Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 15 — page 16: what you’re looking at

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

Beadle’s Half-Dime Library. i rm last, and you.and I will settle this matter like | men, Surrender your = for I will have no | e — _—__——— The instant the swords clashed every one drew aside, leaving an open passage to the ports. Then Morgan, without a word, set his teeth, ‘*Dog, you have cost me too cong chase; but [Pll give you one chance for your life. Will you fight me here and now?” more bloodshed, if I can help it.” And Don Luis, = as ashes stammered out: “T surrender. Spare my life and I will join your band, king of the sea-rovers.” Morgan’s lip curled with disdain. “T would not keep you for a powder-monkey. Men, fire the signal to clear the ship.” CHAPTER XXII. CUTTING THE CABLE, At the words of the buccaneer chief the doors that led to the deck were thrown wide open disclosing the crew of the Trinidada, gathered in knots, most of them half drunk. One of the buccaneers fired a pistol into the crowd, and in a moment a scene of the wildest confusion arose. Buccaneers poured in through the open ports, and the cracking of pistols was followed by the ing yell of the desperate rovers. e were all ecleutind from the bravest of Morgan’s old comrades. The chief bimself rushed out of the cabin at the head of his own body, and dealt such fearful blows with his razor-like cut- a at have I done?” cried Mendoza in agony. | and lunged like a steam-engine at Don Luis, ong white snake ‘*T swear that Pepita is as pure as when—” ‘*Dog, I know it,” said the buccaneer, with cutting scorn. “Think you I would offer you the rights of a gentleman else? You kept her to cheat yonder Jew, so that when he had paid you for your right, you could produce her at tie last moment and claim the half of the property in hers. But, senor, you know not something. Don Alonzo del Campo y Espinosa made a wi and under that will Jam Pepita’s guardian. I heard your bargain with yonder Jew, and he is the man that s right Pepita and give her back her fortune.” Friend Abram started, alarmed at a certain meaning in the buccaneer’s tone, exclaimi ‘‘Holy father Jacob, senior bucaniero, can Ido it? lam but a very poor man.” ‘“*T will settle with you afterward,” said Mor- gan, 2 ‘You escaped my men /ast year. I will see that you disgorge now. Don Luis, will ou come on deck? You have insulted and ill- iw 'when, all of a sudden, a seemed to dart in at the open the unhappy man about the middle. ‘* The sea-cat ! The sea-cat !” rt, and caught In a twinkling the buccaneers had sprung for axes, and attacked the monster as a second arm writhed in over the bulwarks. In a moment the massive arm over the bul- warks was divided, and the sole remaining one was that wrapped poor wretch Sen around Don Luis. Then the frantically to a gun carriage, shrieking wildly for help, while the loatasome coils clung tighter and tighter, until, with a his hold and was he loose snatched ther the port into the darksome sea without, to the ravenous maw of the sea-cat. The men rushed to the side as the vessel swe on, and saw a writhing arm uplifted amid the white wake of the frigate, holding a yelling en the arm curv inward to thesea, and all was still, as the sea-cat struggling human figure. lass, that the cowardly ruffians fled before him | treated my promised wife, Dona Pepita del | suhk to the bottom with its victim. in terror. Campo y inosa. I offer you the death of a ; The buccaneers were down below, throwing | gentleman. Will you come?” It needs but little to tell what followed. hand and driving the men between decks up to the air; and others were above, cut- them down as they made their appearance. en first one and then another began to drop out of the ports, and swim to shore, and within ten minutes every Spani but Don L and the dead and woun ed, had vacated the - and was seeking safety in the water. And then was exhibited the iron discipline of But Don Luis made no answer, only trembling. Then the freebooter up to him, and struck him, with a backhanded blow, across the face, starting the blood. Don Luis started up, drew his sword, and rushed out on deck. Morgan was about to follow, when Dona Inez flung herself on her knees before him, ** Morganos, do not you slay him. Remember, The once-pitiless and always royally-reckless buccaneer left the seas after his last capture. Before he left the coast of ed friend Abram to d ill heritance of the chil was the messenger for the the purchase-money of half he com- rge enough of his tten wealth to pay a fair price for the in- dren of Espinosa and Matias of gold that were anama. As for the money-lender himself, he had heard too much of buccaneer tortures to stand out for terms. He the great secret of their success. | I am his wife.’ ae ee to the rigging, ascended the yards “Ay, but Pepita is mine. Girl, you are too | received a good deed from inosa’s heirs, and and cast loose the , while others manned | late. You should have thought of that before | paid a fair price for the time in his life, sheets and braces in desperate haste. Morgan | you married him.” getting off safe with his skin. espe rung to the summit of the after castle, and thundered his orders over the ship. ‘*Morganos, one word. You loved me once. For that love, spare him.” Then the Trinidada sailed away, and Mor the buccaneer, disap his victories, and troubled th from the scene o came a flash through the fog toward the “For that love I will do this, Inez. I will e§ rds no ase wat the boom of yr wae tobowed by | drive him overboard. If he can swim, good more. He reached England in safety, married the humming of a round shot overhead. not, God have mercy on him.” Pepita, was knighted by the king, and acquired Morgan laughed scornfully and muttered: ‘Fire from every gun. is all guess-work.” As if to answer his words, a great shoutin was heard from the shore, and a succession 0 flashes along the sea-wall announced that the And he rushed out on deck into the night. Pepita stopped her sister from following. ‘* Not to save him, sister. only through his fears, and I were less than a dog could I forgive what he has made me suffer. | a | sham. Her re estate in Wales, his native country. ez remained a widow only two My honor was safe | married an English baronet, Sir posterity exists to the present day. ears, and iles Wal- | The union of Pepita and Morgan was blessed rriso ed, and determined to sink nd the threw back her black | with but one child, a daughter, who married her 39 aver es hair, and at the cabin door, somber and | first cousin, John Walsham, and enriched that the las page ce if Dane could. sre During the daytime every gun n trained oa or about the frigate, which lay full under their broadside, and spite of the fog, the itil to see her wrongs ave ; ‘ Morgan and Mendoza, both stripped waist, stood amid a of buccaneers, who to the i= with her vast wealth. And the hand that traces these lines belongs to one whose family, at the present day, are not risingly near. The onl thered round with stern impartiality to see | ashamed to trace back part of their lineage to me eget ed eh vata waa the he only thing e singular duel. | the king of tho buccaneers; for they come in a of her having swung out of line with the tide, so | direct line from Morgan and Pepita, the Indian as to keep her ous of ths direct fire. CHAPTER XXIII | qu the disguised Witch of Darien, saved While cannonade continued increasing in THE END OF ALL. _ from her last enemy by the terrible SEA-CarT, Drep down in the bosom of the waters, on the THE END. flerceness, the reckless buccaneers laughed and joked as they manned the ropes, and before long one of them came to report that the ship was track the Trinidada was steering, lay a reef of rocks twenty feet from the ace, a marine read start ipping the anchor. mountain, with a rug head, ’ Ts Morgan inal a his hast, and felt a (oarstey far out Ger tit rect, like a gigantic BEADLE’S faint breeze, about enough to fill the sails, spider, lay the pores! hideous form of the sea- Ps p “Gut the cable,” he said, briefly. ‘I take | cat, for the few men it had swallowed were but Half-Dime Library. the helm myself to-night.” The next moment the heavy blows of an ax were heard, and the cannonade from the shore a whet to its monstrous appetite. In size it waseven huger than the well-remem- bered creature that attacked the Asuncion off ‘* Live ’’ stories, every one of them, by “‘ Live’? Au- . St. Lucia years before. Its mighty arms were Number a grew louder than. betore some fifty feet in length, and as thick at the base | S7ne’ A et ioe gee a er” ' Suddenly there was a sound of parting be be and, frigate, hitherto straining at her anchor, ed smootaly away with an easy motion that ed that she was free, and yielding to her helm swept round seaward through the mist, guided the brilliant flashes of the guns on shore as stood out to sea. i riment in such a chan- It was a dangerous e great green eyes h but the latter was.| hungry glare towel the land, and the bod nel, (O00 snoring Sway Owing to the tremulous swelled! out to three tiniéa ite fdetier dimensions, 5 Vagnhond 3 0es:::y Ol Comes,. (Double rapidly clearing away owing as the body of a man, tapering away to whiplike extremities. * So the sea-cat waited for its prey, patient and ever watchful. Anon the lately quiescent mass began to exhibit of life, as if warned it of the co of the ship. The were turned, with a while the arms loosened their hold on the rock, competitors and has an immense circulation. NOW READY, AND IN PRESS. thors, in the popular “folio” fo each novel e extrao ae I Deadwood Dick. By Edward L. Wheeler. 5e, 2 Yellowstone Jack. By Jos. E. Badger.. 5a 4 The Wild By Wm. F. Cody orse-Hunters. By Capt. Mayne Reid and Capt. Frederick Whittaker Ba. number)....-«.. ey sabwa ar cele shyeei ecw) «% 6 Bill Biddon, Trapper. 10e. 5c. 3 Kansas King. tion given to the air by the hot cannonade. é By Ed. 8. Bilis. First it thinned, then it began to lift, and finally | and the whole creature rose up in the water to | 7 The Flying Yankee, By Col, Prentiss it swept entirely away as a brisk breeze from | ward the surface. In OL alent ila ME oe Cate the north came rushing down from the mount- Presently the lashing of waves against the | $8 Seth J oe ey Sowerd S. Eilts 10752 Be. ains, curling the bay into little waves, and re- | bows of a ship e audible, and the great | ® a Seon of Baron Mun- oe vealing the Trinidada bending over to the breeze frigate Trinidada bore down on the monster | 19 wat Todd. Se vend a es > with all sail set. Every instant increased the | with all sail set. 11 The Two Detectives, By Albert W. distance, and in half an hour the Trinidada was On her decks in the waist were Morgan and DOU dee ce kes ce eee Be. out. of nshot. The buccaneer chief, relin- | Mendoza, and as they neared the sea-cat they | 12 ale tran Travels, By Dean Swift.... 5c. quished the helm, and werit. down into the cabin. | approached each other with drawn swords. ee +h nied Dumb Spy. By Oli Comes. |. 5c The sisters were seated together on a couch, ae sate nic 1 wall Yon a4 Danan. 5; or, The Wonderful exchanging the confidences of twenty years | hdicainten mean the cuttle fish OP oe an taeead ; | 15 The Sea Gat.’ By Capt. Frederick Whit- separation, and Don Luis was moodily watching | ing the sea’cat, a principal article of food, Pieces of | gp Bore lei sores <4 Be. them ded by the grim-looking buccaneer | th6 arms of the latter have been found in the stom- | 16 Robinson Crusoe. (27 illustrations) .. 5c with his pistol. ach of the cachalot, which, judging from proportion- | 17 Ralph Roy, the Boy Buccaneer, Friend Abram and Matias were waiting pa- | ate thickness, must have come from limbs measur- | , By Col. PrentissIngraham ..... .. ....... tiently near by, both of them hopeful of release- | ra bie, Legh ay = = cue So ee a: | ‘. gag He ee ey IE, = ; | 7 . ortun “ . ag pe u stig oe edged ig the words. | inanity that A Se specimens of this monster | Issued semi-weekly. ays and Fridays. on Luis Mendoza, prepar ’ keep at the bottom of the sea for the most part. | The HALF DIME LIBRARY is sold by all news- Instantly the haughty cavalier sunk on his knees, aby ale with fear, and be to falter out prayers for life. Morgan cut him short. Were food to fail them ee compelling them to rise to the surface, the sea woul than it is. be far more dangerous number. Ad dealers; or is sent, mg on receipt of six cents ess BEADLE AND AD Publishers, 98 WILLIAM Street, New York. eolim (C 0)(0)(6) “Ss (E(0)