Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 284 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

oe a ‘‘Hal ha! ha! Peon, and you make up well as a squaw, for your good features, sie nder form, and not very great hight, aid well the deception; but once let any one feel the grip o/ your iron arm and they will know different, ‘* But we are both well disguised, and under our new colors we can work, and I[ have bitter, hateful work to do, Peon,” and the man spoke with savage earnestness. ‘You have revenge to seek, senor,” was the low reply. ‘* Ay, and a fortune to gain, for the capture of my schooner, my beautiful Sea Marauder, has left me poor, excepting the few thousands in jewels [ always carry with me. ‘And to think, too, that that Condemned Midshipman, Merle Monte of the Gold Ship, also captured Brandt the Buccaneer again, and this time I warrant you, he’ll never escape. ‘* Captain Monte is a great sailor, senor, even if he be but a boy in years.” ‘* He is indeed, and now that he has captured Eduardo the Mexican pirate, Brandt the Buc- caneer, and my vessel, if not myself, his Goy- ernment will pardon him and he will be free to spend his treasure, which he has carried about with him and protected so well. ‘*T tell you, Peon, if I could only capture his Gold Schooner, after she arrives in port, I would be a made man and give up piracy, for he bas untold treasure on board of her, and she cen outsail the Sea Marauder in any wind, is better armed, equipped, and stands up like a line-of-battle-ship in the stiffest blow.’” “It might be done, senor, for they will not be so particular now to guard the vessels, as there is to-day no pirate chief afloat.” ‘‘True, and when the vessels come in, for you say that it was Merle Monte’s intention to bring them here, after he had captured me, I will see what can be done. ‘*"The Mexican cutter of pirate Eduardo is here, and also the brig which Brandt the Buc- caneer turned into a freebooter craft, and these, with the Gold Ship and my schooner, will give us plenty to select from, and all good, only the Gold Craft is the best of all, and has the treasure besides.” ‘* Bu the crew, senor?” **Oh! I can get acrew through Giro, though he did deceive mein making me take Brandt the Buccaneer as my lieutenant, under the name of Brentano, when he knew who he was, and tha’ he had but just escaped from the Sea Wolf; but I tell you, Peon, Brandt was not the man to play second to any one, and he would have soon ended my life in some way and taken command himself,” ‘Yes, senor—but see! There comes the Gold Ship!” The pretended woman pointed down the river to where a schooner had just shot around a bend, running under full sail, and making eight knots out of the six-knot breeze blowing. ‘And my beautiful schooner too, Peon!” alu ost shouted the other, as in the wake of the first vessel another schooner was seen. to come in view. ‘The lugger will soon follow, senor, for they have but just crowded on sail to run up to the city at a lively pace. See! there is the logger!” As Peon spoke, a large lugger came into full view also crowded with sail, and a cable’s length astern of the last schooner. As they stood over toward the other shore on the port tack, they each one went about and pointed directly for the tree, beneath which the two pretended Indians stood, as they came on on the starboard tack; and then from the lips of both the watchers broke a cry in chorus, for their eyes fell upon a sight which sent a thrill of horror through them, There, suspended in the rigging of the schoon- er in advance, was the form of a man enveloped in a black flag, the white skull and cross-bones being upon bis heart. He swung about at the end of a rope, and as his face turned toward the two watchers, when the schooner was near, one of them recognized the one who had thus died in ignominy, for he cried out in hoarse tones: “Good God! It is Brandt the Buccaneer! At last he has met his fate!” CHAPTER IV. TYING THH THREADS TOGETHER. THE two plotters stood upon the river bank, closely watching the coming vessels, The Gold Ship, which though so called was really a schooner, was almost up to them when the second craft, the Sea Marauder, was in the | m $$$ sss sss ies The Sea Marauder. middle of the river, and the lugger just going about away over upon the opposite shore. | M 3 ————) se eee ee ee ee into them, excepting the schooner’s captain, rs. Branch, and her supposed escort, Captain All were good sailers, but the leading Vessel | Pierre, and these were left upon the wreck, for was creeping away from the second one as fast as was that craft dropping the lugger. It was, however, upon the leading schooner that the eyes of the two men were centered, for though with paint-browned face and Indian costume, one of these two was Captain Pierre Dupont the pirate chief, who, with his vessel, was also known as the Sea Marauder. He had once been a man of honor, the son of a Mississippi planter; but, going to the bad, he had lost the maiden he loved by his evil life, been driven to outlawry, and made himself famous as the leader of a band of river free- booters known as the Marauders of the Missis- sippi. Attempting to kidnap the maiden that had cast him off, he had been thwarted by the very | man who,had exposed his evil acts in the first place and, as was then supposed, was killed by him. But he had escaped, when he saw that his rival, Basil Branch, was winning the fight, and ior long years bad not been heard of; but he was devoting his life to piracy, and at last be- came captain of a schooner, which he armed and manned, and then determined to seek re- venge. Annabel Tracey, the maiden he had loved, had married bis foe, Basil Branch, and they were living a secluded iife at the plantation of the husband, which was situated upon the Mis- sissippi river and known as The Retreat. Basil Branch, too, had taken to av evil life, for he had become a reckless gambler; and year by year his fortune and his wife’s went from him,until The Retreat plantation alone remained and it was heavily mortgaged. To redeem his fortunes, Basil Branch. had en- aged in smuggling between Vera Cruz, uvana and New Orleans, and in this way had met Brandt, the Buccaneer, who had urged him to aid him in the seizure of a Galveston packet, the Montezuma, a fast-sailing brig. This Basil Branch did, hoping by a short piratical career to be able to get enough gold to redeem his estate from debt, for the object of the cruise of the Huntress, for so Brandt, the Buccaneer, named his vessel, was to chase down the Gold Ship, upon which Merle Monte had stored a treasure he had inherited, and which had been long hidden away upon an island on the Mexican coast. ‘The Gold Ship had been cruising about with- out a haven or a flag, for Merle Monte, her owner and commander, had been condemned to death by bis Government, when, as a midship- man in the United States Navy, be had mutinied, it was said by his envious foes and brother offi- cers, though he had simply defended his own life, and that of his faithful slave, Mezrak, when attacked a seamen at the orders of a superior who hated him, From his sentence, death at the yard-arm, Merle Monte had escaped, through the aid of Brandt, the Buccaneer, who tried to foree from him the secret of where lay the island upon which his treasure was buried; but this secret the pirate could not force from him, or from Mezrak, and rescued by Little Belt, a supposed cabin boy, but in reality a woman, seeking revenge against Brandt, the Buccaneer, Merle Monte secured a vessel, and with a good crew, set sail to¢protect his treasure from those who hunted him down forit. ~ It was at this time that the Sea Marauder, Captain Pierre, as he was generally known, sought to avenge himself upon. Basil Branch, by getting into his power his wife and daughter, the latter a beautiful girl of fifteen. — Knowing that Basil Branch had sailed as lieutenant to Brandt, the Buccaneer, though he had given out that he was going to Galveston on business, Captain Pierre went to The Retreat plantation, and told Mrs. Branch and Pearl that the husband and father had sent him to take them to Galveston to join bim. Eighteen years had changed the pirate so much, that with a full grown beard prevented Mrs. Branch from recognizing her old lover, and believing no wrong, she and Pearl had in- trusted themsélves to his care, and taken pas- sage on a Galveston packet to, as she believed, join her husband. But Captain Pierre, as his vessel, the Sea Marauder, lying in wait for the packet schooner, gave it chase when the Gulf was reached, and only a fearful storm prevented its capture, but misfortune fell upon the craft, for from carry- ing so heavy a pressure of canvas to escape the pirate, it was dismantled and became a wreck. The boats were lowered, and all on board got { 2 am? ed -. “a vz a oe | the boat in which they intended going was broken away by a wave, and the crew would not return to the wreck for them, fearing it would go down. ‘ Thus were Pearl and her mother separatec, and the boat in which was the maiden was picked up by the captured brig, under Brandt, the Buccaneer, and Basil Branch was brought face to face with bis daughter. But he pretended he was a prisoner on board, held for ransom by the chief, and Brandt wish- ing to send to New Orleans for supplies, ammu- nition and more men, ran for the Delta, ani put Basil Braneh and Pearl upon a coasting smack, in which to go to the city of New Orleans, for believing bis wife lost, the pirate planter was anxious to place his daughter in a convent until his own affairs could be satisfactorily settled. In the mean time the Gold Ship bad sighted the wreck and taken poor Mrs. Branch, the captain and Pierre Dupont, and they having seen the brig of Brandt pick up the boat in which had been Pearl, and knowing into whose power she bad fallen, Merle Monte at once set out to cruise for the buccaneer chief, and learn- ing that a suspicious yesse) was anchored in an inlet on the coast, ran there, Pierre knew but too well that it was his schooner, and while the Gold Ship was await- ing the coming of day to run in and attack her, he slipped overboard, swam the league to where she lay, boarded her to the amazement of his officers and crew, and at once towed out with muffled oars in the darkness and escaped, — Shortly after he overhauled the very smack upon which was Basil Branch and bis daughter, . and ordered his lieutenant to make them prison- ers, While he remained unseen, and, in the character of a ransomed captive, he went on up to the city in the little craft, while his own ves- sel beaded for a secret rendezvous upon the coast to await his return. The object of Captain Pierre in going to New Orleans was to enlarge bis crew, and get a few beavier guns, that the Sea auder migbt prove a match for the Gold Ship, which he was determined to capture. But while there the United States cruiser came into port, having as prizes the brig of Brandt the Buccaneer, and a Mexican pirate cutter, both of which Captain Mayo Meredith, of the vessel of war, reported had been turned over to him by the Condemned Midshipman of the Gold Ship. Also. on the Sea Wolf, in irons, was the famous pirate, Brandt the Bucéaneer, and anx- ious to get off, Captain Pierre set sail in his lugger, which he bad purchased for the pury ose, and which carried in ils hold his guns, ammuni- tion, and two-score good seamen, but wicked men. : He had arrived off the rendezvous where lay hidden his vessel, and went on shore with two of his seamen in a small boat, to be suddenly seized by them, and to his horror discover that one was Merle Monte and the other Little Belt, in disguise, who had shipped upon his lugger to betray him. And more, while Merle Monte, after tying him to the tree for safe-keeping, ran on | y the shore of the lagoon to his vessel to give the alarm, Little Belt had gone back to the lugger to report all safe and lead it into the trap. From his desperate peril, Peon, his Mexican seaman and spy, had rescued him, and made known that the Gold er Raps captured the Sea Marauder, and released his prisoners, and was then lying in the Lost Pond, the secret retreat, waiting to catch the lugger in the trap laid for it. By way of the lagoons and bayous, which are like a net-work below New Orleans, Captain Pierre and his faithful Indian companion went up to the city, disguised themselves as the reader has seen, and awaited the coming of their own vessels, the Sea Marauder and lugger, as prizes to the Gold Ship. It was no wonder then that they gazed upon the coveted Gold Ship and their own beautiful schooner, with overpowering emotions, for Captain Pierre saw all his work to do over. ‘‘ But better begin again than end like Brandt yonder,” be muttered, as the Gold Ship went about for the port tack, within easy pistol-shot of where he stood with Peon, and so near that the face of Brandt the Buccaneer could be dis- tinctly seen. ‘Waiting until the lugger had also put in close and gone off flying on the port tack, Ca) tain Pierre and Peon, confident in their disguises got into the canoe tied to the tree, and paddled up toward the anchorage above, ~ Pre comicbooks:*