Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

——— ee — Co ee ee eee eee nee sight. “‘O’Shea,I begin to be afraid that we’re in bad hands.”’ “ Didn’t I tell you so, Lumley?’ cried Lorelia, sob- bing. ‘I warned you not to trust yourself among these people; and here you are, with nothing to make us more wretched except having our throats t. All this time, since the first pirate had looked over- board, they had seen nothing of the felucca’s crew. She must have had a steersman and hands, but the tall bulwarks hid them from view. Presently, finding themselves left entirely alone in the boat, the courage of all an to revive; and O’Shea proposed in a whisper that he should cut the ainter, and that they should try to pullaway. Sir umley assented, and made ready the oars to put out, while O’Shea opened his pocket-knife. But no sooner did the blade come near the rope, than in a trice a dozen heads were thrust over the bulwar while a torrent of Greek imprecations convinced them that they were watched. O’Shea pretended not to understand, and contin- ued sawing away at the rope, when, “jlash / bang!” went a pistol, and a bullet whizzed close to his head and splashed into the sea beside him, causing him to drop his work in a hurry. That sort of Greek makes itself quickly understood. But the attempt seemed to have satisfled their captors that some new plan was necessary, for ye A crowded to the side of the felucca and began to them by words and signs to come on board. Again their Greek made itself comprehended in short order, for when Sir Lumley shook his head and called out, ‘‘No! No!” one of the mustached and kilted mariners deliberately pulled out a huge Turkish pistol, with a bore about an inch in diameter, and blazed away into the bottom of the boat, close to Sir emg yt ¥% —- such a leak that the beat began to na hurry. After that little lesson in modern Greek there was no more hesitation, aunt Lorelia being one of the first to scramble up the side of the felucca, so that they were soon on board a large, dirty Mediterranean sponge-vessel, as it seemed to be, with greasy and sandy decks, a —t smell of stale fish and oil, while the most ferocious lot of cutthroats in the shape of a crew crowded curiously round them. Every man was armed to the teeth, with knives and pistols stuck in silk sashes; and they all looked asif they would use them in a moment, as indeed they would. They were as handsome a lot of villains, too, as ever were seen, tall and slender with pure classical profiles and long black curls an mustaches. Aunt Lorelia, with all her terror couldn't help thinking of Byron’s Conrad and other ous ue scamps, and fancying herself a new Medora, of ncertain age. z Once on boul however, they were treated with perfect courtesy. The sailors saluted them with: ‘* Kaliméra, keerie,”’ to the men, “ KXaliméra guinie,”’ to the ladies; which, as they already knew, was the common salutation. Then they were motioned to the stern of the felucca, where they were provided with seats on a bench; and the vessel uared away her broad sails to the south wind, and left the shores of Crete behind, stretching away toward the distant coast of Greece itself, barely visible on the northern horizon after the shores of Crete sunk beneath the ves. bee were they going and what were these nge-fishers doing in the role of pirates? None of them could tell; but an uneasy sense of eae im a took possession of all as night fell, still the felucca held on her course, CHAPTER XXXII. MR. SOCRATES. Tre native home of the brigand, pure and simple, has been found in Greece for a good many years. The Bandits of the Abruzzi in I , and the road- ents of Australia and early California, are much like them in general characteristics; but they have not yet attained the perfect system of plunder and terrorism which marks the Greek brigand in his native mountains. All the efforts of the Greek eevee to-day are unable to stamp out this iar feature of Greek society, and it will probably never be done ,till the — is as thickly populated as mp, ere The brigands live in the mountains, use Greek inesnnne ste Deey inaccessible to anything but and Greek robbers. eomney keep near the Turkish frontier, so that, if the Greek troops chase them, they can quickly es- cape into neutral territory. If the Turks take of- fense at their pranks on Moslem soil then they are back in Greece and have become ardent patriots in v few hours. r All the villagers know them; fear them, hide them; lie for them; pay blackmail to them; and share their plunder whenever the bandits come into houses for a week’s debauch after a good haul. ! Such are the Greek brigands to-day. pg AE i 0 they varied their little amusements on land by sleatien, expeditions at sea, till serew steamers and merit 8 bora rendered that sort of thing too danger- ous. Their present piracies are therefore confined to the persons of brother Greeks of other provinces, r devils of Syrian fruit merchants and such like. They avoid fo ers, whose governments have stenmahipe, c g big guns. Up in the wildest fastnesess of the Morean moun- tains lived for a good many years a ve picturesque and remarkably wicked ol rson 0 name of Keerie Sokrahtié, or as we should call him Mr. So- crates. Mr. Socrates, in the spring of 1877, rejoiced in a very venerable white beard, which gave him the ap- pearance of his distinguished namesake of old, but which did not prevent him from being the most dar- ing, the richest and the most successful brigand of Greece since the days of Hadji Stavros, made famous by Edmund About. Keerie Sokr4htié was dressed in the usual gor- us style of Greek brigands, most of his fortune ing on his person or those of his sons and daugh- ters, in the shape of gold and jewels. Among other evidences of wealth, he essed about a dozen American revolvers, of the old pattern, very rare in | except among troops, and he knew how to use them. Keerie Sokraktié, or Mr. Socrates, (as we will eall ; Henn nn nner Sst ——_— —— OC eee Oe ae FS eee OO naeeOc=<00 0 es 05 Isa, me The Duke of Diamonds. him for the sake of our readers,) was looking out over the beautiful panorama below; the bay of Egina; Athens; the Pirgeus; the thousand islands of the blue — sea; the olive-clad hills of Atti and the white ruins of old temples; when he hear the cry of an owl in broad daylight, and smiled, well leased. It was the signa] that there were travelers ge that way, and that the sentries of the band ha ae them. he thrifty old_ gentleman instantly dropped be- hind a rock on which he had been leaning, took off his gold-embroidered cap, stuck his head into the midst of a tuft of heather among the rocks, and peered out into the pass below. He and his band had a way of taking toll of all Pe le passing on the mountain road from Athens to ey, through the renowned defile of Thermopyle. Presently he saw the leaders of a large party of men coming up the rugged road. At the head was a dark, handsome gentleman, on a mare of wonderful beauty, closely followed by alady ina dark blue habit, equally well mounted, and Mr. Socrates grinned with delight, as he said to himself: “These are English chickens; they will bear a good deal of plucking.”’ After the lady and gentleman came a long string of ee ge eer each guarded by a couple of men on foot, all of whom wore a Greek uniform of some sort. Old Socrates counted forty men, and began to doubt whether he could dispose of them so easily as he had at first pm we when his attention was at- tracted by a noise above his head. Turning quickly, for brigands are always nervous about things above them, he beheld the bright bar- rel of a carbine leveled at him, the noise being caused by the cocking of the piece. To see a gun and to fight back, were with Mr. Soc- rates but one idea, and out came one of his famous revolvers in a minute, when he was arrested by a voice shouting down to him: ‘The hill’s fullof them. Don’t fire!” He recognized the voice of his own lieutenant; and & moment later out came his band, twenty-three in number, all told, looking chop-fallen. They seemed to have been for once completely entrap- ped. Mr. Socrates saw gun-barrels on the top of every rock above him, saw the travelers in front of him rar tage halting, and finally concluded that the best thing he could do was to come boldly out and claim to be a peaceable peasant. Therefore Mr. Socrates put up his pistol; pulled out his sash as broad as he could get it, to cover his arsenal; then walked out as meekly as any nice old gentleman taking a stroll, and remarked, affa- bly; A Kaliméra, keerie ; Kaliméra, guinie” (Good-day, sir; good-day, ma’am), The lady and gentleman in front smiled at him, and the gentleman said, in very good Romaic: = Good-day Mr. Socrates. I am very happy to meet you, a last. I wish you to do a little favor, for which I will pay you liberally.” Mr. Socrates bowed to the ground. ‘**T am the lowest slave of your ve excellency. Itook you for a cap come to take me into Athens.”’ The gentleman smiled again. ‘“*Oh, no. Ihave too much sympathy with every- thing free to wish to put even a tiger in a cage. These are only my servants. Please to show me where an live,” Mr. Socrates hesitated. The stranger divined the cause and went on in the same gentle way. ‘You do not know who I am. tell you. Have ee ever heard of the Duke of Diamantina?” Mr. rates pulled his beard in a meditative way. P ‘No, keerie, if your excellency is pleased to par- on me.”’ ‘*The Turks call me the Lord of all Jewels. . I see that you have a very handsome yataghan there. Let me exchange this for it.’ And he drew from under his coat a small revolver, barrel and cylinder heavily gilt, while the butt posi- tively blazed with diamonds, set in rough silver. Keerie Sokréhtié uttered a cry of rapture and ex- cha weapons in a t ing. He was an old person of uncommon igen “Your excellency is worthy to be the King of Greece,” he protested, ‘* and only to give his orders for me to obey them.”’ ““Then show me where you live,’ smiled Diaman- tina, and the venerable professor of pillage obeyed. He had not very far to go. The roads in that vicinity were so little frequented that Mr. Socrates and his friends had no need to hide their ordinary habitations. He conducted the duke oy a narrow bridle-path to a little plateau on the top of a hill, which command- distinguished of the army, ed an extensive view of the country round, where was set up @ rude lean-to of poles, thatched with straw, before which the embers of a showed the kitchen of the band, such as it was. The Duke of Diamantina looked round him, and observed, quietly: “This is not stronghold. Where is that?” “Far from here,” answered Mr. Socrates, eva- sively. ‘‘ We have more than one.” ‘* Well,” replied the duke, ‘in that case this must do for awhile. I wish to hold a little private talk with you. Order all your band back out of hear- i Vid P "Keerie Sokraéhtié obeyed, much mystified, and the attendants all retired to a distance, from whence they observed the duke and the lady mains earnest- ly with the old robber-chief for nearly an hour. At ae oe of that time Mr. Socrates was heard to say aloud: 4 Your excellency shall be satisfied. On my head be it.” CHAPTER XXxXTI. IN A SPERONARE. CLARENCE HART was doomed to experience a good many mystifications before he again saw either the duke or Dom Gil. The Euphrosyne, on which he embarked for Cyprus, was one of Mr. Papadoulos’s vessels, and she proved to be a slow sailer, without a sage man on board who understood but G and Hart found he had plenty of time to learn the new language. Whenever the wind was favorable, the Bu- 2 phrosyne sailed toward Larnaca, but whenever it shifted she did not attempt to hold her course, but let it carry her away where it would. Thus it was three weeks from the time he left Alexandria before he reached Cyprus, which is onl three days’ sailing, and as he had expected, found that the duke’s yacht had gone. Followin out his instructions, he landed and crossed the islan to Nikosia, on the northern shore, where he expect- ed to find ‘* Al Djemmel” (The Camel) the duke’s provision ship. But no ship was there; nothing but a few feluccas and brigantines loading with copper for Stamboul, and one Jittle Greek craft with a half- deck and single mast, whose me, oe hearing of his dilemma, told him the Djemmel had sailed for Ath- ens, and offered to take him there. Beginning to feel angry as well as puzzled at the way in which he was being treated, he accepted the offer, determined, in case he did not find eccen- tric employer at Athens, to throw up the jcb and write home to his mother, telling her how he had found and lost the long sought Gilbert Carver. The Greek speronare (for such is the name of that sort of craft) proved a much faster sailer than the ae es bee and soon took him past Smyrna, Aleppo and all the other towns on the coast of Asia Minor, touching at Crete and passing Negropont, till one fine day the skipper pointed out a ine of purple me toward the sunset and said to Hart with a smile: “* Na to Athenie, keerie*’ (There is Athens, sir). And Clarence looked out with a strange leaping of his heart, as he recognized for the first time a clus- ter of white dots on the face of the hills which he knew to be the far-famed capital of old Greece. This was Athens, and he had seen it at last from the deck of such a little Greek boat as once might have carried St. Paul and his fortunes. Then he scanned the sea all round, and noticed that there was os a crowd of sails in ht, all apenae toward the north, and realized that he was one of the great avenues of Eastern trade. There were stately square-rigged English mer- chantmen going to Stamboul, French luggers and chassemarées, Spanish, Italian and Greek feluccas and speronares, all under a cloud of sail, all beauti- ful and picturesque. Cr their bows and standing toward the coast of the Morea, was a large felucca with three masts, brown sails and a general dirty ap ce. Hart asked the Greek captain what was this felucca, for he was beginning to understand Romaic pretty well by this time, and received for answer: ‘““Only a sponge-fisher, keerie. They’re always dirty and most of them are full of thieves.”’ Hart took little more notice of the dirty = vessel which they were rapidly overhauling, for she was a slow sailer, till just as they were passing her, he was amazed to hear his own name pronounced in a woman’s voice, in accents of one imploring help. “ Clarence! Clarence ! Help [”’ For a moment he thought he must be dreaming. The voice was the voice of Helen Lawton, the woman he loved, and who, as he thought, loved him. Where did it come from? There was nothing sight but that dirty sponge-felucca, and on her decks he could see only a few picturesque ruffians in Greek costume, with long knives in their sashes, They were busied in the ordinary tasks of Mediter- ranean sailors coming near land, getting the anchor ready, coiling away the superfluous ropes, and did not seem to notice the speronare. Presently he heard the voice again, and this time there was no mistake. ‘ Olarence! Clarence Hart! For God’s sake, help Us 7? He stared at the felucca, which was about fifty a to leeward, and felt sure the voice came from ence. But where was Helen? He went to the side and peered anxiously at the felucca, when Helen’s voice cried: “We are here in the cabin. We are pris—”’ The voice abruptly stopped, and soon saw the reason why. One of the picturesque and ruffianly Greeks on deck had heard her, and now rushed below, baring his yr, enon C nce shouted out in Romaic to the felucca’s people: 4 Whom have you in the cabin?”’ The men looked at the speronare in surprise and seemed to notice for the first time that the little trader had one of the *‘ Western lords’ on board. Hart’s Bt hat informed them. They held a short confused consultation together in low tones, and then one of them called out: ‘Mind your own affairs. Keep out of our way, if you want a whole skin.”’ In a moment Hart’s blood was up. He had seen so much of the bullying ways of peans in the East that he felt he must do a little bluster on his own account. Therefore he mustered all the Romaic he knew, and called out, in a commanding tone: ‘Give up that lady at once, or ll have your ves- sel sunk.”’ The spokesman of the Greeks gave a coarse laugh, made a gesture of contempt, and retorted: ‘If you don’t sheer off I'll kill you, old dog-face.”’ Hart could help a smile at the epithet ‘* kinopees”’ (dog-face) as he heard it. This Homer puts into the mouth of Achilles, when he berates Agamemnon in the Iliad. To enforce his own reply he turned the belt he wore under his loose sack-coat, and brought his two revolvers, a present from the duke, to the front. <a 7 don’t heave-to at once, I'll make a hole in you,” he answered. The next moment every Greek on the felucca had out apistol of some sort, and was blazing away at him. But inasmuch as they were all large, old-fashioned flint-lock concerns, most of them missed fire; and all that went off missed him ; for it is by no means easy to hit a man in a chopping sea, when both marksmen and mark are bobbing up and down be- fore a brisk gale. Naturally Hart was not the man to stand this sort of th a and out came his two revol- vers in all glory of ivory butts and white plat- Vatehing his.ehanee, he sent three or four ‘shots comicbooks - ~ t. - €or oa