Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 210 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

looked into the little stable and poultry-yard, said Juan Gito was buried in the sea, and yet pesids it an open grave. Buccaneer Bess, the Lioness of the Sea. | Y — The winds had wrenched off branches of the | As his eyes roved mechanically about the trees here and there, the flowers had been | room, they highted upon another piece of paper, blown down, and upon all rested an air of | and quickly he seized this too, loneliness, It was written in the same hand as the other, Knocking at the door he received no answer, | and addressed to himself. and when thrice no response had come to his It read; blows on the stout oak boards, he raised the | ‘Kiyp Frrenp: latch and entered. ae . Leap ger gerd re in the forest, and not in To his surprise he beheld not the body of | '"C AR geen Juan Gito laid out before him, nor did bo see | ye the resting place of Mark Moreimer, whom | how Bessie. go forth to find for I have a debt of revenge to pay. The room looked as it had when he left it, “Forgive Ses pt weg Be by =, meveneery ape P " t * excepting that the corpse and the maiden were Gent, Teen on Se sympathy and advice o not to be seen, our noble self and good mother; but my nature is ‘“* Bessie!” | o strike back, and ee been cruelly wronged, I ae know ~~ Dyes ark eee ve st in ‘ ‘ @ grave by the side of my poor murdered father. He called her name in hushed tones, and yet Ys Tareumnstances I little Seanad of place it in my no answer came. power to leave my home on the path l have chosen ‘6 Begsie |” <o follow, gad my ee hoje on is Mer I will ‘ ou and your mother, humble thou ey ma He called again and louder, yet still no an- be, and they nay serve to cause you to remceaher swer to his call. Instantly he crossed the little | meas I was, and not as I will be. sitting-room, and entered what was the dining- | “The Virgin biess you and yours, will be ever the d kitchen prayer of your unhappy and unfortunate friend, N But it too silent and deserted a RERRGEM SP Oe | i Hse ag : Tbhrusting the two letters has'ily into his Then he went into the bedroom that had |p, cact pocket, Perey Wyndham left the cabin, and walked quickly down to,the beach. The waves still rushed in furiously, and fell been Juan Gito’s. It was tenantless, Before entering the room he knew to be Bessie’s, his delicacy cansed him to stop and with thunder tones upon the shore; but fear. knock. lessly he bounded through them, and, after a 2a no answer came and he entered the hard and desperate swim reached the yacht and sprung on board, while his mother followed him anxiously into the cabin, to know what news of ill-omen he was the bearer of. It too was vacant. A pleasant, cosey retreat it was, with snowy curtains over the windows, pretty pieces of furniture, sketches and paintings on the wall, executed by Bessie herself, a study table and desk, a comfortabie bed, with its embroidered spread, a guitar, and other things that denoted a refined taste. But the fair young occupant was not there. Tbe room, like tue rest of the houses, was deserted. In surprise Percy Windham left the cottage by the rear door, and gazed around him. Back, under the shelter of a large magnolia, his eyes fell upon a newly-made grave. Quickly he walked toward it, and felt as- sured that within that grave lay all that was mortal of Juan Gito; but there was another grave, and it was yawning wide open, while into the bark of the tree he saw most skillfully cut the name of Juan Gito, the date of his death and age, and following was the line: ** Vet to be avenged.” These few words told the story of the daugh- ters grief and revengeful feeling, and at once it came to the mind of Percy Wyndham that poor Bessie, maddened by ber loss, had gone to New Orleans to seek out Mark Mortimer. That accoun'ed for ber absence, he thought, and the desertion of the cottage. But then, kow could she have gone? The gale that bad kept him away from Cliff Cottage, certainly would have prevented her leaving it. Besides, boat and other little vessels in the basin as he CHAPTER XI. ALONE WITH THE DEAD. I WILL now return to Bessie Gito, who, the reader will remember, insisted upon being left alone with ber dead father, and was so urgent in her demand that Percy Wyndbam felt it would be rudeness to refuse her, and conseqnently departed in his launch with his negro crew. After bis departure, Bessie stepped to the window, and watched the launch disappear from the basin, when she koew that she was indeed alone. Before, when with her father at the cabin, not an atom of loneliness had she ever felt, and in fact, when he was absent, she bad her peny, her guitar, books, sketching and needle- work toemploy her leisure, and prevent ber from feeling how thoroughly was she shut off from the rest of the world. Yet now how different, for though her father was with her, his cold upturned face looked not upon ber, and no word of love and kindness came from the silent lips. With a wail of anguish as thess thoughts rushed upon her, she threw herself down by the body and wept bitter tears of sorrow. Long she remained thus, to suddenly spring to her feet, as a loud rap was heard upon the closed door. Had she been s0 long writhing in bitter agony over the body of her father that Percy came in, and the approach by land to the | Wyndham had returned to Lakelands, and, as cabin, bis own experience told him, was whol- | he had promised, returnel with his mother— ly cut off. and the coffin for her dead father? he had seen the fisherman’s life- She must. therefore have concealed herself The thought made her shudder and involun- somewhere about the cabin. tarily clasp the cold hand, as though to keep it Retracing his way, he again entered the | from the cold grave. house aud began his search. True, she had lived over and over again her - But nowhere could he find trace of the miss- | life while crouching there on the floor beside ing girl, and be was in a quandary. her dead. Then it flashed upon hin: She had gone back in memory to her child- “ How couli that young gir] diga grave, and | hood, when she knew a mother’s fair face and unaided, bury her father?” form, and had seen her Jaid away in the tomb. Here was anotber mystery, and going back The years that followed, with her father to the forest, be searched every part of it, | only to love, had come to her, and she remem- bered how happy she had been in learning to row and sail a boat. Then her school-gir] life at the convent came up before her, a@f last her return to her cabin home she loved s> well, to one day being in danger of a fearful death in the lagoon, when a huge alligator would have torn her to pieces had it not been for her timely rescue by a stranger whom she learned to love, for he fascinated her, and found to be none other than Mark Mortimer, of The Everglades. The memory of his mock marriage with her then came up, and then, when she knew his baseness how her cause had been espoused by Perey Wyndham, in return for her piloting him to the Black Lagoon, where lay hidden the Skeleton Schooner. Percy Wyndbam, at the sword's point, had forced Mark Mortimer to right that wrong done her, and saddened by the memory of her having loved a false, base man, and ths discov- ery that her father was really in league with and foiled in his hope of finding Bessie, went back into the cabin and threw himself into Juan Gito’s easy-chair to thiok. Hardly bad he done so, when his oye fell upon a piece of paper, which the wind, when he opened the door, had evidently blown from the table. Quickly he seizz:d it, and in Bessfe’s bold hand saw written: “T bury my dead in the sea he loved so well, and to-day go forth to wreak revenge uvon the one who brought a curse upon my life, and who made me fatherless and alone in the world. ‘For what revenge may drive me to, may Cod pity and forgive me. Bessie Grro.” Percy Wyndham stood like one in a trance, more in a quandary than ever, for the note @ newly made grave, in which he was supposed to rest, was back among the magnolias, and What did afi this mean? ' ¢ Forrester, the Freebooter, she had returned to her home to pine over the past, as she had ex- pected; but instead found her father slain by the hand of the one she had once loved. Such were the memories that had trooped up before Bessie Gito as she bent over the corpse of her murdered father, and a cry escaped her lips, and to ber feet she sprung with alarm at the knock on the cabin door, for it recalled her from bitter dreamland to a realization equally bitter. Like one caught in guilt she stood, bending half over the dead, and clutching convulsively the ice-cold hands, seemingly without power to ask who was without, Then again came a knock, louder than be- fore, and it seemed to recall her more to her- self, for she tenderly clasped the hands upon the breast and stepped to tbe door. Opening it, sbe stepped half out, and con fronted half a score of stern-looking men im scamen’s garb, CHAPTER XITI. STRANGE VISITORS. UNDER most circumstances, Bessie would have started back in ala:m, seized her fire-arms, and shown a beld front, at the din- covery of a group of men before her door, for those were dangerous times, and her father had continually warned ber to be on her guard. Especially would she have been the more frightened, as her eyes also swept above their heads and bebeld the rigging of a brig at , anchor in the little harbor, though the high bank kept all below the cross-trees from being visible, In the same glance too she noticed that the heavens were becoming overcast, and a storm was rapidly rising in the eastward and threat- ening to burst with fury upon sea and land, It was the coming tornado which the black crew of Percy Wyndbam’s launch were then pulling with terrific vigor to escape, ‘‘ Pardon, missus, but we wants ter see Juan Gito,” said the apparent leader of the men, and with bis ccmrades he politely doffed his sea cap at sight of the maidep, while all stepped backward as sbe stood before them. “Who are you?’ she asked, looking over the crowd inquiringly. ‘Honest tars, miss, who wants ter see Cap’n Gito, to put bim in ther way o’ making a few square pounds o’ gold, and by the same token helping us to do the same,” ‘“T am Juan Gito’s daughter.” ‘Oho! Iis proud, and so say all of us, ter meet ther Lady o’ ther Lagoon, of whom we has heerd much. ‘*We salutes you, miss,” and by one accord they all made obeisance. Bessie, with white, grief-stricken face re- turned the ealute by a bow. But who were these men, sho wondered? Were they smugglers, with whom it was said ber father was connected? Were they some of the crew of the Skeleton Schooner, sent there by Forrester the Free- booter, who had escaped when bis vessel was captured by Percy Wyndham in the Black La- goon? Were they men come to avenge themselves upon her, because she had piloted the Jack-o’- lantern to the secret retreat of the corsair cra(t? , These thoughts flashed like lightning throug her mind, and she determined to know who were these men, and what was their mission with ber father. | < “What flag do you sail under, lads?” she asked in an asstmed, off-hand manner, = The question, coming as direct as it did, and from feminine lips was a poser, for all startled looked at each other with surprise, and the spokesman hesitatingly answered: BIE ‘We is sailors o’ fortin’, miss, going with ——_ ther craft that gives us the most gold, grog <u and grub,” ‘Ah! you may then belong to the crew of Forrester, the Freebooter?” Again they started, but the spokesman an- swered: . “Tf you is in the secret with your father, miss, we can talk more at ease.” ‘‘ First answer me what vessel is that at an- chor in the harbor?’ “The packet brig Lioness, miss, out of Mo- bile and bound for New Orleans.” ‘* Why has she put in here?” “Because we wanted to see your father, miss.” | GOomichoo <S com)