Beadle's Dime Library, No. 198 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

a ee ee Sire ee - — nee — ee er = ———————EEEe — 19 od -— —— --——— - oe + . ‘‘l@ I piped.a call once, I guess the lashing | Percy Wyndham, as the.two reached the man- | activity in her every motion, for she had been - would be on your bands, mister.” ‘* Do so, and I'll drop you overboard,” came the threat, whicb at once silenced the ruffian. ‘Now, sir, who are you?” “A man.” ‘Come, no nonsense; who are you?’ ‘‘T am a sailor.” ‘‘Ah! from the Jack-o’-lantern?’ The man was silent, “ Speak!’ ‘T won't.” “Then overboard you go.” “You wouldn't drown me?’ “ Certainly, if you do not tell me the truth.” ‘Yes, [m from the Lantern.” ‘ Who sent you to watch this girl?” ‘* Nobody.” ‘* Tell the truth, sir.” ‘‘ Nobody sent me.” ‘‘ Why did you give chase to her then?’ ‘IT was out rowing, saw her boat, and | cbased her just for fun.” “Well, you lose your fun, and she shall en- joy the laugh. ‘‘Now who sent you to follow her?’ ‘“] said nubody.” With a quick motion of his arm Percy Wyndham dragged the man backward until he lay in a position to easily drop into the sea. ‘¢ Mercy, messmate,” cried the trembling wretch, amazed at the powerful gripe of his captor. ‘‘T shall show you not one particle of mercy if you lie to me, and you have not a minute to live unless you answer my questions. ‘‘Did Mr, Forrester send you after this girl?’ Yes.” ‘‘ Where was he?” “Ashore. He came down to the pier, gave a signal for me to come to bim, and told me he had just seen a girl Jeave in a boat and head toward the Lakelands dock,” ‘What did he tell you to do with her?’ “Take her on board the Lantern and keep ber there until be came off,” “A nice plan of deviltry, this, and one which will not succeed, for you go with me, my man,” “Where?” ‘* That you shall see,” and, turning to Fidele, be continued: ‘‘Now you row home, my girl, and be ecare- ful how you trust yourself out upon the water at night.” “ Oh, thank you, sir; but shall I tell—” ‘“‘Go at once,” said Perey Wyndham, stern- ly, and the tone of his voice told ber tbat he did not wish her to compromise herself in any way before the man. “ Thank you, sir,” she answered, and, seizing her oars, she rowed away. ‘Now, my man, I’jl take you in my boat and set yours adrift.” As Percy Wyndbam spoke he dragged the man into his boat, and, taking up bis oars, started homeward, leaving the skiff floating and drifting upon the waters. Pulling straight to bis dock, he ordered his prisoner ashore, and then marehed him before him up to the mansion steps. A low eall brought Toby out on the piazza. “Well, master, is that you?” “Yes; get me the keys of the lock -up.”* ‘I have them, sah,” announced Uncle Toby, Bee was a kind of major-domo on the pianta- ion, - Here is a prisoner for you, Toby.” ‘ What nigger’s been bebaving bad, master?” “It is no negro, Toby, but a white man, one of the créw of the Jack-o’-lantern, whom I caught in deviltry, ‘‘Here, my man, go in there, and if you make any disturbance, | shall buck and gag you.” They had halted before a stout brick bouse of two rooms, and with grating over the win- dows, and a beavy iron door. This was the lock-up, and one night in there was generally sufficient to conquer the most refractory slave. “Here, messmate, if it’s talk you want out of me, I’) tell you all I know, if you’ll only let me g0,” said the man. “Til see you to-morrow, my man. Toby, you give him his meals,” and locking the door, Percy Wyndham turned away, followed by Uncle Toby, who felt quite proud because he had a white man under lock and key. ‘How is my mother to-night, Toby?’ asked — - * In olden times large plantations had a put refractory slaves, which was called a lock-up. lace to ' sion. | “Doleful, sab, for she was singing songs that | made me cry, sah,” | “J heard her. Good-night,” and leaving the | old negro to shut vp the mansion, as was his and throwing himself down in an easy-chair, turned up the lamp and tcok the letter from his pocket. It was addressed simply: “MR. PERCY WYNDHAM, ** Lakelands,” The writing was in a bold hamd, not to be suspected as written by a young girl, so full of character was it. The seal had on it the crest of the Mortimers, | a helmet and pair of crossed swords. Breaking the seal he read, written in the | | same beautiful hand: | “THe EVERGLADES, Friday. _ “WilMr. Percy Wyndham accept from one whose life he saved, at great personal danger and suffering, 'an acknowledgment that she appreciates fully in her heart all that he bas done for her, and regrets | that the bitter past alone keeps her from personally | proving that she is full of gratitude, and not ungrate- Ful, as her silence during his illness may have led him to suppose! ** With every wish for the shadows of the past to be lifted from Mr. Wyndham’s life, may the one he has so well served subscribe herself, notwithstanding the graves between them, not his foe, but his friend, ** Mapex MORTIMER.” This was the letter sent by Mabel Mortimer to Percy Wyndha™, and received by him in the honesty with which it was written. THE LADY OF THE LAGOON, LET me now take my reader to a scene a few miles away from the Everglades plantation, and in the densest part of the thick forest, which at that point ran to the very beach of the sound. Here and there dark watered Jagoons pene- trated inland, and a perfect network of bayous were formed, most of them capable of floating a vessel, as far as the depth was concerned, but which were overhung by the branches of trees, interlaced with vines, and draped with moss, until a natural archway was formed over al- most every stream. On one part of this forest-coast the land arose to a ridge some forty feet above the level of the surrounding country. The ridge was narrow and ended in a cliff that, jutted into the water a few bundred feet beyond the line of shore upou cither side. Upon this ridge stood a cabin of no mean pretensiors, for it contained four rooms, had a piszza in its front, and wus most comfortably furnished, though not a solitary article. was | house furniture, all being taken from the cabins _ of vessels. | There vas a flower-garden in front of the | cabin, with scores of gay flowers of all kinds in if, a vegetable garden in the rear, where | were also a small stable and chicken yard, | In the former were two horses, a cow wan- | dered in the pasture back of the stable, and a | number of chickens were in the _ inclosure, | while quantities of ducks and geese disported in the waters of the lagoon. | CHAPTER XXXVI, | | | In the front, in the waters of the creek, were several skiffs, a cat-rig sail-boat, and a sloop of ten tons. Altogether the place was a cheerful one, in spite of its gloomy surroundings, and those who dwelt there certainly showed an appreciation of the comforts of life. | One of the occupants was a man of forty-five or fifty, a Spaniard with a dark face, stern, | and yet marked with a certain refinement. | By occupation he was a fisherman, he said, _ though there were whispers that he made more | money in avoiding the revenue laws than in | catching fish. | The other occupant of the cabin, for there | were but two, was a maiden of eighteen, and 'she deserves more than passing notice, as she is destined to figure in these pages as a heroine. | Juan Gito was the name of the fisherman, ' and his daughter he had ¢bristened Bessie, af. ter her American mother, whom the girl did not remember, for her father had told ber she was lost at sea many years before, having been washed overboard in a storm. The maiden was certainly strangely unlike her father, for her hair was as golden as the sunshine, and her eyes were dark blue, large and dreamy, while his Sponish nationality no one would for a m»ment have doubted. Her form was g ave'ul, elegant, and yet there was an indication of Iconine strength and j wont, Percy Wyndham went to his own room, | taught from almost infancy to row and sai! a | boat, swim, ride horseback, and was an adept | in all the accomplishments it was the pride of | @ Man to possess. | When returning with her father from New Orleans, for she occasionally went with him | there, if a gale sprung up and it was her trick | at the helm, for she took ber turn as he did, he would not leave his bunk, should he be sleep- ing, unless summoned on deck by her, so great | was his confidence in his daughter to pull _ through any ordinary danger. | Folks said—but then there are always busy- bodies to say anything—that Gito dressed his _ daughter more like a lady than a fisher-girl, for she wore silks and laces, and her ears and fingers sparkled with precious stones. When spoken to upon the subject, he would | say that he spent his money to svit himself, _and few persons had the temerity to press the matter further, as Juan Gito was considered to be a dangerous man. The cabin of the Gitcs was six miles from any other habitatien, and the only way to reach it was by boat, or along the ridge road, which ran back to the highway over a league distant. . But to ride this road took a skilled horse- man, as there were lagoons to swim and these swarmed with alligators, while in one place there was a ravine which had a swinging bridge across it, made of wires, ropes and weather-boarding for planking. As the bridge swung clear between trees fully sixty fcet, with a fall beneath it of as many more, and was only a yard wide, the reader can understand bow great was the danger to ride a horse over it; but this feat | Bessie Gito very often accomplished tbe dark- est night, when returnivg from the village in- | land, where now and then she was wont t» go. It was while going to the village one after- noon, some weeks before the opening of this story, that she met with an adventure which well-nigh proved fatal to her, aud was the _ turning point in her life. Mounted upon one of the three very little horses her father constantly kept, though why, people could not understand, as they seemed never to be used other than by the maiden. The pony did not seem to want to face the dangers of a deep lagovn, for the alligators were seemingly more vicious than usual; but _having crossed it under like circumstances, | Bessie drew her oilskin skirt. close around ber, _and urged the animal into the stream. He had swum but half-way across and had thirty yards yet to go, when a monster alliga- tor started for him, and undismayed by the shouts of the maiden, and the report of her | pistol, wh’ch she fired almost in his face, be rushed upon the pony and seized him with a terrific gripe in bis huge jaws, ‘ It was a terrib'e moment for the young girl, with the struggling pony, the blood flowing from the wounds made by the cruel, knife- like teeth, the shrieks of tre doomed animal, snorting of the water master, who lashed his | tail furiously, and the sight of otkers coming | to the feast. With a prayer to the Virgin, fcr she was a | devout Catholic, the brave girl was turning | tbe muzzle of a second pistol she carried against | her own heart, preferring that death rather | than to be mangled by the hideous monsters, when suddenly she felt a grasp upon her. At first she believed that she was seized in the rapacious jaws of another savage monster, and her finger touched une trigger. But the weapon was knocked from her hand, and she was drawn over the bows of a small boat, out of all danger, when a second later it would have been too late. Bessie bad plenty of nerve, and she did not faint, but turned quickly to see who it was that had come to her reseue at such a time, She saw a handsome young man, and obeyed without a word his stern command: ‘Sit down! quick! for the devils may upset the boat.” He seized his oars and a few strokes sent bim out of all danger, and then he said: “You were silly to ride into the stream, _and I bad a hard pull of it to save you. ** Do you live on the coast?” She liked not his haughty, imperious manner, and answered coldly: “Tam Juan Gito’s daughter.” : ‘* No; I would not have suspected such loveli- ness was hidden in this forest, “ Before I lett home, several years ago, he ——— —<— + — eee ae - -—™” - eee EE JOO (EONMUCE cS (E (0)