Beadle's Dime Library No. 230 — page 7: what you’re looking at

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

‘they could beat him if they got him outside a eee —™ —-————_ + oo i couldn’t help feeling a sort of chill at his story, and the man seemed to believe it. ‘“‘And then,” said Lars, ‘Ragnar Oleson fought the Devil tiil Deaty came to bis help in the church, for the Devil fears the crucifix, but Death fears no one and espe ” ‘(And Death whipped?” said I, ‘*Of course he did.” ‘‘ Not so,” answered Lars. ‘‘Ragnar Oleson defied him and drove him from the church, and Death and the Devil sat down before the chureh-door; for they knew Jobnston said: “I think you’re right, Lars, and I think we shall see it to-morrow.” The Dane started and seemed to be interested in what be had said, for he asked eagerly: ** Why do you tbink so?” ‘* Because I know it is coming,” said Mungo quietiy. “ You waita few days, and [ll show you a living cross coming from the skies towards us.” The two Danes actually got up and came to him to shake bis hand while Erik said: ‘‘ You good, good man! You show me dat, Erik never leave you. Never drink rum ayain, Go and be priest like St. Ragnar.” Mungo seemed to feel quite sober over it, for once. But Ragnar Oleson was no fool, and he stayed there by the altar.” “And how dia it all end?” said I, Lars lowered his voice. ‘‘Captain, don’t laugh at this, for I know it’s | he said: true, Ragnar Oieson had been a bad man all ‘*T bold you to your promise and you too Lars his life, but even he had come to a place where | Nelson.” he saw he must give in to somebody.” Lars nodded bis head. ‘‘T should say be had. He was in a bad fix, according to your story.” ‘¢ Yes. And while he stayed in the church all al be saw the old priest come in, a poor old man that he bad often scoffed at in his pride and strength. And then he saw Death and the Devil hide’ from the old man, as if they feared him; and the old priest came into the church and asked tim what he was doiug there, and who had hurt him, for Ragnar was bleeding at every pore and growing weak. And Ragnar told bim how Deaton and the Devil waited at the church- door, and how he was getting too weak to fight any more. And then the old priest told him that there was only one way for him to eseape,”’ “And what was that?’ said I. ‘“* He had to repent of his sins and become as a little child, so that the good Christ might ask God to let bim off the punishment he had de- served, captain. The priest told him that Death was God's servant, and the Devil God’s enemy; but when a man chose to serve the Devil all his life, it was only fair to give him to the Devil at | bis death.” ‘* All right. You show me the living cross, I drink no more. But the Devil will give us a hard fight of first.” CHAPTER VIII. THE THIRD VISIT. I DON’T know how it was, but that young fel- low’s words seemed to comfurt us all, and from that time I felt no more fear of the Flying Dutchman, though, for that matter, the ghost snip had gone out of sight before this, seeming to tade away all of a sudden, We went tosleep again and didn’t wake up till morning, when the sun rose up in a sky that glowed like polished brass and we lay there, heaving on the ground-swell, with the air hot epough to bake us all. I’d taken good care to move the ship’s com- pass and my navigator’s chest, with the chrono- meters, the tables of the almanac, and my sex- tant. Inside the chest was fixed a thermometer | and a little aneroid barometer, and I soon found the mercury up above a hundred in the sun—we | had no shade—till it toucbed a hundred and thirty-five, while the barometer showed a me- dium pressure. That means a hot spell in those lati:udes, and long before noon we began to wilt and sweat, while our heads felt ready to burst with the flery heat beating on us. I found at noon, after taking the sun, that we were in longitude 84 degrees 36 minutes east from Greenwich and in 6 degrees 49 minutes south latitude, showing that the typhoon had one, and Death had changed into an angel of | driven, or the current carried us to the nortb- ght, who told Ragnar that he would give him | ¢@st from the place we first saw the ee another year to prove if he meant what he said | Dutchman, and that we were not very far from nn ee ee *} reckon the old man was just about right, Lars,” said I. ** But what did Ragnar do?” Lars Nelson looked up at the Southern Cross, standing there in the sky, and his voice sounded hushed: like, as he answered: “ Ragnar Oleson had been a heathen all his life, but he let the priest baptize him; and as the holy water touched his forehead, the church shook as if in an earthquake, and when they looked out of the chureh-door the Devil was when he was baptized.” the Campton Rocks, a lot of low coral reefs, ‘“ And what became of him?’ I asked him. seldom visited by ship, and about as dangerous te beca a place as one would wish to know of. Pn. 2 ee ‘in eudtied ireina,*Gutigan, didn’t fear them much in the raft, for we and be was preaching to them one year from | bad got to that point where we couldn’t by any that day, when Death took him away as he was on ility sink, though a heavy storm might blessi eak up the raft. As fcr striking, we should ps Spee erg emanate hs dryness ce have welcomed a bump, if it only told us the land was near. We felt so wretched there, in that bake-oven, with tbe glare from sea and sky to burn us up, that I wonder we didn’t ull go mad. The Danes got over the side of the raft and tried to keep cool by bathing, but that didn’t 7 us much. If we took off any clothes the sun scorched our backs, andif we bathed in our clothes it soon turned them intoa hot bath and more misery. Those that began dipping bad to keep it up, and the salt water made them so thirsty that they had to go to the life-boat and drink the fresh water there though it was lukewarm before noon. I shall never forget that first day. We gave the women the only shelter we had, under the side of the life-boat. It was not much; but better than vothing. By the time that the sun set we were just like rags, with all the strength*gone out of us, and the coming of night was like a blessing. As the sun set we saw the moon, now about four days old, over our heads, and a little breeze sprung up, which felt as ifit came from beaven. We were able to eat some supper and even began to wish we had saved some coffee, for le never get through wanting, and we, who ad only been praying for night an hour before, were wishing for iuxuries now. I wouldn't have minded it so much myself, only for the women. We men were better off; for most of us had pipes, and all three of the country. I tell you there’s only one way to | S#llors had big plugs of navy tobacco in their keep from being drowned, now.” pockets, while Dr. Sam actually bad a box of nied to humor the man fancies =" tS" We made one match go all Pound, and mad “Tare Neleon peinted't the Southers Cross. aiid | shift to light a little fire on the raft with splin- answered: | ters of wood cut with the ex, to attract atten- “He'll never harm us under that sign, and | tion if any one should be near us.* when that comes = broad daylight we may hope | _* A non-nautical lady friend suggests that the peo- to see port, not before. . pleon the raft were very foolish to cut up the onl “What do you mean by the cross coming in thing between them and death to make a fire. broad daylight?” I asked bim, | asked Captain Hutton why they did so, and he re- “{ mean what I say,” me _ ‘*Tt must | nam anes words: . a) S a oid the bs opt me to us, and we can’t make it, It may come | they don’t seem to remember that raft was made of ib the say it-mey come So tbe acy, but sl i | paptaané yas,_ Nove ck warn’ los than, oo in Heaven.” “Then you think that he was-the only man that ever got the best of the Ghost Pirate?’ ‘1 do, ciptain,” he said seriously, and then he went a and | heard him and his mate growl- ing to each otber in Danish. for me, I didn’t know what to make of it all. I never bélieved in ghosts, and I knew Lars’s story must be all bosh about saints and crosses and such. But I’d seen the Flying Dutchman twice and I couldn’t rub that out of my memory, nohow. I sat there thinkiog and thinking till who should come along but Mungo Johnston, Sam Peters and Denyse, and Denyse said: “* Biel, we three have been talking over that strange ship, and we’ve made up our minds that if she comes again we ht to signal her. We don’t believe in ghosts, and we all think that there is some natural explanation of the mys- ‘Very well, gentlemen,” says I; “if you're so smart, tell me how you explain it, now?’ They looked at each otuer, and Mungo John- ston answered: ‘(We are not prepared to explain yet, captain, from the absence of facts on which to reason, but we feel certain of this, that we have seen a real ship.” Here we heard Lars Nelson give a sneering sort of laugh, and he called out: “You are very wise, you men of America, be- cause they have no ghosts in your country; but we Danes have plenty in every house in our — me — ght Death and the Devil, the chipped awa for 8 month, and only nade the raft Teaw Sam Peters turn away with a sneer as | needed the fre” |” PS Was Al Gry, and we ' . The Flying Dutchman of 1 880. ee 2 ee if he pitied the sailor’s superstition; but Mungo c 7 So far no one had seen a sail, and as for John ston’s “living cross,” we began to twit”him about it as soon as we got smoking, for somehow we seemed not to fear the Flying Dutchmatany more, now he wasn’t in sight. a ao Johnston took it good-naturedly, and chaffed back, saying: | ‘* You don’t believe in my living cross and I don’t telievein your Flying Dutciman. You've shown me tbheone. I'll show you the other be- fore long. But tell me ene thing—what’ll you do, suppose the Dutchman comes again this very night?’ 1 saw the two Danes and old Hackett start and look very uncomfortable, and I couldn’t help a shudder myself, while Mame Bruce cried out: *‘Oh, heavens! I think I should dieif I thought it possible. You ought to know better than to say such things, Mr. Johnston,” alt ‘*My saying it won’t bring him here,” said Johnston; “but I think you will see that shi again to-night, cousin. I feel almost sure of it.” Mame Bruce tossed ber little head in a epiteful way, and said to ber grandfatber, softly: ‘‘I wish you’d stop him, grandpa. “He’s a perfect wretch to try and frighten us all.” The old man, who bad been very patient all day. only nodded and said, kind of soo.bingly: ** Ne’er beed him, lassie, ne’er heed him un- go’sa good lad, a good lad. Ay, ay, twill comeif it be to come; and we'll have to bow to the will of the Almighty.” 1a And then we all began to to talk akout'that stran; e thing as if we couldn’t help our élvés, all but Mungo, San) Peters and Denyse, who'*at and listened to us and every now and then asked a question, as if they meant to set us going again. could see they were mrkirg game cf us, and didn’ believe in the ghostat all, but I said noth- ing about it to them, as I felt a ijittie ashamed of myself for believing it, and wouldn't, but for the evidence of my own eyes. By and by, what with talking, we all got drowsy, when I hesrd a s*riek from the other end of the raft, enough to wake the dead, and Mamie Bruce, who had gone cff there with Inez Diaz, came running back over the tim- b rs, screaming at every jump, and ran right into Denyse’s arms, where she bid her face sobbing. . We were al] up, questioning her, and found she had seen some fearful thing in the water, she didn’t know what, all fiery. The hot weatber had mede the jelly fish un- usually active again and the sea was shining wherever a ripple occurred. The girl must bave seen some big fish, may- be a shark, lighted up and it frightened ber. We went to look over, and it startled us all to see what was there. Not a shark at all, buta terrible big cuttle- fish, looking as if he was made of fire, with his long snaky arms wriggling about, as he swam slowly by the raft. Then there were all sorts of hideous, ug); fish, like toads and porcupines, swimming about ike the squid, and we could see them all plainly by the shining of the sea. ‘ It seemed as if every ugly beast that ever was spawned in the ocean bad come to take a look at our raft and not a good-locking fish among them. one I aidn’t wonder the girl was scared; but after she got over the first fright she came back with the rest of us, and leaned over so far that Detiyse bad as much as he could do to keep her from tumbling in. a I couldn’t belp fancying the man didn ar than half dislike his job either, for when 8 asked him if be was tired holding her and whe- ther she wasn’t heavy, he said: uk ‘*Oh, no, miss, noteat all. I'd like to—I mean I could—that is—” & And first thing .I knew, be very nearly arb ann she Jet oo reenter —— and he ust gr ber up so close that I says to myself: ue She: that’s the way the wind sits.” So we stayed looking at the fish, till —. of big sharks came along, stering up at us with their wicked eyes; and as soon as the rls saw _ —S——_—- —_—— - EE —— that, they came away from the edge of the raft, | for the two brutes swam close up, rubbing their noses against the timbers; and we weren't over six inches above them if they took a fancy to board us. ‘ We went back to the little fire that we'd kept feeding with chips all the time, and started it into a blaze, when we prepared to go to sleep. I'd not more than fairly got my eyes shut tener Mungo Johuston came to me and whis- red: ‘* Weil,” says I, sleepily. ‘‘The ship’s come again,” says he, “and she’s - eanting straight toward us. She’s seen our ight. Ne sr What ship?” says I, sitting up. | ‘* The one you call the Flying Dutchman,” he save, with a sort of smile, You may believe I was up in one moment, and staring out. | : Yes; sure as I'm a living man, there was the Flying Dutchman, fiery and ghostly as ever, sailing right down on us, without any wind te speak of, and what there was dead in ber teeth, I don’t deny I was scared worse than ever in (ECO AMIE] OOO) cS ; * Captain, Captain Hutton.” sr (E(O)