The Frozen Crew Of The Ice-Bound Ship; Or, Terrors Of The Arctic Region — page 96: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_ 86 The boiling mist curls fast and white, and issues upward from the roused waters. He is giddy, but mounts with caution. His step proves fatal as he reaches the brink. No, he clings fast to a friendly shrub, and stands upon the summit of the height. Safely arrived at this point, Paul Jones lost no time in gathering fuel to serve his beacon. He succeeded in this undertaking, but failed in another by a circumstance he had not calculated upon. The water-soaked combustibles would not take light when it was applied to them. It wasin this extremity that a strange figure pre- sented itself tothe despairing and baffled mariner. How he had appeared so mysteriously caused no surprise to Paul Jones, as he recognised in his com- panion the dreaded and redoubtable Flying Dutch- man. “What do you here?” said Paul Jones, after a pause of a moment to regain his breath. The spectre skipper made no reply, but glided to the speaker’s side. At length he spoke in malignity. ‘You may try hard, very hard to get out of my clutches, but you will fail to effect vour purpose. ‘‘ We shall have a long cruise together,” continued the Flying Dutchman, “and you will be further from it at the end than at the begining.” “‘ Why do you thus persecute me ?”’ “You should demand the question of him who afforded food. to the worm more than a century since,” replied Vanderdecken. **T {bore with the unhappy offspring guilt had given life, but avenged myself on the seducer of my child by destroying generation after generation of his descendants, ‘You are the last of the hellish brood, and must suffer for the crimes of thy ancestor.” “Wretched man,” cried Paul Jones, “ you must be more miserable even than I.” f “I follow a destiny that cannot be averted. ““We are the agents of a mysterious power and must bend to it. “* Fate has made us deadly enemies. “Although my enemy,” said Paul Jones, “ for the wrongs you have suffered from one of my family I am weak enough to forgive.’’ “Can you really forgive him who visits the sins of the guilty on the innocent?’ asked the Flying Dutchman, upon whose lived countenance played a mournful smile as he uttered the words.” “IT not only forgive, but pity,” returned Paul Jones. Enough,” interrupted Vanderdecken, ‘the spell by which I am bound to wander over the face of the ocean is broken, my doom is cancelled, by my bitterest foc yeilding to the highest attibute of christianity. THE FROZEN CREW AND ICE-BOUND SHIP, ‘‘Go,” he continued, presenting a small packet to Paul Jones; ‘the spirit of mercy has accomplished our destinies, and saved your soul and mine.” A flash of lightning passed, as Vanderdecken vanished from the presence of his late companion. The latter was impressed by an intuitive feeling that he had seen the Fiying Dutchman for the last time, and that his work was completed. Gratitude, esteem and confidence at once reigned in his bosom, He regarded the packet he had received and opened it. It contained the signals of his own ship. He had now the means of raising the required beacon. The combustible material was no sooner seen, than lighted by Paul Jones. In a moment a tall pointed flame rose from a thiek cloud of smoke. ' A few minutes elapsed, and fire shot up on the high grounds of the afar-off island. Promontory, jagged points, and woody emminence blazed an answer to the beacon, and indicated suc- cour would arrive withont delay. We will not enter further into detail, but super- ficially observe the following incidents. ‘ The boats of the friendly islanders succeeded in rescuing Paul Jones and his companions from their perilous positions, : The former, after some trifling adventure, was enabled at last to reach the treasure for which he had made so disastrous a voyage in the first in- tance. He settled in America, and became, through the wealth he had discovered, one of its greatest bene- factors. During the latter years of the life of Paul Jones the war of independence broke out. The adventurer sided with the country of his adoption. He distinguished himself in naval engagements, but privateering covered his name, otherwise illustri- ous with obliquity. Some years after the events, with which this his- tory concludes, an exploring expedition passed the boundary of the artic circle, if In their researches they came upon a wreck, which was recognised as that of the notorious Ell Malachor. But six dead bodies were found on board her.’ These appeared to have come hither to die in the lace. | - Each form stood like an icicle on the deck. Figure, garment and hair, fleeced with drifting snow, looked soft, ay, even softer than carded wool. ' The rigid limb, the stiff stark face and glassy eye, told too terribly the fate of the “ Frozen Crew.’ ot DEGS THE. END. DOO