Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 408 — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

a4" a, f Y «~% “— rt , fot « ape ’ i 4 . eo * - - te Ana _ ears so cleverly. | ne CC -—— - - — —— With cries of terror they turned to fly. Then the poor, crazy creature was thrilled with an insane triumph. “Ha! ba! ha! ha-a-a-a-a-ah!” she shrieked. “Now is the hour of my long-waited-for tri- umph! Before death claims me I will bury the world under this mountain of rock! B’elzebub, I come to you, bringing my tens of thousands And she plunged her torch into an open pow- der-keg! CHAPTER XII. THE WITCH’S LAST BLOW. BELLE found herself in an immense and in- tricate labyrinth, but saw nothing to startle her save the vast, still solitude. She therefore entered upon her attem)* (o thread the maze with hopefulness. If the worst came, and she failed utterly to find her way out, she knew that the opening could be enlarged so that she could reach the outer world through it. ‘‘ Will is at the other end of the string!” she kept saying to her-elf; ‘“and with him there, I have nothing really to fear.” So she buoyed up her courage until she had exhausted one great ramification of the cavern. ' Finally, as she stood before a black opening which led she knew not where, she was over- wered with a sense of weariness and a long- ing to see once more the face that linked her to life and love. Several hours—it seemed like days to her!— must have passed since she left him. “T ought to return, if only to reassure him, she said. ‘‘ He must be anxious at my long ab- sence. Besides, I must be not far from the chamber where he is waiting.” Even as she thus debated with herself, she saw an illumination of the rocky walls down the corridor before which she stood hesitating. __ ‘Oh! it is he!” she cried, with a sudden thrill of wild delight. ‘‘ He has got tired of waiting for me, and resolved to find his way in to me! Will! Will! Will!” She sp forward, heedless that the rapid movement blew her candle out, In her assurance that the next moment would see her leaping into his arms, she threw away the now useless taper. ‘‘Ha! ha! ha! ha!” she laughed, hysterically. ‘Oh, Will! Will! my darling!” “Ha! ha! ho! ho!” came the “te et in a tone that curdled her bl] with ter- 9? rasp é ror, ‘‘ I’m yer darling, am I? I’m yer Will! I’ve open arms for ye, T have! I’ve a love-kiss for ye that ye’ll not soon forged Ill bite my one tooth through yer lip! deary? Ha! ha! ho! ho!” And there before her, at the other end of the black vista, stood the hag she had always feared, though more than ever since that horrible pre- diction of the fate that was so soon to ove e r. Mumbo Jumbo stood holding a torch above her head and clinging to her with the other hand, while she peered at the maiden with a elec teak tide tsk has ‘tive: Spanth' er about her like ish [moss from the abel a dead tree. at, Belle stood aghast, terror chaining her feet tc the ae ‘‘Ha! ha! ho! ho!” chuckled the old , ow’s that, my _ * Ye’re there, with the blood on yer soul! Would e like to see yer victim—the fool ye sent to his lone reckoning because of hislovefor you? Ho! here’s a fine world! We're turning the Scrip- ture round in these modern days. It’s a blow for a kiss now; and it’s the woman that gives the blow! Well, that isn’t so bad. Generally it’s lies and perjury and shame and sorrow in return for love, with the woman the sufferer. But come with me, my deary. I’ve had a ten- der spot in my heart for you ever since you showed yer pretty pluck, and set them by the here’s bad blood among them yet, and it’s bound to be let out by one or an- other before they’re quit of it. Come with me, my pretty murderess! Ha! ha! ho! ho!” And the hideous old wretch hobbled mabe b eens her staff on the rocky floor, an chu ing with ghoulish glee. : For a time Belle stood with lips apart and fluttering breath, staring at the approaching monster as if fascinated. Then with a shriek of abject terror she turn- _ ed and fled down the ~The wicked laughter of the old beldam fol- lowed her, giving wings to her feet; but as she rushed Feasfioan iste the darkness she stumbled and fell, consciousness leaving her, as much from terror as from the shock _ Mumbo Jumbo overtook her, and stood over her like a hideous old incubus. 9? ; em — —_—_—« | | | | | | | i j ' | <<< ll CC CCC lll lll lL lll lL Ll lll rr eee Little Leather-Breeches. ee — Then she heard Little Leather-Breeches call- | like scepter, the end of which rested on the ing frantically; for Belle had fallen within a | gr lying along the arm of the few paces of the chamber above which he waited. ‘Who's that?’ she asked herself. ‘‘ There can’t be another with her? How could they get in? I’ve always feared these endless windings would admit some one to my temple. I must block the sage—that’s what I mustdo! I’ve been a fool to put it off solong. They mustn't see this light!” And dashing the torch against the rock, she extinguished it, leaving herself in total dark- hess, Then turning her face down the passage in the direction whence the voice came, she cried: “Eh? what’s that? A light!” It was a faint illumination of the wall of the corridor, so faint that it had not been percep- tible while her torch cast its brighter glow. ‘*Tll see my enemies, at any rate!” she mut- tered. Shuffling forward, she discovered the dying embers of the fire Belle had built. y a also found that the cries came from over- ead. ‘*It’s some one at the chimney-top! Oh! I know that well!” she cried, her ugly face lighting with relief. ‘‘There’s no harm in their amusing themselves there. Cryaway,mydear! But Tl give you a little start, if there’s superstition in your soul.” } ' ' weird is ground; the right hand hung idly, the forearm throne. Frozen with terror, the girl stared at this spectacle, while the old witch went through a ceremonial such as was probably never seen anywhere except among the lowest order of savages. It consisted of .a chant in‘ unintelligible jar- gon, often accompanied by a rude, hopping | dance, while she went round and round the dais. waving her staff over the blaze, and dropping things into it. Every time she passed before the enthroned skeleton she would prostrate her- self before it. From time to time she would descend and wave her staff over the frightened girl, or back and forth over the stark body at her feet. At such times she would fix her glittering eyes upon Belle, and her voice would be infused with ' the harshness of bitter condemnation. skeleton. At last she withdrew into the darkness of one of the corridors, but presently returned, bear- ing a chalice, the bow] part of which was made of the top of the skull of some small animal. Holding this, she prostrated herself before the Then she descended, approaching Belle, drawing a knife as she came, ‘* The god will do nothing until he is propitiat- ed with a feast of human flesh and a draught of human blood!” she said. ‘‘Ha! ha! ho! ho! It’s arare charm I’m working now! Did you And taking off her cloak, she beat the last | ever smell the odor of burning flesh—human waning embers out with it. Then she advanced boldly into the darkened | matter of taste! chamber, and looked u ». She now recognized Little Leather-Breeches’s | voice, ‘‘Ha! ha! ho! ho!” she chuckled, ‘it’s our brave young lover! The spell works better and better! mysterious uncertainty overhanging the fate of his love! We'll have him down here next! Ha! ha! it’s dead men’s bones that does it! All my luck is coming at once, after all these weary years of waiting! But I must get ready to re- ceive him, It won’t do to let him get back, to lead all the world in on me. No! no! whoever enters the witch's den must never leave it alive!” She hobbled back in the darkness to where she had left Belle lying in a swoon. There she relighted her torch and stuck it in a crevice in the wall. She then picked up the unconscious girl, throwing her over her shoulder as if she were a sack of grain, and so hobbled off with her down the corridor. We have seen that she was in the upper world in time to cut off Little Leather-Breeches’s escape from the the trap into which he had low- ered himself, Returning to where she had left Belle, she found the girl just recovering consciousness. Our heroine opened her eyes on as swange a scene as ever appealed to the superstitious fears of mortal. She was in the midst of a vast subterranean chamber, illuminated by a fire burning on a tri- pod, or three-legged brasier. This stood on a sort of natural dais, which oc- cupied one side of the cavern, forming a plat- form higher than her head, the sloping sides of which had been wrought by art into rude steps. At the back of this dais, and resting against the wall of the cavern, stood a throne of most hideous construction, It was fashioned out of the glistening white bones of dead animals! The framework—legs, seat and arms—was made of leg bones. The high back was “ her- ring-boned” with ribs radiating from vertebre. The seat and overhanging canopy were made of shoulder-blades and the flat bones of the pel- | vis. At intervals all around the edge of the dais, like the foot-lights of a theatrical stage, were placed the skulls of cattle. Before the dais, in the center of the cavern, was a chair made of the horns taken from these | stop! you wretched creature! skulls, He'll not stay above ground with this | } | | ea Ct Ct Cll LLL LDL LLL LLL LL LLL LD It’s sweet!—ho! sweet! that’s a But the geds all like it. Queer taste—eh? I say! blood’s a rare drink, though. Maybe you never drank any? But blood’s the flesh, I mean? ' wine of life, you know.” She knelt beside poor Abe’s bedy, and began to strip the clothes from his breast. ‘‘* A rare charm!” she muttered, recurring to her purpose. ‘ Ye didn’t know—did ye’—that yer lover had followed you into the witch’s den, to see what become of-you. Well, he did. Ha! ha! ho! ho! they’re all coming toit! It’s the spell of dead-men’s bones that does it! ‘*Now, I couldn’t meet him in the natural way, could I? No! no! he’d be one too many for this o'd rack of bones! But the god can manage him! The charm will cast a sleep over him. Then he'll be helpless, and I'll fetch him bere and draw off his blood and burn his flesh to work new spells with. Oh! Ill have the whole lot of them under my thumb before I’ve done phe them! Curse them! curse them! curse them! ‘Look! look! Hasn’t he a fair white breast? There’s not_a scaron it, That’s what the god likes best. Ye know, Jehovah would only have firstlings without blemishes. Well, now, you'd wonder they’d be so particular, when they only smell the stench from the burning. But they like the heart best. That's queer, ain’t it?” She drew the back of her knife down the breast bone, then from this line outward to the armpit on the left side. ‘*Ho! ho!” she chuckled. for ye! I reckon that'll do it cleverly.” She then reversed the knife, prepared to cut the flesh. Upon this fearful spectacle Belle gazed dumb- ly. She strove to cry out, to deter the wretched creature; but her tongue clove to the roof of her mouth. She tried to close her eyes, to shut out the hor- ror: but she was fascinated. The witch drew the point of her knife over the last line she had made, now cutting through the skin, though not deeply, as if only an experi- mental cut. A moment after the knife had left it, a fine crimson line appeared. Then drops of blood oozed forth, and ran down over the That broke the spell that had thus far chained Belle’s will. She uttered a piercing shriek. ‘*See! see!” she cried. ‘* He is alive! blood flows! I tell you, he is not dead! ‘“Here’s carving The Stop! _ Do you not see that you are cutting into a living man? You Belle awoke to consciousness to find herself | will be a murderess! seated in this chair, bound to her place. At her feet lay the body of Abe Seaver, ghastly and dabbl brasier, stood the old hag, Mumbo Jumbo, wav- ing her staff over the blaze, and muttering some crazy incantation. Looking beyond the witch, Belle saw seated on the throne what chilled her blood more than all the rest. It was a human skeleton, perfectly articulat- ed, and posed as with ghastly life! — os s ho , : ' ' wt a 4 oA, Ny . ‘a. “/ if ~ | , : 7 ~~ ih > . bad wv } we ea Se “ <) ~..*", ‘ 4 a? Tk . 3 -” 2% > — 7. hs GY ut hue pha ©) “Stew "9 eel ae =v a) “ « 3} . °€ so) - G V \ > - C ; " J K y f yt » ee : \ oO mM l _ O Ss [ ‘ j ih = wes F . 2 ; |_| On its head was a crown made of teeth: its left hand was extended, grasping a long, lance- The witch looked up with surprise. Alive?” she repeated. ‘‘ Why, of course. Do with blood. On the dais, beside the | you suppose I would try to draw blood from a dead wg And the god is like a lion—he wouldn’t have carrion. It’s the quick flesh he wants. Oh! Ob a a dainty lot! Ye wouldn’t believe it! Ha! ha! ho! ho!” ‘But this is horrible!” cried poor Belle. ‘‘I never heard of anything so terrible. You can- not beso wicked! It is murder of the most aw- to Mord ted Id hag, look - er!” re the o i witha grin. “ there'll be tw of ua ons ’ . : “~, >, - h Date com