Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 377 — page 2: what you’re looking at

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

~_ Bonodel, THE BOY ROVER; . OR, THE FLAGLESS SCHOONER. BY COL, PRENTISS INGRAHAM, AUTHOR OF THE ‘‘ SEA MARAUDERS,” ‘‘ MERLE, THE MIDDY,” ‘‘ RALPH ROY,” ETC., ETC. CHAPTER I. Three Pen Pictures Which the Story Explains, THE FIRST. UPoN an island in the far-away sea a man stood looking out upon the restless waters that fell with monotonous sound upon the shore, Afar off a stately vessel lay becalmed, and ,0n it, as the hull rose and fell with the undu- ition of the sea, the eyes of the man were fixed, and the look in bis face was that of one who was suffering some great sorrow. The island upon which he stood had a barren coast, but all witbin was beautiful with verdnre, aod a more inviting spos in which to dwell heart could not wish, had it not been the abii- ing-place of a crue! and savage people. More than a year before that man, who gazed with a hungry look in his eyes, had been cast upon that island one uight of storm, along with bis young wife and child, and there, the slaves of the island savages, they had since made their home. The wife, a woman of rare beauty, had been forced, by the laws of the tribe, to bave ber face, neck and arms tattooed in red, black and blue inks in strange devices, while the broad breast of the man and that of his little son had also undergone the same hideous tattooing pro- cess. The woman's beauty of complexion and fea- tures had been forever destroyed, though ber superb form and glorious eyes remained, and to him who bad loved her and made her bis wife, she had become an object of loathing, instead of Ly. e. . So feeling toward her, the man with his love turned to hatred, now saw achance to desert that loving wife and child, who, for his sake, had so suffered, and seek for himself succor from the cruel life they had led among their eruel captors, | If caught in the attempt to escape, he knew ter than such a life, As he stood thers among the rocks with the last rays of the setting sun falling upon bim, be looked the very embodiment of magnificent awanhood iu both stature and fuce, and the ex- pression of nobleness that rested upon his clearly- cut features, belied the deed of perfidy he was contemplating. It was a chance of escape, but a desperate one, for the vessel Isy a leagu» anda half dis:- tant, and, with the setting of thé sun the breeze migbt spring up to bear it on its way, leaving bim alone and despairing in the sea. But death now had no terrors for him, and, glancing cautiously about him to see that he was not watched, he crept into the water and stwuck boldly out for bis long swim. Ere bis head bad disappeared upon the waters, a woman, leading a little boy, noiselessly walked down to the rocky point the man bad just left. She had seen him from the leafy covert back on the bill, swim away from the island, and she said earnestly, addressing the Jit: Je child: ‘‘Percy, your father has swum out to yonder gallant sbip to bring it to our succor, and soon we will go back to dear ole England.” ‘We will be happy then. mother, and you will not weep as you do now,” said the boy. ‘‘ Yes, we will be happy then,” sadly respond- ed the woman, and she kept her eyes upon the dark object which she knew to be her bhusband’s head. , Beautiful in form, and clad in a strange cos- tume made of the feathers of birds, she was yet fearful to gaze upon, for her face, neck and arms were disfigured with weird characters tattooed into the once unsullied skin. The boy, with only a girdle of feathers about his waist, to which hung a short skirt, had a strange device upon his breast, but his face and hands were not deformed by the tattoo. Bending forward as she gazed, the woman Hxept her eyes upon the waters, breathlessly ~watching, until she saw in the gathering gloom, oer husband drawn on board the vessel, which ‘that death would be his fate; but that were bet-’ ee 7 . = we. r - a f sd *: < ~ - - a ee F » a3. .< Bonodel, the Boy Rover. now felt the freshening breeze and glided swift- ly away. ‘*Oh, God! Percy, my son, your father is not coming to save us. ‘‘ No! no! no! be bas sailed away in yonder ship and left us to our cruel fate, and to die. **Die! nol will not die! I will live to have a cruel reveoge upon that man whom once | loved, whom now [ hate with the very venom of hatred, : ‘“ Ay, I swear it!” and she dropped upon her knees and raised her clasped hands toward Heaven, just as a band of haif-naked and tat- tooed savages ran down to the water’s edge and gazed upon the receding ship, which only then had attracted their attention. THE SECOND. In a bandsome home, in the city of New Or- leans, &@ man was pacing to and fro, his head bent down, his hands clasped behind his back. Tbe room was elegantly furnished, and yet there was that in it to rivet the eye, so that the surroundings would remain unnoticed, That one thing was a coffin, sable, silver- mounted and containing an occupant, a white- faced, handsome man who had been cut off in the flower of his life. A dark-blue stain upon the forehead, the mark where a cruel bullet had cut its way, showed the cause of death, and the dead face was stamped with a wondering, pained lock, as though he bad died under some fearful shock tbat bad come unexpectedly upon bim. The man who paced to and fro, the solitary watcher ion the room of death, was the same one who had stood, three years before, upon that island, the abode of savages, gezing oul upona ship becalmed, which, after a desperate struggle he had reached. Dressed now in the fashion of the times, living among bis human kind, be no longer wore a hunt- ed, suffering look,and possessed the elegant man- ners of the polished man of the world. Halting by the side of the coftined dead, he saic half aloud: ‘‘ Well, Bonodel, it was your life or mine, for I have madly loved your beautiful wife, since first I beheld her. and, with you out of the way I could win her, I well knew. . ‘*T tried to give you free rein to destroy yvour- self, but you would not go free, to your own destruction, so I entrapped you, got you into se gametig until possessed of your fortune, and then, when you did not blow your own brains out in despair, I did it for you, and gave you the credit of it, and now | will win your bride as well as your gold— Ha! boy, what do you want?” The man staried, as a sligtt form glided into the room. It was a boy of nive, with a dark, handsome face, strangely like tbe one in the coffin. ‘To see my dead father, Seuor Ramon,” was look the boy. fastened upon him as he walked to the side of the coflin and bending over presseda kiss upon the forehead of the dead. A few hours mvure and the dead man aay be- neath the earth, and the boy, and his little sis*‘er, were the only comforts of the sorrowing wife and mother,who returned to the handsome home made desolate by death. A few minutes more and the man, who had just spoken by the coffin of the one be had slain, left the house of him who had trusted bim as a friend, swearing vengeance against the beautiful young widow, who had utterly refused his love, urged as she was to do so by her boy, though for that boy’s sake and his sister’s she would have accepted, to give them a home and luxuries. A year more, and the vengeance of Don Ramon had fallen, for his victims, driven from ricbes to want, had become almost vagabonds upon the face of the earth and the young mother, with her cup of bitterness running over, had to mourn the Joss of ber little girl, who had beer stolen from ber side and taken none knew whither. Then the mother died of a broken heart, and the boy, Mark Bonodel, became a homeless wanderer upon the sea, for ashore be bed not where to lay his head, and be hoped to find, in drifting about, his little sister. Thus, while bis fond wife and child had been Jeft to die among cruel savages, and his other victims had felt his revenge, Don Rudolpho Ramon had prospered, for a strange fatality often has it so. THE THIRD. The third picture lies in the old city of San Augustine, and in a villa that stood long years ago near that ancient port. the low reply, and the man sbrurk from the It was a lordly house, built by 2 Spaniard of wealth, an exile, and then drifted from his hands into the possession of a person who bad bought it for casb, and fitted it up with prince- ly liberality. Of this new owner little or nothing was known by the San Auyustivians, and little they re ah so he spent his gold freely, which be id, | He gave his name as Senor Rudolph Ramon, and of bis antecedents wisely held bis peace. He bad bis grand bome fitted up with every luxury, his kennels were full of bounds for hunting, his stables well-supplied with horses, and in the cove that formed tbe barbor of the villa, were boats and yachts, while a score of trusty servants stood ready to obey his bidding. In bermit-like seclusion be lived, while ra- mors floated about that he bad been a pirate and had settled down to enjoy the benefit of bis red earned spoils. Others bad it that he was a Spaniard, who had been forced to fly from Spain for insurrec- tion against bis king, while still more called bim a French exile. . - Within the library of bis bouse he sat one night. seemingly brooding over some unpleas- ant sul-ject. One zlance, as be sat there, was sufficient to show that it was the same man who deserted his wife and son upon the far-away island among savages, and afterward made Mark Bonodel end his family the victims of kis cruel revenge, 7 Rising to his feet suddenly and with an im- patient imprecaticn, he said: ‘“By Henven! I dure not remain bere, now that Rita Restel bas escaped from me and while I know that that boy is at large—ay, and the woman and ber son whom I once called my wife and cbild, “Bah! but it is fearful to think that I may fall end they may triumph. after all. ‘‘No, no, no! that cannot be, fcr have I not gold to buy men and women, body and soul? ‘Let me think, and see just what I have to fear. “Tn tbe olden time I loved that woman, or thought I did, and we were wrecked on that fearful island, : ‘“The savages made her bideous In my eyes, and J deserted ber and our boy. ae RY ‘From that day I prospered, and meeting Bonodel’s family Ll Joved his wife, and plotte his death that she might marry me, ‘Curse her! threugh tle advice of her nine- year-old boy she refused me; but I tad my re- venge, for she is dead, ber bcy an outcast vagn- bond, and her daughter I gave toa fisberman to rear as his own child. ‘* Still prospering, as the agent cf pirates to sell theix booty, and a money-lender for tle rich, I met the woman who has but now es- caped me, and who was the bride of a buccaneer. ‘With her pirate husband banged, I hopedto _ | my wife, and brought her here~ win her for r when I fled from New Orleans, : ‘* But the beauty I kept in her. ghee prison refused me, and has now escaped me to bury berself witbin the wal's of a convent; while f, with the knowledge I bave of that tattooed fiend’s escape from the islund and ber attempt upon my life, together with the fact tbat tle boy. Bono, whom I trusted so well as my confi- dential clerk, was none other than Bonodel’s son, seeking revenge a me, must needs seek safety elsewhere than here. ‘The woman—Witch of the Isle, as they call ber—believed that she poisoned me, and then she fled with ber son. “The boy, Bo:.o, believed that he bad shut me up in my gold vault to die; and then, ac- cused of being my nurderer, be set out in search of his sister, and began wel) in stealing from that giant pirate his schooner, in which he is now cruising, hunting everywhere for the little girl I gave to the fisherman. ‘The woman and ber son, my spy brings me word, are located upon some island in the Gulf, while the boy, Bonodel, is afloat in a fine vessel; and once they know that I am not dead, as they believe, once they know that the Senor Ramon is none other than Don Rudolpbo, the money- lender, I will be hunted to the death. ‘‘ Well, there is but one way that I can see sefety for myself, and that way I will take and at once; so farewell to this life of luxury 1 lead here.” The very next day a great surprise fell upon San Augustine, for the grand old home of the rich Senor Ramon was tarned into a Monastery, and the master himself bad put on the somber gown of a padre, forever giving up the world, its follies, pleasures and its sins. / 2 stole from her ard © = Pee ’ ; ‘ . ’ 4 _ me @ tis no 4% Sas z fe - - a “4 | |