Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 29: what you’re looking at

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

The Flying Dutchman of 1880. 29 with very many intelligent natives I met, in the East, belon to a mysterious brotherbood, of whora none knew the real chief, though I am sure in my own mind that it was Mr. Vander- decken, as he was called in the society of Euro- The object of that brotherhood, which still exista, and which made itself so terribly felt in the Sepoy Mutiny, in the final destruction of British influence in the Eastern seas. It bas members in every part of the Orient, Hindoos, Mosleme, Parsees, Malays, Klings, Burmese, Chinese, Japanese and a great number of Eura- sians, whose position, despised as they are by the whites, leads them to sympathize with the race to which their mothers belonged, This society is Oriental to the core, patient, crafty, secretive and dangerous. Before the mutiny it believed itself able to cope with the detested foreigners in the field, but the British mccesses in that unhappy struggle altered the temper of its leaders. people know the Chinese and Japanese have changed their policy, and now welcome all sorts of Eu n improvements, especially in natters of military and naval warfare. Foreign officers drill their armies; foreign veapons fill their arsenals. They buy gunboats, use the powers of steam and electricity, and ap- | Governor’s palace—for the separ to be advancing in the race with the rest of the world, Much of this apparent p is really a mation of deep laid policy. The are biding their time, They have found out their inability to cope with scieuce by numbers alone, and they are patiently learning and biding their time. When that time comes, the Kast will witness an outbreak of race hatred, to which the Sepoy mutiny was child’s play, and the old scores of three bundred years will be settled, perha for the better of the world, possibly for the worse, As an American, I cannot but sympathize with these so called ‘inferior races,” to a cer- tain extent, looking at the history of British rule in the East. The most remarkable feature of this late chane is the diplomatic skill with which thcse crafty Orientals play off one nation of Euro against another, with a view to their own ulti- mate benefit. Their present aim seems to be to drive out the British, while they encourage French, Dutch, and American influence. But when they suc- ceed in this, if they ever do, it will not take tbem long to extirpate the other and weaker powers: for they keep well informed on Euro- pean politics nowadays, as General Grant found ont in bis interview with Prince Kung, the Chi- nase Premier. But all this is beside my real story, save so for as it explains some matters in the tales of my fellow -passengers in the Spindrift. It will account for m ence and disguise before my kinsman and Mamie, and before Dr. Peters. . I was surrounded by the members of that ter- rible brotherhood, and my slightest movement of betrayal would have been the signal—-not for my own death, for t at would have been wel- come—but for the sacrifice of all I held dear in the world, and for which my affection had be- come almost idolatrous, in my cruelly unnatural position. I dared not resist any order, how- ever terrible. When I was sempenen to take my stand in the run of the Phantom, under the cabin-floor, with my image thrown on a pane of glass in the well-known “ ghost illusion, I saw nothing of my cousin. I simply obeyed my chief's order, and pronounced the words he told me to utter. I was kept in ignorance of her condition at the time, and when I found what 1 had innocent] done, I became so frantic that I believe touched even Vanderdecken’s flinty heart, and he swore to me that he would save the r child’s life, and that if he failed, he vould set me free. I wish to be just, even to him. This man of marble did not love cruelty for iteelf. Merciless as & r when crossed in his de- signa, he yet had 4 beart, so ‘re, and Satan himeelf could not bave resisted the pleas ing helplessness of that innocent child so nearly kil I think he even meant kindly to me in his ex- periment. He wished to invest me, in Mami~’s mind, with certain imaginative attributes that might atone for my painful plainness: and I blessed him from the bottom of my heart when he permitted me to save her life by giving her my own blood. Ah! bow I wished then, that Peters had pane my last drop to save her! I! thought I was dying when I fainted away at that seeond transfusion, and I felt happy, till I woke a to face my dreary fate, and know I might never ree her n; for my master was waiting for me, and I knew we were goin to sea again, on a secret tour to the local chie of our brotherhood of Orientals WwW been at sea when we were recalled by ol mdoo’s signal, and that brings me to the atre pait of my story. watt re that the first i me by Vanderdecken when be I \7es from the Spindrift was. . a | nee that day, as most | | | | | | etrated though “Is Lord Teviot on your raft?” My cousin’s narrative men‘ions this gentle man, and his evident abhorrence of Vander- decken, founded on some occurrence in the | many millions of dollars, brought awa Sepoy Mutiny, which had turned the heads of | India in raw diamonds, hidden im the two young people white in a single night. I very early iound that Vanderdecken, on his | part, had a hatred for Lord Teviot, even more | Vindictive than the Briton's for him. Lord Teviot’s name was the only thing that ever disturbed his stony calmness, and he seemed to be possessed with a determination to get him into his power, for some reason or other. 1 found that it was in consequence of the name of our vessel being ‘‘ Spindrift” that he had dogged us ip the typhoon. He had discov- ered from his emissaries that Lord Teviot was coming to India in a sbip called the Spindrift, and some of his men had blundered into the be- lief that ours was the British Spindrift. He told mé that, had he not known the ty- phoon was close at hand, he would have boarded our ship when he first passed us. ‘And in that case,” he said, ‘‘I should have had to kill you all to keep my secret. But I trusted to the typhoon, and J was right.” I saw Lord Teviot in Singapore, by the chief's directions, disguised as a-Malay servant, at the rotherhood go s everywhere, and has to-day spies in every Eng- ei amily and re ae was instructe n S appearance, so that I would know him anywhere, and I did 80. When I left my poor cousin for the last time, we were going to sea after Lord Teviot, who was on board the Cyclops, iron-clad, with the steam corvette Swallow for consort, and Teviot must have known Vanderdecken’s ship, for, as Doctor Peters has elsewhere recorded, he chased us into the harbor of Batavia, after the, lordly British fashion, because we failed to come toand submit to examination, to gratify his lordship’s suspicions. ben we ran out to sea again it was nigh and Vanderdecken, as soon as he was fairly ou of range of the English vessels, began to throw out taunting signals in fireworks, as if to pro- voke them to follow, I was too weak from recent loss of blood to do much work, and he treated me very kindly as soon as I was on board, from fear of losing my services, I suppose. I ventured to ask him why he tried to provoke the Englishman to fol- low him. He smiled in his placid way. ‘* Because I want them to follow me; that is all Teviot—the thick-witted butcher—suspects who I am, but cannot proveit. I cannot fight them in these seas, swarming with European vessels, but once let me get them alone, out of the track of trade and I will repay his lordship the com- pliment he once paid some relatives of mine,” ‘* And what was that?’ I asked, Vanderdecken clinched his teeth and his eyes glowed like a tiger’s as he said slowly: ‘‘He blew them to pieces, and the kals picked their bones, ey were high-caste princes of the Aryan race, from which we sprung, as well as your vaunted Anglo-Norman stock. We Southern At rags believe in the sanctity of the body, and that butcher defiled my whole race. Let me but once catch him on equal terms, and he shall see that we he ve taken to heart the lessons they taught us after the mutiny. We are mastering their science fast, and we are ten to their one. When the time comes to strike, bé sure we will show them no more mercy than they showed us after their victery.”’ I own that there wassometbing in that singu- jar man that forced my sympathy in spite of myself. He bad evidently suffered some bid- eous Us though I could not believe yet that he had told me all. His hatred was evident, Oar ne cause he assigned not sufficient, to my m Lord Teviot was not the only Briton that blew men from cannon in India; but he seemed 2 nee out Teviot from all the rest as his spe- cial foe. At all events he failed to indace the British ships to follow him into the unfrequented seas he sought, They were acting under orders, cruising on a definite station, and never .. bim unless he provoked them by his de- ca, i I found, when we landed, as we often did in Dutch, French or Spanish that he was well known as an eecentrie, and thought to be the son of a Dutch planter. I onee asked hi SOw. RP SAiNe to bear that name, and he to He had no secrets from me save one—his real personal identity—and that even I never am! | I have reason to think now who he is, if he be yet alive, which I donbt not. The elder Vanderdeeken, it appears, was a Eurasian, his mother a Malay pri when the Datch held but a small ion of Java. He was a rag yf a and a instiga m ;, while en the ar Re ge Sess dpe ptiigan . ey eollapse movemen raved than ene mative prinee, and Reoee the eof treasures belesging © others. | | | a — ~~ EE es | | = 2 st sessile steels ~— a <_ th it Orientals put enormous sums into stones on account of their value and bility, and Vanderdecken became the guardian of from rbans and cumm-robands or boin-cloths of half-nakei coolies faithful to the death. In many cases the owners never turned up to claim them, but the Eurasian ke then: sacredly as a deposit, increasing them by tr« ftic during a period of many years after the mutiny. ; One high-caste prince alone made bis way to Vanderdecken, eluding the vigilance of the British, who had offered a reward of a lae of rupees ($200,000), for his capture, and brougbt with bim an infant, That infant was my remorseless ebief, his father the proscribed rajab, and bis mother— almost incredible to say—an Englishwoman of good family and wonderful beauty. My chief once showed me her portrait, a shall English ‘‘ivory-type,” in a worn velvet case, preserved in a casket that blazed with e gems. I looked at the face with interest. A young, tender, loving face, with a delicate mouth, brown eyes, and fair bair. I eould not help secing a certain likeness in the coloring to my cousin, Mamie Bruce, though the features were unlike, and tie expression much more sad and thoughtful. I told him so. He looked at me keenly, and replied: “You are right. But for that likeness your cousin might have drowned for me, I saw in her my motber. Young man, you are not the first that has had cause to bless my mother’s memory, though I never saw her with my con- scious eye:.” He told me then how he had been bronght up by Vanderdecken as his son and heir, his real father becoming apparently a servant in the house, and that thus he had sunk his real iden- tity to European eyes entirely, his story being held a sacred secret by the brotherhood, Vice your father? He lives yet?’ I asked ‘He tives yet. You have seen him. The English have seen him. He laughs at them. They hunt for him in Nepaul, Burmab, Siam. They know he is alive. The trace the effect of his movements, They fear him yet. But they cannot find bim. Bah! these thick-witted butchers are no match for us of the Orient in craft. And yet—the Queen would give much to know that my father was dead. him in face. Teviot knows it. Oh, how } longed to arrest me in Singapore! He thou,} he saw before him the man who once—” Then he stopped dead short, and not a word mors could I get from him in the two years ia sien I remained in the closest intimacy with m, The onty man in his whole following that was old enough to_be his father. if his story were true, was the old Brahmin, Dbuncu Punt, and he was dumb, his tongue having been cut out. I could not believe bim to be the prond rajah described by his son, who bad comman ar- mies and faced the British lion in bis aA Dbundu, or Dundoo, as Dr. Peters spells it, never came to sea with us, and passed his time at Vanderdecken’s Batavia house in counting his beads and ordering the house by signs, ‘‘How did Dbundu lose his tonguef’ I once asked Vanderdecken, ‘“ He cut it ont himself,” was the astounding reply. ‘‘The brotherhood demanded it as a measure Of precaution, and be oheyed with a smile, Such men are hard to conqner.” “But why was it cemandedf” I asked, amazed. ‘‘Dbundu talked English too well, and it wes D to obliterate bim from the work if we hoped to suceeed. He gave up speech that JI might be the man I am,” Then I saw it all. * Dbhundn is your father?” I said. ** Dbundeu is my father,” he answered grave- ly. “My mother died when I was not a month old, from a pistol-shot fired by her brother.” den : Her brother?’ I “Oh! an acoi- t. “A deliberate shot, sir.” “ But why—why?f” He shrugged his shoniders slightly. 7 “Tt. imports not now. Race He thonght she bad dishonored his beggarly stock ty becoming head Begum of my father’s ze ough he hed put away his other wives, ay Nery 3 a hen ee aie, he en he stopped again, as when I was meat’ peuetrating his Berle: Fan tery, and diamissed me. we went on for two years and mere, till one day he said to me abruptly: : “7 want you to go to Paris for me.” : I leaped of mv chair in amazement. I eould a believe him. Te Pari-—out of his eentro “Can you trust me se farf’ I asked him at last, when I eeuld k. ‘' Remember Iam lif |