Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 674 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

Q~ -. d & he “= ¥ ~~ rte ‘pv, eS F. BSE - father gave u The Wizard Sailor. 7 ~- ** What?” ‘You shall hang for it, thatis all, Red Ralph,” coolly said the young sailor. The pirate half started to his feet, his face livid, and again he put his hand toward his bosom, as though to draw his pistol and use it, But Clifford Sweegan was unmoved and smilingly said: “Tf you will take my advice, Red Ralph, you will accept the thousand dollars and live,” ‘* When do I get the money?” “When you have told me what I would know.” * All right, what is your question?” ‘‘ Hirst, were you upon the schooner when Bazil ran off with my mother from her home?” ** Yes, I was a foremast hand then?” ‘“ Was therea priest on board?” ‘Why do you ask?” ‘This isa case for your choice, Red Ralph, between a thousand dollars and the gallows.” ‘“* What makes you think there was?” ‘* Well, I have often heard the men tell stories of how Bazi] once captured a Spanish padre, and the men cotifeseed to him during the half- year he was on board, and gave him a part of the prize-money. ‘* One day they said he was to be put ashore and a cruiser gave chase and a cannon-ball killed the priest, which caused the men_ to mutiny, fearing bad luck, and Bazil got rid of nearly all of them by strategy, “Ts this true?” $* [¢ is.” ** Was the priest on board when Bazil took my mother from her home?” sé Yes, ” ‘*Did one of the crew, in the priest’s robes, marry them?” “<é No.” ‘** Who did?” ‘‘ Padre Ferron.” ‘The priest?” ‘* Yes. **'You are sure?” we am,” ** How do you know?” ‘** An officer, the boatswain and two of the men were called into the cabin as witnesses, for the padre wanted four persons to witness the ceremony.” ** And you were one of the men?” ro; ‘* Did the priest give any certificate?’ ‘‘ Yes, to your mother, and it was signed and sealed.” ‘‘'You are right, for she has it, only she was told by Bazil that the marriage was not legal, one of the men having performed the cere- Te “Lt is false, for it was legal, and Bazil had his own motive in wishing to deny it.” ‘*So [ suppose.” ‘* Have I earned my money?” ‘‘ Yes, five hundred dollars; but now to the other queries?” **T am ready.” *‘Was my mother Jong on board the schooner, after her marriage?” ‘** A few months.” ‘** And then?” ‘Your father took her to a home on the Cuban Coast, where he was wont to play sugar-planter.” ** How long before she returned to the ship?” “To remain?” ss Yes. bP) ‘*‘ About ten or twelve years, I guess, for your piracy for awhile and lived in Cuba, but took to it again when suspected.” ‘* And you?” “ Oh, I knocked about the world, and meeting him in Cuba we age.n sailed together, I as an officer then,” ‘*T see, and my mother went with him?” sc Yes,” ** Alone?” " No,” ** Who went with her?” ** You and your sister.” “T see, and Bazil made me a midshipman, young as I was?” .. Xes, and a good officer you made too,” ‘Thank you; but did the crew all believe at we were Bazil’s children, my sister and [7 guess so,” *, And you?” See here, Master Clifford, I see what you are after, and how you got a hint of it I don’t know; but if you wish me to tell you the truth, if it is Worth to you just one thousand more than you have promised me, that is, two thou- sand in all, say so, and I'll talk; but I'll die be- fore I sell out for jess.” rrr tS LS LE a ‘“* 1 could change your mind as to the dying, Red Ralpb ; but f will pay you your price.’ ‘*T was a fool not to say as much more,” ‘** Yes, for now I will not pay one dollar over the two thousand, and I cannot well spare that at present. ‘* But did you believe my sister and myself were Bazil’s children?” ‘*T knew that you were not.” ‘* How did you know it?’ ‘* Well, there was not the shadow of a re- semblance in either of 7 to bim, and more, he told me how you had come ashore near his wife’s home in Cuba, in a wreck, and she being childless, had at once adopted you.” ** Was there no clew as to who we were?” ‘. I guess so; but if there was your mother has ‘Thank you, and let me say that your words bring back from the past certain memories to me, and I always have felt that neither my sister or myself were Bazil’s children, ‘*T thank you, Red Ralph, and let me say that I will not betray you, and be careful not to be caught by the Government officers, for J wish you no harm, mate, J wish you to live. ‘‘ Here is your money, count it and see that it is all right.” The man counted over the roll of bank-notes A one accustomed to handling money, and said: ‘* Two thousand, yes, and thank you. ** 1 wish you luck, Master Clifford.” The young sailor bowed, turned sharply on his heel and retraced his way to his boat, his face showing that he was deeply moved by his visit to Red Ralph, CHAPTER XI, THE SAILOR’S VOW. Ir was with considerable anxiety that both the sorceress and Kate watched the going of Clifford to visit Red Ralph, and awaited his re- turn. If Kate was wholly in her brother’s secret she kept it to herself, and upon bis return to the cliff simply gave him an inquiring look, while the sorceress said with some nervousness: ‘* Well, my son, what did you find out by your visit to that man?” ** Mother, let me tell you that ever since the night on the schooner, when Bazil flung his cruel words at you, that the man who perform- ed the ibis that bound you to him, was a bc gus priest, 1 have known it, and just how bitter it made you feel. ‘** He left you in a swoon and led his boarders on the brig where he was captured, and I re- suscitated you, but said nothing of what I had overheard. ‘* But I remembered having listened to stories of the men about a priest who was on board the schooner, and who was killed by a cannon-shot, and so [ wished to discover if Bazil had told you the truth.” ‘*My God! téll me that he lied to me!” cried the woman, now white with bope and dread. ‘* He did lie to you, for reasons of his own, for you are his wife to-day in law,” With a glad cry of joy the woman sprung forward, dropped upon her knees before the young sailor and buried her face in her hands, while she cried: ““God bless you, my son, shall be my ending prayer.” For some minutes not a word was said, and then Clifford broke the silence with the story of the priest’s capture and enforced captivity, and that there were four witnesses, He told how he had gotten the truth from Red Ralph, who had been a sailor witness, and the poor woman wept tears of joy. At last Clifford resumed: ‘* Now, mother, that you wedded yourself to a pirate, whom you had believed all that was honorable and noble, and who tried to make you believe he had bound you to him by mock ties, | know imbittered your whole life most cruelly. “Tt made you hate Bazil with all the in- tensity of your heart, and that hatred seemed also on turn upon ail others excepting Kate aud |. ‘+ You went to your old home to ask to be forgiven, and found it deserted, desolate, a curse upon it and yourself cast off. “This, too, added to your bitterness, ‘You saw there one night, Bazil, hunting you down, and in dismay you fled. “ All these things together imbittered you the more, as did also the meeting with your old lover, Captain Chadwick, who had been in love with you from your girlhood, and but for your romantic meeting with Bazil, would have made you his wife, ‘** All this you told when ill some months ago, when delirious with fever; but Kate and I kept our secret, for 1 hoped to be able some day to raise the cruel burden you have from off your heart and brain. ‘* Now, mother, the past no longer need be a terror to you, for the future holds out hope of y. ‘* You can live here with Kate, yes, but let me beg you to discard all idea of longer being a sor- ceress, and we will all be so happy une of these days, for I will win fame and fortune on the high seas, and let it atone for the pirate riches which we have lived on, for Heaven knows we could do nothing else, make no restoration of the crime-stained booty, and were compelled to subsist. ‘** To-morrow I shall sail in tbe sloop to start the building of my schooner in the Kennebec, and this done [| will secure in Boston a suitable craft with a small crew to go after the pirate treasure on the isle of the Bahamas, “Tt will pay for my vessel, and the balance I can turn over to the Government as prize money. ‘** There are in Boston twosplendid young men whom I will make my first and second officers, ‘You remember I took them off a sinking wreck some months ago, and they are dashing, daring young men who are most anxious to go into the war on board a privateer, for I saw them on my last run to Boston,” “You refer to Harvey and Clarence Lynn, brother?” quietly asked Kate, “Yes, and but for you, my sweet sister, I would never alone have been able to take them off that wreck, and they spoke of you as their Beautiful Heroine when I saw them. ‘“* Now, Harvey has served on his father’s ves. sels, for Mr, Lynn is a large shipping merchant, and Clarence was a midshipmun in the pavy for four years, but left on account of a wound which was for a long time supposed to be fatal, though he is all right now, so they will both make good officers, and the run to the Bahamas will break them in for service on my privateer. ** Now, mother, you know my plans; but let me tell you one deep motive I have in view, and of which I hint before going to see Red Ralph,” **And that motive I am anxious to learn, my son,” said Mrs. Sweegan, who had already be- gun to feel like a different woman. ‘* Mother, lam determined to hunt down and hang Bazil, the Buccaneer, whom men call my father,” was the almost fierce rejoiader of the young sailor, ‘* Your father ?” gasped the woman. ‘It is false, mother! Bezil is not my father, nor is he the father of Kate!” ‘‘ Thank God!” broke from the lips of Kate while the woman sprung to her feet and said with great excitement: ‘Boy! Man! What do you know of this?” ‘* Be calm, mother, for your oath toa pirate does not longer bind you to omits ‘‘T know just what I say to be true—that Bazil the Buccaneer is not the father of Kate or myself. I have never believed it, since I have been old enough to think on the matter. ‘‘I know, mother, that he forced you te say so; but Kate and I were taken from a wreck by you. ‘The wreck came ashore on the Cuban Coast, on the beach near the plantation-house whefe Bazil placed you. I was a little boy, then, of seven, and Kate a baby girl. ‘You took us to your heart as your own chil- dren, and a dear, devoted mother you have been to us, and will be still, for we know no other parent than you. ‘*But Bazil, that crime-stained man who sails the sea to-day under a black flag, who deceived you so cruelly, then intended deserting you, and is now tracking you down to kill you and get the treasure he knows you bave hidden away, I shall rnn down upon sea or land, wherever I find him, ‘‘T shall haunt him with my vessel wherever he may.go. Afloat or ashore will I haunt him and in the end he shall die at the yard-arm of my vessel for his many crimes, ‘* Mother, by the Heaven above, I swear it!” and the usually calm young sailor sprung to his feet and raised his hands above as though plead- ing with Heaven to register his VOW. CHAPTER XII. OFF FOR THE TREASURE ISLE. CLIFFORD SWEEGAN never cared for other - help in the management of his sloop, than his sister Kate, | yal 4 us