Beadle's Dime Novels No. 94: The Mad Skipper — page 79: what you’re looking at

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

A TOAST TO THE MABLSTROM. ‘Sl It will be a glorious ruin, I can tell you; and there will be ‘phosphor-lamps for the bride, and a wedding-dress of foam as white as a winding-sheet !” The bride ? wedding-dress? I don’t understand you.” “Ah, no! you can not understand me! Lilian is to be the bride and Frank the bridegroom; and when we get there the sea-lemons shall all come to us, and, shrieking with joy, pull us down into their whirling caldron !” “Pray, to what do you allude?” “To the maelstrom, the maelstrom /” shrieked the skipper, thrusting out his arms with a suddenness that made Claret jump back—“ it is to the maelstrom we are bound; the great whirlpool of the north! And the masts shall crack, and the timbers bend’ and snap in twain, and the ship with all her cargo and crew and passengers shall go down—down—down to her ruin !” “Ah!” gasped Claret, turning very pale—“ ah !” “Who shall dare to oppose me?” continued the captain, glaring fiercely arennd him. “Who shall dare to cheat the whirlpool of its prey? Wretch! shall you attempt it?’ he added, shaking his clenched fist in the doctor’s face. - “Oh, certainly not—not by any means!” answered Claret, hopping still further back. “ Ay, ay, and so we'll all splice hands and pledge ourselves “to the maelstrom—the kingly, hoary maelstrom of the north ! Ho, there! steady at the helm! If you go a hair’s breadth off your course, Pll brain you!” He ran to the binnacle and examined the compass; then gibbering and laughing strangely, he rushed to his “den” in ~ the cabin. ~ Glancing toward the steerage hatch, a moment after, Prank saw his old chum beckoning to him. “This is mighty strange, “lad,” said Ben, as the young man came to his side, “the way the captain is managing matters, I don’t half like it. We couldn’t have a better: breeze than we've got for the home’ard course, and here we are a-sidling off to the north-east.” ~ Ay ay; but do you suppose the captain really intends to continue on his present course ?” “TM tell the truth, lad, I’m afraid he does. He's crazy with comicbooks.com