Beadle's Dime Library No. 247 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

12 gang of cut-throats, he smiled in a very signifi- cant manner, and told me that he had heard of my case before, and recommended me not to press my complaint on the notice of the depart- ment, as it was important to the safety of navi- gation that light-keepers should be discreet per- sons, with all their wits about them. I did not at first understand him, but it soon flashed on me what wasthe matter. Tbhereport had been set into circulation that my mind was affected by my head wound, and I was finally told con- fidentially, by one of my friends on the ship, that if I persisted in pressing my complaint it would be looked on as evidence of unsound mind and that I should lose my place, They would not listen to a word on the subject, regarding my whole story as a figment of the imagina- tion, ‘* But could you not prove it to them?” asked Julian, incredulously. ‘‘ Joe’s scars, for instance, would prove it, Joe’s word would corroborate your story.” ‘el thought of that; but it was no use,” ‘Why? ‘“ When they beat Joe it was witha flat pad- dle, which produces great torture but leaves no marks behind it that last over a week or two,” ** But Joe could tell his story.” “He tried to; but they wouldn’t listen to it. It seemed as if the officer were in collusion with the gang in some mysterious way. At all events, the ship left ber supplies and sailed away, the officer in charge declining to take my written affidavit with him. The sails of the ship were not yet bidden under the sea when I received a third visit from Alligator Ike, with six of his men, who came vut of the swamp, landed here, seized Joe and myself, tied us up and beat us both so severely that I became senseless from the torture. hen I came to [ was solemnly warned by them that any further attempt to interfere with them or complain would be met with the same fate and punishment,” Julian shuddered slightly. “Heavens! what merciless wretches!” “You may well say that, but they overshot their mark this time.’ “How! Why?’ “ They roused in me what they had not yet done, the Yankee keenness that will move hea- ven and earth to have its own way. Joe and I grew cunning. We pretended to submit, and waited till their suspicions were lulled. Then, one night, we got into the skiff and sailed out to sea, resolved to drown rather than to sub- mit to further degradation. We found a coaster going to Savannah, and she picked us up. On our arrival there I reported at once and as we were still marked with the blows o the paddles, a revenue cutter was sent down here to investigate.” ‘‘ And surely that made the discovery,” put in Julian, eagerly. ‘*You do not know red tape. Some preju- dice seemed to exist in the minds of all the offi- cers that heard our story. The commander of the cutter came back, it was true, to the light- house with me, and sent boats up the Locohat- chee to find, as he said, whether these terrible villains really existed or not. The boats went up and the crews saw no one, They returned and reported the country uninhabited and un- inhabitable. What de you suppose was the re- ‘* ’'m sure I don’t know.” “Joe and I were accused of beatiny each other, of trumping up the whole story and I re- ceived a sharp letter from head-quarters, warn- me that if any further complaints were made about me, I should be dismissed the ser- vice. Since that dey, Joe and I have never seen a Northern man till you dropped in on us; and now the question remains, how shall we get you off to sea as a witness, on whom no sus- icion can be cast? If we can do that once, may yet see my trials avenged on these vil- Julian had become very thoughtful as Stevens finished his story. But for the ocular evidence he had had of the existence of the foe, he felt that he might have taken sides with the Govern- ment officers in cr ea, Aas rai insane, or at least a monomaniac. story seemed to be incredible in the nineteenth cen ; “How did you manage to fortify the light- house as you have it now?” he asked at last. ‘*By slow degrees and after several years. We had to do it when our watchers were away, and under the peereee of making things more comfortable. you notice, most of our mate- rial comes from ships that have been wrecked on outer reef in some of the s an the fi f the sprin d autumn gales. Joe and I have done all the building, and have made the outer cabin strong enough to resist ordinary assaults, while the inner door, as you have seen, is fit to defy any- gre | but artillery.” ** But how did you make it?’ “Oat of boiler irom, bit by bit, in secret, on the side away from the channel, till we got it hung. The weapons and ammunition came from a schooner going to join the Cuban rebels, and wrecked near here. It was after getting what we could from her that we discove what is the principal occupation of Alligator Ike and his gang of desperadoes.” | | | ' ee ** And that is—” ‘‘Robbing wrecks and murdering the poor | j Julian looked. He could hardly distinguish the lines spokerr folks who come ashore, rescued from the sea. | of by his companion on account of the glare of It’s an old trade on the coast of Florida; and it has been carried to a system that has never been so great as now. © were nearly caught on one of our expeditions, but escaped in time,” *‘ And what do the Government officers think of this—your fortification?’ “They laugh about it, and regard it as a fresh proof of insanity on my part. Nothing will make them see the truth but the indepen- dent witness of a stranger like you. That is why the desperadoes are determined to kill you. CHAPTER XVI. THE HURRICANE. WHEN Stevens had finished his story it was ~- midnight, and the three denizens of the ight-house retired to rest behind the iron door and slept a fitful and uneasy sleep on the steps, afraid to remain outside for fear of a visit of their persecutors during the night. When morning came they ascended to the lantern, put out the lamp and surveyed the neighborhood with all the care possible, not discovering the remotest trace of their noctur- nal visitors. “They never come in the daytime,” re- marked Stevens, when Julian noted the fact. ‘‘A stranger might pass here over and over again, and never suspect that he was watched; but it will not do to trust to being unseen. They have scouts and spies, as I believe, on every point, and are keenly watching the coast all the time.” Julian went out and traversed the little bluff of coquina rock on which the light-house was built, without finding any trace of his late foes. But for the absence of his boat, he might have thought that he had dreamed of the assault; but the absence of his little craft and the cut over his eye convinced him that the episode had been a real one, Moreover, the outer door of the cabin still stood, half open, where it had been wrenched from its hinges, and there were the prints of coarse boots in the sand. But as far as he could see the swamps of the Locohat- chee were entirely empty of any sort of its in- habitants, and after a thorough exploration of the whole island he rétmniads to breakfast on the huge jew-fish, remarking to Stevens: ‘‘There must be some way of leaving this place. If we can do nothing else we can build a canoe and [’ll sail away in that.” ** Build a canoe?’ echoed Stevens. ‘ We've nothing to build it with, boy.” Julian laughed as he answered proudly: ‘‘!’m a member of the canoe club, and we make canoes out of anytbing. You have the sails of a schooner lying on the rocks out by the foot of tlie light: house.” ‘Yes. She went ashore a year ago, and we saved her mainsail to make an awning.” ** We'll make a canoe ont of that. You've oy of paint, baven’t you?” ‘‘Certainly, We've stores of it to keep the woodwork of the light-bouse Jooking decent.” ‘‘Then we’ll make a canoe,” said Julian, de- cidedly. ‘‘ PU show you how very soon. I’ve made up my mind those fellows shall not beat “Then we must work in the daytime, and hide our canoe in the light-house,” said Stevens. “That is just what we will do,” said Julian. They had tools in plenty, and the two keepers had become expert carpenters during their long, lonely probation at Jupiter Inlet. Driftwood was plenty, and long before night they had put togathes the framework of a canoe, that only needed to be covered with canvas and painted to be a very pretty boat. They carried it into the light-house, and slept by it all night, not being disturbed by any more visitors, When morning came, Julian climbed into the lantern of the light-house to look over the land- scape, and was struck the moment he turned inland, by seeing what he had not noticed tho day before, a dense, black volume of smoke rising on the western horizon, far beyond the swamps of Locohatchee, and to all seeming emerging from the bowels of the earth in inter- mittent puffs, It was the here smoke of which he had been told by Stevens, and he wondered he had not seen it the day before, _When the light-k came up to attend to his duties, Julian called his attention to the smoke, Stevens nodded his head gloomily. “Ay, ay,” he said, ‘‘ we'll have a storm by to-morrow night. I thought so from the sky.’ Julian looked round him. ‘* What’s the matter with the sky? It looks as clear as if it never stormed here.” ** Yes, so it looks; but you don’t know the coast of Floridaas Ido. How’s the wind?” Julian looked at the smoke. ** Tt seems to be northwest.” ‘* Look to the southeast then.” ‘Well, what of it? All’s clear.” “Not quite. Do you not see some faint lines of vapor stretching across the direction of the surface wind?” the sun, but managed to make out some very faint filmy threads drawn across the sky in the extreme southeast, and resting on a white, hazy ribbon on the edge of the horizon. ‘* Well,” he said at last, ‘‘ I see what you mean; but what of it?” ‘‘Only this: a heavy storm is comin may be from Cuba, or it may be from +e n: it : Gulf. The hurricanes of the tropics blow themselves out here,” ‘* But what has that to do with the smoke out in the Everglades?” “Only this: I’ve noticed that whenever a storm is eacaing on that smoke is thickest, and we are always left alone for at least a week,” Julian’s face lighted up. ‘Left alone? Then 1 can get off, perhaps?” ** Don’t count on that,” returned Stevensin the same gloomy manner. ‘‘ They won’t watch us, to he sure, but the storm will do it for them. ‘You’ll not be able to get out of here till the calin weather sets in again, and by that time the watchers will be back.” Julian set his teeth determinately, ** Pll get out somehow. You don’t know me, Stevens, and in fact I’m not sure if I know my- self fully; but I feel as if I had all my father’s spirit in me. He wasa colonel of cavalry in the war, and said to be a brave officer, Be sure I'll not disgrace him, But what, think you, is the connection between the thickening of the smoke and the coming on of the storm?’ Stevens hesitated. ‘‘ Frankly I don’t know, but I suspect,” ‘* What do you suspect then?’ “IT suspect the smoke to be a signal of some kind to the wreckers all along the coast.” ‘* But you say it rises constantly ¢” ‘Yes, but not so thickly as before a storm, and dies away #fter it.” ‘‘Very well,” said Julian. ‘‘Let’s hurry down now and get to work at that canoe. I’m going off somehow or other, before that gang of wreckers comes back here.” He went down-stairs with Stevens, and they worked hard at the canoe. It was a very simply constructed craft, very much resembling an Esquimaux kayak or fish- ing canoe, made of a frame of light wood, coy- ered with canvas stretched tight, so that it was very rapidly and cheaply made. They had the skin stretched before night, two of them working together; while old Joe was laboriously whittling a Couble-bladed paddle out of a stick of timber. They drew it into the light-house, and Stevens remarked, with a look out to seaward: ‘‘The, storm’s coming, sure enough. Look out yonder.” Away off to the southeast, a dark haze was brooding over the sea, and the same haze was spread in streaks over the sky, making a large ring round the risep moon, which was within four days of the full. A deep moaning sound could be heard in the mangroves along the shore of the inlet, and the surf rumbled with a deep menacing roar that began to make talking outside the house a matter requiring some exertion of voice. ‘* We’re safe enough from visitors now,” said Stevens pointing to the shore. ‘‘ There’s no sort of shelter after once you get past the coast bluffs, and I’ve seen quite a heavy sea rolled in on those Everglades, stirring up the mud from the very bottom, It’s not without reason that those fellows leave bere in a storm,” ‘Then we can sl in the cabin?’ said Julian inquiringly, to which Stevens replied: “Certainly. Tbey’llnever venture bere,” That night accord ngly they enjoyed the first tranquil refreshing slumber they had known since Julian came to the light-house, thougb, true to the keeper’s prediction, a furious storm came on as the night, beating on the roof in sheets of rain and eddying round the stone walls in tremendous gusts. But the cabin at the foot of the light-house was too strongly built to be damaged even by such a tempest, blowing at the rate of sixty miles an hour. The solid stone wall never quivered, and the little bull’s-eye windows kept out the rain per- fectly, while the door had been fastened up too securely to allow that to give way. When morning dawned the sky was a mass of black clouds, driving rapidly from northeast to southwest, the wind below coming from due east, and Stevens observed: “We're ctaoge hed the center of what the weatber sharps a cyclone, and it’s going to be a bad one. If you want to see what the wind can do, go up into the lantern and look over the land.’ Julian did as he was directed and was per- fectly ae by the picture of destruction. The whole face of the er that looked so lovely the day. andy with its glittering we do have are terrible ones. lakes and green islandSwas now a waste of gray mud, with trees blown flat on ¢ sides, or bowed over toward the water, with their branches streaming straight out. In either case it is going to be a violent one. We ! don’t bave many storms in Florida; bat what. ° } Fi a Th f 4 a \ | | | MIi¢cboo (E(e) S:CO