Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 172 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

< i oe — SA TT te “The: Black Pivaks. Se ee ee ‘Senor, that is a strange story to tell here,” and the island commandant spoke with more respect in his tone than he had before used, yet | with evident doubt. Quentin in a commanding tone, as he entered the shanty where the captives were, and rudely laid bis hand upon the cot of the invalid, ‘“‘ How far is it to the place, senor?’ asked “ As you do not know me, senor, I will ex- St. Vale. plain, as under the circumstances it is your right to have an explanation. ‘‘T was a lieutenant on yonder vessel, killed a brother officer of his Majesty’s service, and e ped to the Biack Pirate’s vessel by a ruse, aud in a storm was wasbed from the deck of the brigantine, picked up by a small trader, and, strange to say, taken back to the Vulture, where I was uot yet regarded as an outcast, no dispatches having arrived from England. “Resuming my rank, I came on this cruise with her, and seeing your pursuit of a fugitive, took command of the boat that tried to thwart you. “There are men here that know me, having been on the Black Pirate’s vessel with me, ard I have no other explanation to make, and will only say that, as your superior, Senor Quentin, I assume command.”’ There was no worse desperado in the Black Pirates’ entire band than Jacques Quentin, but he was completely awed by the cool effrontery of St. Vale, and without a word moved aside for him ‘to take a seat aft, while he motioned toward the tiller, as though to relinquish it to him. ‘‘No, senor, thank you, for you know the channel, and I do not. ‘‘T have no desire to relieve you from your duties as commandant here.” Then, turning to one of the Black Pirate’s crew, whom he remembered, he continued: ‘‘Sancho, where did you leave the chief?” ‘* Off Nantucket, senor, after our capture of an English trader. ‘‘T was one of the prize crew put on board, and you may notice several more of us here, senor,” answered the man, without leaving his hard work with the paddle. St. Vale glanced over the faces before him, and nodded pleasantly as he recalled those from the brigantine, after which he. said, addressing the buccaneer commander of the island rendez- vous: ‘Senor Quentin, what are you going to do to keep off the attack of the brig, for Captain Stannix will certainly land a force against the island?’ ‘Fight them,” was the abrupt reply. ‘You bave some thirty men here?” ‘* No, senor, I have forty.” ‘‘ Not. enough, for the brig can send a hun- dred against you.” “So many, senor?” asked Quentin in sur- prise. “Yes, for her crew was enlarged and formed of picked men for this very work.” ‘Then we'll have to retreat, senor.” ‘“ Leave the island?” ‘‘ Oh, no, senor, but hide.” i They will ferret you out.”, ‘‘ Not where we hide, senor, as you will see; but here we are, and you are welcome to our rude home,’’ and Quentin sprung ashore, fol- lowed by the crew, and all went up toward the shanties, already spoken of in the foregoing chapters. Having by his cool strategy saved his life, and at the same time gained an influence over tne island pirates, St. Vale kept up the part he was playing by inquiring into the booty held there, and the number of captives. But allthe while the evi) nature of Jacques Q.entin was growing bitter, for he liked no interference from other than the Black Pirate, and proud of his power, and knowing it would be some time before his chief’s arrival, be felt that he was to become a star of lesser magni- tude in the eyes of the men and the captives. His own men, the regular guards of the island, he knew he could depend upon, and those from the brigantine were but half a dozen in number, and he began to lay plans to show St. Vale that he was master there, In the shanty devoted to the prisoners, St. Vale found some dozen to namber, mostly rude men, but among them five persons who had been passengers upon the ill-fated vessel that had fallen into the clutches of the Black Pirate. Among these five were three gentlemen, a lady and her daughter, the latter a beautiful maiden of eighteen, the former a woman whose life was slowly ebbing away, for she lay upon a seaman’s cot, with the stamp of death already creeping over her sad, wan face. ‘* These ’'H remove to our hiding-place, and the lads can carry the valuable booty,” said A ‘** Half a mile, and the sick one will bave a rough road of it; but I believe it’s more put on than real ailment,” brutally said the ruf- fian. ‘How dare you speak so, sir, of my poor, dying mother, when your treatment of us has done much to ‘make her so ill?” said the maiden almost fiercely. ‘““Aha, my pretty leopard, changing your spots again, for one moment you speak out with sweetness, the next with fury,” sneered the man. ‘Your duty, Senor Quentin, is not to insult the Black Pirate’s captives, but to care for them until he decides what is to be done with them,” calmly said St. Vale. The captives had before gazed upon the young officer with surprise, first believing him also a fellow unfortunate with themselves, but changing their minds when they saw that the pirates obeyed him. Now they bent toward him with hope, for be he what he might, it was the first kind word in their behalf that they had heard from their captors. As for Jacques Quentin he fairly glared an instant upon St. Vale and then hissed forth: ‘‘ Did you come here to teach Jacques Quen- tin his duty?” ‘*T did, if you do not know it,’’ was the un- ruffled reply. “Then, by the Virgin, senor, you have mis- taken your man, as you shall see;” and turning to his men, congregated at the door, he cried: ** Here, lads, throw this old dying hag over the cliff, and then carry the captives and the booty here to the secret cave, and then I'll see what this young officer has to say as to who commands on this island.” **No, no, you will not be so cruel,” and the maiden threw herself forward to shield her mother from the rude touch of the men wio advanced to obey the command of their lea:ier. But suddenly St. Vale leaped _betore them, while he said iu ringing tones: ‘** Devils! you dare attempt to obey the cruel order of that hound, and I'll lay you dead at my feet!” It would be hard to tell which seemed the most astonished, the island commander or his men, at this sudden stand taken by St. Vale; but the latter fell quickly back, while the former shouted, as he sprung forward: ‘* Til deal with him, lads,” St. Vale at first seemed as though he would shoot the man in his tracks; but glancing at the wildly frightened face of the invalid, he thrust bis pistol into bis breast, and with one sweep of his cutlass struck the blade of Jucques Quentin from his grasp. At the same instant. he withdrew his hand from the inner pocket of his coat, and instead of the pistol it had held, there was now in it a pair of shining manacles, Seizing Quentin-in his powerful arms, he bent him backward with a remarkable ex- hibition of strength, and almost instantly fol- lowed the snap of the springs as the fetters were clasped upon his wrists. “Holy Virgin, you have doomed me to death!” The sbriek burst in frenzied accents from the lips of the pirate officer. ‘* The Golden Fetters!” ‘The Fetters of Doom!” The cries broke from the lips of the pirate crew, and they fell back with a certain awe before St. Vale as be turned toward them, wholly at a loss to understand the strange re- marks and strange mien of respectful awe of those who seemed about to turn upon him a moment since. What could it mean? Accidentally, in thrusting the pistol into his breast pocket, he had felt and clutched tbe golden fetters taken from the skeleton wrists of his father in the secret cell of Rock Ruin. Now the sight of them upon his wrists caused Jacques Quentin to stand with bowed ead, trembling and downcast, and his fol- lowers to shrink away as in dire ‘alarm. There was a strange mystery in this which St. Vale ,could not solve; but he was deter- mined to turn it to advantage now, and said, sternly: * Dw you obey me now, hounds?” ‘‘Ay, ay, senor,” and the hand of every pirate present went up in salute, even Quentin raising his manacled wrists. “Then carry your booty and those prisoners to the secret retreat, but leave this maiden with her mother.” The maiden bent above the face of her mother in deep, silent grief, but at the words of St. Vale raised her head and said, softly: ‘My mother is dead, sir.”’ CHAPTER XXV, THE SECRET RETREAT. THOUGH St. Vale saw that there was some mystery in the Golden Fetters, that gave him great power over the pirates, even to the island commandant, be did not care to go too far, by leaving the captives at the shanties, for the crew of the brig to rescue, as it might give the pirates an idea that he was not wholly loval to them. ‘So he told them to lead them away, and turning to the sorrowing maiden, said kindly: ‘“‘I will bear the body of your mother with us now, and in time give it decent burial, and do allin my power for you and your fellow unfortunates.” The beautiful girl, for she was strangely lovely in face and form, turned her eyes in silent thanks upon St. Vale, and then folded the blanket closely around ber mother’s form. Silently St. Vale raised the attenuated body in bis arms and left the but, following the line of buccaneers, who, with their booty and cap- tives had preceded him. The maiden followed behind him, and enter- ing the thicket, growing at the end of the glen in which the camp was situated, the young officer kept close to the pirates ahead until all halted at a wall of rock, which towered up some thirty feet above them, and was in the shape of a cave, forming a strange freak of — nature. Upon the summit of this rock, grew a solitary pine tree, twisted by the fierce winds into fantastic shapes, yet clinging firmly into the crevices, where its roots had grown, As the pirates reached this chimuey-like rock, with the tree stieking out like a bush from the top, they formed a group of four men facing each other, and each holding firmly to the shoulders of the other. Then, upon the shoulders of these four more mounted, and so ou, until a column of twenty men was formed, leaning against the face of the rock. Entering this hollow shell of humanity, an — : active man nimbly climbed up to the top, and catching the branches of the tree, drew him- self upon the summit of the rock, while the column at once began to diminish, by those on top jumping off. ‘‘A ladder would serve the purpose with less trouble,” said St. Vale, who had carefully watched the strange proceeding. “ And give a foe who landed a hint, senor, — to see what use it may be put to,” | Kesponded one of the pirates. The man on the summit now, to the surprise — of St. Vale and the captives disappeared from sight, for they had believed the top of the rock flat and solid; but a moment aiter be re-ap- | peared and threw over a rope ladder, the ~ upper end being attached to two beams that projected beyond the face of the wall, Another rope, witha net atiached was also lowered, and into this some of the pirates placed the booty, while others nimbly went up ° the ladder to the top of the rock. “ How will the Senor Quentin go up?’ asked — one of the pirates, addressing St. Vale, and pointing to the handcuffed officer. ** As the booty does,” was the short reply,” and Quentin, wi-hout raising his bowed head, or cifering the slightest resistance, suffered bis comrades to place him in the net, and he was drawn in safety to the top, Next followed the dead body of the woman, | and then the maiden and St. Vale ascended — the rope ladder. To the surprise of the young officer the rock was hollow, and rudely constructed wooden — steps were ranged around its sides to the bot- tom, where a lantern was visible, for some of © the pirates had already gone dowa. There were shelves bere and there upon which the booty was placed, while the rope- ladder having been drawn up, and one maa left on the rock to watch, the remainder of the i- f party descended to the depths below, which St. Vale knew, from the distance gone, went far — down into the island. In places caverns ran off from the funnel F ‘a frases. par P's ‘ 300KS.¢ m ft .4.. 4458 year (G 455 e: BS “Ri . “*y an ro