Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

D5 —-—-- » Dr. Sam near me, moodily smoking, that I heard him suddenly say: “By Jove there’s a gun.” I had not noticed tbe flash, being absorbed with my work; but, as soon as I had finished and got my data down, I watched the place ‘that he indicated to me, and saw several flashes at long intervals, that meant either lightning or guns at sea, a long way off. - The direction was nearly due south, the sk ‘clear, and 1 judged, from the absence of sound, that the guus, if guns they were, must be at least twenty miles off, if mot more. Had the weather been cloudy, I could have ‘been certain they were at least forty miles away, for clouds reflect sound a good thirt miles, but in perfectly clear weather it is dif- ferent. Anyway it was out of my course, and I didn’t feel called on to go any nearer, though Dr. Sam grew uneasy, and kept looking at the flashes as we passed on. But after we had — in this way for ‘an hour, 1 was surpri to see that the flashes, which had been on our starboard beam, were there still, though less frequent; and that I began to hear the faint boom of unmistakable guns. S Further, it seemed as if they were working ahead, as if crossing our track, and I began to see we were likely to run into a first-class sea- fight, whether we would or not. | ~~ -- rr a eee get — within a minute of the foundering of the t, and I saw more than one boat sucked down, as the ill-fated iron-clad disappeared. And then the terrible Flying Dutcbman—for I could see now that a terrible power lay within her—turned on her heel and went skimming off in a cirele, as if waiting to see what would follow, and defying the second ship to renew the assault. But I saw there was no danger of this. The bereaved consort, if I may call her 80, lay by the place where the iron-clad went down, as if me commander os ve ~eniaety and octor Sam began to cry excitedly: ** Good pendent wis toons the cursed fool et up his steam and put his head round? The devil is going to send another torpedo, and there she lics, broadside-to.” It was getting pretty ticklish for my ship now, for I saw that if I didn’t get out of the way pretty soon, I might have the pleasure of a visit from the same ugly apparatus that had already sunk one ship before my eyes. I ordered all steam on, and put ahead the best I knew how, trying to put the man-of-war between me and the Flying Dutchman, which was still some two miles from me. I knew I had the heels of him, and as soon as I was out of reach of his rockets my mind became more easy as to my own sbip. But Doctor Sam was right as to the intentions of the commander of the Flying Dutchman, n to wonder who the combatants could | whoever be was. be. All the world was at as far as I knew, except Peru and Chili; and the Peruvian navy had gone by the board long before. Besides, they couldn’t be out off the Malay islands. ‘The j aps bad been making faces at the Coreans, to be sure; and the French had had a little brush with the same people, but that was all over. , I could not think it a fight. be a ship in distress, signaling for help. Rather it must | I had hardly got to my distance, when I saw the fatal rocket shooting from the side of the mysterious ship, full at the broadside of the steamer. I beard a wild screech from the steam whistle, and at the same time the steamer fired off four runs together, as if determined to sell her life early. Then caye the crash of the torpedo, and the bursting of the shells from the steamer’s guns, But whence her distress, and how could she | together. move so fast if she were in trouble? Revolving all this in my mind, I held my course, and soon found that the guns were dead ahead of me, and fired in anger. In an hour more I came in sight of three ships, two of them steamers, firing at a third which seemed to be sailing as fast as they could steam. The flashes of the guns and the light of the moon, in her third quarter, showed me the sail- 1 ing vessel, and I was amazed to ey that it ft tha was the same mysterious cra t had dogged us in the Spindrift, three years before, the one that we had called, in our lack of a better name, the Flying Dutchman. There it was, with its filmy sails gleaming ‘with Se pene light, its ingeniously dis- guised hull, with the skeleton lines tra on it n pale fire; but this time there was no doubt of its substantial and ungbostly nature, for the ‘moon showed it to be a real ship, though I could not yet account for its faint, gauzy outlines. The Flying Dutchman, whoever she was, seemed to be able to hold her own with the two steamers, for she remained about the same dis- tance ahead, while they —_ on firing at her. I ran down within about three miles, when I sheered off, for I didn’t fancy getting in the way of the guns, which were heavy rifles from the sound. Every now and then the Flying Dutchman would disappear in a pitchy black cloud of smoke, but when this blew away, there she was again. “i knew the skipper must be burning Japanese ‘day fireworks to confuse his enemy’s aim and the seemed to succeed pretty well so far; for all bis spars seemed to be standing. Suddenly, while I watched, I saw a rocket shoot from the side of the Flying Dutchman, ‘not going up, but skipping over the sea hori- zontally, and making straight for one of the steamers, I saw it strike her, and then came a fearful explosion. When the smoke cleared away, I saw the steamer keeled over to one side, and beginning to settle in the water, while ber consort ceased fir- ing, and went down to ber relief as fast as she could. | ; ‘A rocket float torpedo,” said Doctor Sam at amy side. , The confounded, merciless devil! He has sunk her.” ‘Merciless, do you call him?” said I, sur- prised. “ at would you have him do? [ll ' swear they were not showing him much mercy.” ‘Ah, you don’t know him as I do,” he said burriedly. a, “a etme salt LLL LL LAD RAL LLL LL saw the mainmast of the Flying Datchman totter and fall, while the steamer had settled down by the bow, with her stern up in the air, showing that the torpedo had only blown open her forward compartment, and giving me a wee that she might float yet. ut not a bit of it. Even as I ordered the helm round, intending to put back to the rescue of the ill-fated ship, I saw a second rocket leave the side of the crippled and unearthly-looking stranger, strike the doomed vessel amidships, and sink her before our very eyes, while we were shuddering with horror. Nor was this all. Isaw that we were to be attacked also, for another rocket came shooting at us, and only the fact that the ship was head on and sheered off in time to miss it, saved us from a similar fate. We saw the rocket go hissing past us, and noticed that it was fastened on something broad and flat. Then we got our own head round, and fled as if the devil was after us, “ares in time, The rocket never exploded. We passed it, after it had spent itself in the sea, and I saw what it was. A very large Congreve rocket had been fast- ened to a sort of raft, just heavy enough to hold it, and shaped so as to skim over the sea instead of cutting through it. In front of the raft was a black bulb like a shell, and Doctor Sam took a rifle as we passed and fired two shots at it. The second struck, and we saw plain enough what it was from the effect. A blinding flash and a sharp exp] -sion—then —nothing! The raft bad been literally reduced Lod oye The black bulb was a can of dyna- mite. You may judge that we did not care to culti- vate any further acquaintance with the Flying Dutchman, but kept on till | was sure we were out of range of any more rocket floats. I had beard of the thing before, but this was the first time I had seen one, and I don’t want any more, | But as soon as I was fairly out of distance, I made up my mind to know more of this mur- derous, piratical individual. ‘ I had the heels of him, and I could defy him to either run me down or escape me. Whoever he was, he was a scourge to humanity, and I was determined to dog bim into some port or | duty sight of some more men of-war, as a public uty. I told Doctor Sam this, and he clapped me on the shoulder heartily, saying: I'll stick by you till ' | Denyse, you’re a man! ‘No, no, I don’t mean that. But look. By | death Give your orders.” heavens she ts sinking!” ~ There was no doubt of that. steamer of the two was sinking, and that at a rate that showed me she must be an iron-clad. Then I began to think what best to do. I The largest | couldn’t trifle with the Flying Dutchman now | knew his means of offense. In these days of | torpedoes, it’s a very easy thing to sink an iron You may talk about your modern science; but | steamer. ! % want to bein an iron-clad when she goes tie “She doesn’t give one much chance. . Th . leaked etd in seven minutes by the watch she had gone down, and her consort lay by the place, picking up the few poor wretches that Sidn’t go with her; for the second ship did not o had struck the steamer while we | But I was also bound to keep near the pirate— for pirate he must be—at any hazard. I ordered the engines stopped, and fixed my glass on the Flying Dutchman. There lay the ship, with her mainmast gone by the board, but with all her filmy, transpar- ent sails still set on the two remaining masts, still. glowing with phosphorescent light. She was motionless on the gentle swell, for the wind bad gone down to mere catspaws, If ft had not been for the strange light in ber sails, I might have had some difficulty in one her with the night-glass; but as it was, I coul see her plainly about three miles off, Then it struck me to sweep the water, in case any remnant might be left of the sunken vessels and after a long search I discovered a couple of black dots moving over the sea, which 1 judged to be boats, coming straight for the een, the nearest about two miles off, the other a long way bebind but creeping up as if in pur- suit. I handed the glass to Peters, and told him to look and tell me what be thougbt. He gazed for quite a long time, and then said: “Tt is a boat, and that devil’s boat is pursuing it. I think they will catch her if we don’t do something to help them.” “Just what I think,” said I; “ but we can’t help them without going within range of the torpedoes.” e made no answer, and I had a great strug- gle in my own mind between my duty to my employers and my duty to bumanity. I raised the glass again and saw that the rear boat was coming up with the front one, which was now not over a mile and a half away. The glass told me that the front boat hed only four oars, while the second was full of men and had out nearly a dozen. ‘‘The man who commands tbat ship,” said Doctor Sam, in a low, hoarse voice, ‘‘ means to exterminate every one who can disclose bis mys- tery. Denyse, I don’t want you to risk your own life, but if you will give me an armed t I'll pull out and help those unfortunate men.” is words decided me, and I called out to the men, who were all on deck, murmuring to each other: ‘Men, I want volunteers to man a boat and go to the rescue of those poor fellows. Who'll go?” . There was a dead silence. I had not counted - oo superstition of sailors. They were afraid. At last Lars Nelson, my third officer, stepped out into the waist and called out: ‘*Captain Denyse, my ancestor, r Ole- son, fought death and the devil, and co will I. Ill take the boat. Who'll follow?’ ‘*I!” shouted his friend Andersen, and in a moment there were a score of volunteers. The Dane had broken the spell of superstition. Five minutes later our steam launch was out, with twenty men aboard, well armed, and I saw it puffing aw ay over the sea toward the two boats, for our launcb had a boiler on the New York fire department pattern, and could get up - steam in three minutes with a wood fire. I watched them going off, Doctor Sam with the rest, and I wished 1 was with them, but of course I couldn’t leave my ship on any such des- perate errand. I saw them near the boats, saw the flash of fire arms, and then came a rocket float from the Flying Dutchman in among the CHAPTER It. THE LAST SIGHT. Doctor SAM was oH in taking the steam launch. She was small, swift and handy. The rocket float missed her and all the other boats, for they could see it coming and get out of the way. It skimmed onand lay idle in the sea without exploding, while the firing of small arms from the launch became furious, end I heard a faint cheer come over the sea, The men of t: e Queen got excited and sent back a rouser in reply, which I rather encour- aged, for it showed they were getting over their silly superstition, with the ocular evidence of physical strife before them. The spell was broken for them, and T took oc- casion to go forward and tell them that ] knew the ship in sight to be an artful fraud, got up to deeeive sailors, and that I proposed to follow her up in broad daylight, and expose her, if things went well with the launch. They cheered again, and then we took to watching the conflict with intense eagerness. We did not dare to go nearer with our buge ship: she was too easy a target for rockets. And while we looked the pirate fired three, one after the other, at the boats, as if determined to destroy them somehow. 1 The third rocket struck the foremost boat. the very one that had been the object of pur- suit, and exploded within a hundred feet of the launch, as it seemed to me; when the rear boat turned round and made for the Flying Dutcb- man, which at that instant began to move to- ward us at a low pace. | “She must be a steamer,” I said to myself. ‘*There’s nO wind to move her now.” I watched the launch through the glass, and saw that it had stopped where the boat had blown up, as if the crew were searching for sur- vivors, bag feared moe Sesiiee .* v the te yawed widely and sent a fourth rocket nt the launch, just shat it, as it appeared to me, and then I saw with great | - GOMmMIGERDOOKS (e) ee | — ~ @ - ~ gS epee Nis pe ew © de > - _ —_ . . —— ° ee ee ee