Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

ee el tre a ~ —_—_— a eee -_—— well. But Icannot tell you what you wish pea Rn et. Bad as that mah is, He bas done certain gs for me that compel me to keep my word to im till he cannot be harmed by my revelations. I will promise you one thiog—I will tell you all when we get to New York, if— if I find a person alive in whom I take, as you know, a great interest.” Sam Peters turned away, and said, in a low tone: ‘* Ay, ay, Jobnston, you've earned your luck. lll say no more.” ‘The smoke’s ceased, sir,” suddenly inter- rupted Roberts, touching my arm. ‘ There’s a man on alittle raft; looks like a Jap or China- man.” We looked over and saw that the smoke had driven off toleeward. — A little board float, with a large earthen pot ‘in the center, lay rocking on the sea, and beside the pot, from which still curled the last dying wreath of smoke, stood a half-naked lascar, with his arms folded, eying our ship as calmly as if he had not been all alone in the midst of a track- less sea. I. scanned bim through the glass closely, and everything about him, for I feared more torpedoes. He was a fine, muscular fellow, with a black mustache and a fierce, resolute face, set in a contemptuous scowl as be looked at us. The float was made of about a dozen boards, nailed together, just enough to susta. 1 bim and the pot of combustibles wherewith he had been hiding his master’s retreat so skillfully. ‘* Well,” said Peters, ‘‘ what’s to be done with him now? Shall we leave him to perish alone? | | | | | | ! That cruel devil, Vanderdecken, will never come back for him. save bimself.” . “Will. you take a boat and offer to pik him up?” I asked him, for I felt a certain indefinable raft. acy rtainly fill, said Peters, and I let him nc take the lau again On bis errand of mercy. Away puffed the little vessel, ana I saw her near be lascar, who remained standing, with his face set in the same scornful smile, till they were within about fifty feet, when Isaw him stoop down and pick up a cord, which stretched out into the sea as if tied to something floating just under tbe surface of the water. I heard Mungo Johaston scream out: “Tuke care, Peters. My God, it’s another torpedo!” here came a column of white spray out of the sea, just under the bows of the launch, and the little vessel was lifted bodily half ber length out of the water, falling back again, and rolling as if about to founder. Then the wild lascar uttered a shout we could hear in the ship, plucked a knife from his girdle, before us all, and stabbed himself to the heart, falling back into the sea, stone dead, with the last curls of black smoke floating over him for a funeral pal). He had saved the Fly- ing. Dutchman's secret. the steam launch, but luckily for the lives of her crew, the lascar pulled the trigger a second too soon, and she managed to keep afloat ti]l we t near enough to throw a rope, took on the He has sacrificed bim to | -lsid down m . fear at taking the ship near even a naked lascar | PART VI. MUNGO JOHNSTON’S STORY. CHAPTER I. HOW I BECAME A SLAVE. Is it a misfortune for a man to be born plain, very plain, and poor, with an active brain and a sensitive temperament, to make him more alive to his own deficiencies? " I sometimes think what I would have done bad I been a handsome fellow like Sam Peters or Denyse, and rich like Hyatt. I might bave made my mark early. Never mind, I was brought up in a hard school, and had to learn what I knowin a way that made me value it. My only friend in boyhood was my kiusman, Mungo Bruce, and to bim I can never be grate- ful enough; for he enabled me to go to school and college in my frugal way, till I was fit for the battle of life; and he took me into his em- ployment in a capacity where he trusted me }- from the first, even while he worked me hard and paid me what some called ‘starvation wages,” I knew better. I could see he was tcsting me. We Scotch Yankees have not forgotten the tra- ditions of our race on the other side, and we be- lieve blood to be thicker than water. I was not surprised therefore when my kinsman suddenly advanced me from the position of private clerk, at seven dollars a week, to the head of the Ba- tavia house, which I knew to be worth at least seven thousand dollars a year. He wanted a man he could trust there, and if kin cannot be trusted to the remotest degree, why are we Scots Yankees born? I would have life for my cousin’s interest, and he knew it. Not for money; but for holy love of kindred. We sailed on the Spindrift, and there! first saw my cousin, Mamie. My kinsman had, up to that time, kept me in an inferior position, as was bis right. i, the ot ject of bis free bounty, n mere distant relation, bad no right to pre- sume to visit his house, till | received his invita- tion. ‘I was Mungo Bruce’s clerk, and by no means the man to intrude my relationship where it might be unwelcome. I had never seen my cousin Mamie till we _ sailed in the same ship together, and then—_ It _ isno wonder if I, ber kinsman, adored ber. alls, and save a damaged boat and a dozen badly-scared men. As for the lascar’s body it had sunk out of sight, and we saw it no more. We did not go | any nearer the raft after our lesson, but steamed | off. to the northeast as hard as we could, to | make up for lost time. We had had enough of the Flying Dutchman | a taste. and all his satellites. All through that vo served an impenetrable silence on the subject of his adventures sinve he left the Spindriit raft three years before to investigate the fiery stranger. | Peters could get no more cut of him than I, though he tried bard and had the een of knowledge that I did not possess till he told me of bis singular encounter with the millionaire e Mungo Johnston pre- Vanderdecken at Batavia, and how he had recognized our friend disguised as a Malay. Evidently Jobnston had suffered a singular experience which had aged him wonderfully, for | Evy- ery man in the ship did that. I was, perhaps, the only utterly hopeless one there. I knew she oculd never love a gawky, long- legged, freckle-faced fellow like me, witb red hair and green eyes, I didn’t hope or expect anything from her, and I was quite content to serve her for Jacob’s term ten times over, with- out daring to hope for Jacob’s reward. I craved nothing, for I knew I deserved nothing. I was quite bappy in the storm, to be near her, and help her. My only merits were my brute strength and my knowledge of the sea, acquired when I was a wandering orphan, beat- | en and abused before I met my kinsman, Mun. be torpédo had blown a bole in the bow of | go Bruce. Such as my talents were, the Bruces bad a right to use the Johnstons; and I was surprised and almost amused when Mamie thanked me on the raft, in her pretty way, for having ‘* saved her life,” as sbe called it. ‘*What would you have mie do, cousin?’ I asked, ‘‘Let you drown? And where would our kinship be, then?” I don’t know why it was Mamie was so kind to me on the raft. It seemed like heaven tu me, when [ knew how plain I was, and how every sight of me must repel her fastidious Perbaps it was that made meso reckless, leav- ing the raft in the way I did, and going off to find out the identity of that vessel that had dogged the Geladrife in so singular a manner. did it partly to shame the rest out of their superstition; but I confess that, when I was fairly out of sight of the big, comfortable raft, on my little float of two or three sticks, I began to feel a strange sensation creeping over me. Try as I would, the weird stories of that ima. | ginative Dane haunted me, and I began to think he looked like a man of thirty-three or four, | when I knew he could not be over twenty-five? | But all he would answer to US was: ‘*Wait. The time will come you shall know | —not all—there is a part I can only tell to one person; but all you want to know. When I am in New York I will write out the whole story, and you can judge for yourselves who it is that bas done such terrible deeds in the Eastern seas against his foes. Wait.” we had to wait, as he said. The voyage seemed longer than usual to me on man accounts, for I was going home to be married, | and I was heartily glad when we sighted the Golden Gate at last. Two days later, Peters, Denyse and I were | ing East on the Overland Express at a pace coor aioe for our desires, and from the moment ked at poe oer a man better able to tell it from the ee OLARENCE DENYSE. Mr. Bruce’s door, | give up the | of all the ghost legends my old nurse used to tell me (in the days when even I bad a nurst) about Highland wraiths and Irish banshees, as slowly swept the water with my oar, paddlin silently on into the emptiness of the sea, wit nothing visible all round me but the dark waters and that strange-looking apparition. Of course [ knew it must be aship. I had even reasoned out to myself the way in which it was disguised. Ihad heard of whole cars in underground railroads being illuminated by a coat of phos- phoric paint. which shone as soon as the lights were shut off. I reasoned that this ship must have a skeleton pe on her, which showed at night “nd gave er the singular appearance I saw. But all my reasoning could not make me feel easy when I found myself alone, at last, with nothing but the fiery ship in sight. There is something so fearful in the loneliness of the sea! If I could have seen the raft, or _ known exactly in what direction it lay, 1] think [ should have gone back. ca 27 ——— —._ -- — eee em ieee -—— —-—--———-- ——- - - — But [ had lost it and become bewildered. All I could see was the fiery ship; and at last I pulled up my courage and swept on till | found myself cape" es in her course, and resolved to await er. Then my heart thumped violently. She was coming, and would probably pick me up. But who was she, and should I be any better off afterward? Could she be an honest ship, and if so, why this strange disguise? I was convinced she was a steamer, from her going independent of the wind, but I could not account for the absence of smoke and noise, However, it was too late to recede. I even was fearful ; she had the other raft. Filled with the fever of an unconquerable curiosity, I drew out a match as I saw her yawing again, and struck it so as to show. a aZze. Instantly she laid ber head for me, and came on straight as an arrow, The last flicker of the little flame expired, and I dropped the spark in the sea, where it went out with a slight hiss, as if jeering at my folly in calling the stranger. , Then Twas right under her bows, and saw the dark hull and spars under the fiery skeleton, traced thereon, as I had expected in phosphoric paint. I saw, too, the cause of her filmy spectral look, and the fiery transparency of Ler sails, They were made of network, whch cffered no resistance to the wind, and the network was coated with the same phosphoric covering. Then she swept pist me in silence, the water hardly rippling, and I saw the cause of that silence, : She was going at low speed, ard had cloths. towing round ber cut-water and sides, which absorbed the sounds to a great extent. And all these discoveries, while they amazed me. filled me with a certain amount of fear. Why should an honest sbip sail the seas in such an uncanny guise? I was like to discover soon, perhaps to my cost. Already it was too late torecede. Ske swept past me within twenty feet, and I saw figures moving on her rail, and heads pecrirg over, ~ Then came a glare of lightin my eyes, as a owerful reflecting lamp was turned on m«, and made a virtue of necessity and bailed her. ‘“Sbip ahoy!” I cried. ‘* What ship’s that?” A clear, melodious voice called out an crder in Malay, which I had studied from books for the last twu years, on purpose to fit me for the care of the Batavia house. , The voice eried. ‘Stop and back the ship! Steady! Stop!” The ship lay motionless by me; and I eaw, in the glare of light, a tall, handsome man, in ap Oriental dress, locking at me. Then he said in excellent English: / ‘“ Who are you?” ~ ‘* A shipwrecked man, who asks ko, at Sd “What is the name of your ship?’ he ! ‘The Spindrift,” I answered. The man smiled, “Aha, Ithoughtso. You have been wrecked. What was that light I saw?” “The fire on our raft. We have fourteen souls there, with four women. If you are a man, help us,” ‘Is Lord Teviot on your raft?’ he asked coolly, not heeding my appeal, ‘‘Lord Teviot? Who is he?” I said in my astonishment. ‘I never heard of him.” ‘i ‘You lie,” he retorted, sternly. “ You are a spy- I'll show you I’m not to be made a fool of. He turned to hie men and said in Malay: — ‘Bring bim on board. I will question him and find out.” | I did not know what todo. I could not es- cape; for 1 was in full view, and had only a sluggish raft. “Throw me a rope,” I cried. “I am an honest man. Tm willing to answer any ques- tians.” | ‘* Tl] see you do,” he.said coldly. Then they threw me a rope, and I was bauled in to the mysterious vessel ; climbed ber side and stood on the deck under an awniv megnificent to see, surrounded a erew of swarthy rg bs and lascars, in rich Oriental dresses, with the chief eying me sternly. © Such a face I had never seen before. It had the cold impassive nde of an Egyptian statue, exceedingly bandsome, rounded in ont- line, but as hard as a stone, I felt that I was before a man who would or- der my death by torture as coolly as he would eat his dinner. He eyed me from head to foot, his wild crew standing round like bronzo statues. : ‘* Now tell me the name of your sbip,” be re- pied, “and if you lie to me, he engine furnace,” ‘My ship. sir, as I told you was the of New York, property of Bruce, Hilton & Co, bound to Batavia for coffee. We were caugh' jn the vortex of the typhoon, and the vegsel Comilicboo she might miss me, in the dark, as. of silk, most | will roast you in — <Si(e(0) 4 i ‘ * +, ee —— 94m ew