Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 481 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

—_ The fact first attracted Mrs. Swayne’s atten- tion, and she spoke to her husband about it. ** Are we doing our duty by the child 1n allow- ing her to come under the influence of this child of Satan?” she asked. ‘* How do we know that he has not been sent by his master expressly to lure her feet to the path which leads to damna- tion?” The man’s brow darkened. ‘** Let us not be over-hasty,” he said, almost as much a child as Jerusha.” ‘‘Is that the reason of your indifference?” asked the woman, with a manner which savored somewhat of spitefulness; ‘*‘ or is it because he is the protege of your ward?” *‘*We have reason not to bring unnecessary unhappiness upon her,” said the man, gloomily. At that the woman fired up with sudden anger. ** And must we sacrifice all—even our chil- dren—for her?’ ‘*Wecan at least first make sure that we have cause to interfere.” ‘The sooner we set about it, the less we may have to mourn.” ‘* Let it be at once, then.” ‘‘Here is our opportunity. There they go now.” ‘*' We will follow them.” They acted upon this resolve, tracing the lit. le folks with every precaution not to be dis- covered. There was nothing sly in the behavior of the children—at least until they came to a secluded e¢len, a spot of wild beauty, filled with pine- shadowed and vine-draped crag's, Here Little Ah Sin turned round and peered back over the path they had come, as if to as- sure himself that they were not observed. **Do you see?” cried the woman, with the glitter of hatred in her eyes. Thé man put a restraining hand on her wrist; but did not reply in words. The children then plunged into the glen. Their elders followed tiem cautiously, Presently they came upon Jerusha standing alone, in the attitude of waiting, before the face of a cliff. While they watched, Little Ah Sin made his appearance carrying a rap Fygesy te proceeded to light it, and then he and Jerusha disappeared. ‘‘The cave! the cave!” panted Mrs. Swayne. ‘‘The little monster is leading her into some snare of the Evil One! Have not caves ever been the gateways to hell?” The excited woman would have rushed for- ward to the protection of her ‘child; but again her husband’s hand restrained her. ‘** And are all our prayers to go for nothing?” he demanded. Yet his. brow was densely clouded, and he strode forward with a sinking heart. ‘*He is They followed the children into the cave, guided by the gleam of their torch. They ad scarcely disappeared, when forth from its mouth came a inertia frantic shriek. Then the hollow cavern reverberated with a roar of maniac rage, followed by snarlings more like that of a beast than of a human being. mane with it were cries of terror in a childish treble, CHAPTER VI. JOSS PIDGIN. It was Mrs. Swayne’s scream that first startled the slumbering echoes of the cavern. What she saw was a figure of clay posed against the wall of the cave, on a slightly ele- vated ledge, illuminated by several torches stuck in crevices of the rock, It was of rudest construction; yet there could be no doubt as to its character. It was a hid- eous representative of a Chinese Joss, And there before it, in the attitude of Oriental worship, knelt two little devotees, with their foreheads to the ground! Words cannot depict the emotions of the mother, at witnessing this—to her—uuspeakable sacrilege. ‘‘Oh!” she shrieked. ‘‘It is the Fiend him- self, come in this lying shape to steal our’ child’s soul!” And frantically she rushed forward, to snatch the little one from the power of this almond- eyed Satan, Startled by her mother’s voice, Jerusha sprung to her feet in terror. She knew not in what awful delinquency she had been detected; but that it was, something beyond all her childish offenses heretofore she needed no assurance, after one glance at the wild woman who swooped down upon her, CT CC LL LLL LL LLL LLL, LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LL ct a —— ———— CAT —_—_—_—_—_—_—— Little Ah Sin. She stood in dumb dismay, awaiting annihi- lation. She was snatched off her feet and run away | with, her mother screaming into her ear: **Oh, you wicked, wicked child! What will God do to you forso awful a sin? Tears of blood can never wash the Llack stains from your soul!”’ ‘*Mother! mother!” panted the little one, ‘‘we were praying!” ‘* Praying!” screamed the mother. ‘‘ Praying to a graven image!—the work of human hands! No! no! the work of the Arch-Fiend himself!” Then the child for the first time realized the enormity of her offense, and she clung in terror to even so hard a mother as that, fearing that the Leavens would open, and the lightnings of Divine wrath blast her into nothingness. The effect on Abednego Swayne was full as powerful as on his wite. He saw the hand of Heaven in this awful calamity that had fallen upon his house. He saw himself and his children handed over to the power of the Demon. What form more terrible than this was it possible for the vengeance of the Most High to take? , His son, his eldest born, was a profligate, All prayers in his behalf had proved vain; all ef- torts to save him had failed, until his father had virtually abandoned the struggle, and handed him over to the devil. And now must this child of his later years go too? And in this monstrous way! A worshiper of false gods! This was worse, far worse, than any or all crimes against humanity—worse than murder! His horror-haunted imagination pictured her writhing in the nameless tortures of endless pun- ishment. He saw the finger of a frowning God pointing at her, and heard a stern voice say- ing: ‘The sins of the father are visited upon the children!” With a yell of insane fury he sprung forwrad, and tearing the image from its ledge, dashed it to the floor of the cavern, shattering it to frag- ments. Little Ah Sin was neither a stock nor a stone, He had hmman feelings as keen as those of any of us. To him his god was as dear and as reverend as was Abednego Swayne's to him. He experienced the same sense of sacrilege at seeing his Joss contemned and dethrened by the rude hand of the unbeliever. With a cry of enraged protest, he sprung for- ward to defend the sacred image, drawing the creese-like knife with which he had menaced Jack Swayne in the stage-coach. ‘* Hi, yah!” he screamed, ‘ That b’long what thing that Joss pidgin man he makee bobbery ‘long that Joss? More better you no stlikee that Joss, s’pose you b’long one piece devilo! That muchee good Joss, alla same likee that "Melican man Joss!” But with the stroke of a tiger Abednego Swayne clutched his wrist, wrenched the knife from his puny grasp, and hurled him against the wall of the cave with stunning force. Then in the frenzy of his rage, he fairly danced upon the fragments of the unlucky image, grind- ing it to powder under his heel, while he snarled like an enraged beast. But Little Ah Sin remained to be dealt with. With all his fanaticism, Abednego Swayne did not literally believe that the little Celestial was the devil in person, having taken on this form: but he was thoroughly convinced that he was * possessed of the devil,” and commissioned by him to destroy the soul of little Jerusha. A century and a half ago he would undoubt- edly have burnt him. As it was, the fashion of the age having somewhat changed, he resolved to ‘*make it warm” for the demoniac tenant in a way that the law would not so strongly dis- countenance. Seizing him by the arm, he dragged him forth from the cavern, following Mrs, Swayne, who was in the same summary manner hustling Jerusha homeward, ‘The mother took tae child into the house and into her own room, where she forced her upon her knees. ‘‘ Do not dare to so much as move until I come back to you,” she cried; ‘but improve your time by praying that your awful wickedness may be forgiven!” The little one was speechless with terror. She would have pleaded with a less iron-hearted mo- ther not to leave her alone with the God whom she had been taught to look upon as a frowning tyrant, whose chief occupation was exacting of those who offended him the severest penalties ‘he could think of. She could not pray coherently. She could only SN sls CC __ | 7 —————— A LT TT |) —1-e— | a kneel there, shrinking and shuddering with dread. She dimly pictured to herself the Deity as some gigantic figure, in flowing robes of white, the glance of whose angry eye would kill her, like a stroke of lightning. Way notion of the devil was a little black imp, with bat-wings and forked tail, with hoofs, and horns just visi- ble through his hair, and a wicked smile. It would have been a nice question to decide which being she feared most. Meanwhile Mrs. Swayne had joined her hus- band out of doors, ‘** What is to bedone?” she asked. exorcise this demon!” Abednego Swayne looked gloomily hopeless. ‘*Cana man escape cut of the hae of the Almighty?’ he asked. Inwardly the woman shivered with dread. She, too, secretly felt that they were fighting a losing battle with their adverse fate. Yet with a sinking heart she still maintained the strug- rle. ‘Shall we fold our hands and do nothing?” she cried. ‘Of what avail whatever we do?” asked the man, despondently. ‘‘ Whom God hath elected, he shall save his soul alive! Whom God hath reprobated, he shall be cast into the outer dark- ness! Shall sinful man presume to offer his rags of righteousness as a ransom?” ‘* But we can cast this horrible thing from us! We can have none of it!” ** Look!” he said, in reply. He stood with the now thoroughly terrified Celestial a prisoner in one hand. He lifted the other, and showed his wife the knife he had taken from the culprit. ‘‘Murder!” he said, with a bone-searching shudder, The woman stared at the weapon as if it were a serpent that was charming her. Her teeth chattered. An icy sweat started from every pore, standing in great beads on her forehead and quivering lip. ‘God spare us!” she gasped below her breath. But to give up, to yield to the fate that both felt was inevitably in store for them—that was too horrible, | To go on, step by step, ever nearing the yawn- ing gulf into which they were at last to plunge into the raging flames of everlasting torment, and yet to give over all efforts to arrest their fatal progress! ‘* No! no!” she fairly shrieked, flinging her hands above her head. ‘‘ Wecannot stop! We must fight on to the end! Surely, surely a mer- ciful God will see that we are doing everything in our power toatone! What can we domore?” ‘The past is keyond recall!” groaned the man, ** Not all who ery Lord! Lord!” A sudden rage seized the woman. ‘*Burn him!” she screamed, clutching Little Ah Sin as if about to at once drag him to the stake. ‘* Shall this little monster destroy our child too? At least we may have revenge!” The man’s head sunk lower on his breast. He shook with deeper despondency. ‘* Murder! urder! Always murder!” he rroaned, With acry of sharp anguish and terror, the woman snatched her hands away from contact with Little Ah Sin, end shrunk back, her knees knocking together with this new significance given to her act. “Get the dinner-horn,” requested her hus- band. She staggered away into the house, with an abject meekness, as if she had been crushed. Without releasing Little Ah Sin, but thrust- ing the creese into his own belt, Abednego Swayne blew a long blast upon the horn, and handed it back to his wife. ‘** Replace it, and follew me,” he said. Then he strode off tcward the stables, drag- ging Little Ah Sin at his heels. In response to the summons, all the men on the ranch came in, as was their wont. They were called to the stables, where their master stood like a grim Nemesis. He had stripped Little Ah Sin to the waist, and tied him by the wrists to a hitching-post. In his hand he held a Jong black-snake whip. Little Ah Sin was ghastly pale and treanbiies with dread. He looked piteously from face to face as the men arrived; but he made no verbal appeal, o him they were all ‘‘’Melican men.” They held him a ‘“‘ heathen Chinee.” He had nothing to hope from their tender mercies—so he felt. But there was one whose sense of fair-play told him that for so many burly Christians to “sit down” on that one pitiful Jittle heathen wasn’t giving him ‘‘e« fair show.” ‘We must We . . i 7 ~~ er