Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

- - = =— o —= ——— | | | | ——_ -_~— —_—-, -_—— ———_- -_- = - 24 “ Now, cunnel, I’m read “Then give me the p savagely. “*T said you should have it and so you shall,’”’ was the quiet reply, ‘‘ but you ain’t going to shoot any one of this crowd. Now look here. I’m goin’ to = this pistol to Alkibi4hdé here. He shall take it own the stream to that big rock and leave it there. If you want it go and get it there.” o his surprise Sir Lumley nodded as if satisfied. = 4 as you please,”’ he said. ‘‘I only want the pistol.” Then Alkibidhdé set off at a gallop down the valle | and the baronet turned to his daughter and shoo - his finger at her in a menacing manner as he said: “You made me disgrace myself just now, Helen. I hope you'll be sorry for it before night. Good-by.”’ But before he could go Helen was clinging around him in tears beggi him to forgive her, and he relented so far as to kiss her coldly on the brow as for you.”’ l,”’ snarled Sir Lumley, he said: ‘“‘Good-by. If these gentlemen choose to stop me they can doit. I’m going to Athens on foot to com- plain to the British consul.”’ Carver sneered as he went off. “ All the British consul can do can’t hurt us,’ he called out after Sir Lumley. ‘‘ Walk off your tem- per among the mountains. You can’t leave them,” He thought that the angry and much humiliated baronet was trying to escape and he well knew the futility of any such attempts. At a sign from him two of the mountaineers rose and went after Sir ey. whom be f saw approach the big stone and stoop for the pistol. Then the baronet turned toward them and threw up his hands to heaven as if imprecating a curse. A moment later Helen uttered a fearful shriek and fell senseless to the ground. At the same instant came a flash and report. Sir Lumley had blown out his brains, unable to bear his impending disgrace and poverty. CHAPTER XXXVII. UNCLE AND NEPHEW. CLARENCE HART, weary and disheartened, sat in the public room of the Holel de Pericles, in Athens, writing a letter home to hismother. He had utterly failed to find Helen Lawton and had been unable even to meet with the supposed be gor hey in which he had seen her, though he had visited every felucca in the harbor of the Pirseus, and sharply scanned every Greek sailor he had met. He had besieged all the consuls for help, but in vain. None of them would take any trouble on his vague statement of what he had seen, and all seem- ed to be more or less indifferent about the fate of the Lawtons, “My dear fellow, they’ve got among the brigands,”’ said the American consul, “‘and they'll have to pay a good round sum for their deliverance, that’s all. ecan’t interfere unless you show us where they are. Funny thing about those sponge-fishers, though. | Didn’t believe there was any trace of piracy left in | these seas.”’ The English consul and all the rest were “ sorry, but such things happened every day.” And so poor Clarence sat down with a weary heart | to write home to his mother all about his adventures and misfortunes, and especially of the eg ance of Dom Gil Grabador, whom he fancied be his unele Gilbert Carver. While he was still writing away he heard some one cough near him, and looked up, for the cough seemed designed to gain his attention. There, precise and formal as ever, in his glossy black, sat Mr. Glypteros, the Yankee-Greek partner of Papadoulos, Demetri and company, a grim smile mantling on his yellow visage. wis Mr. Hart,” exclaimed this person, with- out the slightest ceremony, “if you ain’t the con- sarnedest, darnedest, pig-headed son of a sea cook I ever knew, bu’st me into fiddle-strings.”’ For a moment Clarence was too much amazed to answer, and then he jumped up, demanding furious- Vie What do you mean, sir?” Who are you talking ‘*To the darndest pig-headed fool in all Athens,”’ was the composed answer. “A feller that ain’t got no more brains than a weasel, and ought to be kick- ed all the way from the Acropolis to the Pireeus, What do you say to that, sonny?” Clarence Hart could hardly believe his eyes and ears. This man was actually jeering at him in a public room, and he looked round him to see if any one was within hearing. There were only two wait- ers, but they were grinning and his temper rose to fever heat. He turned furiously round on Mr. Glypteros, and lo! that gentleman had snatched up his letter to his mother and was coolly reading it! In an instant Hart rushed at him, clutched at the letter, and a moment later was locked in the long nervous arms of Mr. Glypteros, who handled him with the strength of a steam-engine, lifted him as if he had been a child, and finally forced him down in- to a chair, tripping his feet from under him, remark- ing dryly: No, you don’t, sonny! Your uncle's got hold of ou, and I want you to knowit. The old man ain’t ost his gripe yet. No, sir-ree, bob!” — There was something so peculiar in the way in which this was said, with its quaint old-fashioned Americanisms, that Clarence felt all his fury givin way to irresistible laughter, and then an idea sud- denly cameinto his head as he stared at Mr. Glyp- teros. “ ba is it possible you are Gilbert Carver after all? at an idiot I’ve been.” His uncle (for it was of course none other) gave a dry sniff, and made no answer save to smooth out the crumpled letter and read it aloud with com- ments. ‘**7 cannot help thinking I’ve found poor uncle Gilbert at last in the person of Dom Gil—’ Waal, sonny, if you'd not been as blind as a bat, you’d have seen that the first day we met. ‘But alas, I fear I have lost him—’ I should think so,” Then he turned on Clarence with a face of affected flerceness. ‘““What made you insult the Duke of Diamantina? Hadn’t he been kind enough to you?” “He had,” replied the other, with a blush of em- barrassment, ‘but he refused to let me save Miss SV waa Se asa - The Duke of Diamonds. ant Lawton from the pirates, and now she’s ost.’ “Oh, that’s it, is it? Waal, suppose I show you the lady herein Athens under the duke’s protection, what would you say to that ?” ** But is it true, sir?” “Waal, I ain’t used to tellin’ lies, Clarence, and I say it’s so. Say, you’re sweet on that girl, ain’t you? Own up now.”’ “If you mean do I love her, sir, you are right,” was Clarences’s dignified answer. ‘* The lady is one of the best women I know.” Gilbert Carver dropped his slangy way of talking at once as soon as he saw that his nephew felt hurt. He held out his hand and shook that of Clarence warmly and affectionately as he said: “Olarence, you have spoken the truth. She is one of the noblest women that ever breathed God’s air, andif you ever get her you will be a lucky man,”’ ** Ah, sir, there’s not much chance of that,” said oor Hart, sadly. If she is safe, as you say, with iamantina, he is the man she will make happy not me. What chance has a poor man like me got to win the child of an English baronet? Don’t talk of it, sir. The duke does what he likes with any wo- man.” Carver uttered a low chuckle. ““And do you think Diamantina would marry Helen Lawton, if she’d have him?” “Why not, sir? She is not beneath him.” “That’s nothing to do with it. Do you suppose he’d marry a girl whose father murdered his father?’ “ Why, sir, what—”’ , ‘ You don’t mean to say you don’t know who he s > *‘No, sir. I have of course suspected.”’ “Then ask yourself what possible circumstances could make a match between those two. Your love has blinded you, young man, When the duke warned you away from her he did it to keep you from suffering in the retribution that was yet to come on the Lawtone. Now it has come. Justice has been done. Sir Lumley Lawton is dead,” * Dead, sir?’’ “Dead by his own hand; afraid to face the dis- ane his own hand wrought for himself. And elen is alone in the world now.” “* Oh, sir, tell me where she is, Let me go to her quickly.” “Stop, Clarence!”’ Carver’s face was grave as he laid his hand on his nephew’s shoulder. My boy, twenty years ago that girl’s father dragged a noble man to foul disgrace and death. It has been my aim in life to restore the Rajah’s son to his father’s throne. I brought him up, gave him his education in the wide world, hel § mother to carry off the hidden treasures of Rajah Kalidasa and increased them tenfold by wise trading. You understand now how Papadoulos, Demetri and Co. are only another name for Diamantina’s millions. I have amassed those millions for him and he has not been ungrateful. Do you know why we heaped ve, i “Hardly, sir. I suppose—”’ eP was to seat Kalidasa on his father’s thron and that can only be done by the public exposure o Lawton’s crime.”’ ** Well, sir, how does that—”’ “Concern you? Thus. If you marry Helen Law- ton you marry into a family whose shame will soon be published to the world.”’ ‘Be it so, sir. She has had no share in the guilt, and should have none in the shame,” ** Nevertheless, it will come.”’ “Then the more need she should have a’husband to shield her from the sneers of the world,” “You will marry her then?” ‘** Tf she will have me, sir.”’ “Then you're true grit, boy,” answered Carver, a kind look lighting up his rugged features. “I’ve only been trying you all this e. Come with me!”’ lof wonder Clarence followed his newly-found uncle from the hotel to one of the handsomest houses in Athens. ““Here,”’ said the elder, ‘‘is Diamantina’s house. Helen is there. I expect you to apologize to the duke for leaving him so rudely the other day.” Clarence flushed up. “ T'll do it, sir,” he answered, “ though I still think I was right.”’ CHAPTER XXXVIII. CONCLUSION, But, Clarence was never destined to make a formal apology to the Duke of Diamantina. As he entered the house and went into one of the grand saloons with Carver, he was met by the princess, who came running out to greet him as if she had known him from his von he ate and embraced him—to his in- tense confusion—and called out to her son: ‘“‘ Kalidasa, Kalidasa, here is our young prodigal returned! Ah, Monsieur Clarence, how coud you think my son would be cruel to zat sweet little lady? She is in there, and we wish you to console her; is it not so, Kalidasa?”’ And then Diamantina came forward and clas his hand with the warmth of an Englishman, while his large eyes were full of tears, and he whispered: “Thave forgiven them all now. He did my fa- ther’s memory justice, ere he died, and we must re- pair the injury to his child.” ‘““What do you mean?” asked Clarence, who re- membered his uncle’s words: ‘* Will you forego the claim to the throne of Krishnapoor in deed?” ‘My dear sir,” answered the other, with his old sweet smile, “Krishnapoor has forgotten us now, and I have lived long enough in the world to know that, with all her cruelties, England governs the State better than the Rajahs of old did. I shall es- tablish my claim by a private petition, and clear my father’s name from obloquy; but, I shall never see India eae My race came from the Caucasus, and to the Caucasus it will return for fresh blood. J my- self owe much of my vigor to the white blood of my mother, and have Sesh to much of civilization to give it up for the lazy barbarism of a Hindoo Rajah, ut come; we waste time. I have prepared the lady for your visit, and you will remember that in wooing her you woo as the nephew of my friend and benefactor, Gilbert Carver, and the heir of a fortune such as is not often seen in America. * He pointed to the door of the boudoir into which ™, a the Princess Melapetros had dust gone, and Clarence entering, found himself in the presence of Helen Lawton in deep black. 7) peti New Year’s eve, 1879, in the city of Cairo, and the Diamantina Palace is blazin with light within and without, while the strains of the bands playing in Ezbekiah Park mingle with the songs, nch, Italian, Greek and Arab that float up to the stars from hundreds of little cafés chantants all through the modern quarter of Cairo. There isa wedding going on at the Diamantina mansion, and the duke is bland and smiling as ever though heis not the bridegroom. There is the chaplain of the American mission to rform the ceremony, and the bride is none other an the Princess Melapetros, as beautiful as ever, who stands beside a tall, thin man with a long, ointed gray beard, who looks old enough to be her ather. His breast covered with gold embroidery, his dark blue uniform, red fez and scimitar, show him to be an officer of rank in the Khedive’s service, and the guests all speak of him_with respect as Kahvah Pasha, the Intendant of Finances for the new Khedive, Mohammed Tewfik Pasha. Among the guests we notice a young American face, the wearer dressed in the E tian uniform of a lower grade, and having on his arma beautiful young lady, who is evidently his wife. ‘* By the powers, Hart gy Says a voice, close to his elbow, “‘theould man looks young , don’t he? and as for the princess, bedad, she we the colleen here to shame for her twent years!” The speaker is none other than O'Shea, in evening dress, with a watch chain glittering with diamonds falling over his vest. Hart Bey smiles. ‘* Where’s Mrs. O’Shea, to-night?” heasks. ‘“* Hasn’t she come?”’ ' O’Shea winks mysteriousiy, and says in a whisper, into Hart’s ear: “She never likes to come near the princess; they're the same age!” Is it true? It is. Captain O’Shea has married the fair Lore and neither has done so very badly. She has secur a real, live husband, and he has got back not o his watch, but fifty thousand pounds besides, whic came to him on his wedding day marked “ Sofoklé, Sokrahtié & Co.” ¢ Who they were, he never knew, nor did his wife enlighten him, while Helen naturally said nothing on the subject connected with so many nful memo- ries. None the less, it was Sir Lumley’s ill-gotten fortune, which, after being extorted from him by the brigand’s threats, had now been given back to his sister by the generous prince, from whose revenues it was originally stolen. For O’Shea, like a true-hearted Irishman, settled it all on his wife, and the pair lived in clover off the interest. Clarence Hart and his uncle are both to-day in the tian service as Kahvah Pasha and Hart Bey, and since the marriage of the former to the Princess Melapetros, the duke has been getting restless, and threatens to go to Vienna and marry some German princess, As for Helen Hart she has long since, in her happy union with Clarence, forgotten most of her troub eS; and Owen, who is now Lord Loughborough, by the death of his consumptive uncle, has left the navy and lives on his estates. THE END. Beadle's Dime Library. 72 Tom PHantom Hanp. By Albert W. Aiken... 10c 73 Tae Knieaut oF THE Rep Cross, By Dr. J. (ay a ewhtaek Wee ss 10¢ 74 CAPTAIN OF THE Riries. Capt. Mayne Reid.. 16c 75 GENTLEMAN GrorGe. By Albert W. Aiken... 10c 76 THE QueEN’s Musketeer. By Geo, Albony... 10c 7 Tae Frese or Frisco, By Albert W, Aiken.. 10c "8 Tus Mysterious Spy. By A. M. Grainger.... 10c 79 Jom Paentx. By Albert W. Aiken ....... evs. 10c 80 A Man or Nerve. By Philip S. Warne...... 10c 81 THe Human TIGER. — W. 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