Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 196 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

es ——ae os : ’ La Marmoset, the Detective Queen. 27 The Indian extended his hand, his lips moved | surd, but I cannot help it, for there is something as though he was trying to speak, but no sound ame from them; his eyes became fixed, and | then slowly he sunk down upon the floor, and | almost instantly, without the least struggle, his life passed away. The Seminole was dead! But, was he a Seminole? _ at all? -—— This question puzzled the girl, and as soon as Was he a red-man | she recovered from the natural horror inspired | by the sudden death, in such a strange manner, | she knelt beside the body and proceeded to ex- amine it. tinct; this she did by placing her hand upon the heart. Not the slightest pulsation was to be distinguished; death had ensued almost imme- diately. But, on opening the hunting-shirt that covered bis breast she made an important find. in your voice and manner which strongly re- minds me of the vailed woman who Captivated me at the Grand Opera ball.” ‘* Your suspicion is right; I am that woman,” she replied; ‘‘and though the confession gives me pain yet | should make it as a slight atone- ment for the trouble I have caused you.” **Oh, don’t say a word; it isn’t necessary. I am quite willing to forget and forgive as far as lam concerned, and though my experience in the lunatic asylum was not particularly plea- sant yet I consider that | am more than repaid _ by the enjoyment which I have experienced in First she ascertained, that life was really ex- | | | Jt was a little buckskin bag containing a small | package of old letters, tied up with a leather thong to which was attached a ring. The girl knew enough of the history of the house of Morel to be aware, from the peculiar | your society,” he responded, gallantly. ‘‘T must speak, for when you know all, per- haps you will not think so harshly of me as otherwise you may do,” she said, evidently de- termined to persevere in the task which she had taken upon herself. ‘‘As you doubtless must suspect, I am not Tampa Morel—not the daugh- ter of John Morel and your relative. On the | contrary, my name is Camille Bienville, and I motto engraven upon the ring, that this was the | signet of the Morel family, which had been handed down, with the utmost care, from father to son, and that John Morel had carried the ring away with him when he visited the New World. The white breast of the man proved that he was no red-skin, although very deeply tanned by exposure to the elements. The letters, too, were those that only John Morel would be apt to possess, The secret, too, of his marvelous knowledge | of the old hotel was explained. The supposed | ny, Seminole was the French count] Then, to the memory of the girl eame a story which she had heard in childhood, in Florida, which related how a white man captured by the red-men and rendered insane, but harmlessly 80, by a blow on the head, had been adopted | by the Indians under their superstitious notion | that madmen are especially favored by the Great Spirit. The name of the man she had never heard, but now it was plain that it was the Count of Morel mourned for as dead. Not quite right in his ideas, yet with wit enough to understand what was going on, he had set out to baffle her schemes. ‘* He has been dead to the world—he shall con- tinue so. The vaults below will serve for a burial-place,” she muttered, moodily. CHAPTER XLIV. AND A STRANGER REVELATION. THAT very night before she slept, this strangely compounded girl came to a strange resolution, and in accordance with it early in the morning she sought General Calhoun. **T have come to ask you to do me a favor,” she said, abruptly. : The woman had made a deep impression upon the general’s heart—more than he was ing to confess, even to herself, and therefore he hastened to say that he would only be too glad to oblige her in any way whatsoever. ‘*] want you to take me away from here; I wish to return to Florida, and as soon as possible. I do not wish to disturb the countess in her es- tate. Let all law " peecierine. be stopped at once and forever. [am weary of this land; I hate it—fear it, and I wish to fly far from it, never to return. But, do not let any one know of my intention. Frame some excuse—lead them to think the absence is of my own choice, and after a while will explain itself; but I must depart at once—this very day if it can be so ar- ranged.” The American promised to do his best to comply with her wishes, and managed the matter so well that on the very next day the set sail from France, and as he confided to bh companion when they were fairly at sea, he was in nowise sorry to leave a country wherein he had passed through such strange and disagree- able adventures, Sad and melancholy—very much depressed was the eA! through the voyage, and until they landed in Florida. It was their first night in the land of flowers and they bad strolled forth from the hotel at which they had stopped, en route for Tampa Bay, and upon a mossy bank under a huge live- oak tree had paused to survey the beauty of the night which was rendered almost as light as day by a brilliant full moon rising slowly above the horizon, seemingly from a couch in the blue waters that belted in the coast, *‘And here we part!’ announced the girl, abruptly, as the general sat down by her side, She extended her hand to him. ‘Shake hands; say good-by; then go you to Punta Rosa, your home, and I, Heaven knows where—to lose my- self if I can, in the land where I was born, but where no one knows aught of me.” Calhoun was amazed, **Why, Miss Morel, what have 1 done to de- serve such treatment as this?’ he exclaimed. **Upon my life I have tried to serve you to the utmost of my power, although at times I con- fess Dhave a wild notion that you once played me an ugly trick. I know the idea seems ab- who had so long been | am the daughter of the French trader of Eau Gallie, Auguste Bienville. I am a year older than Tampa Morel, whom I well remember my father bringing as a child from the Indians, When I was about ten years old my father de- termined to return to France. Myself and Tam- a, whom all supposed to be my sister, were sent in charge of a partner of my father to France— he following in the next ship. On the passage both the man who had charge of us and Tam- | pa died, and their bodies were committed to the sea. Friendless and alone I landed. My adopted father never came, for he, too, per- ished on the voyage. I was reared by charity, and terrible was the life I led until I was about eighteen years old; then chance threw me in the way of a member of the secret police, and he needing a female spy employed me. From that moment I prospered, for the vocation suit- ed me. La Marmoset, the Monkey, they termed me, from my craft and cunning, and as I began to make a name asa female spy I adopted some odd precautions. As arulel never allowed any one to see me as [ truly was—not even Monsieur Preval, the head of the force. In place of a young girl I appeared like a decrepit, sickly, middie-aged woman. As a police spy all the articulars of this Morel affair came to my 10wledge. Then a bright idea, although a wicked one, flashed upon me. Tampa orel was dead, but no one but myself knew of it. A fortune of fifty millions of francs seemed to be within my grasp, for I formed a plan to pre- sent myself as the heiress. La Marmoset must disappear, and in ker place come the heiress of Morel. I decoyed you away becaused I fancied that on your person I should find papers which would be useful to mein carrying out the de- ception; it was alla part of my plan to place you in the private asylum, and then, when ev- erything was ripe for the purpose, as Tampa Morel to rescue you from your imprisonment. The back windows of the wine-shop where you were drugged looked out upon the yard of the house where I apartments, in another street. By means of a rope I conveyed you from the one house to the other, then kept you under the influence of a narcotic until [ could convey you down the Seine to the Retreat, in the mean time fooling the minister of police as an Italian boy, and so throwing every one on a false scent.” ‘*The scheme was a wonderful one, and won- derfully you executed it,” the American ob- served, thoughtfully. ‘‘ But tell me why, in the very moment of success, when the prize was your own—why did you throw up your hand and abandon the game?” “Why?” and the woman laughed bitterly; ‘because at the last moment I discovered that the game was not worth the candle. I wanted the fifty millions of francs with which to pur- chase something, but when I went to buy I found that not ten times fifty millions would secure what I wanted; I had schemed and schemed for naught. Of what use was it, then, to lead a lying life longer? I grew sick of France and wished to bury myself here, in this new world, where in a new life I might forget the old one.” ‘* And is that any reason why we should part company ?’ the general asked, earnestly. ‘“‘Come! you own that you have wronged me; you owe me some recompense; make it, then, by allowing me to look after you in the future. I am all alone in the world—no near relatives; no one to care forme. If I was a younger man I should say, give me the privilege of trying to make you love me, but as it is, lam content to say—allow me the honor of being like a father or a brother to you.” ‘“What! could you find it in your heart to marry such a woman as I am—little better than a scheming adventuress?” ‘ ‘‘ Give me the chance and see how quickly I will answer the question, by tendering you my hand!” the general replied, proudly. She was touched by the nobleness of the re- ply, and for a few moments was silent, busy in thought. ‘Tt shall be as you say,” she replied at last; ‘we will not separate, if you wish it otherwise, and if in time I come to feel that [ can accept your offer in the same spirit in which you ten- der it, I will be your wife.” “The woman who hesitates is lost,” saith the proverb, and the resolute ae who had played so desperate a game so boldly and skillfully was no exception to the rule, Within six months she became the wife of General Calhoun. With the beautiful Detective Queen—the fa- mous La Marmoset, police spy, married and settled, our story virtually ends, As we may well believe, she proved to be a devoted wife, and was renerally known as the Lovely Lady of Punta Rosa, Dunbar received the hand of the fair countess, in due time, and she never forgot that she owed her rescue from a most dreadful fate to the gal- lant young American. The sudden and unaccountable disappearance of La Marmoset excited a great deal of won- der, in police circles, for quite a time, and the secret agents searched high and low for some clew which would lead to a revelation of the mystery, but at last Monsieur Preval, with that rare wisdom which so distinguished him—in his own opinion—hit upon an explanation: The Detective Queen h d been decoyed away by some scoundrel whom she had been instru- mental in sending to Toulon and secretly mur- dered; and so the world believed, when this idea was made eee for what human waqapity could guess that the presumed heiress of Morel and La Marmoset were one and the same! THE END. Half-Dime Singer’s Library 1 Waoa, Emma! and 59 other Songs. 2 Caprarin Curr and 57 other Songs. 3 Tae Garnsporo’ Hat and 62 other Songs. 4 Jounny MorcGan and 60 other Songs. 5 [un Stame You Wirs A FRATHER and 62 others. 6 GeorGE THE CHARMER and 56 other Songs. 7? 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Never po To Gra rr up So and 60 others, 20 Bivor Bonnets Over THE Borper and M others, 30 THe Merry I AvGHine MAN and 56 other Songs, 31 Sweer Forext-me-Nor and 55 other Songs. 82 Leeriy Basy Mixe and 53 other Songs, 383 De BANJO AM DE INSTRUMENT FoR Me and 53 others, 34 Tarry and 50 other Songs. 35 Just TO PLease THE Boys and 52 other Songs. 36 SKATING ON ONE IN THE GUTTER and 52 others. 37 KoLorep Kranks and 59 other Songs. | 88 Nu. DesperanpDeUM and 53 other Songs. 39 Tax Grat I Lert Benind Mz and 50 other Songs. 40 'Trs pur A Litre Faprep FLower and 50 others. 41 Prerry WHILHELMINA and 60 other Songs. 42 DANCING IN THE Barn and 63 other Songs. 43 H. M.S. Prnarore, compiers, and 17 other Songs. Sold everywhere by Newsdealers, at five cents per copy, or sent post-paid, to any address, on re ceipt of Six cenis per number. BEADLE AND ADAMS, PvuBLisHers, 98 Wriuiram Street, New Yor, Sunnyside Library. 1 Latta Rooxu, By Thomas Moore.,.. ........ 10¢ 2 Don Juan By Lord Byron...-.............4.. 20¢ 8 Parapiss Lost. By John Milton.............. 100 4 Tue Lapy or tHe Lake. By Sir Walter Scott.. 10¢ 5 Lvcms. By Owen Meredith.................. - 104 6 Unprng; or, THE WaATeR-Sprrarr. From the German of Friederich De La Motte Fouque.. 10c For sale by all newsdealers, or sent, postage pald on receipt of twelve cents for single numbers, double numbers twenty-four cents. ADAMS, VICTOR & Co,, Publishers, 98 William street, N. Y. VOOKS: