Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 210 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

12 that was blowing, ordered more sail to be set. Far over uoder the pressure careened the fleet and trim vessel, and her decks were fairly flooded; as she bounded on into the very teeth of tbe wind, for the brig was forced to beat intu the gale, as the pursuer was coming up from leeward. That it now became a chase dead to wind- ward, was evident, for the schooner shook out the lower reefs in her sails and pressed on with all speed. Observing her closely, Bessie saw that she was a long craft, with narrow, sharp bull, heavily armed, and with tall, raking masts, capable of spreading an immense amount of canvas. She seemed to cut through the waves, rather than to ride them, and was gaining steadily upon the brig. “She’ll overhaul us by night, captain, if not before,” said Boatswain Brail, who still did the duties of boatswain, and was so called, in spite of his promotion to acting second officer, while Ben had also not dropped the prefix of Binnacle to bis name. “Yes, if we do not dodge her by running for the coast and hiding in some lagoon,” answered Bessie, with the utmost calmness of manner. “Bat I don’t know this coast too well, cap- tain, nor does Ben, and we have no pilot on board.” “But Ido know the coast, Mr. Brail, and if we cannot outfovt that fellow, we must give him the slip inshore. ‘* My glass, please.” The glass was handed to the Girl Chief, and she turned it upon the deck of the coming vessel, “Mr. Brail, Forrester, the Freebooter is on that craft, for I recognize him now distinctly, standing upon the deck with four other officers. “Shake out those reefs, please, for this vessel must not be taken.” CHAPTER XX, THE DEFEATED PIRATE, THe vessel in pursuit of the packet brig Lioness, was a noted rover's craft of that day. The name of her captain none knew, or what he looked like; but it was reported that he was aman of great skill asa sailor, and who had an island retreat somewhere in the Gulf, that the cruisers of America, England and Spain had been unable to find, any more than to catch the fleet craft itself. But to that secret island, the haunt of piracy, with an author’s privilege, which per- mits him to ‘Walk boldly Where angels scarce dare tread,” i will bear my reader thither, at least in imagination if not 4m propria persona. Toward the close of a balmy day, some two weeks, or more, after the capture of the Skeleton Schooner by Percy Wyndham in the dack-o’ lantern, a small sail-boat, jib and main- sail, was going along ata rattling pace over the waters of the Bahama channel, and heading toward one of the many keys, or islands, which are so humerous thereabout, The /sail-boat held but a single occupant, was a craffi of stanch build, and got all it could out of the seven-knot breeze that was blowing. As it came from the direction of the Florida shore, it bad evidently put out of some harbor on that coast. The occupant was a man of striking appear- anée, witha long black beard, hair of the same bue falling upon his shoulders, the latter being. broad:and massive, and his form élegant. ‘His\eyes were strangely full of beauty, lan- guid and with long lashes to shade them, but in spite of being half hidden by the his mouth wore an expressidn that was not win- He was attired in a short storm-conat, sailor hat, duck pants and boots, and wore a sash A jewel of rare beauty glittered on thé little finger of» his’ léft hand, which rested upon the tiller, and about -bim was an air of refinement, which showed that he was not one born to wear the suit of'a common seaman.| His eyes were fixed upon the larger of a group of islands, somé two leagues ahead of him, and which arose above the others, and * cheer, and in a minute’s time the brig fell off sc as to feel the wind, and darted away swift- ly, while Captain Bess, in spite of the stiff gale Buccaneer Bess, the Lioness of a os was encircled by them in such a way that they had received from the seamen of that day the very suggestive name of Hen and Chickens. The larger island bad bold, precipitous sides, and no opening was visible to those on the decks of a vessel sailing by, while the reefs that were scattered about the smaller isles seemed to render their approach most hazard- ous, and it was not known to the merchant vessels and cruisers that any craft had ever had the temerity to attempt a landing upon either the shores of the ‘‘Hen” or ‘‘ Chick- ens.’ But still the single occupant of the little boat held on his way unswervingly, and when he drew withia a cable’s length of the first breaker, did not hesitate. The wind was directly upon his port beam, and he simply lowered bis jib, hauled in, trimmer, his main-sail, and held the halyard of the sheet in his hand for ready use. Fixing bis eyes upon a different point of one of the islands, be got his mast in range with it, and kept straight on through the wall of foam that denoted the breakers, and at a point where there was evidently a safe passageway for a craft of much heavier size than the one whose destinies he was guiding. The little boat danced about upon the rough waters, but beld on her course as unswervingly as before, and after a run almost to the edge of the first island, suddenly eased off her sheet, her helm was jammed a-port, and she went bounding away dead before the wind, and run- ning along parallel with the shore of rocks, from which it was not distant twice its length. Having skirted the island to the end, the sheet was again hauled in, and with the wind once more abeam, the boat was headed di- rectly for the second of the isiands, and which was another of the ‘‘ Chickens,” This island was rounded in a way that put the boat on a lee shore; but she pointed well, the water seemed deep beneath the keel, and having passed it by, the largest of the group of isles was the next point of destination, As the boat neared this, it could be seen that the cliffs were seamed here and there with wide breaks, and into one of these, which the water invaded, the sail boat was lowered. As the bold pilot neared it, here and there were seen the hulls of several vessels, which had been loaded with stone and sunk, so as to form a breakwater, but which had the appear- ance of reefs at a distance». Glidiuog in between these barriers, which protected a small cove, half encircied by a cliff, the mariner lowered his sail, and his boat drifted into a basin, just large enough to conceal a couple of large vessels, and the rocky walls of which rose upon three sides high enough to soar above the topmasts, and thereby make a secluded retreat for a craft desiring to hide, and a safe one too, as the rock-loaded hulks broke the fury of the waves from the northward. Against the sides of the wall of rock, a dis. masted vessel had been securely moored by heavy chains, and upon her decks was a broad- side, facing so as to command the entrance to the basin, of six long eighteens. Alongside of the hull, which seemed placed there to serve the purpose of a pier, or jetty, the mariner let his boat glide, and seizing the painter sprung upon the deck and made fast. Not a soul was visible, as he glanced around him, and he descended into the cabin, which was large, and not uncomfortably furnished. But no one was there, and going on deck again the intruder seized hold of a rope ladder that was made fast to the deck, and the top of which disappeared over the edge of the cliff far above bis head. Up this, with the ease and confidence of a perfect seaman, the stranger went, until he at last stepped'on terra firma at the top. The island then appeared to his view like a mere pile,of rocks, only toward its center a few stunted trees were visible; beneath the shelter of one of them stood a stoutly-built cabin. 0 » Still no one was’ to be seen, and the strange visitor paused and gazed around him, allowing his eyes to sweep over the course he had just A moment he remained in silence, and then his lips moved and he said aloud: ‘At last I stand again upon my Rock of Gibraltar, for here I am master. ‘*But the Rover is not in, and here I must await her coming. “Weil, I am the defeated pirate, Forrester, - the Sea. ———_s now they call me, and because that accursed young planter cleverly took from me my schooner, they will think that I am conquered, and merchant craft will throw their sails to the breeze with more confidence, ‘‘But they know not Forrester, the Free- booter, as men call me, if they think I am to be trodden under foot, for I have a reserve force they little dream of, and before long I shall again plant my flag upon the blue waters, and be again feared as the Skimmer of the Seas, ‘That was a clever deal of young Wynd- ham, his capturing the Skeleton Schooner, and I have yet to ferret out who was the traitor that placed the Jack-o’-lantern in his hands, and thus enabled him to do it. ‘And as for that girl, the fair Lady of the Lagoon, she betrayed my hiding-place, and, as her father was let go free, though found upon my pirate deck, I believe he too was treacherous, and I shall hunt him down, and yet bring the head of his beautiful and proud Bessie down in the dust, for 1 am revengeful to the bitter end. “And Planter Percy Wyndham too must suffer, for be took from me my beautirul Skeleton Schooner. ‘Had those cowardly smugglers of Appa- lachee Bay, whom I have so often befriended, been willing to follow my lead, I could have gone to New Orleans with them, and cut my schooner out; but the Rover will do as well; and more, I think it necessary to look after that same young officer I made command of that vessel, for I really begin to suspect him of late. ‘*Now, to see where the keeper of this island 1s,” and Forrester, the Freebooter, walked quickly back from the cliff toward the cabin among the stunted pines. CHAPTER XXI. KIT, THE CABIN BOY, Wir light, quick step Forrester, the Free- booter, strode back to the grove of trees, in which was situated the cab:n before referred to. It was a stoutly built cabin, made from the timbers of vessels, and large enough to accom- modate a score of inmates. Before the door, swinging between two trees: was a sailor’s hammock, and it held an occu-- pant, That occupant, at first glance appeared to be) a boy, and was asleep. The approach of the freebooter did not rouse him from his slumber, and the intruder drew near and gazed in silence upon bim, as he lay in the hammock, one hand beneath his head. It was a face in which the features were re- fined, and clear-cut, each one being strongly marked. But the face was pale, and seemed haggard now, while the lips were firmly closed, as: with thoughts of a disagreeable nature which would not away even in slumber. A sailor suit, the shirt open at the neck, covered the slender form, and the feet and hands, were small and shapely. A belt was about the waist, and in it, were a pistol and long, slender-bladed knife, the latter without a seabbard. ‘* Kit, the Cabin Boy of the Red Rover!” said Forrester half aloud, when his eyes first fell upon the form in the hammock, And then he added: ‘Why has Lieutenant Don left him here as guard, and seemingly alone too?” Drawing a step nearer he was about to awaken the sleeper, when suddenly he started, and there broke from bis lips the words: ‘‘Holy Padres! now the secret of that start- ling resemblance is solved, for as I live, Kit, the Cabin Boy, is none other than Kate Langdon. Lieutenant Don must be her brother. ‘‘Ha! ha! ha! she meant treachery toward me, and he is her ally, and now I can account for the Red Rover making no captures since I placed him in command. “Kate, my beauty, is this the welcome you give your husbacd to his island home?’ He called the words in a loud, clear tone, and with a wild cry the sleeper sprang from. the hammock, and stood trembling before him, while, as the eyes rested upon his face, thé lips parted with the words, fairly hissed forth: “Frank Forrester! thank God yon have comé,” ; ‘Then you are glad to see me, sweet Kate?” he said with a sneer. . Her band dropped upon the butt of the pis- AMIE SACEO) 0 9\(0) —_ (E(0)