Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 100 — page 11: what you’re looking at

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

—eEe—e—eEeEeEeEeEeEeEe—eEeEeE—E—eee The French Spy. the gate; I begof you not to detain me long, for two most precious peoplo, whom I fondly love, aro in Jzeon peril, and at this moment sadly in nced of my assistance, I wonld even ask that yeu allow mo to depart immediately— but for one reason—” ‘* What isthatreason?’ carelessly inquircd tho ‘ Voodoo, as she removed tho last knot of his bonds and he roso to his feet. “1 havo heard you say that you havo in your wer aman whose name is Victor Bramont. ho now in this house?” ** Well, what of that?” “T must seo him.” “ You!” exclaimed the Voodoo. ** ‘What is Victor Bramont to you?” question- ed Helen Varcla. ‘Victor Bramont ”—clenching his fists witha feeling of fury at thought of the hated owner of the name—“ is my deadly enemy. I havesworn that he or I must die!” - ‘*'What cause bave you for this vow?’ and Helen Varcla stepped toward the young man, ng intently into his Wwomantieh but brave ‘* He is the persecutor of the woman I love, and whoissoon towed ma Ho isthe thorn in my path to prick and sting in the very prospect of my happiness. Is not that enough to make it his lifo or mine?” **Como with us,” said Xlmo, as Zabach re- entered. ‘‘ You shallsee him and may easily recognizo him.” ‘“ Not so; for Ihave never yet seen the scoun- * Now,” a Helen Varcl>, ‘there isa mystery about t young man, The more I look upon him, now that he is close to me, the more his face reminds me of Dorlan Ray when Ray was yourger. Pah!”—and again she cx- claimed, inwardly, as a short timo befcre, when waiting for thosignal from El Bibou: ** Acurse upon Dorlan Ray and all that is his! If I thouglit that this Franz Edouin could he the child of Dorlan Ray, I weuld st ll be bisenemy, and in some way ruin him for vengeance upon his father who rejected my passionate love and accepted Gertrucc’s. But it is folly to think of this. Tho boy child of Ray—when Ray, driven insano ly te death of his wife, had to be con- fined in a private asylum—was placed in an orpan Lome, and ai 1 have not heard of it sineo, i} vor7 likely died there.” “15 iy vory plain to me.” ran in the mind of the Voodoo, motiouing Zabach to lead the way from the room, and at the same time recover- ing her deat!i’s-head cane, ‘why Franz Edouin ®) {criously hates Victor Bramont, Dorlan ay has a daughter—whom I have never seen, £0 closel7 docs he keep her confined in the house over th» vay—and Victor Bramont has come to Paris with the purpose of wedding her, S:ran as it may seem, considering the artist’s wild adoration for his first wife, Dorlan Ray must havo married again; else, how came he to have a daughter? So, then, Franz Edouin must be the accepted lover of the maiden per viall Promised or fully pledged to Victor Bramon ‘or the present, I must keep these two men apart, or he may kill Victor Bramont before elen Varcla ob‘ains the information she seeks,” | d Fyanz was thinking, while he followed the actress and the Voodoo: __ ‘Tf these two women hate Victor Bramont as intensely as I do, then he wiil never leave this house alive. By Heaven! I will shoot him, sooner than he shull escape to further terrify my beloved \)salind.” But fceling for bis pis- t ls, he was ruminded that bis captors had taken his woapons from him. ‘No matter,” he mut- tercd, *‘ for the ardor of my hate will give these rete strength enough to strangle Lim twice er. ‘Franz Edouin,” saia the Voodoo, as if her rofessed witchcraft bad enabled her to read 8 very thoughts, ‘no matter how fierce the enmity you bear Victor Bramont, let me warn you that he is Helen Varclu’s prisoner, 50 you must not seek to harm him.” “So'eit I trust she will order his death.” ‘Man in the hole! Mani. the hole!” shrieked tho parrot, as the trio passed beyond the door and into the gloomy entry way. Uardly more than fifteen minutes had elapsed after Victor Bramont was hurled, by means 0 the dumb-waiter closet to the lowermost foun- dation of the house, when the Voodoo, the ac- tress anc the cetective started down a narrow back stairway, Zabach leading and carrying the lamp which he took from the cali’s head over the entranco to the ante-room:; and we will return to the prisoner when, almost blind from txe effect of the subtle powder which the Voo- doo blew into his eyes—while the pain of bis wounded finger and the smart of the bruises given by the death’s-head cane roused a demon of rage within him—he shot downward with dangerous velocity, struck the bottom of herd earth, ard was pitched, by the shock, headlong forward into impenetrable darkness. ‘* Diable!” he roared, scrambling to his feet. “Tama dead man beyond deubt! Cursed sor- cerers! my eyes are nearly out. Little use they would be, though, in this ditch-of-a-hole. Where am Ii How to get ont before that witch comes to finish the work? In spite of her negro locks, re Sa ET TE Ee ee << her brown skin—artificial both—and her role of a Voodoo, all, [know her. Sa re! yes. Sheis Catherine Plaqne, whom I stabbed, in England, when I took from her the child of Selissa Gor- don. But this firgcr of mine?—I shall bleed to death, Ifear. Devil seize that popgun cane!” As well as ho could, not being able to see what ho was about, he bound up the wounded finger with his hanckerchief, . ‘This Helen Varcla, too,” he mumbled, ‘I am sure is no other than Selissa Gordon. Ho! sho may mean to flay me alive! Both captors are thirsty for my lifo! But stay;this so-called Helen Varela dare not destroy me, for then she would never learn the whereabouts of her lost child. JI, alone, possess the secret. Ha! h-a! tag Fs have her bythe hip. Hark! What was até Ho started as a peculiar noise, like a low, vin- dictive hiss fel] distinctly upon his ears. This was followed by a squirming, scraping sound, and then his hair fairly rose on end, for the ter- rible warning of the rattiesnake rung sharply through the darkness. Audacious and villain- ously brave man though he was, the soul of Victor Bramont shrunk within him when he heard that signal of horror. Stimulated by very fright, he sprung hither and thither, kick- ing and pounding the walls, only to discover that he was surrounded by a solid masonry that would defy the muscles of a Hercules. ‘* Snakes!” he howled, while be battered and plunged vainly about. “I am in a den of snakes! The sorceress means that I shall die of poeoneds bites and rot in this abcminable hole! Io! to die of a snake bite! Think of that! What a fate for Victor Bramont! Help, there! Hallo! Let meout! Strangle me! Put a bLul- let in my skin! Anything but this! Sacre iit ear the snakes!—a hun or more Frightened to frenzy, he sprung and dashed madly this way and that, while the noise around him, above him, on every side, increased until it seemed as if scores of venomous snakes, aroused and angered by his loud raving, hissed, rattled and squirmed in anticipation of battle with the desperate man, * Diable! Help! Murderer Voodoo!—help, oF M pan! If I die, u secret dies with me. elp A glare of light suddenly flashed upon him, illuminating and showing the miserable nature of his surrounding. Near the ceiling, and on all four sides, extended a continuous cage of finely- woven wire. In this cage were contined the serpents whose hissing, gliding and rattling struck terror to the heart of the captive. The floor of the cell was of cemented flags. On three sides were massive and impenetrable walls; on the fourth side, a small, grated window. At this window stood X!mo, the Voodoo, who had flashed forward the lamp. Inasingle second, when discovering that he was safe from the fangs of the serpents, Victor Bramont recovered his usual spirit of dare-devil boldness. **Ho! you witch! . You thought to scare my life out. What next, Catherine Plaque?—which- ever youare. Srcr2! Release me!” * [t is not likely, Victor Bramiont—who_ once assumed the name of Saul Secor—that I shall give you another chance to stab me. The thanks I received, when I agreed to assist you in the abduction of Selissa Gordon’s child, was a knife-thrust aimed at my heart. As you fled from the deed of blood, I promised that I would not die, but would live to kill you, Victor Bra- mont.” ** Diable! Then you mean to kill me, after saying that I was not your prisoner?’ ‘Catherine Plaque!” exclaimed Helen Varcla, stepping to the window and grasping the Voo- doo roughly by the arm, ‘Woman! do I hear that you aided Victor Bramont to rob me of my child? What had I done to you, to be the victim of such base treachery ?” Diable !” muttered Bramont. Helen Varcla is Selissa Gordon.” “Speak not of the past, t ut of the present,” said the Voodoo, quickly, and freeing her arm from the gripe of the actress, Scoundrel Bramont!” cried Franz Edouin, showing himself, ‘these women have business with you. Have it over briefly. Then you will settle an account with me.” “* Diable !” exclaimed Bramont, in bis heart, while he eved the young man in a puzzled way; “this is Franz douin, the French detective, whom I once met abroad, and who looked to me the image of Dorlon Ray at the time when Ray erazy over the death of his wife, was confin in the private asylum.” And aloud, he snapped: “With you? An account with you? Sucre ! Another foe. And what have I done to u ‘You are the wretch who persecutes the wo- man pledged to be my bride. Ihave sworn that ou or I must die!” ‘‘Oho, my merry fellow! If Iam to have a fair show, I shall soon be rid of you—be sure of that. If you are thinking of the beautiful Osa- lind Ray, make up your mind that she is mine, pledged to me seventeen years ago—” ‘Rascal! Let me enter his cell!” But the Voodoo held him back, while she thought: “T am right, 11 SSS sess sss ts , ‘“‘A mystery here: for I lnow that Derlan Ray did not have a daughter so long ago as sev- cnteen years, CHAPTER XIII, A STRANGE DISCOVERY. | It did not occur to Helen Varcia that the de- claration of Victor Bramont contained any thing remarkable. Her mind being preoccupied with a hungry longing to discover, from him, the whereabouts of ber own child, it cid not strike and impress her, as it did the Voodoo, that Dor- lan Ray could not possibly have had a cauglter as long ago as seventcen years pricr to this night, although she, as well as X!lmo, might have recollected the date, and that Derlan Ray, helplessly insane, was confined in a private asy- lum at.that time. She only meditaicd: **I have now before me the man who tried to strangle me because I witnessed his tamperin with the medicine cf Gertrude Ray; wlo1¢Lbe me of my child; who stalbcd the nwse in treacherous payment of his own treachery in aiding him to at duct that child. Now and here he shall tell me where to find my lung-lost daughter, or every snake in yonder slimy cage shall be let loose upon him.” Franz Edcuin bad griped one of the bars at the narrow wincow as if he would. wrench it out and. get at the. imprisoned. villain whose eéch made the blood boil with wdignation. o held him firmly—ihough all his strength could not have unjointed the stently-riven bars —and would have expcstulated with him, when the ectress sternly addre:sed Victur Bremont: “Tell me, wretch: where is my child?’ **Do you think I have cairied the brat akout from place to place, for seventeen. yearsi” he mnppped. ; * Nothing of the: sort,” continued the actress. “But that. you know where sbe is, l.em con- vinced. And never will you come cute! there alive, until my questions are answercd and an- swered truly.” “Very Hebe perred in that krain of Victor Bramont; ‘‘I do know where she is, and no one else can tell.” But be spoke no word aloud, *‘ Victor Bramont!” cried the actress, gnasp- ing the iron bars and glaring angpily through the window, “‘twenty-one years ago Dorlan Ra f and Gertrude, his wife, had a boy “ Diable! Iknow that. I know, also, that you madly loved Dorlan Ray yourself, «nd af- terward hated him because Le married this Ger- trude.” “No. matter!” she interrupted, suppressirg the flery passion which arose within her at re- membrance of the time when, twenty-two years before, Dorlan Ray had rejected her unmaiden- ly avowal of. love... ‘‘No matter. . You, vile wre’ch, were as deeply enamored of Gerti ude as I was wild to possess Dorlan Ray,” _ “* Diable!, that is true.” ‘You vowed that she should never. ‘ive as another man’s wife!. You concealed. the deadly hate ycu bore both man and wife, and wormed yourself into an intimacy with Dorian Ray—’ “* Diable! yes; and so. aid. you ‘in the,seme manner, for you won the confic ence ot his wife, while you hated her immensely. We were a pair, eh?’ sneered Bramont, folding his arms and scowling upon the actress. ‘“Most gracious Heaven!’ murmured Franz Edouin to.bimself, ‘ I feel that 1. am now to learn the grand, and mayhap, terrible secret which has blighted the lives of Dorlan Ray. and my beloved Osalind.” ‘But I was not the guilty serpent you were,” resumed Helen Varcla, her briliiant«yes glene- ing fury and scorn upon her enemy. ‘ When Dorlan Ray was lost to me—although | intense- ly hated him and all that was his {7.m.-that mo- ment—I would at least heve let him live in peace, and rather felt a pride tbat I did not be- tray the gallin my wounded heart. You, des- pene schemer, made Gertruce believe that you jad buried your passion for her, and by toady- ing to Dorlan Ray you succeded in becoming an inmate of his household, In an evil bour yon tempted Dorlan Ray, and finally Jed lim to e commission vf a breach of trust which be- cessitated his flight from tle country, When you had removed him from your path, by means of most diabolical treachery, you made proposals to his wife, which she, as a true wo- man, scorned and severely resented. When de- livered of her child, and while sick almost unto death, I saw you deliberately poi-on her; for I was then, by chance, in the house, and caught you in the very act.” ‘She is trying to draw me into a confession before these witnesses,” be muttercd, in his mind, glancing covertly at the Voocoo end the detective. ‘' Diable/ go on, Helen Varcija}” the last aloud. ‘“*T pursued you through the garden, to catch you and have you hung for the perpetration of such a dastardly deed: for you fled when you saw that I had detected you. You tried to strangle mein the garden. Had these arms of mine the muscle then that they do now ”—baring ber large, tough and sinewy arm encbed. fist at. him—" it ou—not me—left insens‘ble Ray, returning too late and shaking a tight-cl would have been Qn the grass! EGOmiG a 5 > a co ‘. * —_— oe a - —— 7 me Ee ze er me Ret ee sce mae —- rm — - — me a