The Frozen Crew Of The Ice-Bound Ship; Or, Terrors Of The Arctic Region — page 44: what you’re looking at

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36 think you could get a better choice in Portsmouth or Port au Prince.” ‘‘ My wife, chief,” said Manitto, leading the fore- most in the female cortege forward, and comparing her ringlets to the exuberant tendrils of the vine, and her eye to the blue vault of heaven; indeed, her rare charms might have claimed such praise when in youth, but they now bore the weight of forty sum- mers, and beauty must necessarily fade with accruing years. ‘‘ What, do I sce beings of a complexion I never saw before? Are they spirits?’ asked the Indian queen. “No spirits at all, ma’am,” said Black Bill, ogling the tawny amazcn; “pure flesh and blood ; only pinch me and see how I’ll cry out.” ** You are not like the red-men.” “T am not avery well-read man,’’ answered the pirate, with a cunning leer, “thougk I knowa little.” ‘You are all fine good to look at.” “Yes the lasses tell me,’’ said Bill, ‘‘ when we chance to drop anchor, that I am good-looking.” *TDlike yous? “Thank ye, marm; the feeling is mutual, I assure 9) e. “T never saw faces before so fair! I can scarcely believe you beings of this world.”’ “‘We shan’t be if we stay here long,’’ muttered De’il Rob; “ we shall be beings of the world to come.” Manitto, who had been engaged in earnest conver- sation with the Spaniard, now advanced and addressed his wife. “Corah, this familiarity is unbeseeming; strangers will think you forward.” «No so,” she replied ; ‘‘ no savage fierceness flashes from their eyes. The Indian’s deadly vengeance lives not in their hearts.” the «‘ Shiver my timbers ! what a broadside she carries,” |. thought Black Bill. “Chief,” said Rotaldo, *‘ you seem a mild and: in- offensive people, and you must not be angry with your wife, who, struck with a sight so strange, as Europeans must appear to her, shows only her satis- faction by little harmless attentions,” ‘““May it prove so. The red-man has but three pas- sions: Late, love, and jealousy. * But,” continued Manitto, changing his tone to a milder and more gentle strain, “ you must join us in our chase, and see with what agility the sinewy natives of these snowy climes can emulate their own wild rein-deer.” ‘‘ Willingly,”’ returned Rotaldo. ‘“ But before the hunt commences, you and your companions must re- gale yourselves with such viands as our vessel, blocked in by the ice, affords.”’ At this moment the sound of a conch was heard in the distance. The chief, Manitto, returned the signal, and, ob- serving Rotaldo betray some impression of intended treachery, removed his apprehension, by remarking, mildly— “Be not alarmed, friend, the horn you have heard is that of one of our tribe—young Miamas, He and his brother, Yeni, have wandered from us during the hunt, and I have answered their callin order to bring them to our side again.” An earnest belt of faces encircled in a short time the two Indian brothers. They advanced in company with a young lad, who walked between them. The brothers appeared arrayed in the most gorge- ous ornaments the wealth of the wild community could furnish. Rich plumes nodded above their heads. Bracelets, rings, and medals ornamented their per- gons in profusion. THE FROZEN CREW AND ICE-BOUND SHIP. Their dissimilarity of dress to the rest of the natives, with the exception of Manitto, who was equally adorned, proclaimed these individuals as chiefs, second in command, and adopting the singular title of the “panthers of the tribe.” ; With regard to the other of the new comers, it 1s now necessary to speak. Neither in face, complexion or raiment, did he re- semble his companions, who, struck with his likeness to the pirates, whom they beheld for the first time, naturally conceived him to be one of their number. He was now rolled up in the folds of an ample fur cloak of the Indian, Miamas, who, pitying his forlorn condition, had mercifully thrown it over the youth’s shoulders, with a view of sheltering him, in some measure, from the vigorous mercies of an Arctic winter. The surprise of the pirates can be better imagined than described, when, on looking on the form before them, they recognised that of a former messmate. It was, indeed, the boy Gonzalvi, whom the Indians had rescued from a snowy sepulchre among the ice- bergs, through which a perverse hunt of game had led them. | CHAPTER XIII. ATTACKED BY BEARS. “Two nights had we fasted on the track of the Walrus, or, the sea horse. When Yeni and myself,”’ said Miamas, “discovered the pale-face travelling the path of the redman’s hunting ground.” “ He was hungered,” rejoined Yeni, ‘‘and perish- ing with the cold that pursues alike the war-painted Huron and the Yengeese.” ‘“Dulse from the ice rock supplied the first want.” ‘‘Sking of animals slain in the chase afforded means of relieving the second.” ‘‘- Your conduct, warriors, is generous and noble,” exclaimed Manitto; the Indian is swift of foot, leaps far and turns not his shoulder when his eye should look at a foe or a friend in extremity. ‘‘ This youth appears known to you—is he one of your people,’ continued the chief, addressing the pirates, whom he observed had recognised Gonzalvi. ‘“‘ He is a deserter from my ship,” replied Rataldo. “ How he got away I couldnever tell, and what had become of him was a mystery which is now cleared up by his presence here.” “The law of the Yengeese,” said Manitto, ‘“‘punishes severely the scout who follows not on the trail.” ‘¢T shall not administer punishment, though the young scapegrace’s breach of duty merits some con- viction,” continued the Spaniard, “but it will be policy on my part, for the present, to withhold it. He may, perhaps, giveme some information concern~- ing a greater delinquent than himself.” The chief remained silent as the pirate pro- ceeded— “T speak of a certain mutineer I was forced to expel from my vessel, and who, I surmise, by the dis- covery of this youth, to be lurking near to do mea mischief.”’ ‘You had better question him,’ whispered Black Bill to Rotaldo, who witnessed, with something akin to alarm, the appearance of Gonzalvi. ‘<‘ Chief,” said the buccaneer to Manitto, whom he flattered himself he had successfully cajolled with regard to the antecedents of the boy, ‘‘if you will pardon me, I will interrogate privately this Tunaway.’’ Gonzalyi readily obeyed the summons that was