Beadle's Dime Library, No. 198 — page 15: what you’re looking at

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

te ——— mm -- —. ee —_-- a ae — — —— ‘‘My son, I have suffered for years. “Long ago I had my joyous heart wrecked by a. man’s inbumanity, and I have lived with phantoms ever since. ‘Your father I learned to love, and then to idoliza, and, for his sake, ay, and for your sake, Percy, I sought revenge upon the man who had wronged ime. ‘(Tt seems like a terrible dream to me now, that scene at the Magnolia Arbor; but tell me was it true, or bas my mind fled from me? “Tell me if I killed Mark Mortimer, or did be in reality fall by your hand? ‘‘T ean bear anything now, for [am strong. ‘Yes, Tam so strong that I met him myself to avenge the past rather than allow your father to.do so, for I feared he would be Killed and that God would spare me. ‘Tf TI fell I knew it would be but a rest from miy sorrows. “Speak! did I not kill’ Major Mark Morti- mer at the Maguolia Arbor?” He had carried out the deception until a time when be could see his father, and then tell her why be had taken upon himself the blame. That father’s ears were deaf now for all eternity, and yet, when telling his mother of the death of her husband, he could not make known to her that be was playing a part against her, even though for her good, and he determined to keep up the deception yet awhile, so he answered firmly: “My poor mother, you bave had some hor- rible nightmare, and wishing’ Major Mortimer dead from some wrong he has done you in the past, and seeing him fall by my hand, you be- came po:sessed with the belief that you had killed him.” She passed ber hands in a dazed way across her forehead, as though striving to recall the truth, and her son pitied her deeply. Then she said, softly: ‘So Uncle Toby and Nance and Phebe told me, and they were there. ‘Well, he fell by your hand, my son, and you have avenged your mother and yourself, as it was fitting that you should do. “But, Percy, your father went to New Or- leans to kill Mark Mortimer, and ere this he should have returned.” “We has returned, mother.” ‘Percy has returned, and comes not to me, my son?” ‘Alas! mother, he cannot,” groaned the grieving youth. Again she seized him by each shoulder, and asked in husky tones: ‘Boy, what do you mean?” ‘ Mother! my father was drawn into a duel with young Mark Mortimer, and was killed.” She drew herself up, swayed to and fro, and then burst forth in a fit of the wildest laughter, while she cried: ‘* Ha! ha! ha! the red work has begun, and accursed be all of the name of Wyndham who takes his hand off the throat of one whose veins are filled with the hated blood of a Mortimer. “Ha! ha! ha! smite, slay, show no mercy, Percy Wyndham, for I, your mother, com- mand you to obey.” “Mother! mother! for the love of God be calm,” he cried, in dread and sorrow. But the brain was on fire, the blood surging through the stricken heart, and he called to Nance and Phebe to aid him in calming her wild paroxysius. But alas! the third stroke had fallen, and Nina Wyndham was a raving maniac. CHAPTER XXVIIL AT REST. A HUSH had fallen upon the home of Lake- lands, which told that the shadow of death rested upon its roof, and those who came to at- tend the last obseqnies to its dead master spoke in whispers, and moved about with sober mien, for from the distant wing, where the mistress of the mansion was, Came @ver and anon loud wailing, to be followed by shrieks of laughter that seemed almost demoniacal. It told of the madnes: of the lovely woman whose mind had been wrecked by her hus- band’s untimely end, and whose heart held a secret the world could not gaze upon, te as marble, and as stern as bronze, Percy Wyndham came into the spacious hall, where lay the remains of bis father, and stood at the head of the coffin. The low words of the clergyman, the wailing of the sorrowing negroes, even the shrieks and hursts of laughter of his mother, seemed not to impress him. ee ee —— , The‘ Skeleton Schooner. 15 ae SS SS e+ ee ee ee eee — —_ ——__—— Ashe rowed along he suddenly came in view of the graveyard of the Mortimers, and ceasing rowing, he allowed his boat to float with the eurrent. As it was about to round a bend he beheld a boat pulled by two men, and with a third standing in the stern, glide slowly in toward At last the procession, led by the dead and | the mourning sof, moved ‘toward the burying- ground of Lakelands. It was back from the shore, upon a green hillside, from whence a view of The Everglades and the waters beyond could be distinctly seen, as could also the clump of willows which shel- tered the last earthly home of the Mortimers, | the shore of The Everglades. It was a lovely spot, almost adjoining the } Instantly he disc: vered that the men were park of The Everglades, and bad been’a favor- | strangers in those parts, and that their object ite resting-place, from the noonday heat, of , seemed to te secret, as the man in the stern the son who now went there to place his father | motioned to the rowers iustead of spoke to beneath its green sod. | them, when be wished them to stop rowing. Around the grave assembled the mourners, | One dip of his oar sent his own boat under and into it was lowered all that was mortal of | the overhanging branches of a willow, cut of Captain Wyndham. | sigbt of the others, and elutching the drooping Then the heavy earth fell upon the coffin, | foliage he beld it motionless. the grave was rounded into that shape which | Then peering out of the foliage he saw the ' | all the living know so well marks the last | boat touch the shore lightly, and the man in abode of the dead, and the crowd turned away. | the stern went forward and stepped out upon In groups they left, and after awhile even | the bank. Uncle Toby bad gone, leaving Percy Wynd- The other two joined him there, and he ham standing like a statue, gazing down upon | pointed up toward the burying-ground. the grave. | While one got back into the boat, then took For some moments he stood thus, and then | the oars, and turred the stern toward the Jand, dropping upon his knees raised one hand to- | the other two skulked, rather thah walked ward Heaven, while the other reste? upon the | away from the shore. grave, and his lips moved, as though he were | All this did» Perey see with surprise, and uttering a prayer or an oath, / more he observed, and that was that one man Then he arose and turned from the spot to | carried a rope, the other a cloak. find that he was not alone. | ‘*Tt looks as though some deviltry wes on “Pardon me, Mr. Wyndham, but seeing | hand, and I see what it is,” muttered the that you remained, I returned to offer you my | youth, and he coolly drew a pistol from his deepest sympathy.” ’ breast pocket and carefully examined its “Tt was Frank Forrester, and he extended | priming and flint. his hand to the youth, who said, without taking | Then he arose in bis boat and gazed in the his offered grasp: | direction the two men had taken. ‘Mr. Forrester, if I wrong you may God | He saw them skulking along from bush to forgive me, but I neither will touch tbe band, | tree, and then appear near the graveyard on or accept the sympathy of a man whom I | the knoll. doubt.” The foliage between cut. off his view there; The words came coldly and distinctly from | but there came to his ears a stifled cry, and a the white dips, and the burning eyes looked | moment after the two men came into full view, straight into the face of the man be addressed. hurrying toward the water’s edge, and one of Not the slightest change came over the face , them bore in his arms what was evidently a of the man who stood before him, while he an- | human form, enveloped in a cloak. swered: A glimpse of white skirts showed him thut ‘‘Tam sorry, sir, to have aroused your sus- | if was a woman, and who could it be but picions; but let time show that you were | Mabel Mortimer? wrong. . His innate chivalry prompted him to go to ‘*Good day, Mr. Wyndham.” the rescue. He raised his hat politely, and turning upon his heel strode away. | Mortimer, the sister of the man whe had slain For a long time did Perey Wyndbam remain | his father? | standing in silence where he had been left by | He hesitated, until suddenly freeing her face, the yachtsman, and then he started to return | she gave one loud ery for help: to the mansion, for it was approaching sunset, | ‘ Help! brother! belp!” and he was anxious about his mother. , With a curse the man smothered her cries A few steps he took along the path, then | and bounded on toward bis boat. balted and went off in another direction. | But that appeal bad touched the heart of A walk of a few hundred yards brought | Percy Wyndham. | him to the clear, deep waters of a lagoon or| Whatever Major Mortimer might have been, bayou. and Mark Mortimer was, she, the daughter Here was a small row.and sail-boat com- | and the sister, was innocent. bined, tied to a tree, and remembering that he He had heard from the negroes how noble had left it there some days before, he bad de- | and kind she was, and how she ever aided the termined to return that way home, for tbe | poor fishermen and their families, and he had lagoon flowed into the waters of the Sound half | thus been taught to respect ber, a mile below, and from its mouth to the Lake- Now she was in dire danger, and in the lands pier it was but a pull of a mile. _ power of kidnappers. Springing into the little boat and seizing the A sbort half-hour more and darkness would oars, he started on his way, little dreaming | fall upon the sea, and pursuit of the kidnappers how strangely Fate was leading him by the | would be impossible. hand. She had, like a dutiful daughter, been | kneeling by the side of her. father’s grave, | praying for the man Percy Wyndham cursed. FATE. |. But the heart of the brave youth was not THE lagoon upon the deep bosom of which | warped, and dropping bis oars into the water, Percy Wyndham was floating in his little boat | he sent his little boat out from its shelter like wound within a third of a mile of the mansion , an arrow from a bow. of The Everglades, and almost bordered tho Just then the two men reached their boat, burying-ground of that estate, emptying into | and he was discovered. the blue waters of the sound only a few bun- ‘“‘ Hold there, or I fire!” he cried, in ringing dred yards from where rested the Mortimer , tones, as he sent bis boat forward with a ve- dead. locity that would carry it alongside of the Once out of the stream, Percy Wyndham | other one, and rose to bis feet, his pistol im his knew he would have to pull along the shore of | hand. The Everglades plantation and in full view of | “ Carse it, we are surprised! the house: but this be did not care for, for as | “But he’s only one, so kill him,” yelled the the Mortimers were then uppermost ‘in his | leader, as he sprung into,his boat. mind, it made little matter that they should The answer of one of his men was to fire, also be in his sight, if he did see them as he | and the bullet cut its way through the arm of went by. Percy Wyndham. Major Mortimer and his son he had often | But he fired, too, and the one who had seen, and once he had caught sight of Mabel, | aimed at his life fell dead in the boat. reclining in her hammock, and it was the very Then the youth threw aside bis weapon, and day in which he had rowed round to the grave- | seized one of his light oars, and wielding it as yard, a elub, brought it down with terrific force But this was all he had knownof them, other | upon the head of the oarsman, as the two than that there was a feud between the Wynd- | boats touched. ; hams and the Mortimers, the cause of which A groan and the man fell backward, just as the old negroes had hinted at. the third one of the party, the leader, and he CHAPTER XXIX. ee ee GOMIGEROOCKS. EO -. s But then was she not the daughter of Majcr | fa