Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 104 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

' _— me sa@ = 28 "T pledge ee eed for any stake you name, if in my power to do | was the cool response. With a reckless laugh Don Felipe Cosala swal- BO, ‘*Enough; let us have the gamein my own | lowed the draught, and Montezuma drained his room.” ing, and Valik was summoned to bring refresh- - et and place a table with ecards on it before them. The two men then seated themselves, Monte-. zuma wearing that almost habitual and inscrut- able smile upon his lips, while his eyes were shaded in melancholy. ‘* Don sony les give you something worth playing for, besides the principal stake of our game, i will le* you hear what I say to my slave, alik! Valik approacked and bowed low. ‘*Valik, watch this game of cards, and if I lose, take from my safe a million of dollars, in best bank-notes, and hand them to Don Felipe Cosala; nay, place them here now.” Valik quickly obeyed the order, and Don Felipe was almost dumb with amazement, “Tf I lose, Don Feipe, that sum is yours,” said Montezuma. ‘If you win, senor? asked the Don, in sur- prise. ‘** Valik, hand me that a goblet.” The slave obeyed, and the beautiful vessel was placed on the table in front of Montezuma, “Now hand me one of tise green powders in my medicine-case.” alik promptly did as he was told, and Monte- ruma took the powder, done up in gold foil, and emptied it into the goblet; then he poured the gold vessel full of a delicious wine, Don Felipe Cosala watching him the whih- with eyes that were losing their polite droop, ‘ad ing up almost a stare. ** Now, Don Felipe, this game of ¢“rds is going to end your life or mine.” Don Cosala half sprung to his fe™t, his hand thrust in his bosom. ‘ at do you ean, sir- mek he cried in a voice that had. metallic Fxeep cool, my dear Don, and just «lance around you,” was the quiet reply. Don Felipe Cosala did as directed, and he runk back in his chair, his face livid, while fro his lips broke one word: ** Entrapped !” The sight he saw was enough to make his tremble—a half-dozen rifles covered his heart— a half-dozen Persian slaves held them to their shoulders. ‘*Don Felipe, if you win this game, I pledge you my word you shall go free from this man- sion, with the money that lies before yeu, after jirst seeing me drink to the dregs this goblet of poison. ‘“* It will kill me in just ten minutes after I have swallowed it. “You see I place my life, valuable as it is, against yours?’ ‘“* Yes,” came from the white lips. ‘“*If yow lose this game, you shall drink that goblet of poison. ‘* You have pledged yourself to play for the stakes I offer. I have named them; shuffle the cards, and deal.” The cards were shuffled and each one took up his ‘‘ hand.” Then the game commenced—Valik and Mea- rak looking on, with stolid indifference appar- ently, and the armed Persians, their rifles still ready, confronting Don Felipe. Between the white teeth of Montezuma was a cigar; but ever and anon, when the smoke float- ed away, Don Felipe caught sight of those Jiquid ond eyes fixed upon him, and the smile upon the mouth. Each man played with the greatest caution. Presently Don Felipe began to breathe hard; he dare not throw down the last card he held in his hand—the card that must decide the game. ‘*T am waiting, Don Felipe; it is your play. ” The words were painfully calm, and Don Felipe, with a reckless laugh, tossed the card upon the table. Montezuma had won the game. As pale as a corpse Don Felipe Cosala at- tempted to rise, but the rifles confronted him. ‘‘T have won, Don Felipe! It was an inter- esting game; I never enjoyed one more. eep your seat, senor; the goblet holds an easier death than do those rifles.’ Don Felipe Cosala sunk back in his chair, and stretched forth his hand for the gold goblet. Without a tremor he raised it from the table, and carried it to his lips. ‘Is it disagreeable to take, senor?” “*Only in its result, my dear Don; on the con- trary, it is delicious to the taste—try it!” Don —_— Cosala had made up his mind to face the alternative, and he would do it with steady nerve—with calm face and fearless eye. Monteguma sat motionless as a statue. ‘* Don Felipe, life is dearer to you every in- ‘stant you hesitate.” _ “By Heaven! you speak the truth. I would drink your health, senor, in this draight of th, Mon ade a motion, and Valik poured hifn ont iat ersian ‘wine. 7 Your good Tati, Senor Montezuma,” | goblet of wine. “* Montezuma led the way, Don Felipe follow | “Don tear, Bede you any message. for your wife?” asked Montezuma, quietly. ** None!” ‘* Have you any last commission you would haveattended to, Don Felipe?’ “None! I have always lived prepared to die —with nothing left undone.” ‘Don Felipe Cosala, you are a brave man.” “Thank you, senor; I appreciate the compli- ment, from the lips of Merle, the Mutineer.” “You know me, then, Don Felipe?’ and Mon- tezuma’s face never changed. ‘*I do. How you escaped, the devil only knows; but you shall not escape me now.” As Don Felipe Cosala spoke he dragged his hand from his bosom, thrust it forward, and fired straight at the heart of Montezuma. ‘* Gracias, senor !” and Monteauma tossed the | flattened bullet upon the table. ‘“* Foiled in my dying hour?!” “Yes, Don Felipe; | wear ashirt of mail to rotect me ee just such attacks,” was Mon- zuma’s reply. But Don he Cosala heard not the words; his head had fallen back upon the silken chair. Don Felipe Cosala had died by his own hand, The next morning he was found by his ser- vants, dead upon his own door-step, and the Se. nora Victorine was a second time a widow, CHAPTER XXX1T1. AFTER MANY LONG YEABS. THE day following the death of Don Felipe Cosala, which was set down by the wiseacres to have been caused by fast living, his body was borne to the grave, and Montezuma, as a coun- trymun of the deceased Mexican, was *deputed the honor of bearing on his arm the disconsolate widow, a sympathetic duty which he rendered pain Sey courtly grace for which he was distin- gu ; Having escorted the lovely widow back to her home, and placed the settlement of her af- fairs in the hands of Andrea Angelos—until her beauty and riches won her another husband— Montezuma.ordered his coachman to take a turn in the outskirts of the city, and laid himself back upon the silken eushions to enjoy the drive to his heart’s content. What caused it none knew, unless the hand of Fate held the reins, but the horses suddenly da*hed away at full speed, wholly unmanagea- ble, and the magnificent carriage was whirled agairst a ing wagon with a violence that crushe’l it into pieces. Fron the debris Montezuma, whom no fate had heretofore conquered, was taken out sense- less, and borne into the parlor of a pretty little cottage nea™ by, while the coachman was killed outright. | . When Montezuma’s glorious eyes opened to consciousness, Some moments after the occur- rence, they encountered a face hanging above his own—a face of "wondrous beauty, now tear- stained and blanchm*—the face of Mildred Se- bastian! ** Mildred!” The name broke from * ‘ween the white teeth with an effort. ** Merle !” The name fell from her lipe as soft as velvet. ** You know me then, Mil a “] knew a when my eyes fe/! on you at the fo carnival and an impulse I cou'd not resist made me ow you on horseback te witness —, duel with Lucien Bethune ané Qtis Al- en. ‘“* Ha! aon were the fair equestrienne, then, Mildred?” and Montezuma gazed upon her with a strange look in his eyes. as 4 he spoke again, and in deep, earnest nes: ‘* Mildred, I have just awakened from a dream of eighteen long years—nay, not a dream, but a hideous nightmare. ‘*T awake now at last in your presence, and jind 5 ae Salse ‘Merle, I am not false to you; I deemed you in your grave, or—” **Go on, Mildred; I am listeatng,” ‘** You are ill, Merle, and must not talk,” she said, as though to change the subject. ‘*l am ill, and I must talk. I was merely stunned by the shock, and it is over now,” and the man arose to his feet and confronted the woman; then he again asked: ‘Or what, Mildred?’ ** Or worse |” ‘* What mean you by that? After receiving my letters telling you all that had happened— that I had suffered?” ‘* Merle, I never received the papers you sent —never! so help me God!” He silently glanced at the solitaire ring on her finger; she understood. “The gems I received long after they were sent—the letter and put never reached me.” He saw in her face t she told the truth, and asked Why did you not make this known to me, Montezuma, the Merciless. myself, Senor Montezuma, to play | “* Bon voyage, Bon Felipe Cosala—to—Hades,” ————— ny “T was a wife,” was the haughty reply. ‘Mildred, I will hear your story said, calmly, and from her lips he heard all. Then, in his deep, earnest tones, Merle teld her of himself—from his sailing in the Sea Ser- pent, to his coming as Montezuma the Mexican, ** Merle, you have cruelly avenged yourself— ay, and your father,” she said, for he had laié his every act bare before her eyes, ‘Do you condemn me, Mildred, after all I suffered—after the hell I endured -for all those long years?’ and he bent upon her a look af fascination that could but b one reply: ‘**T do not condemn you, Merle.” A moment’s silence fell between them, and then the man said: “Mildred, this night I sail from this land forever. Will you go with me as wy wife, wherever I may go?” She hesitated, and he said, almost savagely: ‘What care you that he has not yet grown cold in his deep sea grave? “ Shall he rise from the blue waters, to hold you and I longer apart, Mildred?” ” a Pha s-a oy you go, : wih 8 Merle, and th ple sha my people—thy creed iy creed thy God, my God. Can I ay more, Merle?” ‘Tt is enough. At sunset I shall call to bear you away forever.” The following morning this piece of news ap: peared in the leading paper, and astounded the good people of New Orleans: “MONTEZUMA! “The name that heads our column has long been upon every tongue in our city, and a hi er come to every one of our citizens know that we have lost the mighty Diamond Don from our midst, ““A small fleet, of three vessels, stood down the river last night, leaving the city at midnight, and bound for the sunny land of Mexico. **The fleet consisted of a yacht, the Nemesis, the ah ap ship, Launcelot, and the barque, Zulah, all under the command of Montezuma the exican, who has thus left our city as suddenly as he appear ed in it, and as une yee ** But ere he de we learn that he was guilty of some of those remarkable generosities that dis- tinguish him, having presen his cit @, anc, his sea-side chateau, to our estimable fellow-citizen, Mr. Andrea Angelos, who, it will be remembered, was the banker of the Senor Montezuma while here. ‘*Nor was this all, for another of our estimable citizens, Captain Louis Chandeleur, fell heir to the Grenville estate on the Gulf shore, and which was epee mpmest by the Senor Montezuma after the terri- le tragedy enacted there last summer, and trated by one, Ellis Monette, but, supposed to be, none other than the unfortunate Captain Launce Grenville, who was so ae for the alleged murder of his brother, Cap Arthur Grenville, se long arespected resident of New Orleans, and who, we are credibly informed, has given up his home here, ha sold it to the Senor Montezuma, and gone with that gentleman in his yacht, ‘Nor is this all, for another deserving gentleman, Captain Roy Ralston, commanding, for many years, packet-ships between our city and Vera Cruz, was resented by the indomitable Montezuma with the renville mansion above referred to, and it is the captain's intention to give up the sea and settle down to a life ashore in his new and elegant home. ‘** Now for the last trump to throw down to ou readers—the great Montezuma was married before he left our city. ‘* And the bride, the ladies ask? “Was one who has reigned as belle and beauty since her fourteenth year, and than whom no love: lier woman lives—she that was Mrs. Wilber Sebage tian—nee, Mildred Monteith. ** Don’t be shocked, lad ders, because she mar ried a short two months after her husband’s death, for—she wedded Montezuma. 3 ““At the palace last night, at nine o’clock, were assembled a very select vit) ee AS age ae Angeloa and family, Captain Arthur Grenville, Captain Louis Chandeleur, Captain Roy Ralston—to witness the marriage of Montezuma, of Mexico, to Mildred Se. bastian, of New Orleans, the Adde Facon officiat- After a sumptuous supper, the wedding- accompanied by Captain Arthur Grenville, wee the yacht Nemesis, and the fleet set sail. “We sincerely regret there were no cards, as th would certainly have been gold ones, and as our su scri*ers are backward in payments, they would have come in well. “To Mon*ezuma and his beautiful wife, we say bon savage over all the sunny lands and blue waters of e.” Two years eftrr the same popes contained thy following notis, ~~hich w ve my kind readers a clew ts “ee fate of the hero and hero- ine of my romance: ““MONTEZUMA AGAIN! “The Reverend Halleck Herndon arrived in our city yesterday, ‘gee, been ox a missionary tour through Eastern Jands, and to hx~ we are indebted for the startling information thay Montezuma, of Mexico, whom all of our readers will romember, is now reigning as Prince of Persia, and Miiared, hir lovely wife, is Princess, while Soren Arth Grenville acts in the caper 9 Head Vizier. “Through his mother, Zulah, of Persia, Monteze ma inherited the title of prince, and is thus prove’ not of Mexico, but of Persia, “We can now understand his princely liberalit, and lavish style of living. ‘* Whatever he be—success to him,” Kind reader, my romance is ended; and, if } have interested you in those who have lived, loved, hated and passed away, in the pages you have read, I am more than content, and, pe medium of my pen, bid you adios / omnes. bi Comicbooks,com