



Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, Joshua
Hutchinson, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team








BLINDFOLDED


By Earle Ashley Walcott





CONTENTS


CHAPTER

  I A DANGEROUS ERRAND
  II A CRY FOR HELP
  III A QUESTION IN THE NIGHT
  IV A CHANGE OF NAME
  V DODDRIDGE KNAPP
  VI A NIGHT AT BORTON'S
  VII MOTHER BORTON
  VIII IN WHICH I MEET A FEW SURPRISES
  IX A DAY IN THE MARKET
  X A TANGLE OF SCHEMES
  XI THE DEN OF THE WOLF
  XII LUELLA KNAPP
  XIII A DAY OF GRACE
  XIV MOTHER BORTON'S ADVICE
  XV I AM IN THE TOILS
  XVI AN ECHO OF WARNING
  XVII IN A FOREIGN LAND
  XVIII THE BATTLE IN THE MAZE
  XIX A DEAL IN STOCKS
  XX MAKING PROGRESS
  XXI AT THE BIDDING OF THE UNKNOWN
  XXII TRAILED
  XXIII A PIECE OF STRATEGY
  XXIV ON THE ROAD
  XXV A FLUTTER IN THE MARKET
  XXVI A VISION OF THE NIGHT
  XXVII A LINK IN THE CHAIN
  XXVIII THE CHASE IN THE STORM
  XXIX THE HEART OF THE MYSTERY
  XXX THE END OF THE JOURNEY
  XXXI THE REWARD




BLINDFOLDED




CHAPTER I

A DANGEROUS ERRAND


A city of hills with a fringe of houses crowning the lower heights;
half-mountains rising bare in the background and becoming real mountains
as they stretched away in the distance to right and left; a confused
mass of buildings coming to the water's edge on the flat; a forest
of masts, ships swinging in the stream, and the streaked, yellow,
gray-green water of the bay taking a cold light from the setting sun as
it struggled through the wisps of fog that fluttered above the serrated
sky-line of the city--these were my first impressions of San Francisco.

The wind blew fresh and chill from the west with the damp and salt of
the Pacific heavy upon it, as I breasted it from the forward deck of the
ferry steamer, _El Capitan_. As I drank in the air and was silent with
admiration of the beautiful panorama that was spread before me, my
companion touched me on the arm.

"Come into the cabin," he said. "You'll be one of those fellows who
can't come to San Francisco without catching his death of cold, and then
lays it on to the climate instead of his own lack of common sense. Come,
I can't spare you, now I've got you here at last. I wouldn't lose you
for a million dollars."

"I'll come for half the money," I returned, as he took me by the arm and
led me into the close cabin.

My companion, I should explain, was Henry Wilton, the son of my
father's cousin, who had the advantages of a few years of residence in
California, and sported all the airs of a pioneer. We had been close
friends through boyhood and youth, and it was on his offer of employment
that I had come to the city by the Golden Gate.

"What a resemblance!" I heard a woman exclaim, as we entered the cabin.
"They must be twins."

"There, Henry," I whispered, with a laugh; "you see we are discovered."
Though our relationship was not close we had been cast in the mold of
some common ancestor. We were so nearly alike in form and feature as
to perplex all but our intimate acquaintances, and we had made the
resemblance the occasion of many tricks in our boyhood days.

Henry had heard the exclamation as well as I. To my surprise, it
appeared to bring him annoyance or apprehension rather than amusement.

"I had forgotten that it would make us conspicuous," he said, more
to himself than to me, I thought; and he glanced through the cabin as
though he looked for some peril.

"We were used to that long ago," I said, as we found a seat. "Is the
business ready for me? You wrote that you thought it would be in hand by
the time I got here."

"We can't talk about it here," he said in a low tone. "There is plenty
of work to be done. It's not hard, but, as I wrote you, it needs a man
of pluck and discretion. It's delicate business, you understand, and
dangerous if you can't keep your head. But the danger won't be yours.
I've got that end of it."

"Of course you're not trying to do anything against the law?" I said.

"Oh, it has nothing to do with the law," he replied with an odd
smile. "In fact, it's a little matter in which we are--well, you might
say--outside the law."

