Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 859 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

4 CHAPTER YV. THE GIRL WAIF. JACK seemed to be deeply moved by these words of the young girl, which showed such complete trust in him, He met her gaze unflinchingly, as he an- swered: ‘*[ thank you, miss, for not thinking me bad, for lam not and never will be.” ‘‘T believe you; but why won’t you tell me about yourself?” “You will have to appear against me at the trial, miss, and—”’ ‘* And what?” ‘Of course I will be held a prisoner, for the cops willnot let me escape.” ‘* Jack,” ‘* Yes, miss,” ‘*Why must there be a trial?” ‘What else can be done, miss? There is your fataer, and the other, whose deaths must bereported by you.” ‘**Must I report them?” asked the girlin a startled way. ‘¢ Yes, miss,” ‘*And that means a trial and the whole story must be told?’ ‘* Yes, miss.” ‘*And perhaps my testimony cannot clear you and that you will have to go to prison?” ‘* That is about it, unless I skip.” *¢ Jack?” ‘** Yes, miss.” **Can I trust you?” ** You bet you can.” ** 1 will do so.” ‘‘T’ll stand by you, miss, if you need a friend, for I like you.” The girl smiled, for the confession pleased her; then she added: “ Jack, that is my grandfather, and Iam going to tell you allabout myself, so per- aps you can tell me what is best to be done.” ‘* Yes, miss; [ll try.” ‘‘T donot know much about my past, or my parents, and my grandfather made me vow to him, years ago, that I would never ask about his life, or in any way seek to ferret it out. ‘*[ remember my mother only when she was lying upon her dying bed, She was very poor, and our home was in the poorest quarter of the city, ‘*My father was a sailor and away on a long cruise when mother died, so I was taken charge of by an organ-grinder, and had to play the tambourine and dance on the streets, ‘* My little brother was taken by some one else, and I never saw hiin again.” ‘Was the organ-grinder kind to you, miss?” asked Jack ina sympathetic way. ‘Oh, no; he was so very, very cruel, and he treated me so that I ranaway from him, although I was then not nine years of age. ‘*t was with him for two years, and he traveled from city to city all over the coun- try. ‘One thing about him was that he had an education, and he made me study hard, so that [ tearned a great deal. ‘‘T had to read the papers to him, too, and so I became old before my time. ‘* At lust I ran awiy from him, and the very next day I saw in the papers, which I still read, how he had been murdered, so I had no fear of his finding me, and felt no sorrow at his death. ‘*] had saved up some money, and with it I got me a boarding place in a French family and began to sell flowers fora living, ‘| made a great deal of money and work- ed early and late. ‘*] had gcod customers in the saloons, in the lowest parts of the city, and alsoin Wall street and Broadway, while at night 1 went about the hotels and theaters, ‘*Some days I made as high as ten dollars profit; and I was growing rich, when one ‘night [ returned to my home away down by New York ee nee Peck Slip to find the house on fire, and every dollar I had hidden away in my little room, going up in flames. ‘‘In my mad fight I dashed into the burn- ing building to try and save my little for- tune of nearly a thousand dollars; overcome by the heat and smoke I was giving up when a man seized me in his arms and bore me out to life. ‘‘He gave me into the care of a police captain, and my name being published in the papers the next morning, my father, home from his cruise, saw it and thus found me, when for months he had been looking for mein vain. ‘He carried me to his little home on Long | after that I was called John, or Jack, though Island Sound, and it seemed that Iwas going | I don’t believe it really is my true name. to be happy there, with him to care for me; but, ere six months had passed, a small yacht ran into the cove one night, my father was called down to the shore, and, soon af- ter, I saw two flashes, heard two reports, and when the one servant we had and I got to the beach, my father lay there dying from a bullet wound, ‘*]T heard his last words: ‘‘*He deemed me guilty, forced me to ficht a duel with him and this is the end of it all—no, no, not the end, for my child lives and what will be her fate?’ “Jack, those last words of my father seemed to run into my heart and brain, and I can never forget them. ‘“‘T saw him buried by kind friends, and, just as it was being considered what should be done with me, then in my twelth year, a gentleman came, who said that he was my grandfather, that he was rich and would care for me, ‘‘T caught but one glimpse of him and recognized in him the brave, white-haired man with stern face, who had dashed into the burning building and saved my life. ‘Oh, how I loved him for his brave res- cue of me from a frightful death! Glad was I to go with him, to find a second fa- ther. ‘‘He took me to the city, bought me lots of pretty clothes, and then it was he told me that his life had been one of sorrow and ask- ed me toswear that I would never seek to find ont the past. ‘‘T took the oath, and then he brought me here to this very old mansion, for it was his, and here I lived with him for a couple of months, when he took me away to boarding- school, away down South, in New Orleans, “For years 1 was kept there, and twice a year saw him for a day only. ‘Then, a week ago, when vacation came, he appeared and brought me here with him once more, ‘‘We only arrived this afternoon, and while I set things to rights he went out and bought food for us, ‘‘He had just returned when these cruel men attacked him, and I ran in here to see him lying there, dead, and, with the old spirit of my girlhood training in the Italian organ-grinder’s school of revenge, I threat- ened, I vowed to avenge his death. “Then you came, Jack, and now you know all I can tell you of Olive, the Little Flower Girl, as I was called.” CHAPTER VI. NEW YORK NAT’S CONFESSION. Tue boy had listened to the strange story of the girl waif, with an interest that was revealed in his attitude and every feature of his most expressive face. The circumstances surrounding the two, who were little more than children in years, yet old in the experience of the lives they had led, the old rookery that the neighbors called haunted, the weird graveyard in its rear, the house of the old miser, now lyin dead upon the floor, the body of the mid- night marauder—all, combined, made a situ- ation that hoth Jack and Olive could not but feel in all its intensity. i ie inne) Soe LL LL OT — _ —————— - ‘* You have heard my story, Jack, so what. would you tell me to do now?” After a short silence the youth asked: ‘* May J make x confession?” ‘Yes, for then we will both understand each other.” ‘*T will tell you the truth,” **] believe that, Jack.” ‘*[T don’t know anything about wko I am, where I was born, or my parents. ‘*There is one that does know, and some day I may force him to tell me, but not now, ‘‘T only know that once I was called Nat —that is as far buck as I can remember, but My adopted parents—for I was, for some reason, adopted by a man—lived on the Sound, ’way below New York, oF ‘*T remember I did the chores, went to: the village school, helped in the oystering” and fishing season, and so became a good sailor for a boy. ‘‘In coming with the vessel to the city I learned much of New York, for 1 was thrown with a hard lot of men and boys. ‘But I liked my home on the Sound until the son of the man who adopted me came there from boarding-school. ‘‘He was the son of his first wife, and though deceiving his father into a belief that he was a good boy, he was the worst one I had ever met. | ‘One night a burglar broke into the | house in the absence of my adopted father, and hearing the noise, 1 went down-stairs with a pistol. ‘¢T was shot at before I saw the burglar, and returning the fire I killed the burglar. *““To my horror, miss, I recognized m adopted brother, and I ran up to tell his. step-mother of the affair. ° ‘“She told me to go tomy bed again and made no further comment then; but I heard her husband came soon after, and knowing that she had never liked me, for she had been twice married and had a son whom her hus- band would not allow to come to his home, yet, for some reason had adopted me, though of course I was little else than a ser- vant. ‘‘But, she hated me, and fearing that she might not tell the truth as it was, I crept out on the roof of the piazza, got near their window, and heard her tell how his son had been trying to rob him and I had killed him believing him to be a burglar. “To my surprise she did tell the truth, and then came his turn to show his feeling for me, as he deliberately plotted with her to shield his son. ‘Tt must never be known that his son was a thief, that he had sought to rob his own father of a large sum of money he knew was then in the house, and, as he was always quarreling with me, and unkind to me, they would state that the son was correct- ing me in the library, for he was half a dozen years my senior, when I had deliberately shot him.” ‘“What a plot to destroy you!” cried Olive indignantly. ‘Oh, they knew I would not harg for it, being too young, but be sent to prison, and it saved the honor of the young man whom | had killed.’’ ' ‘* And what did you do?” bes’ ‘In my terror I naturally supposed I would be hanged, and so I at once made up my mind to fly. ‘I went to my room, got the little money I had saved up, crept out of the house and ran down to the shore. ‘There was a catboat there and in it I set sail out into the Sound, though there was @ storm coming up. ‘‘The storm struck me some miles out. from land and my boat was dismasted just at daylight, and filled with water. ~~ . , ——— i ee i _ et * : * ~ b - 0 fy e te ¢ » - = al “4 ¢ IOOKS; com _— Co @@