Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 4: what you’re looking at

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

Means of your deliverance from aN 4. on 7 Oo rau WHRGGS | vem © math Os) We OD Ot. ew eee ee ee — could stand it no longer. With an impatient sigh, much at variance with his usual imper- turbable demeanor, he laid down his pipe, and said sharply to the black boy: “Go up and tell Dom Gil Grabador to make those people go to leeward or else sink them.” The boy vanished. To Dom Gil and all on board, the duke’s word was law and gospel combined. Without a mo- ment’s hesitation the tall officer hailed the slave dhow in bad Arabic: “Take your vile carcasses to leeward, sons of unwashed mothers, or |’ll sink you.” As he spoke, and as if by magic, the men on the watch whipped off one of the brass-bound cases that stood inside the bulwarks of the acht, and up went a bright steel mitrailleur, inged on a long bar, so thatit just peeped over the top of the rail and presented its circle of gleaming barrels at the slave dhow. The effect was immediate. There was a con- fusion of unintelligible yellsand Arabic orders, in the midst of which the dhow altered her course and took her vile odors out of the wea- ther-gage of the yacht. Not, however, before she had drifted within a hundred yards. The Duke of Diamantina, lazily smoking his hookah, saw the wild confusi_n on board as she sheered off; and a moment later two white es shot over the side of the slaver and plunged into the water with a splash. The duke half arose and saw two heads emerge from the water and come swimming toward the yacht. He knew they must be those of escaping slaves, but the white bodies particularly arrested his attention. Then the Arabs on the slaver opened fire with their long muskets at the two fugitives, and the duke frowned slightly. Turning to the waiting black boy, he said, as quietly as usual: “Tell Dom Gil to stop their firing.” This time the boy grinned as he vanished. The message suited him. A moment later, the powerfui tones of Dom Gil shouted, in the same inelegant but forcible Arabic which the slavers seemed to understand so well before: “Stop shooting, pigs; or we shoot too. Keep your slaves tight after this.” There was an immediate cessation of firing on board the dhow, though the reis beg .n to shout out all kinds of remonstrances against robbing a man of his property; but in the meantime the two swimmers reached the side of the cht, grappled a rope thrown them by one of he sailors at asignal from Dom Gil, and were auled on board, two white men, one red- bearded and burly, the other slender and blonde, They were both stripped of clothes, and cov- ered with raw patches where the skin had cracked under exposure to the sun, so that, al- together, they presented a pitiable appear- ce Dom Gil came to meet them, and his usual harp, stern face melted into lines expressing a certain grim kindness as he asked: “* Ingleez, yous’all be, eh? Ispik ze Ingleez lak native. Vere from, you s’all come?” The red-bearded man grinned in answer as he said in broad Irish: ‘‘ Faith, and we shall come home as soon as wecan get there. Is it where we came from? Out of the say, be the powers. Wrecked in a typhoon, and picked — a raft by the slave worse luck! I’m Captain Thaddeus O’Shea, o Her Majesty’s Department of Army Control, and thisis my friend, Mr. Hart, of America.” Dom Gil turned and looked at the younger man with interest. ** Americano you s’all be, aha? Ve s’all be brozairs. Ve s’all be all of America here, o ae del Diamantina an’ all. Is’all be Dom Gil Grabador, Commandante of de Naves Brazil- iano. Don’t you are feel cold? You s’all be have close, and s’all see o duque. Hola, An- tonio Senas!” He called the steward and gave him some rapid directions in Portuguese, when the man beckdned them forward and took them into the store-room of the yacht, down the main hatch which they found supplied with clothes of all descriptions and nationalities. e they were being hospitably entertain- ed, Dom Gil went down to the ca and re- spectfully saluted the duke, who asked in his usual quiet manner: ** Well, Dom Gil?” ** They are refu from a wreck; mé sefihor ; one Irish, the other an American. The Irish- man is an officer of the English staff, the other a civilian. I have sent them to be dressed. Will you see them?’ ‘‘ Are you sure neither is English?’ asked the ae oot mi, ‘“‘T can tell an hman, like a snake, b his tongue. N either is English.” tins ‘‘ Then let them come in. Dom Gil bowed and left the cabin, which he soon reéntered, leading O’Shea and . The duke rose from his lounge with easy politeness -and advanced to meet his guests saying, in ,» low Englisb of the utmost purity, and ina voice, with only a slight foreign accent; “Gentlemen, [ am rejoiced to becore the those raseals of ~_ The Duke of Diamonds. slave-hunters. Be pleased to consider this ves- sel and all in it as yours to command.” Then he stopped for O’Shea was staring at him as if he seen a ghost. The jaw of the Irishman had dropped, and his eyes were fixed and glassy, while he trembled as if he would “Ts the gentleman sick?’ asked the Duke of Diamantina. CHAPTER V. AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE, It was not without reason that the Duke asked O’Shea whether he was ill, for the cap- tain seemed in imminent danger of a fit. Dom Gil and Clarence Hart supported him on either side, while the Brazilian nobleman, with the coolness that marked his every motion, poured out a glass of sherbet and held it to his lips, say- ing: Lay the senhor down, Dom Gil. Perhaps he is sunstruck.”’ They were leading him to the lounge, when O’Shea stopped and stiffened up: then trembled again, and asked Dom Gil breathlessly : ‘‘For the love o’ God, darlin’, 5 ae that? Don’t lie to me! Who is he?” ‘Dat is Senhor Vom Afonso Vasco Vasquez Conde del Rio Bravo, Marquez del Pombal, and Duque del Diamantina,” answered Dom Gil, in his most imposing manner. ‘* And he’s not a ghost? A real true flesh- and-blood man?” asked O’Shea, in the same breathless way, Here the duke smiled, ** Here is my hand, senhor, to feel if I am flesh and blood.” As he spoke he grasped the hand of the stout Irishman with such a sudden and powerful gripe that his small slim hands seemed to be | made of steel wire; and the pain brought O’Shea to his senses more effectually than any other thing could have done, ‘* Yer honor’s alive,” he answered, in the tones of a soldier addressing an officer. Then he hesitated a moment and asked in a more collected way: ‘* Was your grace ever in India?” ‘‘T am a Brazilian,” answered the duke, calmly. ‘‘I have been in Goa, but we have not visited your parts yet.” O’Shea nodded his head and muttered: ‘*It can’t be. I must have dr’amed.” Then he bowed and apologized. “‘I beg pardon, your grace, but maybe it’s the sun made me rude. Those murderin’ divils of slavers strip us and left usin the sun till we were nigh dead. I’m thankful your grace was here, or maybe we’d be dead by this.” The Duke of Diamantina smiled in his quiet, unimpassioned way, and turned the conversa- tion by speaking to Clarence Hart. “You are an erican, senhor. I am re- oiced to see you, for we Brazilians are great riends of your people. Should I be imperti- nent were I to ask how you came in this plight?” ‘Not at all, your grace. Our story is soon told. Captain O’Shea and myself were passen- gers from Bombay on the steamer Benares, an old dle-wheel tub, that ought to have been condemned long ago. We were caught in a hoon and the ship foundered, after the cap- tain and officers had been swept overboard. Luckily for me, I owned a Boyton suit; and, thanks to that, I helped O’Shea and two of the lady peemnges off to a raft we made out of the wreck of the ship’s spars. Next day we were picked up by that slaver, whose poo at once put usin irons and placed the ladies in their cabin. They arestill there, to be sold as slaves, I presume, after they land.” o sooner had he finished than the duke turned to Dom Gil, saying: “Go to the slaver at once, and buy the two women they have on board. Pay whatever they ask. © are very fortunate if they have not gone already.” Clarence began to thank the duke earnestly for his kindness, but Diamantina waved his hand in a slighting manner. ““My dear sir, it is nothing. We must not allow ladies to be sold for a Moslem harem. Besides, it may be well to wait for thanks till we have them safe on board. I know these Arabs, and they are a very tricky race. One is never certain of them. Be quick, Dom Gil, and come back with the ladies as soon as you can. Dom Gil left the cabin while he was speaking, and vod heard the dash of oars almost im- mediately after, showing that the first officer of the yacht was on his way to the slaver. The duke clapped his hands and said some words in Portuguese to the black boy, who ran out and returned almost immediately with the steward, c ing a table ready set with all the luxuries of a opical climate, companied by ices that made O’Shea’s mouth water, as the duke said: “Your fare on the slaver was in all prob- ability not what you are accustomed to, gentle- men, May I hope you will take lunch with me, and honor my little boat by taking up your quarters here?” ‘Faith, and I'll own we're nearly starving, . Oe ee ee ee ee 2 he Ee EE your grace,” replied the Irishman, frankly. ‘I'd not be refusing lunch any time, and now I could ate raw beef.” “Then fall to, gentlemen,” answered their host, with his usual gentle courtesy, and they were not slow to obey the invitation, As they were slowly consuming the ices with which the luxurious repast concluded, Clarence observed; ‘* We hardly expected to find ices on the coast of Arabia.” ‘‘And yet you have them on the Bombay steamers and at Calcutta,” answered the duke, quietly. ‘* Yes, but the ice comes in ships from Amer- ica, and is very dear.” ‘* My dear sir, it is nothing but a question of a little trouble. I have my private provision- ship that follows me at intervals, and keeps me a5 Just now she is at Ismalia, loading with ice. It takes about a ton a day to keep the yacht cool in summer. You notice the temperature of the cabin. It is kept at seventy aegrees of your Fahrenheit thermometer, though it be more than a hundred outdoors, by means of my ice-spray. I will show you, if you will permit.” He pointed out to them, over the frame of each window, a bracket, which held a large sil- ver vase, from the foot of which a fine spray, almost invisible, was floating down across the window. ‘*'You have seen those little toys they call atomizers in the pharmacia—the apothecary’s? That is the whole secret of this cool air. The vases contain ice and sea-water, and it is per- fumed before it descends. It evaporates rapid- ly, and you feel the result. Will you smoke, gentlemen? I have the hookah if you prefer, or the cigar.” ‘‘Oh, give me a cigar, for the love o’ God. None of yer hookahs for me, bad luck to ’em. They’re too much like India,” said O’Shea, bluffiy. He seemed to be getting over his fear of the Duke of Diamantina. e latter eyed him with his usual bland calmness. ** You do not seem to like India very much, senhor?” ‘*Bedad, and I don’t, duke. ‘Tis a good country to rob, and a better to leave with the plunder.” : ‘* My dear sir,” smiled the other, handing bim a richly-chased silver jar full of the finest Havanas, ‘“‘that has been the logic of three thousand years of conquest in the world. The robber who carries off his plunder can spend it and come back for more, but he who sits down over his loot in India is apt to lose it to one stronger than he.” O’Shea cackled over his cigar as he lighted it. He could not enter into the soarings of phi- losophy, but he was an old East Indian and he had never smoked such a cigar before. ‘‘Where do ye get these cigars?’ he asked, ws sn g the aroma of the dark to- cco, “My dear sir, I grow them. My steward keeps the accounts of one estate I have in the rae: Abajo, in Cuba, and they come from there. Clarence Hart had been oe me | out of the stern windows while they were chatting thus idly, and saw the white gig of the yacht coming back with Dom Gil Grabador in the stern- sheets, but only accompanied by a single figure in female attire, closely Vv . In some agitation he turned to his host, say- ing: ef Dom Gil is coming back, but only with one. Can he have failed?’ j “My dear sir,” was the sublimely quiet reply, ‘‘my people never fail. You shall have your lad Fienda, unless they are killed before we find them, and even then their remains shall be turned over to your care.” Clarence was silenced by the absolute faith this man seemed to have in his own powers to accomplish anything, and he waited till the Brazilian officer entered the cabin, leading with him the unknown female, who struck an atti- tude as soon as she came in, threw back her vail, and fell at the feet of the duke, crying: ‘‘My brave preserver! Heaven bless you for saving an innocent maiden’s honor from the ruffian grasp of the infidel Arabs,” Clarence could not avoid turning away to conceal a smile, for it was none other than the Hon. Lorelia, painted in true Oriental fashion, her eyes made large and languishing by touch- ing the lids with black antimony, ber hair orna- mented with gold coins hanging over her fore- head, her slender and rather angular figure concealed by Oriental kaftan, sash and petti- coat trowsers. It was the Hon. Lorelia Lawton, transmogrified by the arts of the slave-trader to present the most captivating appearance of which she was capable, to attract the eye of a purchaser. O’Shea, who was behind her, grinned at Dom Gil, and the iron featuresof the Brazilian officer softened into a responsive look; but the ex- quisite courtesy of the Duke of Diamantina never failed him, and he raised the fair Lorelia from the carpet with his usual calm blandnesgs, telling her: ‘*Be of good eheer, madame, I am only too Comichbooks cor