Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 106 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

wm eee ee — , — ————— — +e ee men had captured the lieutenant for the ex- press purpose of holding him as a hostage for O’Brien! Smithers was in the trap and eseape seemed impossible, CHAPTER XXI. RETRIBUTION. “But I say, you know this sort of thing is all stupid rot, you know!” the lieutenant expostu- lated. “You are only making mischief for yourself. You carn’t save O’Brien, you know; ou carn’t bully the Government—it won’t have it; and although you may kill me, yet it will cost all of you your lives, for lam an English- man, and England will have revenge for my blood even if to hunt you all down it has to chase you to the furthest ends of the earth.” ‘¢ All men must die, some time,” the Lrishman responded, grimly, “ and we’ll have the satis- faction of having revenge furst, anyhow.” Smithers understood that it was merely a ‘waste of words to attempt to argue with these men. The iron was in their souls, their blood was up, and nothing short of a miracle could stay them from executing their purpose. ‘*We'll be afther blinding your eyes,” the leader said, ‘‘ but don’t be alarmed; you are not in any danger now. Shure! we’ll look afther you as carefully as though yees was made of lass. No danger will come to yee if Captain urke is r’asonable, or until the troopers come to take bould boy of Glingall away. We will pass a wee bit of a cord, too, about your arms, for fear that your passion might get the better of your prudence, and so force us to do you a mischief on the way.” ‘‘You are so extremely polite that, really, Icarn’t find itin my heart to object to anything, ou know,” and Smithers gave a grimacé as the ishmen proceeded to bandage his eyes and pinion his arms. This performance accomplished, the leader turned to the girl, who, with anxious eyes, had watched the strange scene which had been enacted in her little cottage. Shamus O’Brien. *¢ Who’s there?” ** It’s me, the widdy Murtha.” ** Phat do yees want?” ‘‘ve come wid the trifle of rint, if you pl’ase,” the decoy replied. ‘‘I didn’t dare to bring it in the daytime for fear some of the neighbors would see me, and shure! wouldn’t they be afther murtherin’ me if they knew I pa the rintin full whin they were all houlding bac for to spite the gentry? ** How much have you wid you?” “The hull of it, long life to your honor!—the ilegant four pounds, and hard it has been for me to scrape it together, glory be to Heaven!” “Is there any one wid ye, Mrs. Murtha?” ask- ed the process-server, suspiciously. **Who should there be wid me?” the woman cried. ‘*‘Do yees think that it is myself that’s anxious to be kilt, and wouldn't I be bate black and blue if they knew that I had paid the mo- ney? Hurry upand take it, and l’ave me be off, afure some wan sees me!” “Allright; whin l open the door poke it in through the crack, bek’ase I’m afeard that I mange take could if I open the door too wide- y. Dooney was an extremely cautious mortal, and inside the door he had an ingeniousarrange- ment, so that the door could only be opened a certain distance, about three inches, so that he could not be surprised by a sudden rush. ‘**'Yis, sur, glory be to ye, and may ivery hair in your h turn into a wax candle to light ve to glory!” was the widow’s wish. ‘* Ow, ow! it’s a soft tongue that ye have in that head of yours, widdy,” Dooney added, as he proceeded to unbar and unbolt the door. he men without breathed with bated breath as they listened to the sound of the heavy oak bar being removed, and the grating noise of the bolts as they moved with a melancholy sort of shriek in the rusty iron catches. Soon their hated foe would be in their power, for it was evident Dooney had no suspicion a tap bad been laid for him. e door opened cautiously, but neither the woman nor the concealed men without made ‘‘Kitty Sheelan, kape your own counsel; ; any attempt to force it open, for MacDarrow’s don’t breathe a wourd of phat you have seem | cunning contrivance to prevent a surprise was this night to mortal soul. We will be afther | well known to them. letting the proper persons know that the sodger has gone off wid us to pay a visit to our moun- tain home, so you need not trouble yerself about the matter. You kin go and tell the priest, Father Malone, if it pl’ases ye, and he will tell ye pees to do, but our messenger will reach Cap Burke the first thing in the morn- ing, and we willsend a token by him so that he will know that we are in dead earnest in this same business.” The words were light enough, and yet they concealed a fearful meaning. With their prisoner the disguised men de- parted, leaving the girl almoss speechiess with terror. She thought that she had looked upon the face of Smithers for the last time, for she knew Desmond Burke well enough to compre- hend that he would not be likely to be stirred one single jot from his determined path by this bold action on the part of the United Irish- men. What cared he whether Smithers lived or died so that he accomplished the purpose which he hadin view? Outside the cottage the lieutenant was given in charge of thres good, stout men, and they set off with the prisoner in a uorthberly direction, while the rest started on a new quest. A short half-mile from the cottage of the Goose-girl the cabin of Dooney MacDarrow, the process-server, was situated. This man of dirty work was so universally disliked, and bad made himself so obnoxious to the ple at vada that fear of violence had made him fortify is house like a castle. Stout bolts guarded the doors, and the little windows were protected with shutters of good lank. Wrloney wasa bigot Beare did not intend that any desperate man woo had been rendered reck- less by some petty act of tyranny, should have a chance to creep up to the window and with a charge of buckshot square the account. s Hun ” landlords, agents and process- servers has for years been a favorite pastime with the homeless, wandering men evicted from their hol and Dooney long ago made up his mind that he would not be game for any desperate foe. And, with the process-server thus housed and rded, and ever on the watch, it was no easy : Sask that these minions of night undertook, when they essayed to draw Dooney MacDarrow ce from his fortali But, there were cunning wits in the gang, and ‘they had planned a shrewd scheme. ainst a man they deemed that Dooney would be proof, and so they skillfully put for- ward a woman to draw the wily fox from his hole. As cautiously as so many specters they glided on toward the cabin, and then concealing them- selves, they sent the woman forward to knock at the door. The hoarse voice of Dooney answered from ~ cst, et als, pei tt, it A, CL CO OL LLL LLL LOL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LLL LL ELLE LLL LLL ELL AL LLL LLL LLL LLL LE LLL LLL LL ALLA LAL LLL LLL LL All had been thought of, andal! provided for. Three inches the door opened, and in the little gleam of light that came through it, the face of the process-server could be seen. The widdy had the foot of a stocking in her hand, in which the coins had been placed, and as they were nearly all of small denomination, the little bag was quite a bulky one; a string tightly wound round the end confined the coins in their place, ** Poke the money through,” said Dooney, **Ow, ow! it won’t go; it’s too big.” “Try, try! squeeze the bag, or undo it and pour ’em into ey ae The woman attempted toexecute the first com- mand, and in so vigorous a manner, that the old stocking-foot, being very much the worse for wear, gave way under the pressure, and out tumbled the coins. **Oh, will ye see that? Phat willI do now, entirely?” she howled in anguish. ‘‘Hush yer cry, ye old catamaran!” cried Dooney, ina rage. ‘‘ Bad ’cess to the likes of ye, aon did ye do that for?” **T couldn’t help mae honor, long life to ye!” -~ whimpered, ‘The curse of Cromwell on Meanwhile, Dooney, through the crack of the door, had en a g look around, and not perceiving any one—so carefully had the men without concealed themselves—thought that he a venture to open the door. @ woman dropped down upon her hands and knees and commenced to pick up the scat- tered coins, The process-server removed the barricade within and opened the door wide enough to al- low the jight to stream out, so that he might be able to see the coins. ‘*Be my sowl, widdy Murtha!” he muttered, as he stooped in the search, ‘‘ it’s four pound in copper leces, entirely, you have brought, for mig ty little silver do I see.” ‘‘There’s wan foine gold piece, there by the dure!” she cried, pointing out where the bright ori aged Sees GAGS tk a ‘* Begob! yer gold piece is a bright penny!” he growled, as his fingers closed ae it ~ ihat remark was the last the collector was fated to make for some time, for the leader of the masked men had crept slyly around thecor- ner of the house, and as MacDarrow finished 8 ing, he darted suddenly forward and dealt Bi agpa a terrible whack on the head with the ‘‘soft” end of a good blackthorn twig. The stroke was almost powerful enough to have felled an ox, let alone a man, and Dooney, with just a single convulsive upward move- ment of the hands, as though striving to ward off the blow after it was received, went down like a log, stunned. Even Dooney’s hard head could not withstand such an awful crack. “‘ At last,” cried the avenger, “the process- server isin our hands, and bitter bad luck to us if we don’t jet even wid him!” 1 ES ST eT cm CHAPTER XXII. A BLOODY MESSAGE, j A WILDER bit of 6 than that ee as oyce’s Country, in the upper part of Conne-~- cane probably does not exist in all Ireland. The sterile soil laughs at the efforts of the hus- bandman, and few and far between are the holdings of the inhabitants. To a secluded glen in this wild and desolate part of the country the lieutenant had been conducted, and after the process-server had been secured, stunned by the vigorous blow, he had been blindfolded, his arms bound, his per- son secured to a rude hurdle which his assail- ants constructed from some pieces of wood which they procured from the cow-stable at the back of the process-server’s cabin; and then up into Joyce’s Country they bore the prisoner. Into the wild glen where the lieutenant had been carried, Dooney was conveyed. He had recovered the use of his senses long before the end of his journey, and he fully comprehended the terrible situation in which he had been placed. But what was the object of all this trouble? Why he was g carried away, he could not understand. He had come to calculate upon the chance of a sudden death, and, grown reckless by long ex- posure, had begun to believe that he bore a charmed life, proof against all danger; but this mysterious attack, what did it mean? Where was he being carried, and when he reached the place of destination what did his captors intend to do with him? At last, as we have said, in the secluded glen, far from all human habitation, the disguised men halted. In the center of the glen a large fire burned, and the strangely-disguised Irishmen gathering around it looked like so many demons fresh from the lower world. The moon, slowly rising, shed its soft light over the strange scene. The bandages were removed from the eyes of both of the captives and in astonishment they looked around them. The lieutenant had been seated upon a fallen tree, and when the process-server arrived, they placed him by the side of the officer. ‘*Hallo! by Jove! Have they got you, too?” Smithers exclaimed, as his eyes fell upon the in- former. ‘‘ Well, they say that misery loves company, but in this case I feel deuced sorry for you, and I wish that you were well out of the scrape.” ‘ Dooney was deadl R ga. for he suspected’ that some terrible ordeal was before him, but, when he found that the lieutenant was also a prisoner, in a measure it made him feel more tranquil. The Irishmen, however desperate, would never surely dare to offer violence to a man who wore her majesty’s uniform. Three of the disguised men who had been grcmpes together in the center of the glen, busi- y engaged in conversation, were evidently the leaders of the party, and when they separated, and the taller man of the three, the same who had acted as spokesman when Smithers was captured, approached the captives, both of them unde that operations were about to be begun. ‘* Lieutenant Smithers, mebbe ye think that it was joking I was in mete Bee house whin I told ye phat we bould boys of the moun- tain proposed to do,” he began, ‘“‘and we want - to convince ye that we are in earnest, so we have per this gintleman to come along.” “* By me faith, man, it’s yerself and yer com- rades that will rue night’s wourk afore ye are many daysolder, or my name is not Dooney MacDarrow!” the server cried, his courage be- ginning to return, and his inclination to try his usual bull game strengthening. “Yeo think that we will be afther repinting this night’s wourk, do ye?” **T do that same!”’ **Thin, by the soul of the mother that bore me, we'll do something so that we may have od cause to repint!” the disguised Irishman oae a volume of fearful meaning in his ne, MacDarrow shuddered despite his iron nerves. “Take care phat ye are about!” Dooney cried, in d ration. ‘‘I represint the law, do e mind? hin ye strike at me, ye break the w, and there isn’t one of ye to the fore here that won’t be afther repinting it afore ye are many days oulder.” “Oh, hould your whist, ye dirthy thafe of the world!” cried the masked leader of the band, in a tone of supreme contempt. ‘‘ Ye are only wasting yer breath; ye might as well talk to wan of these rocks and think to make an im- pression — it as to hope to move us from our P e don’t care the weight of a pin for he ow that ye talk so about, and I’m af- ther thinking that it’s mighty little good the law will do ye here.” ‘Ye don’t dare to kill me!” MacDarrow ex- claimed, t h impotent anger, ‘and if ye ill-treat me, I’ll remimber it ag’in’ ev ren Serene ee nae day that I live, that now **'Ye will have to find us out furst, ye hound of the law!” the Irish leader conliel.. “ But now, we have had talk enough; we want a jit- S (Elo) “comicboo