Beadle's Half Dime Library No. 949 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

4& He had the lanyard in his hand when the middy | spoke, but dropped it with angry look, which | were glad to avail themselvesof this permission, quickly changed to a smile, as he said: ‘‘Mr. Porter, take the cutter and board her. We'll run alongside directly if there’s any | learned what ha trouble.” But it was not necessary; Mahomet Sous had had quite enough. The Tripoli was a dismasted wreck, with eighty-one shots in her hull and twenty of her crew killed and thirty wounded, | The Three Lieutenants, As both the boy middies were drenched, they |and, accompanied by the delighted Spence, | sought the midshipman’s berth, where the latter | | happened after he left them in the ball-room. Vernier had no particular desire to injure either Decatur or Laurie, but finding they were | watching, and had evidently recognized him, | determined to prevent their reporting his pres- while the Enterprise, by her wonderfully fine | maneuvering, had not lost a man or suffered the least injury. When Captain Sterrett saw the Algerian boarded without opposition, he took his revenge | by saying: ‘‘ Mr, Spence, take a boat and tell Mr, Porter to dismantle that ship and let her go back to Al- giers a wreck!” ‘‘ A bitter revenge!” thought the middy, as he touk his seatin the boat; andit was aterrible revenge, for, notwithstanding his hard fight, Mahomet Sous was disgraced on returning to ence to Dare by seizing them. He bad obtained special] permission to pass through the sal! y-port | after the bail was over, and having notified the coxswain of his gig what he intended doing, the entire boat’s crew were in waiting when Vernier, followed by Decatur and Laurie, left the ball- room, “Too much wine,” was Vernier’s remark in passing the English sentinel, explaining the ap- pearance of the two midshipmen who had been stunned only a sbort distance away, and were being carried to the boat. This explanation seemed ample, at the time, Algiers, receiving the punishment of the worst | but, when inquiries were made later, the, sol- of criminals—five hundred strokes of the bas- ; dier was afraid to reveal what he knew of the tinado! Asthe boat left the ship, Gentleman George noticed that a strong wind was blowing up, but paid no attention to it at the time, and it was not until the work of completing the wrecking of the Tripoli was nearly finished that he be- came aware that it was blowing half a gale. A jury-mast having been rigged, and some absolutely necessary repairs made in the rig- ging of the Tripoli, Mr. Porter prepared to re- turn to the Enterprise, now lying hove-to two cables astern, when George noticed a strange sail bearing toward them, ‘* That’s an American—and by gum! the same we saw at Gibraitar!” exclaimei Reuben Thomas, on sighting the stranger, which was tearing along before the gale under reefed mainsail and storm staysail. Thomas’s assertion was quickly confirmed by the orders from the frigate to come aboard at once, and by the immediate preparations for pursuing the schooner. ‘* She’s goin’ about, sir,” remarked the master’s mate, as the cutter pulled to the frigate, and as they came aboard, Dare’s voice could be heard: **Topmen, aloft there! Stand by to clew up the royals!” aud a moment later, the order: ‘* In royals! Lower away!” » ook out!” warned the master, ‘‘ it’s com- n’. And as the wind increased, the captain or- dered; ‘* Hands reef topsails in stays, Mr. Dare!” “Ay, ay,sir! ’Bout ship!” The helm was put down, topsails lowered and reefed in stays, and the chase began, In a short time it became apparent that the Enterprise was gaining on the chase and would overhaul her within an hourif the conditions remained unchanged ; but, when only a quarter- mile astern, there came a change, There was a small boat towing astern of the schooner, and at this point Decatur and Laurie were seen brought on deck and bundled into it, " They're going to set them adrift!” exclaimed Dare. ‘It’s our two midsbipmen, Decatur and Lawrence, as I live!” As he spoke, the painter was cutand the small boat was left tossing in the schooner’s billowy wake. At the same moment the maintopsail 3 > frigate was snapped off by the stiff nd. CHAPTER IX. AT AND AFTER THE BALL, $*T’ the name of truth Are ye fantastical, or that indeed Which outwardly yeshow?’’ MAcBETH, THE delay caused by rounding to, to rescue the two midsbipmen from their perilous posi- tion, and the loss of the topmast, as well as the clearing away of the wreckage, rendered pur- suit hopeless, if not dangerous, for the schooner was heading straight for the port of Algiers. ‘*She’s going to join the Algerian pirates,” Hires Decatur’s first words on getting aboard the gate. ‘** Just from New York, and Vernier is cap- tain,” added Laurie. ‘* Was my—did vou see an you knew on board?” asked bi | ‘*No! and we saw all hands,” promptly re- plied Laurie. ‘Thank God!” fervently exclaimed the first _ lieutenant, paste: ‘* You had better go below and change your clothes before telling your story.” one else whom are, rather ner- affair, Nothing but the imminent danger of capture caused Vernier to forego his determination of earrying Decatur and Laurie to Algiers, where, as he informed them, they could choose between joining him and being sold as slaves, as hun- dreds of captives were sold to the fanatical Arabs—as the Algerians were. As may be imagined, the captain and first of- ficer were not the only ones to whom it was ne- cessary to repeat this story, and by the time Naples was reached the three midshipmen found themselves regarded as heroes, although, as Har- per said, the only reason to assign for if was that ‘‘ two of them had managed to getinto a bad scrape, and the other fellow was impudent the captain,” Still it was so, and after leaving Naples, through the interest Lieutenant Dare took iu them, all three of the spirited boys gained fresh laurels, ‘‘ We are too late,” announced Captain Ster- rett, as they entered the Bay of Naples, and in- quiry ashore proved his assertion correct: the commodore, having borrowed six gunboats and two bomb-ketches from the King of Naples, had sailed in his own ship for Tripoli, the previous Prod leaving orders for the Enterprise to fol- ow. As Captain Sterrett would not consent to re- main longer than was necessary to get in fresh stores and water, the officers of the Court of Naples determined to give a masked ball the next evening, and the invitation to the officers of the Enterprise bemg given in the name of the king, the captain could not wery well offend the power which so recently had afforded sub- stantial aid to his commodore and country, by refusing it. Accordingly, next day was spent in prepar- ing for the masquerade, and, through Lieu- tenant Dare’s influence, the first to go ashore to secure costumes were ‘the three insepar- ables.” ‘“— think the proper costume for Laurie would be that of a monk—he’s 80 grave,” su gested Spence, as they strolled along in searc of costumes, ‘And yours,” he continued, addressing De- catur, ‘‘should be that of a devil—suits your temper, you know.” “Well, there'll be no difficulty about selecting yours,” laughed Decatur. ‘*No—not the slightest!” assured Laurie, ‘* The cap and bells, with a donkey’s ears, would denote your impudence and egotism, as well as your knowledge, to perfection.” This was uttered so vehemently that all three laughed, but that was the way it was finally ar- ranged—minus the donkey’s ears, Having secured the costumes and lodgings for the night at an inn, they strolled about until evening came, when they dressed and went to the ball. On the way various plans were laid regarding Harper and Gorman, and, on discovering Lieu- tenant Dare in the ball-room, Spence was de- tailed to ascertain the costumes worn by the former, which he managed quite easily to do— reporting to his comrades thus: ‘They were too late to secure fancy costumes, so they came disguised as gentlemen in evening dress, and as they are simply masked, we'll have no trouble in finding them,” Laurie went into s brown study for several minutes, from which he emerged to say: ** Look here, George! I’ve changed my mind about vour costume. I wonder if we could geta dress from some of the gervants—a woman’s, 0 course?” ‘* What do you mean?” indignantly demanded fn er aurie looked meditatively ‘at -the delicate figure and handsome features of the speaker as he replied: ‘‘ Why, don’t you see, if we had rigged you up as a girl, we could have some fun with Gorman? They say he falls in love with every fresh face; so, if you made up to him, he’d be sure to bite, for you are not absolutely ugly.” ‘*Thanks, I suppose you think that’s smart,” gaid George, half-angrily. But the idea was carried out with the aid of a good-natured servant girl, who parted with a pretty dress for five times its cost, and then they sought the victim, He was quickly found, and when Gorman noticed a pretty girl alone and regarding him attentively, if not admiringly, he ‘* bit,” as pre- dicted, and was soon engaged in an outrageous flirtation with Signorina Xeres, : Tnen, to the delight of the conspirators, Har- per appeared on the scene and sought to outshine his friend; but the /ady managed things so im- partially that each began to wish the other any- where but at the ball, ~ ‘Now that they’re ready to fight, lets go claim her,” said Decatur. And a minute later a fiery devf, accom- panied by a solemn monk, stood before Sig- porina Xeres angrily demanding thatshe depart for home at once, which the lady promptly re- fused to do and appealed to her friends for pro- tection, Gorman responded, demanding by what right they interfered with the lady. ‘‘ By right of a brother, sir!” (in arms—men- tallv.) ‘*And you sball account to me, sir, for encouraging my foolish sister! My brother will attend to your companion for bis part in this unmanly matter!” This, said in a low tone, attracted considerable attention—especially as through their talkative- ness the identity of the gentlemen in evening dress was known, and the affair reached the ears of Captain Sterrett just about the time the weep- ing signorina was leaving the ball-room with her brothers, Lieutenant Dare was present when the cap- tain, looking very stern, started to investigate the alleged misconduct of bis officers. The cffi- cer partly guessed what had happened, for, al- though ignorant of the change in Spence’s cos- tume, heconnected the disappearance of the jest- er with the appearance of the signorina, accom- panied by the devil and the monk, As the captain would be very angry # the truth were known, Dare sought the three con- spirators to get them out of the way. He found them in the refreshment-room—Spence once more in the cap and bells. ‘* You must get out of here,” he warned; ‘‘ the captain is investigating this Signorina Xeres affair. Of course, you don’t know anything about it, but come along—you must take a walk,” There was no disputing the order and the four started for theinn, in high spirits, doing their utmost to make up for losing the balance of the fun at the ball, and succeeded in enjoying them- selves so well that people from the ball were crowding past in the early morning hours before they reached their destination. ‘*Come, boys—we must burry!” urged Dare, and as he spoke those ahead began to do the same. ‘‘Must have thought you were talking to them,” sugg Laurie lazily, but soon a bright light ahead showed them the cause, A large frame house was on fire; and, worse still—as they drew nearer, two white-robed fig- ures could be seen mutely imploring assistance, while a gray-haired, feeble old man ran wildly among the crowd, offering all he possessed for the rescue of those in the burning building, It was the lower part of the house which was burning, and no one seemed to care to face the . flames atthe entrance until the Americans ap- peared on the scene. Look at the women!” cried ‘*Good heavens! Laurie, ‘* Yegs—and, good heavens, look at the fools aking at them!” returned Decatur, hot with wrath, ‘Never mind them! Come on! Laurie and George try up the front! You and I the en- trance, Decatur!’ The lieutenant dashed forward as he spoke, but the crowd barred his way. “The stairs are burning!” cried one, in English, at the same time throwing up his arms warning! . + —-_ oe —