Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 1117 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

returned, and our oath to the Sidi would never have been kept.” ‘They need not have gone.” ‘* But they would have done so,” “Is the island not large enough for three graves?’ Both Valik and Mearak understood the sig- nificant question, and each one felt that they bad been wrong in releasing Brentford and the negroes, and that a knife would have silenced their tongues forever. All this time the yacht was driving furiously on, guided from the sound of the breakers on the shore, for when they became mure distinct- ly heard, Valik would luff a point or two, and thus guide his course by their roar. Suddenly right ahead was heard a terrific roar, and quickly Valik luffed, But the sound still continued ahead, and grew louder and fiercer. Quickly then he let her fall off, and yet the sound was dead ahead. ‘‘Allah save us! We have run into a nest of reefs,” cried Valik, and he culled to Mezrak and Toolah to aid him in putting the yacht about, But they were too late, for suddenly, as the sharp bows began to wear round, there came tearing along a mighty wave, and raising the vessel upon its crested bosom, it hurled her with terrific force upon a ragged reef. The shock was fearful and threw the three Abyssinians to the deck, while the masts snap- ped short off, and the lateen yards and rigging came down with a terrific crash, just as a tre- mendous wave boarded over the stern, and a wild ery of terror told that some one had been dragged away to die upon the mad waters. CHAPTER XIII. THE TREASURE ISLAND. BREATHLESSLY awaited those on the wrecked yacht for the coming of the dawn. The storm fortunately was subsiding, when the vessel was hurled upon the reef, and each succeeding wave was of lesser fury and strength, so that the stout hull was not beaten to pieces as was feared, and though hit hard, was able to withstand the rude blows. Within the cabin crouched Toolah, the little Merle clasped in her arms, Upon the deck, clinging to the shattered wheel was Mezrak, gazing over the wild waste of waters to the land beyond. And that land was an island, hardly twenty acres in size, wild and barren looking; with rocky shores, and a few trees near the center. ** Toolah !” In answer to the call the woman came on deck, still bearing little Merle in her arms, * Well, Mezrak?’ ‘‘'You* have heard poor Valik describe the Treasure Island?’ sé Yes.” ‘** Does not that look like it?” She started and gazed earnestly upon the island, the wreck lying upon a reef half a mile distant, and deep, still water being between. “* Yes, it certainly looks like the painting the Sidi made of the island,” she said. ‘* How strange that the storm should have driven us upon it, and then have taken poor Valik from us.” ‘*'Yes, Allah’s ways are strange,” returned the woman. ‘*T will swim ashore and look around me.” He threw aside his outer garments and sprung into the sea, from the bows of the Nemesis, with the same confidence a Sandwich Islander would have done, His strong strokes carried him rapidly shore- ward, the woman watching his progress. He landed upon a rocky point and went up into the interior. There was a natural wall of rock, and with- in a few acres of fertile land, with groups of trees, a rivulet or two, and beyond, against a oa of rocks a small cabin, built of ship tim- In pessing through one of the groves of trees he halted, for a grave was before him, Merle, the Middy. A rock was at the head of the lone grave, serving as a headstone, and into its smooth sur- face was rudely cut: ** ZULAH, ‘A PRINCESS’ OF PERSIA,”? This was all, and it told to Mezrak that he was on the Treasure Island. Going on further he came to the pile of rocks, and beheld the entrance to the cavern, which had so long been the receptacle of the treasure which the faithful Valik had guarded so zealously. ‘* Yes, it is the Treasure Island, and once more it will become so, but I, not poor Valik, will be the guardian, *‘T willreturn for Toolah, and here is to be our home, and as our boats were lost, I will make a raft and remove the treasure to the cave.” So saying, Mezrak returned to the shore, plunged into the water and swam hastily back to the schooner to tell Toolah of the discovery he had made, To his surprise, she did not meet him on deck, and hastily he descended into the cabin. Instantly he started back with a cry of sur- prise and horror coming from his lips. There, upon the cabin floor, lay Toolah, and she was dead. But, still in her arms she clasped the infant Merle, who was alive, and whose wide open eyes were staring at Mezrak as he gazed upon him. Across the cabin lay two men, one dead, the other dying. At a glance Mezrak recognized them as two of the crew they had, believed to be killed in the mutiny. He saw now that they had concealed them- selves on the vessel, and there remained until the vessel struck. Coming out of the hold, they had evidently met Toolah, and either attacked her or been attacked by her, and the result was before Mezrak. The dying man tried to speak, yet could not, and soon gasped his last, while Mezrak gazed unpityingly down upon him, and held in bis hand his knife to hasten the end, was there a hope of his reviving. It was a strange, sad picture, that huge black slave gazing down upon the scene before him, and his heart was moved to its depths as he looked upon the baby boy and said: ‘‘ All are gone, little Sidi, but Mezrak, but he will be true to his oath to your father.” CHAPTER XIV. MEZRAK AND MERLE. A DOZEN years have passed away since that night of storm when the good yacht Nemesis was driven upon the very island her black com- mander bad been in search of. In that time, twelve years, changes have come to the two inmates of that lone Treasure Island, the greatest of which one who, on that awful night of wreck, was a baby, had grown to be a handsome, splendidly-formed boy, with the combined beauty of his lovely mother and magnificent bearing and daring face of his fa- ther. Left alone the protector of the baby boy, Mezrak Jid not get disheartened, but at once accepted the situation with all the gentleness of a nurse. His first care was for the infant, and he tried to take it from the death embrace in which it was clasped by Toolah to her heart. But be had to sever the stiffened sinews, so rigid had they become in her desperate, dying hold upon the infant. Then he went down into the hold and br wght up the goat, whose milk had been so use: ul to the little one, and fed him well, after which h: laid it down to sleep, while he worked. Mending the only remaining boat, as best he could, he first carried the live freight of the yacht ashore, and which consisted of goats, fow)s and birds of rare plumage, with severa! dogs, the faithful, dumb friends of Montezuma. These were turned loose upon the island, and then a boat-load of stores followed, with clothing for the comfort of the baby, which Mezrak carried with him, The hut was repaired, and furnished with the furniture of the yacht’s cabin, and after the baby had again sunk to sleep after a hearty meal, Mezrak buried the bodies of poor Toolah and Valik, the latter having been washed ashore, torn and bleeding. The bodies of the two mutineers were coolly thrown into the sea. And thus did the faithful Mezrak work day after day, week after week, and month after month, until the last piece of timber, even, of the yacht, had been towed ashore and piled away for future use if needed. The yacht bad been most thoroughly pro- visioned and stored for a year’s cruise, and every thing bad been carefully preserved by the untiring and provident Mezrak, who had planted seed im the one fertile spot of the island, and was delighted at reaping the har- vest, and find his live-stock increasing, his birds multiplying rapidly, and best of all his. pet growing into a splendid child, Though an Abyssinian slave Mezrak had been well educated during his service of Montezuma, and he was determined that little Merle should learn all that he could teach him, and, as the years glided by he. was delighted to see that the boy could read the books brought from the yacht, and also speak Persian, Abyssinian ang English language with which Mezrak’s knowl- edge as a linguist ended, One afternoon, just twelve years after the: night of wreck, Mezrak was seated upon a, rock looking over the blue waters of the gulf, while Merle, a few paces distant, was practic- ing at a target with a pair of dueling pistols. that had been his father’s. The boy was well formed, tall for his age, and as graceful in every movement as a fawn, His face was bronzed, but through the clear: complexion was Visible the flush of perfect health. His face was resolute, perfect in every feature, and he had the large, liquid-diamond eyes of his father, haunted by the same look. of sadness that had ever brooded in Montezu- ma’s look, and the same smile, utterly un- fathomable and yet strangely fascinating which had been the charm of his remarkable parent. His hands and feet were very small and shapely, and he had on a pair of Persian sandals that had evidently belonged to his mother, His suit was a silk sbirt, cut sailor fashion, a pair of pants razeed down from a man’s size, by the faithful Mezrak, a silk turban, and @ sash. Atevery shot he made he sent a bullet in the bull's-eye, and seeming tired of being so sure in his aim, be put bis pistols in his sash and walked over to the rock and sat down by Mezrak. ‘‘ Well Mezrak, what are you thinking about?” he asked with a smile. ‘‘Mezrak was thinking of bis master,” was the quiet reply, for he always so addressed Merle. ‘““Of me?” ‘‘ Yes, master.” ‘¢ What about me, Mezrak?”’ ‘You are twelve years old.” ‘Yes, I have lived here, according to the way the bocks count, as you have taught me, twelve years, which are one hundred and forty- four months, or six hundred and twenty-four weeks, or four thousand three bundred and eighty days, and, as I was two months an@ four days old when 1 came here, I am now four thousand four hundrei and forty-four davs old, which ywu, for short, eall twelve years.” ‘Well, the master knows better than Mez- — rak to figure, as he has learned all that was in the books,” ‘, ‘Yes, I know what I have read, and I know) what you have taught me, Mezrak, and I love to think of my father and mother, and I would ‘ s ts ay , . ‘ ‘a fale. De ‘ \ re i Ae Cc ©. () ad ‘ _ mw ; - ‘ ; da > Le ; +1 Sarena et ’ ; - . . Ls ; ‘ y . ) : ® & > - . ‘ <DOOKS.C ° ” _s i hi fh } re o> ei é » *