Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 25 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

18 The boy crew, leaning over the rail, watched anxiously for his reappeararce. When he came up, there was a shout of joy. The islander held up the rope which Sinclair had attached to the chest, “Found! found at last!’ exclaimed the youth. The diver was seen to shake his’head. He clambered up alongside and passed the rope to Sinclair. The young captain hauling on it, drew up only the end, which had somehow, probably by chafing against a jagged rock un- der water, become loosened from the ring of the chest to which it had been attached. Sinclair turned pale with disappointment. “All right!” said Bolt. ‘‘ As he has found the rope, the chest cannot be far from it. He’li find it, my lad, you may depend on that!” The islander again dove. In three minutes, he returned to the surface, ‘*No can see chest,” he said. ‘It getting too dark for work longer this day.” The man came aboard. Sinclair seemed dis- couraged, but Bolt was hopeful. Soon after moonrise, a sail was sighted, ap- proaching. It proved to be a Malay proa. As it drew nearer Ben resorted to the artifice, the result of which has been described. By means of a rope attached to the ridge, the yacht was pulled up, so that it swung round behind the projecting strip of land. Then the mast was lowered, thus giving to the vessel the appearance of suddenly vanishing from sight. When the frightened Malays had headed their vessel away, and she was well out of sight, the yacht’s mast was again raised. The boys were jubilant over the success of their stratagem. “Ay, ay, now, and you may be sure there’s now no danger of our being molested while we are here,” said Bolt. Next morning, the islander again went to work. At the third dive, he came up with shining eyes. ‘‘Me found! me found!” he cried. chest, half hid by sand.” The end of the rope was passed tohim. He secured it to the ring of the chest, under water. The boys hauling on the rope, soon had the chest aboard. “ All right, now, lad!” said Bolt, joyfully to Sinclair. ‘‘ Are we bound home, now?’ ‘‘It is my duty to take the treasure home to my uncle, We will cruise, a few weeks longer, against the Malays, after which the craft may be headed for home. I trust you will take her home for me Ben!” ‘What? Why blast me, lad, what do you mean? You speak as if you were not going, too.” ‘«] shall not go with you, Bolt.” The old sailor grasped the hand of his chum. “You don’t mean it, lad?’ “Yes, I mean it. 1 shall remain on the island where we procured our wood for the mast. There is nothing to callme home. My mother died, years ago, my uncle never liked me much. I shall not be missed.” ‘‘Something’s the matter with you; tell me what it is? You have been downhearted a long time.” Sinclair was silent. »He turned his face away to hide the quivering of his lips. All the efforts of Ben to ascertain the true cause of his resolve not to go home were unavailing. An hour later the yacht was speeding along toward the island where she had last been repaired and to which the diver was to be re- turned. When they arrived there, several of the boys, who had been wounded during the many combats with the Malays, were taken ill, the consequence of carelessness in the treatment of their injuries. Sinelair remained anchored off the island for several weeks, at the end of which time the in- valid boys had recovered. The young captain then set sail, to cruise the Malays. When about twenty miles from the island, the lookout man saw a speck on the water, re me Beadle,s Half-Dime Library. This speck was soon ascertained to be a boat containing a single occupant. It was soon near enough for Sinclair to recognize the man in it. To his surprise this man proved to be Wilton! The captain threw him a rope. As Wilton grasped it, his boat, which was in a shattered condition, sunk under him. The young man clambered to the deck. ‘* A narrow escape,” he said, looking at the half sunken boat, as he gained the deck. ““What does this mean?” inquired Sinclair. ‘* How came you in that boat?’ “Tam glad to see you all alive,” cried Wil- ton, looking round at the crew and laughing. “This is not an answer to my question,” said Sinclair. The young man remained silent a moment. He was resolved to invent a story. “The fact is,” he said, at last, “after leav- ing Mora at Australia, I took a notion to go out as mate of a merchant brig. The other night I got into the brig’s boat towing astern, to look for something I had left there, while at work in her during the daytime. Somehow the warp, which must have been carelessly secured, gave way, and I found myself adrift. I tried to make myself heard by those aboard, but could not. The brig drifted away in the fog Ss COTO, and there I was, in an open boat sea. “In a few hours my boat struck violently against that same rock in the sea near which the yacht went down. The boat’s timbers were cracked, but, hoping she was not badly injured, I kept on in search of the brig. Not being able to see anything of her, I put down the oar with which I had been sculling and allowed her to drift on. “‘Toward morning, she began to leak badly. But for my falling in with you, I must have been lost.” cruising against the Malays,” said ‘* While Sinclair, ‘we may fall in with your brig.” ‘*T hope so,” answered Wilton, while, men- tally, he resolved to get away, as soon as possi- ble, from the yacht. That very day, however, he met with an accident that prevented his carrying out his purpose. He fell from the yacht’s rigging into which he climbed, spraining his right ankle, so ro he was, for a whole week, scarcely able to wa On the eighth day he had recovered from his injury. Sinclair, meanwhile, had been cruising about, vainly looking for a proa. Suddenly the report of a gun was heard, proceeding from a belt of fog, ahead. Wilton started. He fancied that gun was fired by the sloop-of-war. Sinclair headed his yacht in the direction of the sound. She had nearly passed through the belt of fog, when the crew beheld an unexpected sight. Fast aground, on the ridge of land project- ing up from the sunken isle, they beheld the brig Heron, attacked by the proas, the crews of which were on the point of boarding her. Sinclair at once ordered Bolt to sight the for- ward gun. The old tar did so, and the piece was dis- charged, with the result already mentioned, CHAPTER XVL THE COMBAT, A moment after the shot was fired, the yacht emerged to view, making straight for the proas. All aboard the brig stared as if they could not credit their senses. Captain Harris was nearly unmanned. “The yacht!” he exclaimed. probably aboard, safe and sound!” ‘Mora’s eyes gleamed with joy. She clapped her hands, while the color came and went on her smooth cheeks. Meanwhile the effect of the sudden reap ance of the “ Little Thugs of the Sea,” whom they had supposed were lost, and the yacht, “My son is nn LD which they had previously taken for a specter — craft, was such that Mako and his dusky crews | Smile. shrunk back, thus allowing their vessel to drj on and the favorable moment for oardtinglo pass away. | 4 With wildly rolling eyes and frightened faces, the Malays all huddled together, losing their self-possession, while they glared at the beautifal yacht, coming bravely on, scattering the spray around her white prow. At length the English captain made himself heard. ‘‘ Ho! there! What is the matter?” he cried. ‘‘Foolish men to be frightened at nothing. Specter vessels don’t fire solid shot to kill peo- ple with. There has been a mistake. The isl- and was lost but the ‘ Little Thugs” saved themselves and their vessel!” This speech was not without its effect. Mako, the first one to be convinced, rallied his men, who soon recovered from their supersti- tious terror. Again the proas swept toward the brig. The yacht ‘came on untilshe was within twenty yards of the nearest proa, when she was brought.up into the wind. Her little broadside was then poured upon the pirate craft, her boy crew cheering, as the shot took effect, bringing down the mast of the vessel. [ ‘¢ Well done! well done!” shouted Harris, ad- miringly, from the brig. On the deck of this vessel Sinclair could now see Mora. He staggered back, and was much agitated, Just then Bolt came to his side. *‘ We'll have a tough time of it, lad, with them three proas, seeing as the brig being grounded, can’t do any good.” ‘‘ Tough let it be,” answered the young com- mander. ‘We must fight those fellows while we have a plank left.” ‘‘We sink yacht first, and board brig after- wards,” cried Mako, when he saw the mast of one of his proas go over. The two other proas were then headed straight for the yacht, which it was the inten- tion of the crews to attack simultaneously on both sides—to larboard and starboard. Sinclair saw their intention, and resolved to thwart it. As they came on, he suddenly luffed up, presenting his broadside to both ves- sels. His guns roared, and the head-rails of the two proas flew in splinters, while groans and shrieks, proceeding from the crews, be- tokened the effect of the shot among them. Then Mako’s craft was swung round,, and his two slender guns pointed at the yacht... He had resolved to rake her before getting nearer, | Just as his gunners were about, dischargimg the pieces, however, Sinclair, keeping off, pre- sented his larboard side slantingly to the proa, so that the shot, instead of taking effect, as intended, glanced across the bow, merely chipping off two or three splinters fromthe rail But the other proa was now within ten yards of the yacht, the muzzles of her two guns de- pressed so that her shot, when fired, might knock a couple of holes in the lower part the little craft, and sink her. Y A The young captain saw his peril. . His reso- lution was taken on the instant. | He sprung to the wheel, and, watching for the moment when the Malays were preparing to fire, he suddenly raised the helm, causing the yaebt to fall off. ‘The guns were fired from the proa, but the shot merely grazed the side of the little vessel, just above her water line. . Wilton, meanwhile, stood on deck, ; coolly noting the progress of the combat. | _ Well done,” he said to Sinclair. ‘‘ But. they are now coming to board you, on, both, sides. Once aboard your craft, they, will make short work of-your little crew.” The Malays, now recognizing Wilton, set up: a loud yell, Mako’s eyes gleamed like, a tiger’s; the scar on his face. seemed to ,turn, black, He,shook his cutlass at the young man, The latter looked at him with a derisive Cutting the water like a knife, the two O00) com (S iS)