Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 104 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

Montezuma, the Merciless. 9 ous prisoner, Governor Felipe Cosala, without any reference to what had just happened, said: ‘Return to the end of the cofridor and await me. Tell the lady I will soon be with her.” ‘* Now, senor, you said you had not the jewels with you—jewels that would tempt an anchor- ite, let alone a poor sinful mortal such as I am. ‘ Well, then, I will banish these from my mind, and discuss matters of far more value. Your father was wrecked somewhere on the Mexican coast when coming here?” “Such was the case, Governor Cosala.” “" His vessel was laden down with treasure, I suppose you know?” ‘So I have been informed, Governor.” “This treasure was not lost when the vessel was wrecked?” inquiringly asked the Govern- or. Merle raised his eyes, as though in surprise, but made no reply. ‘Was it lost, senor?” ‘It was not lost, Don Felipe, when the vessel was wrecked.” “You were with your father at the time of his death?” ““T was, senor.” | “He made known to you about this treasure, Senor Merle?” ““ He did, Governor Felipe Cosala.” ‘“‘And you know where it is hidden, Senor Merle?” ** Why do you ask, Senor Governor?” ‘Because upon that knowledge hangs your life,” savagely said Don Felipe. ** Your terms are then—” ' “Go with me to where that treasure is buried —go alone with me, if you desire, and when there take your share in diamonds and other precious stones—you can easily carry an impe- rial fortune in gems—and leave me the balance, and you shall go free. I swear it, by the Virgin, senor “* Your word, Governor Cosala, is as good as your oath,” sneered Merle. ‘* What can I do to prove then that I tell you the truth? You can go free as soon as I know where the treasure is,” and Governor Cosala spoke earnestly. * La mentira tiene las piernas cortas, senor,” (a lie has short legs,) suggested the prisoner. _ ‘‘ But I tell you no lie, Senor Merle. If I gain millions through you, I can easily afford to let you go free.” **'You would be too, and — life would “No, Io ing and wish my share, the forfeit.” er to go with youalone. Caramba! You have a hand of iron, and strong as I am’ Se find me but a child in your arms,” said the vernor, with a shudder, as he remembered how near death he had been a few minutes since, Merle smiled, and replied: “No strength, senor, is proof against a stab in the back, or poison.” ‘‘ IT am no assassin,” roared the angry man. “Tt is just what you are—the assassin of wo- men. Your memory is treacherous, amigo.” ‘ We will now discuss the future—it interests you most. Do you accept my terms?” gruffly said the ruler. “Tf I refuse?” “ Then _ shall die here in this tomb—you see what it is—you see what companionship you will have,” and the speaker pointed grimly to the skull. “‘ Ah, that one is nothing. There are a dozen of those under my luxurious couch here,” and Merle drew aside the bench. In spite of his wonderful nerve Don Feli shuddered, and again there was admiration in his glance, as he turned it upon the fearless youth before him. ‘*‘You have no fear, Senor Merle?” “Not of the dead, certainly; ing Gay's quiet comrades enough; the living are to dreaded —the ‘flesh and the devil,’ not the bones. See in the ten days I have been in here, this poor fellow and myself have become friends,” and Merle raised the skull in his hands, while he continued, calmly: ‘‘T look into his bony face and sightless ae. sockets, and can read there the misery he known. After I know him well, I will make the more intimate acquaintance of these wretches, If my bones are to mingle with theirs, I wish to be friendly with them.” God! ou will refuse my offer, then?” and Feli a trembled; was he to lose the treasure he craved, through the stubbornness of this fearless prisoner? ‘*T can never tell you, senor, where my fa- ther’s treasure is hidden.’ ‘“*T will give you one month to consider that refusal— , you may come to terms.” ‘We shall see, Governor mine. What, going so soon? I really found you entertaining. With an oath, which no pious pen need care to chronicle, Governor Fe er left the dungeon, and a moment after Lamas turned the key in the huge lock, and Merle was again alone with his skeletons. Rapidly the Governor retmaced his way to his own quarters, passing through his cabinet de tet a to arrange his linen, and brush the damp of the cell from his clothes after his fall and ehoking. Then he entered the reception-room, and a woman advanced to meet him—a woman of splendid form and elegantly dressed, but with her face hidden by a vail. ‘“‘Be seated, lady, and announce how Don Felipe can serve you,” said the Governor. The woman came close to him, and threw back her vail. ** Juanita !” “Ay, Felipe Cosala, I am Juanita Corrientes, whom you onee professed to love, and whose brother you killed, because he made known to that Persian girl who and what you were. I did not believe what he said of you then, but ao I know all was true, and I am revengeful, elipe. ‘* Your brother should never have crossed my path as he did, and you are a fool, Juanita, to wait long years, and then come here prating about revenge,” ‘* Felipe Cosala, for all the exalted rank you hold, you are a very devil, and the world will one day know you asI do; but it is never too late to avenge, and you shall feel that I am not a weak woman. “* In the years that have passed I have been in a convent, praying against my evil passions; but, by day and hy night, in my nun’s cell, I have been burning with vengeance against you, and my prayers turned to curses upon my lips, when I saw my brother in his grave, and knew that your hand placed him there. Felipe Co- sala, | turned my back upon that sacred retreat, and I came to seek you.’ The woman was almost weirdly beautiful, and her eyes were like globes of fire while her | face was as white and smooth as marble. As she spoke she suddenly drew from her bosom a long and narrow poniard, and drove it with terrible force for a woman’s arm, straight | at the heart of Felipe Cosala. The dark, handsome face of the Governor never aer'y rm an expression, and he did not move from his tracks; but from his lips burst a scornful laugh, as the brittle steel shivered ry Se t a shirt of mail he wore beneath his outer attire. *“* Juanita, sit down and don’t be angry,” he nas ag e words were hardly from his lips, when the maddened woman drew from the folds of her dress a small silver-mounted pistol, and fired full in his face. Don Felipe staggered back, and, as a stream | of blood s laugh of man’s lips. “Ha! ha! ha! Don hn devil though you be, you are not invulnerable.” But, Governor Cosala had a third time within the hour, esca death. The bullet had mere- ly cut the flesh, and as the sentinel at his door, and the servants in waiting, rushed into the room, alarmed by tlie shot, he said, calmly, as from his wig ee a ringing emoniacal joy burst from the wo- though giving an ordinary order: “Seize that woman, and send chief surgeon Mejia here.” e order was obeyed, and Juanita Corrientes, | ing, and pre one se his wor “It will take me years of hard labor; but it is better than remaining here idle, and here I must surely die, for I know not where that treasure is; if I did I would gladly give it up, for there is a stain upon my name I must clear, Vay poor Mildred! what does she think of me ‘‘All believe me dead ere this, or will, when Ainslie returns in the b imonf but those papers will clear my name, and I will have my revenge upon Wilber Sebastian, for to him do I owe all my misery. ‘Had 1 those jewels, I believe I could buy my freedom with them; but what little i have be- sides, and all Captain Grenyille is worth, would be no temptation to Felipe Cosala to release me. Now, to work.” Carefully Merle searched his cell, and his eyes, accustomed to the darkness, could penetrate in- to the furthest corner. “Tt is a stone floor; each stone is a heavy block, fully three hundred pounds in weight, I "ec e, and the crevice between them is hardly alf an inch; but one of these stones must be raised from its place; but how?” The poor prisoner saw that a giant’s fingers could never raise one of those heavy slabs, and 4 ote up the idea of effecting his object by strength. s i I have plenty of tools here—at least m knife will soon make them such,” and he too up the bones at his feet, Quietly taking out his knife, which had a number of heavy blades, he began to work to make the implements to aid his escape. ‘Bless these poor fellows; it was good of them to die here, and leave me to inherit their bones. I will not squander my inheritance,’’ he said, grimly. nd thus the poor prisoner worked on by day and 1; ht, for his deft fingers, by practice, soon became as expert in the darkness as in the " us he worked on, carving the numerous ribs, arms and leg-bones into knives, levers, and picks, while the skulls were made into shovels, And so interested did he become in his work so in earnest with the determination to hi his strength and escape, that he grumbled at old Lamas for not bringing him more food, and the better to conceal his occupation, he grew so violent toward the jailer, that at last his daily allowance of provisions was handed to bim through a trap in the door, the old keeper not daring to enter, for Merle’s chains permi me to reach with his hands every part of his ce One day he heard heavy cops approach- for he felt that he was to have a visitor. It was as he had ted; Don Felipe ap- peared at the door, but did not enter; the jailer d warned him that it would be dangerous, as the pees was violent in his actions, ‘**] have come for ow answer; do you ac- cept my terms, senor he Governor spoke shortly; he evidently crushed at her failure to take the life of the man | <ared not to linger in conversation. she now hated, as passionately as she had once loved him, submitted to be | ound by the ser- | vants, the Governor looking on with apparent | indifference. “Senor Mejia, see that this woman is taken to the city mad-house and confined there for life, ina cell with other howling maniacs—do ' you hear?” said Don Felipe, as the surgeon en- | “1 do, Ewcellenza.” Juanita Corrientes sprung to her feet, a blaze in her eyes. _ Felipe Cosala, how dare you do me this wrong? ‘Bear her away—she is mad!” was the in- me “* Oh, ! lam not mad! Iam not mad! If I go mad, as the companion of wild lunatics, it l be your hand, Felipe Cosala, that has made me so, The Governor waved his hand, and the un- fortunate woman was drag away, and, an hour after, was the inmate of a mad-house. She sought revenge and had lost her reason, for her brain had gone mad! CHAPTER X. THE CORNER-STONE OF FREEDOM. WHEN Governor Felipe Cosala departed from the prisoner crushed by the thought of remain- ng, there one long and dreary month. ut he was mistaken, for’ Merle was not one to be easily crushed, and no sooner had the footsteps died away than he made up his mind act, “Tt looks hopeless,” he muttered, “to think of coreg from here; but I have ample time for work, and I need only give up trying when it is impossible to do more. “Let me see! Iam in the basement of the water front of the castle, and in the side toward Vera Cruz; the foundations doubtless go down | into the earth some brenty or thirty fest below | It isa tedious wor me, and if I dig beneath them, I can lay m course and tunnel toward a point that <houldt bring me outside of the castle walls, ‘““Upon my honor, Governor Cosala, I know not where that treasure was hidden.” “You lie in your false throat; you know, but you have not suffered enough to make you tell, and I shall leave you again.” ‘I suppose your cruel heart will deny me books and a lamp?” said Merle. ‘Nothing, except the food you eat; as I see your face throug this yan ep appears to me you look exceedingly well for a man thus nied " ‘‘'Your imagination, dear Governor; come _ into my dungeon and see how emaciated I am.” | But the Governor was not to be lured within reach of those arms; hé had petted his throat ever since the choking Merle had given him. ‘** Senor, when one year has from this day, I will visit you again; then, if you do not make known to me where lies that treasure, I will leave you to rot here for one ose ge a Better tell me now, and gain freedom wealth.” ‘* Impossible, Governor; I do not know.” “*Caramba ! as?” “Senor Excellenza,” and the jailer came at the Governor’s call. “For one year, until my next visit, this dungeon door is to remain closed; this trap in _ the door must serve all purposes for food and Merle’s cell, he doubtless believed that he left _ take the i attention to the prisoner; here, I will key.” ‘Si, Excellenza,” and Lamas detached the key from his chain and handed it to Don Felipe, who without another word walked away. ‘“Now I have ample time for work, for I need look Pned no _ ‘Ney ie man. bis gs **One year! oh, it seems a tury me here put courage, my heart! The day will yet dawn.” So sa , Merle set himself again to work. “ As I am to be left undisturbed now, Imayas well free myself of my irons—if Ican; ha! I had forgotten the sharp edge of the iron door! but a drop of water will | wear away a stone, itis said,” and Merle drew | and raising one an- his stool close to the po rub a stee) border that kle, began to it agai <€om jOO|KS (ENMU