Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 108 — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

ee | ee —- _ ———----- = _—_—-—— ee ee we ee an ee ee ee ee ew UR es ee EE ee —— - - Th cnet xscnte Dita ae ssc - _ ————— -—-——- —- -— —-- = - _— ““My dear sir, they will not come back to- | yourself,” he answered. ‘‘Go back to your and his eyes glowed like burning coals a6 he night. The will make their next stand in the | men. We will fight.” gesticulated with true southern fervor. ' “Ah, your grace,” returned Clarence, in a melancholy tons, ‘‘ I know that I have little or no hope in loving this lady, but my heart is het than my sense. 1 cannot help loving her. she not lovely?” Diamantina shrugged his shoulders and re- tired into his usual trigid mask. “‘My dear sir, [never argue. Be pleased to see to your duties on thisside the camp. These men understand English. Most of them are Lascar's or ex-sepoys.”’ With a slight military salute he left Clarence to his own devices, and strolled off to the other sidoof the camp, where he could be seen in close conversation with Dom Gil. Clarence Hart, abashed to a degree he could hardly have deemed possible by the quiet au- thority of a man be had only known about five days, attended to his duties in silence. The camp was laid out with a strict view to defense. The horses were fastened around an inner square, eating their barley with the vigor- ous appetite of Arabians, and around them was drawn a chain of sentries, each man sheltered bebind a little pile of saddles on which he could rest his rifle. The Gatlings occupied the angles of the defense, placed in pairs, and the ground on the outside was clear and level, though the camp itself was full of palm-trees around the spring. The only weak point in the defense was in the direction of the little stream that issued from the spring. This was fringed with bushes that spread out at intervalsinto thickets and might possibly conceal lurking toes, though as yet they had seen none. ; ; larence, with the truly American instinct of distrusting a cover pear camp, thought he would go over to Dom Gil and ask whether he might not have these bushes cut down. e Brazilian seemed to understand English better than he spoke it, for he nodded assent to Hart’s reasonings, but for all that he replied: ** Oh, senhor i say no. Ze Arab-a s’all-a come-a dat vay, ’e be all-a right-a.” “Tt will be all right if they come in that way? But they can reach the camp in the dark per- ” Ky: om Gil laughed. ‘‘Perhaps-a! Ves’allsee, Go to your posk-a. Ze moon ’e s’all get low at dis hour.”’ Repelled again, for Dom Gil’s manner was de- cidedly brusque, Hart went back to his post which was at one of the angles overlooking the stream, Dom Gil occupying the other side, while the duke himself could be seen walking up and down the opposite face of the camp. The moon was now hanging just above the mountains that hid them from Dereeyah and had not more than five minutes to stay, when the whole valley suddenly started into life with a motley throng of Arabs coming from the hills all round, on horseback, on foot and camel- back, rushing to and fro, yelling loudly and firing into the oer. Where a moment before had been peace, Pan- demonium now reigned supreme. As long as the moon remained in sight the as- ellants boot from a close assault; but as soon as it sunk, and darkness fell over the valley, down they came with a swoop, and Clarence could Pony! Bem white cloaks flitting past within a few yards, while the bullets from their long muskets went singing overhead. ; But all this while the camp remained per- fectly silent. ee , The cooking fires had been extinguished with water long before, the aim of the Arabs was bad, and the only danger threatening the camp was that of a hand-to-hand fight in which num- bers might crush them. From this they were saved a moment later. Up from the of the camp soared a rocket with a sudden hiss that scared the Arabs, who had never seen anything of the sort before, and when it exploded it left in the air not merely a shower of stars but a blue light suspended from a tin parachute that illumined the valley for several hundred yards round, discovering a swarm of Arabs. CHAPTER XII. BUNNING THE GANTLET. Ivo this mass of foes at pistol range, eight Gatlings and some forty Winchester rifles sud- denly opened fire, pouring in a storm of missiles that cleft the mass asa stream of water might dissolve a bank of new-fallen snow! Only an instant they stood and then fled in wild confusion, the gb ess fire of the beleaguer- ed band pursuing them under the light of three more blue-light rockets, and leaving the whole valley strewn with dead bodies of men and ani- Is. For a little while the noise was deafening, and — the lights wens gd oe ae So ore the camp, only broken ne pl criés 0 ~ wounded caliitn left behind by their com- rades. Clarence had been too at his own post to attend to anything else, and he was considerably te hinelbee fr Whe duaksnew, "ang ) ON SS LLL LL LL LL LLL LLL LL Pass of El Katif.’ ‘*Ts your grace satisfied of that?” **So much so that Iam going to sleep. Did you notice how wild they fired?” ‘Yes. Do they always do that?” ** My dear sir, you do not understand. They dare not fire low for fear of the horses. They hoped to rush in and frighten them into run- ning, but they have trained them too well to frighten at firing. Those horses will buy us the road to the sea, my dear sir.” And the facts proved Diamantina to be right. Not only did the Arabs disturb them no more that night but next morning found the valley empty even of the dead bodies, which kad been carried off, while the whole country was desert- ed gd miles. er , : 1ey procee eisurely on their way, pass- ing an hat village and a town of no iaaiet ate. tensions, in both of which they saw nothing bat women and children; and noticed that all the operations of reeomaec seemed to be entirely suspended. very able bodied man in the country had vanished, and even Clarence could not avoid a feeling of apprehension at the un- wonted stillness. That night they halted among rocks in the ruins of an old castle, and found to their sur- prise a store of barley for the horses with an Arabic legend above it to the effect: “Allah will accept even a Christian who is kind to a horse.” It was evident that Fyzoul Abdallah was trembling for the fate of his darling horses, and willing to make almost any sacrifice to get them back. Clarence could not wonder at his anxiety when he looked at the beautiful crea- tures round him. They were born war-horses. Not a symptom of fatigue ap in any one of them, though they had marched forty miles a day. On the contrary, most of them were fretting for a gallop in the evening, and ha felt certain that but for the gun camels, they could have been at Tuat in a single day’s ride. No disturbance came near them that night nor in the morning till they had come wit about ten miles of Tuat, and approached the av Ng the Highlands by the narrow pass of El Here at last they found their foes to the num- ber of several thousand men, horse, foot and camel riders, spread over the rocks around the pass and evidently determined to stop further advance, Clarence looked at them and felt a sinking of his heart, for it seemed impossible for their lit- tle han of men to make any head i such a vast host. Not so Dom Gil and the duke, who advanced with perfect coolness till within about a quarter of a mile of the Arab host, when the gun cam- els were brought into line and Dom Gil rode forward alone, waving a white handkerchief on a cane, as if to invite a parley, while the cara- van halted. The Arabs on their side seemed to be equally willing to talk peace, for they did not offer to fire, anda party came forward to meet Dom Gil. Attheir head was Fyzoul Abdallah him- self, mounted on Al Kader, and his tones were full of eagerness as he asked: ‘Will the Lord of Jewels yield? I do not wish to kill my brother.” ‘*My master demands free passage for him- ony his men to the sea,” was Dom Gil’s only reply. Nite bas stolen my horses. Will he give them up?” asked Fyzoul. ‘** When they have carried him to the sea; not before.” ‘* Will he give them up then?” ‘He will, all but a horse and two mares, which he retains as an indemnity for the attack on his camp.” ‘* Then he shall never see the coast,” cried Fy- zoul, indignantly. ‘I will cut out his heart with my own hand.” Dom Gil laughed contemptuously in the Arab’s face. He knew that'a high tone imposes on barbarians. ‘Dog of an Arab,” he answered, “‘if I raise my hand now you die before you can reach your own men. Do you not see my master’s guns are trained on you?” Fyzoul paled as he looked over at the eight mitrailleurs grinning toward him. He had seen them at work before. ‘* Now hearken to what my master will do.” continued the Brazilian officer, harshly, ‘ We are about to advance in column through your army. If they draw back and let us pass to our ships we will turn the horses loose on the beach for you. If you conclude to fight, each man has an order to shoot his horse dead and make a breastwork of his body, after which we shall mow your people down as we did the other gg yzoul’s eyes glared with malice and terror combined. “Tf you kill my horses, I will roast you all alive,”* he hissed. Dom. Gil threw forward his carbine with a ras cial word like that and TI shoot: + But Fyzoul was not the man to fight a ready foe. He preferred murdering an unwary one. Moreover, he did not like the looks of Dom Gil’s gun pointing at him. ‘Why should we quarrel?’ he asked, in his old oily manner. ‘‘ Let the Lord of Jewels ad- vance. My men shall not harm him if he gives up the horses as he has promised.” **Then order them back,’ answered the wa Brazilian. ‘‘If aman comes within pistol-shot, our men kill all the horses and march through * on foot.” The sweat rolled down Fyzoul’s face with fear and perplexity, but he was obliged to yield. Love for his horses, his most precious ssession, overpowered everything else and 1e reluctantly consented to the terms imposed. Ten minutes later the Arabs had left the pass free and the whole of Diamantina’s caravan de- filed safely through, each mounted man holding a cocked pistol close to the head of his mount while the Arabs watched the maneuver in dumb emacs Before night they had reached the yacht in safety. CHAPTER XIIL. H. M. S. SNAPPER, COMMANDER OWEN LAWTON, R. N., was pa- cing the weather side of the quarter-deck of H. M. Gunboat Snapper, four guns, as that re- nowned and conspicuously neat vessel made her way toward Aden where she was to coal for her homeward si by pel The Snapper had been out two years cruising off Zanzibar after slavers, and it was Com- mander Lawton’s boast that he had done more work than all the rest Pane together, and had practically put down the slave-trade on the east coast of Africa. “ve earned my furlough, by Jove!” he re- marked to Lieutenant Sloman his executive officer, about fifteen times a day, ‘‘and b Jove I've gota right to crow over the others. To which Sloman invariably replied: ‘**T think so too, captain.” Commander Lawton was known in the ser- vice by two appellations. His superiors called him ‘‘a promising officer ;” his su ordinates, es- ially those before the mast, voted him to be ‘a Tartar.” His discipline was severe, his tem- per domineering, and he was but little liked, . though his ability was respected. As he walked the quarter-deck of the Snap- per, his sharp, haughty face, with its bushy red side-whiskers and clean-shaven lips and chin, looked forbidding enough to justify the awe with which he was regarded by every one in the vessel except Sloman. His spy-glass lay on the poop-rail, for there had been nothing in sight all the morning to justify its use, and Commander Lawton was in a brown study when he wasstartled by the mu- sical cry of the look-out coming down from the fore cross-trees: ‘* Sail ho!” _ ““Where, where?” be asked, sharply, snatch ing up his glass in a moment. “ ee points off the lee bow, sir. Looks like a felucca going to Aden.” The captain leveled the glass in the direction indicated, and beheld three white lateen sails shining in the sun some twelve miles away, trimmed flat as if the felucca was going to cross his course. “Crack on all she’ll bear, Sloman, and tell the oy eer ge! to get = steam,” said the captain to his first officer, and the crew of the Snapper began to spreada number of staysails, while the stokers down below raked out the ashes from the banked-up fires under which the Snap had been cruising, while the engineer’s gang the screw down into its well once more. The wind was steady and intensely hot from the coast of Africa, thus giving the naprer the weather-gage of the felucca, and the English boat soon began to glide through the water ata high rate of speed. . or the next half-hour the captain said but little, but at the end of that time the screw be- gan to revolve while the smoke from the Snap- per’s funnel showed that the engineer had got up steam at last. Soon afterward that officer touched his cap to report: ‘Steam up, sir, and only coal for an hour's full head.” “Very , Mr. Grimes; put on all you can and drive her ahead. We'll catch that fellow before you give out.” In fact the Snapper was running at some eighteen knots an hour, what with the wind and her steam, and every one thought they would soon overhaul the felucca, which Lawton was chasing as much for the vanity of showing the of his vessel as for any ulterior purpose, But, tothe surprise of Commander Lawton, after an hour had passed, and the revolutions of the screw became few and feeble, the white sails of the felucca seemed as distant as ever, and they became convinced that the Sney per GoOmichbooks (E(@)