVo
made ii, too. New York's the place, after
all. But I haven't told you yet that I am
Douglas Peabody, nephew of the presi-
dent of the Stock Yard Bank. guess
you'll remember me nown
"Why, yes, certainly said Billy, vague
~, as if he felt he ought to know Mr..
Douglas Peabody, but didn't quite remem-
Der him.
''Well, Pm delighted to see you down
here" said Mr.. Peabody II was just on
my may to Delmonico's to luncheon; won't
you come and have chop and pint OF
Chablis with mea Do, ! insist
The Frozen Dude accepted the invitation,
| but the bunco man was to fly to go to Del
monico's. where detective is always on
watch at the door He walked up to the
corner of Twenty sixth street on the OPP
posite side of Broadway, however, and then
stopping suddenly. he said:
"Ah, my boy, I'm going to take you to
place where they serve the dain test lunch
con in New York. Beats Del's all hollow
And he led the way to an Italian cafe in
TWEEN eighth street. Here they had
luncheon with two kinds OF wine that cost
the gentlemanly crook a little more than
twelve dollars While they were slipping
their black coffee Mr.. Peabody remarked:
by the way, I've just won a valuable
oil painting in a lottery and / am going
down to Fourteenth street to have it sent
UP this afternoon. Shall we take a cab
down there's Perhaps you'd like to look at
it, if you've nothing better to do.'
Billy didn't care if he did, and in few
moments they were bowling down Broad
way. don't imagine that bunco men law
ish as much expense upon every victim
bay T1ioly1 hnt bn pf Ia
Frozen Dude was imposing, and his CONVEX
sation concerning his wealth and expecta-
tons had not lowered him in the estima-
ton of his new friend Billy says that he
actually caught Mr.. Douglas Peabody
chuclkling to himself in the cab ON their
way to Fourteenth street, with delight at
having caught so gullible a sucker" as the
crooks generally term their prey.
The cab stopped at a big house between
Seventh and Eighth avenues, and Billy
followed Mr.. Douglas Peabody into a back
room. There were three men in the room.
One sat at a small desk behind rail- ng,
another stood up at a desk and made pre-
tense of counting a big roll of bills, and a
third sat in chair outside the railing with
his shat on. Mr.. Peabody was congratu-
lated upon his luck in winning so valuable
an oil pa inting and then, being informed
that there was to be a drawing in another
lottery, he gave a check for $500 for ten
tickets, and finally decided to shake dice
with the man behind the desk for $40
point. Billy was asked to go in, and as he
figured that they would allow him to win
the first time he did so. The other man
outside the railing also pat down $40, and
the man at the desk smoothed out the four
bills and put a paper weight on them.
The Frozen Dude unbuttoned his coat and
thrust his hands in his pockets, in order to
appear at his ease, and then the strangest
transformation scene he says he ever wit
messed, occurred. II was like a play, he
said, when doors are arranged for the SIM
ultaneous disappearance Of all the actors.
The man behind the desk looked up at him,
his eyes suddenly stuck out, his hair rose,
and in the twinkling of an eye he had
tripped the desk over and gone through
a side door. Billy at the same instant
heard crash in another direction and
looked toward the rear window just in time
to see the man who had been counting bills
at the big desk break through the closed
blinds into the back yard; and when he
turned to look for Mr.. Douglas Peabody
and the other man, the outside door was
tust slamning at their heels. It was like
the disappearance of Rhoderick Dhu's clan
before Fits James.
at seemed as If their mother earth
Had swallowed up her war-like birth"
Billy was utterly bewildered until he
happened to glance at his waistcoat and
caught sight of his dre-badge. Then he
knew that the bunko men had taken him
for detective, hence their fight. That
night four or five reporters had big din
ner at Monquin's, and Kid Miller and Mike
Norton, as the bunko men turned out to be,
had bitter thoughts concerning the Frozen
Dude.