Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 22 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

’ } - not done. + Indian lodge. , darkness of the pit. He saw water. | more? He did; he saw a form clinging to a 6 tnere, and his swarthy cheeks grew white. Casting himself upon his face, he dragged his body to the brink of the shaft, and looked down. A mist was before his eyes, a dizzy sensation in his brain. He saw nothing distinctly, at first ; a black, frightful ab\ss whirled beneath his vis- ion. Then the sunlight darted through the piece of rift-wood. It was Nathalia! Ralph Quimby arose with an exclamation of exultation, ran to a deserted hut near by. brought a rope, fastened it to the trunk of a tree, east the other end of the coil into the mine, then, grasping it, descended boldly. ‘““Are you alive, Nattie? Speak, Nattie— speak. Don't be afraid, girl; 1 don’t come to harm ye, now.” Nathalia looked up, with a pale and sickly ex- pression. “O Ralph! Ralph! you feared your work was Take me from this horrible place ! Let me die above ground, where the sun may shine on me. I am wet, cold, and dreadfully miserable. Have pity on me, Ralph! I have clung to this support so many, many hours! I thought the night would last forever. It’s dreadful to be dying so long!” Her voice was so low and weak that Ralph could scarcely hear her. “Poor Nattie—poor Nattie!”’ he said. “Give me a merciful death !”” murmured Na- thalie. * Don’t think of death, child! I was a mad- man last night. I was not Ralph Quimby, but adevi!. I’m not a devil this morning, Nathalia. Reason has returned. Heaven has preserved you; and no one will rejoice more than I.” “T’ve been here so long, and the water is so cold !” gasped Nathalia. By this time Ralph had reached her. He sed the rope around her slender waist, and astened it. She shuddered when he touched her ; she was not so far gone but his presence inspired her with terror. He worked himself up, hand-over-hand, then drew her after him. She was nearly insensible when she reached the top, chilled, bruised, and hopeless. Ralph eviled up the rope, and carried it back to the hut; then taking Nathbalia in his arms, hurried away with her. She was too mucli exhausted to realize entire | ly what was transpiring, but had a vague con. sciousness that she was with Ralph Quimby. The ineidents of the past night insensibly took | the lights and shades of a dream. She had re- tired ill, or in low spirits, probably, and horri- ble fancies had sprung up, like mushrooms, in her sleep. Nathalia’s thoughts surged to and fro, like a wreck at sea. The murdered man, Bernard Ross, Whitelaw, Owen, the mountain- eer, Ralph and his confréres, billowed fantastic- ally through her brain. The trees passed her like shadows ; the sunshine, the pen and the sky were mere phantoms, indistinct and indefi- nite, that flashed upon her like colors of a kalei- doscope. She was at rest at last; the motion had ceased. She closed her eyes wearily—heard about busily; then a savory odor greeted her nostrils—something warm touched her lips—an arm raised her—a voice said: “ Drink, Nattie. Don’t be afraid, child! Unele Ralph is with you. He won't harm you now.” She opened her mouth mechanically, swal- lowed the nourishment which Ralph pressed upon her, and then sleep came; like an angel, to bless her. CHAPTER V. aT WHITELAW’S HUT. Nathalia awoke. Mentally, she was conscious Did he see The New York Library. she help remembering the frightful episode of the past night; the strange and contradictory manner of Ralph ; the foreed nocturnal flight ; the exacted oath ; the brink of the pit; the ag- onizing suspense ; the dizzy, —— ll; the wa- ter ; the shivering plunge ; the ¢ inging tenaci- ty of her fingers when she arose, half strangled ; then the imperfectly-sensed, unexpected rescue ? All these things she could not but recall with 4 truthfulness that was but too dreadful. There was a coming footstep; she heard it pressing the leaves. Ralph's form darkened the door; his inexplicable eyes rested upon her, The sight of him filled her with inexpressible repugnance. Fear chilled her to the heart. “ Are you awake, girl?” heasked. “ Howdo you feel ? You have had horrid dreams—bhaven’t you? You've been tossing your arms wildly, and moaning.” “ Horrid, indeed !’’ said Nathalia. “But uncle Ralph didn’t leave you; he has been within call all the while, You are fever- ish, I think.” Nathalia had never heard him speak so gently but once before, and that gentleness was the preface to a great crime. Ought she not to tremble. Was not this the warning rattle of the serpent ? “ Don’t talk to me,” she said, coldly. “ Leave me ; I’}l do better alone.” “ Poor child!” answered Ralph. “ Your brain has been in a terrible state.” He laid his hand on her head; she shrank from him in disgust. “Keep away — keep away!” She shut her eyes and shuddered. “ Nattie, every person has his devil and his angel ; my devil has come and gone ; you need fear him no more. I’d blot out the past, if I could, but it is indelible; its black characters cannot be erased. I have been mad; but now I am not. I ant sane, repentant, humble, re- morseful. Conscience was not dead, but sleep- ing ; it awoke with the rising sun, and I hasten- ed to draw you out of the pit. Heaven willed that I should find you alive. My whole life shall be devoted to reparation. I will live, not for myself, but for you.” ; His voice and manner were humble ; he sigh- ed while speaking, and pressed his hand upon his heart in deep self-deprecation. Nathalia turned her clear black eyes upon him inquisitively. There was something in her face that said: “ You cannot deceive me.” “Your character— your crimes!” she ex- claimed. “T never felt them till now,” he said, with downeast looks. “TI doubt you, Ralph Quimby!” answered Nathalia, in a voice that should have touched the heart of an ordinary sinner. The man started as from a reverie; he con- templated that beautiful face. His good angel whispered to him. He had crouched beside the édagh of the girl; but he now raised himself, stood erect, walked to the door, looked outupon the trees, felt the warm rays of the sun, and re- ard turned to Nathalia. the crackling of a fire, and some one moving | “ Nattie,” he said—and his voice was really impressive, “if an angel could reform @ man, you would be that angel. There are moments when you make the villain tremble within me ; when you shake a long and carefully-nurtured urpose.” “ That came from the heart!” eried Nathalia. “Those words make me forget a part of my wretchedness—they cancel some of the pains of my lonely, neglected, and persecuted life ; but they cannot, cannot make me forget the terrible truth that you are a bad, bad man, and the ene- my of my happiness. You do not entirely un- derstand.me, Kalph Quimby. Ihave astrength and lueid. Shé remembered the events of the | that you have not measured, and never will ,? revious night; every incident of that dark | raction of time came to her in connected order. | erect. She sprang from her lowly couch and stood er eyes gleamed like rebuking stars. She looked around her with a half-apatheticeu-| «J will conquer you, yet! You shall lie at riosity ; she was in a hut, but not the one where | my feet as abject and humble as you now hy po- she had lived with Ralph. It was small and ¢ritically feign to be. This litile hand shall slightly built—something after the fashion of an gmite you !” She was lying on a couch of; She held up her delicate white fingers ; they boughs, with a blanket spread overher. A fire wayed to and fro before Ralph Quimby, who in- of sticks burned in the centre of this simple | voluntarily receded, pushing her from him in shelter. A kettle was suspended over the fire’) pantomime. from a pole supported by two forked sticks «There is something in innocence, in beauty, driven into the ground. An odor of venison! andin truth. Nattie, Nattie, you are terrib] pervaded the hut. She marked the circum- prophetic! Why won’t yoube quiet? Whydo stance, because it was an evidence that she had | you corner me im this way? You are nothing been cared for. And by whom? Ralph Quim- | het a human creature.” by! All this was @ mystery. What was its; He retreated till he stood in the.door. He meaning? Had he really repented of his evil | Jooked wildly at her. courses? Were there seasons in his life when “This won't dol I tell ye it won’tdo. I be was not an accountable being? How could | won't bear it. You've got a brain fever. 11 know what ails you well enough. You can’t change Ralph Quimby. That that’s in him was born in him. Whatdoyouwant of me? What do you expect? You'ye never been wronged I robbed. You don’t. know how sweet re- venge is !”’ “There is no rest for you,” answered Natha- lia. “ You cannot hide from your sins. Evil is your trade. Murder does not startle you. In your heart, you were 4 murderer three times last night. Don’t think that I can’t understand you. Do not flatter yourself that I am the child you pretend to think me. For some reascn, I am the object of your hatred. Come, Ralph ” Quimby, kill me decently if you must and will. Here I am, a girl, helpless andalone. Make an end of it all; for I solemnly tell you that, if I live, I will humble you. I will feel you beneath my feet!” “Murderer? What right had they to come? What right had they to watch our movements? Is not poverty a curse? Is not gold life itself? It is—u is! The gold-seeret is mine, and you are mine, and he is mine!” * Who ?” asked Nathalia. “ Ah! you'd give a world to know. I thank you, girl, for the question; it restores me to myself; it gives me back to the oliject of my life. I dare not remain nearyou. I will go out into the air; I will cool my hot brain and burn- ing heart.” Ralph laughed like a maniac, and hurried from the hut. Nathalia looked after him till he was out of sight. Her heart was lighter for his absence, though there was sufficient on her mind to makeher miserable. She glanced at the sun ; it was half-way down the western arch, shining gloriously on the majestic trees of the forest. Her thoughts flew back to childhood, following the trail of her life to the present. She remem- bered when she was happier.. She tried to fathom the mystery that surrounded her, and made her the victim of Ralph Quimby. He rofessed to be her friend, but she felt him to e her enemy. Never had he been so terrible of late. After the horrors of the past night, how could she tolerate his presence ? How could she share the same shelter? She would escape. Better to perish in the woods—better to cast herself into the lake—better be devoured by wild beasts, than to exist with him. LIlis power was every diy growing more terrible, his moods more dark and unaccountable. There had been times when she believedin him; when he threw a dark spell upon her—a dreadful fas- cination that rendered her docile even when shaken by secret terror. She feared that,he might again regain that satanic mastery over her. Never before had she broken from him and defied him as she had recently done. She was glad that she had been endowed with sufficient moral strength to rise up against and rebuke him. Should she not struggle hard to my | this mental liberty? She onght; she would. She would throw off his black thralldom for- ever. Which way should she fly? The sun was several hours high, and would light her foot- steps a long way, if she improved the time, and her strength did not fail. Ste moved slowly from the hut, and walked a few paces. She dis- covered her weakness; she was bruised and lame, and her limbs refused to perform their of- fice without pain and A any She sank upon the earth, and felt how impracticable, at present, was her purpose. She sobbed —she shed bitter tears of disa pointment. “ Nathalia! Nathalia!’ Nattie looked up, and saw the man Whitelaw standing before her, regarding her with curiosi- ty and sympathy. “We have been seeking you,” he added. “We have had fears for your safety. I did not think to find you at my hut.” ‘“* Yours, sir?” said Nattie, with some surprise. “ Yes; I built it, and occasionally oceupy it. Where have you been? Who brought you here? You look ill and wretched. Your garments, too, are torn and sviled,” He watched the changes of her countenance. He took her by the arm, and gently raised her from the ground, x I was lost in the woods,” answered Nathalia, with hesitation. “I wandered about a lon time. The night was dark and stormy ; so dak and so stormy |” She glanced covertly from point to point to see if she could discover Ralph; she felt that he was near. “But your clothes, girl? It did not rain mud ?”” comicbooks