Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 15 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

6 know that I was cut down, lay for dead for hours, and woke in the night, to find the place deserted and a mass of ruins, while the pirates were carousing in triumph on the beach low. I crept away, and got into the woods, where Queen Lola’s indians helped me away, and fre me a horse from a plantation on the road. The tes have taken Cha and by this time, oubtless, are on the march hither, to take Pan- ‘“‘ And the Indians, can they be de think you?” asked the Governor, kindly. thev treat you well?” a E “They seemed to be hesitating which side to join,” answered Gaspar. ‘* Were it not fortheir ueen, they would have attacked the pirates in rear when sey assaulted us; but they told me that Queen Lola was well affected toward the strangers.” nded on | ' ' ; ' ' strange, absent tone. “Did | hit — DS ee ee ee from the gaze of our tyrants, for fear th should claim me as one of them. Do you think I look like one of them, senor?” ** Had it not been for your likeness to a lady I once met,” said Morgan, gravely, ‘‘ I should’ not have been here, beautiful queen.” ‘‘And this lady, who was she? Did you love her?’ asked Lola, wren ob ‘* She was the daug ter of a Spaniard, and I could not love her,” said the buccaneer, in a ‘“These Spaniards have committed such wrongs on me and my country- men in the past, that I were less than man to forgive them. But for all that, Dona Inez was /so pure and good that she made me do what I : ‘Have you ever seen this queen of theirs?” ) asked Don Alonzo. **No, senor. She keeps herself secluded in some mysterious bower, which the Indians told | and o i They | them me was up in the air, among the birds. say that she is unfriendly knows what manner of woman she is. them told me that she was the daughter of the sun and the sea, and that they found her on the sea-shore at sunrise. But she hates us, and fa- vors the pirates. So much is certain.” Don Alonzo compressed his lips. al Then she - be By or slain. oF majesty’s viceroy, ve power over these fevaes: ay come hither.” He drew the captain of the guards aside, and gave him some orders, in a low tone of voice, us, and no one One of On that same evening, Don Luis Mendoza, splendidly armed and mounted, and attended by a squad of splendid cavaliers, left the city of Panama, at dusk, and took the As he went, he issued certain orders to wtp Indian he met, and mysterious the forest for miles around. And on that same evening it the buccaneer first met, face to face, Queen la of Darien, and marveled at her likeness to Inez del Campo. - that Mor- CHAPTER VIL. A BOWER IN THE AIR. THE full moon, with a ly silver radiance, only known in the torrid zone, making every thing as light as day, shone down on the forest of Darien, three or four ts after the landing of the buccaneer chief. the depths of the forest, by the banks of a deep, narrow glittered imiumerable fires, and ed the fierce-looki caneers, ready for in the morning. All around them the shadows of the forest were as black as jet, while the red glare of the fires, catching the trunks of distant trees, made Scie? DAE tetas freee Rts ane tik d far ground. awa an overhead, a scene Ytar different was enacting, where the rays of the moon were free to pene- trate the upper foliage of the trees, lighting up that mysterious region seldom penetra by man, and usually sacred to the birds and no less — monkeys of the tropics. p among the tree-tops, on a vast platform, woven together with canes and wild vines, like a huge bird’s nest, was a perfect fairy bower of blossoms, every Renee branch cut away, a thi 0 grass covering every inequality of e platform. The walls seemed to made of flow so fusely did they bloom, and overhead down the round moon through a maze of blossoms. But that pn ce re this singular bower, for, wall stars, points of he ye ed, revealed them- selves as the glorious fireflies of the oye terns. tt aiding th y 6 corners of the great around cluster- picturesque group of buc- jer march against Panama bo ere visible. wer W In the of -like sce ates on heaps of flowers, was Queen 0 Darien; and at her feet sat M the bucca- neer, listening to her dulcet tones, while slender Indian maidens flitted here and there around them, but not a man was to be seen. Lola was to the chief in the broken Spanish ect that the Indians of Darien commonly used, and seemed to be finishing some story, “That is all I remember, senor, but they tell me I was dressed in the clothes that the cruel Spaniards put on infants, when they found me on the sea-shore, and my people have hidden me never did before or since.” «Spare a Spaniard,” said Morgan, sh ‘Spare a i said Mor ortly, and he ground his teeth as if avery and ebbsatticd of a Do ch een th ’ said Lo gril ‘ not spare them now,” sai angri and her eyes flashed. ‘“ They have: tosttoyed ressed my le long enough, making their tee ee build ‘their cities, and work as slaves for them ever since they came into our country. Oh, that I could sla en for what they have done to my chil- Morgan laughed carelessly. **'You are fierce, little one. What could your naked <a orm do against the Spaniards, clothed in **'We could die slaying them,” she answered, fiercely. ‘‘ But, alas, my people have no cour- age. ey fear and serve the Spaniards; and were it not for me, they would now be giving them news of your march, instead of guarding our outposts as they are.’ | ‘You did wisely to join us, beautiful queen,” said the buccaneer. ‘‘ We are the only people that can save you from the Spaniards, and as ou help us, so shall you be rewarded when we ici Wen mal to, Aik whet’ was about to reply when a ver- ing note came faintly to their ears fromthe far distance, and she started ae up. **News from my people,” she said, eagerly. “The enemy are hovering round our ot Morgan rose on his elbow to listen. The call was repeated twice, and he too started up, when Lola motioned him down. ‘* The white chief shall lie still, and his Indian friends shall guard him,” she said. ‘Not one of the white stran shall be harmed, while Lola is Queen of _Y *““Nay, but there is danger without,” urged Mor ‘‘and my men are armed to encounter it. You must not risk your own person.” For all answer the Indian queen motioned him imperiously to lie down, and then, turnin away, she sprung to the side of the bower, an disappeared with all the — peo Sm one used to living among the tree-tops, while at the same moment every one of the attendants also van- ished, and the buccaneer chief was left alone in the aeriel bower, sixty feet from the ground. CHAPTER VIII THE OUTPOSTS. FAR away in the forests a long line of Indians, in a sort of open skirmishing order, lay on the und, covering the track to Panama. Track ere was little, save a bridle-path in the oozy soil of the forest; bus narrow and overgrown as it was, the wild natives knew every turn as familiarly as if it were a high road. The In- dians seemed to be in some excitement, for a movement was a a and forth alo the line, and con their usual practice, we — —_ h e in neers a th, e the line, in an opening where the moonbeams penetrated through a in the trees, stood a of in horsemen li armor, surrounded by a dense knot of ing tly opposite the line of pickets, as if awi some a. A little in ad- vance of : » On whose glittering and splendid dress the moonbeams played with fine effect. At intervals of about a minute, one of the In- ea ee eens . w was taken up ted by an invisible chain of their comrades. far into. the forest. ‘‘ Por Dios!” muttered the splendid cavalier to himself, with a slight shiver: « his excellency has sent me on a nice job, These fellows seem to be faithful to their auben, and what shall we do if they fight? The English devils cannot be far off, now.” Again the long, quavering call echoed through the forest, and this time it was answered close by, from the top of a neighboring tree. e cavalier started. ‘“What the deuce!” he muttered, ‘‘who can that be?’ The instant that call sounded, ending with a paeter intonation, every Indian fell flat on his ace to the earth, including those with the of horsemen. Then there was a slight rustle in the branches overhead, and a slender, active fig- ure came flying through the air with a circular and swing, at the end of a long, slim steed on its feet in front of the horse of Don Luis Mendoza, who sat gazing at it in blank as- tonishment. It was the figure of a girl, slim and fairy-like with skin as lignt as his own, and a face o marvelous beauty; the face of Lola, Queen of Darien. But when she ke, as she did a mo- ment after, in broken h, Mendoza was even more rised, for the voice was that of his own wife, Dona Inez. ** What wishes the senor, at the posts of Queen Lola?’ asked she, proudly. Mendoza looked at her earnestly a minute, ere he answered: **Who are you, senora, in God’s name?” “*T am Queen Lola daughter of the sun and the sea,” said the girl, proudly; ‘‘and once more I say—what would you?” ‘*T come from the Governor of Panama,” said Mendoza, as soon as he had recovered from his rise; ‘‘and I come to demand of Queen Lola that she place scouts on the track of the foreign devils that have landed, and keep away all pro- visions from them. The king of Spain is ve pete Lola, and these wretches will anaaiel be conquered. If you join with us to destroy them you shall be rewarded; but if you cling to them, you will but share their fate.’ ‘“‘And what reward shall be given to me and my people, if I do as you wish?’ asked Lola. sarcasticall y. “*The greatest reward in the gift of the Gov- ernor,” said Mendoza, ‘‘and a thousand spears to arm your warriors.” ‘* And suppose I fer to trust to the stran- gers, who promise to make us free from taxes and labors, such as you give us—what then?’ she demanded scornfully. ‘* Then your kingdom will be taken from you your tribes hunted down with bloodhounds, an yourself burned to death in the city of Pana- ma,” said the Spaniard, ——~+¢ **Fool! Knowest thou that the white sons of the sea are here, before whom your warriors faint and cry like women? They will avenge 4 me if you touch a hair of my head. What ho! Rouse ye all, and seize me this meddler, my fait children!” In a moment every Indian was on his fee and the don was the center of a crowd of threat- -_ spears. — a =e oe tenes with : @ voice oO eir een seemed inclined fo be hostile, and for a aaaen Mendoza was in danger. He extricated himself from it by an ap to the long-standing fears of his auditors, whom he well knew in the character of fai and sub- sans = pe paras earken, Indians of Darien,” he cried ; “ye know who is your king, and how the Gov- ernor of Panama is his viceroy. In the name of Don Felipe, king of Spain and all the Indies, I ronounce Queen Lola to be no 1 ueen, t ‘y atato, the son of Dando, is in her This Natato was an Indian whom he knew to have been ill-treated by the riotous buccaneers some time before, and to be desirous of revenge. A large pk See the Darien Indians were portanas of atato, who was one of their most ous warriors and hunters. And Natato was commander of the line of Indians that guarded the buccaneer cam words he uttered prcduced an immediate and marked effect. The Indians, for over a hundred years, had been so much accustomed to obey the that they felt like re- bellious sch ys, fearful even while defiant, when Lola influenced them to the bucca- neers. The and d of kings by the viceroy was not unknown to , Asa co ence the Indians hesitated, and Natato, who always been a malcontent Sea te eee ee, Bpain, I lious girl and deliver her to me.” oil fe $ Porn 6-3 you hear the order! Thus I But he was not destined to do it that time. (oKa)| KS (EOINMICG (E@)