Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 210 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

a ~ 8 ee ee es ee ee oe ) ee —— oe SO - a ee ee ce aneneneeiied .. “Again I ask. you, what is your business “with him?” ~The men seemed uneasy under the piercing eyes and questions of the girl, and all remained . silent. ** Answer me!” she said, sternly. “Well, miss, Jong ago we sailed with your ‘father, and being as we are now without a captain, and knowing him well, we put in here to ask him to be our skipper.” “Why does the Packet Company not get a captain for the brig?” “The brig don’t fly the Packet Company’s flag now, miss,” ** Ab! am Ito understand that she has been seized?” Yes, miss?” “By whom?” “We lads, miss.” x “For what purpose?” ., To make your father cap’n, miss, and go “on a cruise o’ our own.” ; “Turn pirates?’ said Bessie, with a sneer. ‘‘ Pirate is a harsh word, miss, and we hain’t used to it, leastwise not yet, for the worst we were guilty of, when your father was our se- -cret Jeader, was smuggling, _,. “But since he gave us up, years ago, things waaven’ run on a level keel, and as the Govern- _ment has run us from our haunts, we thought ‘to. come and .ask your father to take us in hand again,’ _. ** And this then is what you bave come here for?” asked Bessie, in suppressed tones, ‘6 Yes, miss.” “And you tell this to me?” “Yes, miss, seeing that you must know what your father’s business is, as we bave heard be was in league with Forrester, the Free- booter; but we don’t come like paupers, miss, for we shipped on board the Lioness as honest passengers, took her into our charge a couple of bours ago, and run her in here for your father to say what is to be done with her pas- ' gengers and cargo, while, if he don’t like tho _brig, sbe is fast enough to help us toa craft that will do better.” Bessie gazed straight into the face of the speaker who had spoken thus boldly, and then remained silent an instant, while her face was rapidly overcast with the different emotions that flashed through her mind. - At last she said, in a low, earnest tone: , '*Men, you have come here to see my father. * Behold him!” She threw open the door and stepped aside as sh3 spoke, and a cry broke from every lip, as their eyes fell upon the dead form of Juan ito. CHAPTER XIII. BESSIES RESOLVE. THE men who had come to the cabin of the cliff fisherman, were one and all of them hardy sailors of the coast, and had led lives which had brought them face to face with many a sad scene, They had faced death and misery in its _worst forms, but now, when Bessie Gito step- ped aside, threw open the door, and pointed to the corpse of her father, involuntarily they Started, aud stood with awe before the dead, ancovering their heads as with one thought, “The cap’n dead?” said the spokesman of the group, in a hushed voice. “Yes,” was the low, stern response of the _maiden, vite Did he die a nat’ral death, miss, or were he t? ‘‘Come in, for yonder tornado is upon us, and I will tell you of his death, _* See! how black those clouds are, and how the winds roar. *‘ Is your vessel safe, think you?” ‘Yes, miss, for we stripped her for the blow, and the lads on board know enough to _ Jet go both anchors, and there’s no danger of their dragging in that snug little harbor.” . “Then enter the house, and I will tell you of my father’s death.” The tornado was now upon them, and the door was barely closed when the winds struck the cabin with a force that made it rock, and momentarily all believed that it must go to pieces. But Juan Gito had done his work well, and, like the good sbips, from which its timbers had mostly come, after the first shock, it seemed to weather the storm without danger of being destroyed. Seeing this, the men drew closer to the nme Buccaneer Bess, the Lioness of the Sea. stark form lying across the room, and gazed in silence upon the face of the dead. ** Miss, it hasn’t been often of late years, that we have seen the cap’n, and he’s aged som’at since the old smuggling days, but it’s him for all that, and, as we liked him, for he were a true man ter friend or foe, we feels for you in your sorrow, and wishes we could con- sole you, ‘*But we is rough men, lady, with more curses than prayers on our lips, and can only say we feels for you, and are your friends,” ‘* Yes, lady, Binnacle Ben has spoke with ther tongues of all of us,” said another, in an honest, blunt way, while several more, not knowing | what to say, simply uttered most fervently the one word; ‘*¢ Amen!” The eyes of Bessie filled with tears, and her lips quivered, as she tried to speak, Before her stood men who were avowed outlaws, and who bad {come there for the pur- pose, as they said, of making ber father their chief, in some bold enterprise which they had already inaugurated by daringly seizing the fleet packet brig Ljoness, plying between Mobile and New Ocleans. And yet these men had hearts, and she was deeply touched by their words, while after an effort at self-convrol she said: ** Men, I thank you for your sympathy, and Lam glad to see that you honored my father, though be may bave once led you ina varéer that was criminal. ‘‘For my sake, as I grew from girlhood, ho east off bis cld associations, as much as he could, and I little dreamed, until only a short while since, that he was other than an honest fisherman. “Bat beis dead, and be bis crimes what they might I forgive and forget all, except,” and her vcice becamo hard and stern,” that he was killed.” “* Killed?” cried all in chorus, ‘** Yes, ho was cruelly, cowardly slain by one whom I once loved, and now hate with tenfold fury.” “ Does he live hereabout lady,” asked Bin- nacle Ben, noticing her flashing e; es and heav- ing breast. sé Yes.” ‘** Give us his name, lady, and up to the brig’s yard-arm he goes,” was the blunt remark, ‘‘No, I reserve the pleasure of myself tak- ing his life,” she said grimly. ‘‘ You shall do it, lady, and we will see you through for we lads think honest revenge ought to be ’tended to same as one’s prayers.” “No prayer shall pass my lips until [ am avenged upon that man, ‘‘T swear it,” said Bessie with intense ear- nestness, and noticing her pallid face, Binnacle Ben wished to lead her from her grief, 80 asked: “Is there any cruiser hereabouts now, lady, that you can tell of?’ . “None that I have heard of nearer than Mobile and New Orleans. ‘*Since the capture of the Skeleton Schooner the cruisers are not seen so frequently in these waters.” f “Well, miss, they will have to lock lively soon again, for though we have heard the cap- ture of the Skeleton Schooner was a most clever and daring deed, the famous Skimmer of the Seas escaped, and he’s efloat once more.” “ What?” asked Bessia in surprise. “Yes, lady, he escaped, got to Mobile, folks say, in your father’s boat, and then came to us and tried to get us to belp him cut out the armed cutter that is stationed at Pensaco’a. ‘We might have listened to bim, for times were dull with us then, but Captain Forrester told us of a little plan he bad, if the cutter cou'dn’t be cut out, which we didn’t like, and that was his intention of capturing the very packet brig lying at anchor in your snug little harbor.” “Ha! is he then on board the brig as your leader?’ quickly asked Bessie, ‘Not he, lady, though he might have been, if he had not wanted us to tura against your father and your sweet self.” Bessie’s faca showed the surprise she felt at these words, but she could only ask: “Captain Forrester turn against my father and myself?’ ‘““ Yes, miss, for he told us your father had laid up heaps ef treasure, which was hidden near his cabin, and that he would force the secret from him, and we might have the gold, while he would take as bis share a gem of more value to him than all else, meaning your- self, lady.” “Forrester said this to you, Ben?” and Bessie’s voica trembled. ** He did, miss, and more, for he was to kill Cap’n Gito, and make ycu his wife, he said, for you wouldn’t know that he had slain your father,” Bessie drew a deep sigh, but asked in the same suppressed tones: ‘‘ And what answer gave you him?” “We told him we preferred smuggling to pirating, though the gold did not come in such quantities, and that he had better look else- where for a crew.” ** And he did so?” ‘Yes, lady, he left our retreat with several lads who were willing to follow his fortune, and as we knew the cutter would socn find us out, we concluded to act for ourselves,” ‘‘ And what did you do?” ‘€You see, lady, we had lost our chief in a hot chaso sometime before, and my shipmates made me a kind 0’ cap’n; but I bain’t no band to navigate, so I proposes to ther lads to make one 0’ Forrester, the Freebooter’s thunder, go to Mobile, take passage on the Lioness, capture ther craft for ourseltes, and then, instead of robbing cur old cap’n, to make him our Jeader, and let him capture the Skimmer of the Seas,” “Tf was certainly good of you not to turn against my father, and from my heart I thank yon. ** But where is this Freebooter chief now?’ said Bessie, with feeling. ‘“‘] did bear in Mobile, afore we sailed in the Lioness, that the Red Rover Corsair had boarded a craft cff Perdido Inlet, and after robbing her, Jet her come on to the town, and a sailor who knew bim well, said the Skimmer of the Sea was on the pirate deck, and that is what mads me teil yon he was afloat once more and it would rot be safe fcr you to stay bere.” — ‘*'You are right, my good friend, but what eam I to do, for if I go elsewhere on the ccast, he will find me out,” and Bessie’s face wore a hunted, pitiful look that touched those who gazvd upon it, and caused Binnacle Ben to say in his blunt way: ‘*Go with us, lady, and we will find you a home. **'We hain’t no cap’n as knows anything, but we can find our way to some place where you can dwell in safety, and then, if we can geta chief, we'll go on the hunt for this Forrester the Freebooter, and maybap the Government might give us a pardon for what we has done, if we cspture him.” At this there was a general murmur of as- sent among the shipmates of Binnacle Ben, while Bessie started at bis words, ber face flushed and paled by turns, and her eyes lurned brightly with the intensity of her feelings, while she cried in ringing tones; ‘‘Men, I am resolved what I shall do, ‘You wish a leader. ** T will be that leader |” a CHAPTER XIV. THE VOW AT THE GRAVE, In clarion tones again rung out the words of Bessie Gito. ‘“« Men, I will be your leader |” A silence fell upon all after she had spoken, and it was a picture never to be forgotten by one who had made up the thrilling tableau, There, at the side of her dead father, one hand resting upon bis head, the other pressed ugainst ber own heart, she stood, upright, pale, but with heaving bosom and flashing eyes, her long hair, which had fallen from its fastenings, hanging around her like a vail, and her white dress giving her a statue-like look. Before her grouped the smugglers, their faces showing the excitement they inwardly felt, though none of them spoke. Taus the silence lasted for full a minute, when Bessie, seeing that her influence was felt, cried: ‘Men, thanks to my dead father, whom you loved in life, and whose memory you revere in death, 1 am a thorough sailor, woman though I be. ‘‘Tt was I that acted as pilot for the vessel that captured the Skeleton Schooner in the Black Lagoon, though little did I dream of finding my father upon the pirate decks, ‘‘The chief, Forrester the Freebooter, I had saved from the gallows, and bis return for that service was to be, you tell me, to drag me down to dishonor, and take the life of my fa —~ «SI eee Eomicbooks.co