Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 181 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

eee The Scarlet Schooner. 25 Ss until suddenly loud orders were given, and it went about, while the deep boom of a cannon was heard, and the striking of a shot followed. From keel to trunk the schooner shuddered as her guns opened; but it was a running fight the poor woman knew, and she was aware that Don Diablo had met more thah his match. And louder and louder the guns roared in the distance, and those on the schooner answered rapidly, while the crashing of iron upon the deck and rigging of the beautiful vessel told that she was suffering severely under the en- emy’s fire. hen too, came the groans of wounded men, and following came voices in ringing command. What could it mean? A minute after told the story, for the schooner again went about, and from another quarter came the roar of heavy guns, mingling with those already pouring a hot fire upon the bucca- neer craft. Between the two fires the schooner suffered fearfully, the shot tore up her decks and through her hull, her rigging was splintered, her sails cut to fragments, and her crew, fighting bravely died one by one, until their lood trickle through the rents and dropped upon the wo- man. She knew that a fearful, desperate battle was in progress, that the fierce chief was fighting to the bitter end, and she wondered( how if all would terminate. That she would soon know, for there came the thrilling cry of: ‘* Boarders, follow me!” Then heavy falls upon the deck, the rattle of pistols, and clash of cutlasses, and next cries for quarter. Then Alma Aubrey knew that the fight had ended, and that the schooner had been captured, and she felt that the beginning of her revenge had come. : Se CHAPTER XLVI, ALMA’S REVENGE, THOUGH in darkness, and below decks, Alma Aubrey had rightl judged each phase of the battle, from the flight of the schdoner, when caught on a lee shore by a werge a bi daan to the coming to the aid of the cruiser a second foe that soon ended the combat. Up to the last Don Diablo had fought with the fury of a demon; but his crew cried for quarter, when theysaw that all was wholly lost and they but a handful remaining to cope with adversaries vastly outnumbering them, and the chief was left alone, No, not alone, for his loved wife clung to him, his deformed slave was by his side, and Alena Pilon on her knees, grasping the dress of her mis- ress, it was a sad, yet grand picture, to see the yet defiant chief thus rh in isin doen . But he laid his sword at his feet, to save the wornan he really loved, and a few moments after he was in irons. And Alma Aubrey? Found in her toathsome prison pit, and be- lieved to be a captive of the pirate, she was car- ried on the American brig-of-war that had cap- tured the schooner, and most kindly cared for by the officers, while poor Nita, refusing to leave her husband, remained ‘by his side below decks, and did all in her power to soothe his sorrows, At length the -of-war, with the crippled ee po yi an s her Prisoners, pet t sail for ntiago, the nearest port, to re mages, for the pirate had hit some hard blows, to en- able her to continue on to Havana with Don Diablo, who, having been taken in Cuban wa- ters, was to be given up to Spain for punish- ment, — Wild with excitement over the ae of the noted Don Diablo, the citizens of Santiago ex- tended to the American officers every courtesy, and in return, when the brig was ready for sea, a gala entertainment was given on board, and, unmindful of the sad hearts of those in irons, the cavaliers and sefioritas danced merrily to the strains of sweet music. But from this scene, where she was not known other than as a captive of the pirates, Alma Aubrey ores away unobserved, and descended to the deck below. Making her way aft, unnoticed, for the sailors were busy on deck watching the dancers, she cane to the place where Don Diablo was con- ed. Moodily he sat upon a gun, his wrists and ankles ironed heavily, and by his side the wretched, sorrowing Nita, while near by was the deformed Coocha, and the octoroon, Alena, “Reno Quesala, I have come for my re- venge.” Don Diablo started at the ‘words, and in the dim light recognized who it was that spoke to him. **Do your worst, only spare her sorrow,” he answered, sternly. ‘* What have you against my husband, sefior?”’ and Nita turned to the woman, whom, still in her masculine attire, she believed to be a youth. ** More than the tears of angels can ever wash out,” was the bitter reply. ‘Now, Don Diablo, hold ferth your hands,” she said, sternly. He did not obey, and bending over, while Nita watched her carefully, she quickly un- locked his irons. ‘Nombre de Dios! what does this mean?” cried the chief, in utter amazement. ‘Ts means that you are free; here is a rope so you can lewer yourself from this open port into the sea; your slave I also release, and you two can carry your wife and her maid. oe ob for you have no time to lose. ‘*Your guard has already deserted, and a small shallop awaits you a cable’s length astern; 1? Don Diablo tried to detain her; but she had already unlocked the irons from Coocha’s feet and hands, and glided prey. He dared not call aloud to her, and, acting with promptness, as he always did in danger, he seized the rope and lowered Nita, wonver- ing, silent and hoping, noiselessly into the wa- ter. Next followed the octoroon, then Coocha, and last himseif. The feet of the merry dancers on the deck, and strains of music, destroyed all other sounds, and, unnoticed by the watch, the four swam away upon the dark waters. A cable’s length distant a little shallop was lying to, and upon this the four fugitives soon ieaadl ; &@ man was at the helm, another ready to set all sail, and a minute after a six-knot breeze was driving the craft seaward. Thus did Alma Aubrey, the poor, deserted, cruelly-treated woman, have her revenge. CHAPTER XLVITI, RETROSPECTION, KIND reader, those who kindly followed the romance of ‘Don Diablo, the Rivals of the Sea,” to its end, will remember that the red- handed and black-hearted buccaneer chief es- caped through many a scene of danger after his vessel was sunk by an American cruiser, and, in the Sea Gipsy, he so boldly captured from the rival corsair, Captain Waldr-n, he con- tinued to dye the seas with the blvod of his vic- tims, until he was at last run down by Howard De Vigne, his own son, and, as was believed by all, slain and thrown into the sea with the dead of his crew. The schooner that tracked the dreaded pirate to his end was a strange craft, indeed, for, from hull to topmast, she was red, although otherwise the twin craft, or sister vessel, of the Sea Gipsy. And, in the mad battle, Howard De Vigne who commanded the Red Schooner, believ he had revenged the cruel death of his mother at the hands of his own father. And so thought another person on the Red Schooner, for, from him, he believed, had come the shot that had laid the chiet Jow in death. That other person was supposed to be a cabin- boy; but in reality was a woman, and none other than the once loving, beautiful and trusting Nita Sabinas, When at last she could no longer be blind to the fact that she was but the Loe hee for. a short year of Don Diablo, the hot bl in the veins of Nita Sabinas, the Cuban maiden, turned to fire and her jealousy was aroused in all its might. But when, one day, Don Diablo visited her in her retreat_in Havana, and told her boastfully that he had killed her brother and her father, who had steadily tracked him to seek revenge, her love began to turn to hate. And bitter indeed became that hatred, when she discovered that the man for whom she had sacrificed everything in life, had deserved her to wa sey run down other fair game. hen it was her love turned wholly to a desire for revenge as firm as ever was felt in the heart of an Indian, and to seek that revenge she made the one aim, one object of her life. With her to decide was to act, and setting out upon her task, she first visited the convent, where Don Diablo had told her with a sneer love for him had driven Alma Aubrey, and from her lips, then a devoted sister of the church, she heard the story of her cb ne Then, i by step, she unraveled the threads of Dan Diablo’s crime-stained life, and believed at last she had ended that career when she saw him fall, and she fell thin wounded upon deck, in the conflict between the Sea Gipsy and the Red Schooner. But Don Diablo was as cunning as a fox, and when he saw that all hope was gone, that his crew was beaten, and his vessel in the hands of his bitterest foe, his own son, he fell like one dead upon the deck, and, with the dead was thrown into the sea. Not far away was the land, and he was a bold swimmer, and, as he br the waves, he swore that the world should again hear of Don Diablo. How he kept that oath the followin’ chapters pare Ry pposed cabi nd poor a Sabinas, the su cabin- boy of the Red Schooner? For long weeks she lay hovering between life and death, and tenderly cared for by Lucille Marsden, until at last she came back to life and health, And then into her heart crept a longing to re- visit the home and scenes of her childhood; the grand old villa that Time was leaving deep foot- prints upon. Bidding farewell to her kind friends, with a sad heart, she took passage in a vessel bound for Scuth America, and which was to touch at Havana, once more trusting herself upon the treacherous sea, s© long the theater of the red deeds of the one man she had loved on earth, and who had so cruelly brought only anguish upon her. } With a fair breeze the good ship sailed away ; but, alas! never to reach the destined port, CHAPTER XLIX. OUT OF THE DEPTHS. DAYLIGHT See, Bie a the skies, and the goss of approaching night falling upon the waters, A rosy tint and the last glimmer of sunset struggling in the west, and in the easta bank of storm-clouds, rushing higher, like legions of i charging steeds, rushing to overwhelm a 08. The waves of the sea rough and foam-crested, from the effects of the late tempest, and tossing about here and there, buffeted by wind and wa- ters, the only object visible upon the broad ex- panse of the restless, mighty ocean—a wreck, dismantled and sinking slowly down into the depths. : The masts had been wri nched short off by the hurricane, her bulwarks were battered, and every object that could be swept away, had disappeared, Presently, out of the cabin came a human form, that of a woman. A woman, and yet one whose years had not been pore though there were deep traces of their having been sorrowful years, stamped upon a face that was yet most beautiful, She was dressed in a serviceable suit, and her hair was sbort, and clustering in ringlets around her neck and temples. Glancing westward she saw the rosy hue left by the setting sun, and then, as the low rumble of thunder caught her ears, she quickly turned her gaze toward the east. ** Another tempest, and this old hulk already nearly battered to pieces, and I aloue of those who sailed in ber spared, for those who left in the boats I know must have been lost. ‘** Ah me! why was I spared? ‘No vessel in sight, no land in sight; only the storm coming on tcsend meto my death— Ah! there is land!” and her eyes were turned upon the dark line on the horizon. Gradually the light faded and shut out the land, and nearer and nearer came the howling es Still on drifted the wreck, directly landward, and nearer and nearer rushed the destroying, chaotic mass of wind and waters. Alarmed by the sbrieking winds, the roar of waters and the vivid flash of lightning, the wo- man ran back into the cabin, tn as wreck was seized in the very teeth of the tempest, and hurled onward with frightful velocity. Onward and onward the wreck was driven, until presently, it made one mighty leap in tho darkn and came down with a fearful shock upon a hidden reef of rock, while the waves broke over the devoted craft. But the stout hull withstood the flerce shock, and the winds swept barmlessly by, while the waves only cast the spray upon the high stern and the woman began to hope that sne might yet be + aot All through the night she watched, waited and prayed, for she cared not to be dashed to pieces upon the rocks, and with the first glim- mer of dawn went on deck, The sea was yet white with foam, and the waves rolled in fiercely and with fearful roar; but the wind. was going down, and hope sprung up in her heart, for not her was land. Bold, rugged, forbidding, it was; but yet it was land, and hence a refuge. Thankful for this discovery and worn out with her long exposure to danger, hardship and watching, she returned to the cabin, and - ing herself down upona sofa sunk fast to sleep. or several hours she slept a dreamless sleep of fatigue. Then she awakened with a start, and a cry es- ca her lips, for she was not alone, tanding near her, gazing with and yet with ardent admiration upon her were half a score of human beings. They were rough-looking men, clad in blue woolen shirts, canvas pants, tarpaulins and heavy boots, and all of them wore a belt of ms. Outlaws they must be; ay, wreckers, for the island was one of the Bahamas, where half a century ago, and long before, false beacons Were set each night of storm to lure the richly- freighted vessel to destruction. And yet these men gazed with 6 upon a woman, the only being upon a wreck that had been driven by the cruel waves and wind upon their island. And as they looked, she sprung to her feet 0)(0)(6) (EO) mie cs (S(O) i ne om ———