Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 104 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

— — em ——— ——————— ——_————— Se — —_ eee ——_———— = 04 drove down to the pier opposite which his yacht | lay at arncho>. Jalik and Mezrak had already arrived, and the former awaited him on the dock, while the latter had gone on board the yacht. ‘‘The Senor Sebastian you say is on board the Nemesis?” , ** ‘Yes, senor, so the coxswain said.” “Tt is well; I intended that you should look him up. Dismiss the carriages,” and Montezu- ma walked to the pier end and sprung into the wrateing boat, where Valik immediately joined im. Giving orders to at once make sail and stand down the river, Montezuma entered his gor- geously furnished cabin, and Wilber Sebastian arose to meet him. “Senor Montezuma, I humbly crave your par- don for taking possession of your yacht, but since we last met I am a ruined man,” he said, mervously, and his face was white and haggard. ‘‘No apologies, senor. I heard of your mis- fortune as I came down to the pier; it was un- fortunate that you did not find An los, and missing him failed to see me; but Valik simply obeyed my orders, ‘*T am glad you are here, for I was about to send in search of you, when I learned you were on board.” ‘“‘T feared violence, senor, as the depositors were talking about my fast living, and making threats. : ‘‘I am going for my wife, and we will seek some other nate of the world to live, as I havea fow thousand dollars in my purse for tempora- ry expenses until I can get work. It will bea terrible shock to poor Mildred.” ‘Doubtless; I have heard she brought you five million dollars when she became your wife,” said Montezuma, dryly. ‘‘She did, senor, and she has now, in gems, fully a on—perhaps more.” “$ More, if you refer to those she wore at my ‘*T do refer to those, and she must give them uP to start me in some business again,” said ilber Sebastian, rapidly. “She certainly esteems them highly, Captain Sebastian.” ‘She does, and was a fool not to take your munificent offer; but she shall give them to me, or—I will take them, as I have the right, being her husband. Do you not think I should, Senor Montezuma?” “T never offer an opinion, Senor Sebastian, between husband and wife; but come, let us go to the deck, and when we are out in blue water I will promise you quite an entertainment—one in which you shall be an actor,” and Montezu- ma, with one of his irresistible smiles, led the way from the cabin. ; ile Montezuma was conversing with his captain, Wilber Sebastian slowly paced to and fro, in the yacht’s waist. ‘Captain, we meet again,” said a deep voice at his side. Wilber Sebastian started visibly—his nerves were unstrung by what he had just undergone —and, near by he saw the huge form of the man who had been his boatswain upon the Sea Ser- pent, and who had obeyed his cruel orders to use the cat-of-nine-tails, with evident zest. ‘“* You here!” he cried, for the sight of 3 od his old comrades in lt always made him dread evil, and the death of Lucien Bethune and Otis Alden had been a great joy to him, as well as a relief to his purse. “T am here, captain, as you see; got a berth with the prince.” ‘Have you been long with him?” “Shipped on board the yacht to-day; was on the prince’s ship Launcelot before; been there for two months—me and three other of the boys who served with you, sir.” You pane eng} most infernally well— ‘birds of a feather flock together,’” sneered Wilber Sebastian. ‘*'Yes, captain, five of us, counting you, now on the yacht. e prince did for the luff and the saw-bones, didn’t he, sir? Guess your purse is heavier since they went under.” “You are impudent, fellow. I will speak to the senor and have you punished,” angrily said Wilber Sebastian. “No you won’, captain. This is not the Sea Serpent but the Nemesis, and you don’t command. Guess you won’t speak to the prince about me, for I’ve gota good memory. “Thav’m’t drawn my hush-up for two years now. Got it about your clothes, captain?’ Wilber Sebastian crushed an oath between his white teeth, shoved his hand into his pocket and drew out a roll of bills, several of which he cropped upon the deck. hen he turned on his heel and walked away his breast and brain throbbing violently ; he sown recklessly and cruelly, and now the har- weet was coming in—a harvest of tares. ; The Selnws day the yacht was bowlin merrily along in the blue waters of the Gulf, and heading north by east, with no land in ht. ontezuma came on deck, and glanced around him with an earnest look. Away off in the west a cloud was rising, experienced eye told him would bring Montezuma, the Merciless. n gale, and turning to his yacht’s captain he said, quietly: * Lay the craft to, sir.” The order was promptly obeyed, and then fol- lowed another order, given in a calm, even voice: ‘** Call all hands to witness punishment!” At this moment Wilber Sebastian came on deck to discover why the yacht was lying to, and beheld the crew mustered, and the huge man, who had been his boatswain on the Sea Serpent, standing ready, the cat-of-nine-tails in his hand. ‘**Captain Sebastian, I promised you a treat when we got into blue waters, and said you should be an actor init, Inow intend to keep my word.” here was something in the burning eye turned upon him that made Wilber Sebastian tremble, and he started back, with a half-cry ‘upon his lips. ** Seize and bind the prisoner!” The deep voice of Montezuma rung like a trumpet, and two seamen stepped forward and took hold of Wilber Sebastian!” ‘“‘What means this outrage? Unhand me, devils, or I will kill you,” yelled the now thor- oughly alarmed man; but he was securely bound in an instant. **Senor Montezuma, [ will hold you responsi- ble for this insult,” and he turned his flashing eyes upon the calm, smiling face of the Mexican, who stood with folded arms looking upon him. ‘** Bind him to the grating!” In spite of his struggles, three seamen he obe the order—his feet being securely bound, while his arms were yet ironed. ‘* Now strip him to the waist, and you, sir, do your duty.” The order came quietly from between the white teeth, and turning, Montezuma lighted a cigar from a small silver lamp, brought to him by a cabin-boy, and then leaned in graceful at- titude against the mainmast. Inthe meantime, Wilber Sebastian’s elegant coat had been torn from his back, and then he was laid bare to the waist, unmindful of the fearful curses that issued from his ie “‘Senor Montezuma, will you allow this in- fernal outrage?” “*T have ordered it, Wilber Sebastian.” aie the name of God how have I injured you Montezuma smiled, but made no reply, and Captain Sebastian cried again: ‘** And your orders are to have me lashed?” ** My orders, Wilber Sebastian, to that huge brute who holds the lash, are to show no mercy, but, to whip you until you are dead.” “Oh, God, have mercy!” “‘That prayer has broken from lips before, and been unanswered,” was the merciless reply. The head of Wilber Sebastian pay in despair, and the keen lashes of the cat fell upon his bare shoulders. Then from the teeth-gnawed lips broke shriek after shriek, as the blows fell savagely upon the flesh—the executioner pausing not in his grim duty, and Montezuma, without the quiver of a muscle, and with the smile he always wore when eeply moved, upon his marble face, gaz- ing with melancho y, yet merciless eyes up- on the victim. At last the blood- ttered, grim, and pant- ing executioner cea his work, and turned toward Montezuma: “He is dying, senor.” Quickly the man of marble face stepped for- ward and bent over the dying man; “* Wilber Sebastian!” The head slowly turned and the eyes met those of Montezuma. **'You asked me how you ever wronged me? “*T will tell you.” Placing his mouth close to the ear of Wilber Sebastian, he i usar a few words, each one of which was heard. “Oh, God! my punishment is Jjust—my crimes have been t!’ The head again dropped forward—a shudder shook the form, and Wilber Sebastian was ead. ** Now, sir, it is yourturn; have you ever felt maT hav bi ” : ave never whipped, senor,” an- swered the huge poltawain Ee whom the re- mark was addressed. *‘] thought not; you were ever so ready to inflict the lash on others; you shall have one dozen of the cat, sir.” The man looked as though he would have re- sisted; but he dare not, and was seized up and bound to the grating, from whence the body of Wilber Sebastian had just been cut down. “ Valik, lay on that man’s bare back, one dozen lashes of the cat: then cut him down and pay him the sum I agreed to give him—fifty thou- sand dollars, and five thousand to each of his three companions. The order was promptly obeyed by Valik, Montezuma, as before, seeing the blows given. Then he called to him the yacht’s sailing-mas- ter: ** Captain, the first aig Sa vessel you | ht, signal it, and place that hb bully and Be three ecidsedan On Wedd: play ti Unelr bee- a ee oo) = to whatever port the vessel is bound, arn them never to cross my path again.” **Tt shall be as you wish, senor; and the oy. sir?’ and the captain—in whom the reader could not fail to recognize one of the Sea Ser- ey mutineers—the yacht’s crew comprising he balance yet alive, fourteen in number— turned a glance toward the white, ghastly face of Wilber Sebastian. “Have it sewn up in a hammock, the feet heavily shotted, and placed where the waves will wash it into the sea—that must be his end,” and with a smile Montezuma re-entered his cabin. When he again came on deck, the yacht was bounding along under close-reefed sails over the wind-swept and ya ta, Bape ve. and the vessel was constantly flooded by the waves. wae is Captain Sebastian?’ he asked, of alik. ‘*He was borne off into the sea, senor, by a mighty wave,” was the cool rejoinder. ** And those four men?” “‘Are there, senor, awaiting to be placed on yonder vessel, which the captain has signaled,” and Valik pointed to a large clipper ship stand- ing southward, and which,as he looked, laid her sails aback, to await the coming nearer ef the yacht. ithout an order the yacht’s life-boat was launched, a crew sprung in, and the four men followed, the boatswain turning toward Monte- zuma, a curious leer upon his face, as he said: 4: Farewell, senor; I’ll not ae your prince- 1. peneroalty or the cat; but depen it, as id Wilber Sebastian deserve his fate—you have made me and my comrades rich, senor, and we won’t forget you.” Montezuma bowed with the courtly. grace habitual with him, and the boat rowed away over the rough waters, and in half an hour was again hanging at the yacht’s davits, while the fleet craft continued its course for the Chateau @ Espagne. CHAPTER XXVIII. QUAFFED TO THE BITTER DREGS. THE season that had commenced £0 pleasant] at the Chateau d’Espagne ended with a mantle of sorrow and gloom drawn across the future, and with only an embittered past for many to look back upon. Out of the pleasant party that had been en- joying the hospitalities of Montezuma at his sea- side home, all felt the shock of adversity, ex: cepting the Senora Angelos and her two lovel children, for Captain Grenville had lost his al by the failure of Abercrombie & Company, and Don Felipe had also been bit hard, for both of these gentlemen had deposited largely with the unsound firm. When the Nemesis arrived, and Montezuma, in his quiet, na hond pratt way, made known the reverses that fallen upon them financially, and told Mildred that she was a widow—that her husband had been carried off on a huge wave that swept the yacht’s decks, there was deep gloom in the Chateau d’Espagne, and the following day the swift vessel was flying back ate to New Orleans, bearing as passengers ontezuma, and those who had been his guests. Desiring to have his yacht near at hand, Men- tezuma made the passage round the river, an met with contrary wimds one day, and ligh breezes or calms the next, it was some time fore the anchor was let fall in front of the city, and the party departed, some of them for homes no longer their own, for the hammer of the auc- tioneer was destined to echo through their halls, instead of the sound of revelry. As soon as possible Mildred separated herself from the wreck of her fortunes, and with a few thousand dollars she had in hand, and which Montezuma told her was left in the yacht’s cabin by her husband, she a3 oe a small cot- tage home on the outskirts of the city, accom- panied by her faithful maia, Louise, and Daniel and his wife Phoebe, all that remained to her— api te her priceless ites these, she said she would starve before she would part with. And what a change! from luxury and wealth toa cottage retreat and poverty, for Mildred felt that she must go to work, as the few hun- dred dollars left, after the purchase of her little home, would not last a lifetime. ‘“‘And still I am happier than before,” she murmured, as she sat one day in her bijou par- lor, lost in deep thought. “*T am happier, because I am free from him— my busband, and yet not my husband; but oh, what a fearful death to die; borne off on the wild waters to die alone—I pity him, for how terrible must have been his last moments—I pity him, yet I never loved him, for he it was who wrecked my love and the life of—but I must not think of him; J dare not.” Oh, if peor Mildred had but known how her husband died, her face would have blanched forever white. And the world said that Captain Sebastian had not been washed into the sea, but had thrown himself into the mad waters, rendered desperate by his loss of fartune; but ‘the wh gon it goo et “os alse at fault. n pe, thou aken to the foundation by the failure of Abercrombie & Company did | GOMER OOKS ee | me |