Beadle's Dime Library No. 247 — page 23: what you’re looking at

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

Str ene NS % Es — _—~—— “Do you think they are coming to attack us?” “c< ; do. ») “Then it’s time we showed them what a Winchester rifle can do in good hands,” The doctor seemed uneasy. ‘“‘Confound it, Grey; I don’t like to fight thom. they are making fools of themselves now. I think we can manage to parley with them. They’ll understand me, better than they’ll you. Tl tell you what you do: Take the canoe and leave me here by the fire, un- armed. I’m asurgeon, and surgeons are safe, all the world over. Tl let them take me, if need be. You keep out of the way, andif I am burt or killed, make your way to tho yacht. After that I won’t oppose any mea- sures you can take against them.” Julian was affected by the self-sacrifice of the generous Southerner, and answered: ‘‘No, no, that won’t do. You shall run no sort of danger, unless I share it. The canoe will hold us both, and I will not go unless you go with me. I’ve a better proposition.” ** What is it?” ‘* Let us both go, and leave dummies by the fire, to see if they will shoot at them. If they fo, they are enemies; and you need have no more scruples about shooting back at them.” *“ Agreed,” said Williams, rather reluctantly; “but I’m afraid that’s just what they are.” ‘Then there’s no earthly need of sacrificing a life to find it out,” said Julian. ‘I’ve had enough of being shot at for nothing, and I propose to defend my life hereafter.” They went back to the canoe which they had left hidden in the long grass, dragged it to a spot where it could easily be launched, and which at the same time commanded a view of the fire and channel beyond. Then they took off their hats and coats, arranged them on sticks by the fire to give the impression at a distances of two sleeping men; and crawled off through the grass’ to their post of ambush. They had not waited their ten minutes when they saw a boat outin the stream pulling hard against the current for the island. —! CHAPTER XXVII. HOT WORK. THe boat could be seen crawling along like a black insect, advancing very slowly; and as it came near Julian recognized in it the same four- oar that had chased him, a month before, on the Lake of the Smoke. Having no glass, he could not see whether Ned Peyton was in it, but as it came closer it seemed to him as if the figure in the stern were larger and heavier than Ned, e On came the boat, the oarsmen working hard and making very little progress, while when they attempted to cross the stream diagonally they were driven back so fast that they bad to abandon the effort and continue on a straight course against the current. In this way they at last arrived opposite the fire, and came driving down toward it, the boat being swept some distance below it, when < single man was seen to leave the stern, land, and come over the sand toward the dying em- bers. ‘Good Heavens!” whispered Williams. “ It is he himself. It is the same exactly.” ‘* Who?’ asked Julian, in the same cautious tone, “ Whom do you mean?’ ‘General Peyton!” was the reply. “Id know his figure anywhere.” Julian looked and saw a tall, heavy-built man, with long, dark hair and beard, coming to the fire. He seemed to be dressed in some sort of uniform, but carried no’ gun. He was less than a hundred yards away, and the fire happened to blaze vp under a puff of wind as he came to it, revealing his features. Julian started as he recognized Alligator Ike, no longer clad in the ‘rough habiliments of a hunter, but in the uniform of a soldier, with a rich belt and sword on. Alligator Ike was General Peyton. The general came up to the fire, stirred the dummy figures with his foot, and the two lis- feners saw him turn away with an oath of angry impatience. Then he turned and called into the darkness; “Hullo, Yanks, where are you? You needn’t be so scary about your precious skins, No one want’s to hurt you.” cee emmnnnnnnnnEnnnnnemenmnmnememe ccmmmmmmmeeentnemeneemmmeemneenmmemmeme ee EE They’re my old friends after all, if | “Keep still,” whispered Williams. ‘* It’s only a trick to get us to speak out, That man means mischief, or he wouldn’t come out in that uniform. Let him shout.” Again Alligator Ike repeated his summons, and when it was not answered, he calléd to the men in the boat: ‘‘Come round the other end of the island. They’re bid somewhar hyar. Be lively now.” They saw the boat shoot down the stream to the end of the island, turn out of tbe channel into the still water and run on shore, when four men came running over the island, and Williams said: ‘“Now’s our time to escape. Get into the stream and we can run cut to sea.” They crawled back through the long grass to the canoe, shoved it off, and swept silently away over the flooded Everglade, hearing the cries of the men on the island to each other as they beat up the cover in the most thorough and systematic way. No one noticed them till they had come to the edge of the channel, when they heard a yell: “‘Thar’s the Yanks! Give ’em blazes, boys.” Bang, bang, went four guns as fast as they could be fired, and the sound of snapping wood told that the canoe was hit. Then Doctor Williams yelled: ‘Ye fools, you're firing on your own men,” To Julian he added in a low voice: ‘Paddle for all you’re worth. Out wi.h her now!” They shot out into the stream, and went away as hard as they could paddle, at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour, followed by a yell from the men on the bank, who set off running after them as hard as they could tear. But the island was nearly two miles long, and the swift canoe, aided by the current, had a great advantage over the runners. As they passed the end of the long sand-spit the doctor cried: ‘‘ Quiek, Grey, turn her in! get their boat. .There she lies.” There lay the four oar on the beach without a keeper and it was the work of a moment for Williams to leap on shore as they grazed a point, shove off the boat into the current, and go floating down the stream after Julian, be- fore the enemy could reach the point by near- ly two minutes, When they came there and realized how they were trapped, they began to fire at the boat with such vengeful aim tbat the doctor jumped overboard on one side, and hung on the gunnel to make a shield for himself; and while in this position five holes were put into the bottom of the boat, before the enemy ceased firing. Then Julian slackened his pace, picked up his coadjutor, and dropped down the stream again, leaving the scuttled boat to fill and float down-stream, gunwale to the water. So far they were safe; but what dangers lay ahead of them neither knew. Within five minutes from the time they set the boat adrift they were skimming past the place where they bad first seen the moving light. It was on the shore of a sandy island, cov- ered with dense thickets of oranges, out of which the tall fronds of the palm trees stood at intervals. In a curve of the shore burned.a bright. fire, surrounded with people; and as they swept by, Julian recognized, with a throb of his heart that be could not subdue, the figures of women, amid which towered Ned Peyton, easily dis- tinguished by his light and brilliant uniform. The people were standing round the fire, or down by the shore, gazing over, the water, and as the canoe shot into sight round the bend there was a loud yell from the men, in the shrill tone which Julian had, heard daring the assault on the light-house and which made him ask Williams: ** What. makes. your men yell so, instead of shouting?’ ‘The yell’s heard further and it scares more folks than the shout,” was the answer. - Then Julian hailed the shore as they swept y: “Ho! Captain Peyton! Ahoy!” ‘* Well,” cried the young officer, coming out into the firelight and waving his hand for the men to remain quiet, “‘ what is it?’ ‘You'd better send up for your men,” cried Julian. ‘“ We've stole their boat and they’re alone on the island. Hello!” “‘ Well?” cried Peyton again. Maybe we can _ Alligator Ike. ‘The war’s over long ago,” cried Julian as loud as he could bawl. ‘‘ Any man that fires a shot at us is liable to be hung for mur-der!” He drew out the last word on purpose to make it plain to the people round the fire, and Dr. Williams aided him by yelling: ‘*Halloo, there! You all go home! There is no Confederacy. It went up twenty years ago-o-0!” Then the canoe swept out of sight without having elicited a shot, and the doctor re- marked: ‘That will set them thinking, Grey. That sort of thing broke us up in ’65 more than your men’s fire. It was our deserters finished us.” They pursued their way down the rapid cur- rent unmolested for some little time longer, when another island appeared in front, and Julian caught sight of the tall naked masts of a schooner lying on the other side, behind some trees. * That’s their vessel,” he whispered to Wil- liams. ‘‘Now, if we can only get to sea this way we can come back and unravel this whole affair.” Williams nodded gloomily. Julian could see that his heart was not very much in the task of exposing people who had once been bis friends and comrades in arms. They swept down past the island, keeping a course in the middle of the stream, and as they’ turned the end saw a very beautifully and swiftly-modeled schooner, that seemed to be a yacht lying moored by what looked very like a dock, with a boat riding by her gangway- ladder. ‘* That must be the Stonewall Jackson,” said the doctor; ‘‘but what puzzles me is how she got up here against this current and how she has evaded notice all these years.” They allowed the canoe to drift down with the stream and lay down &o as to conceal their bodies, for they could see figures moying over the rail of the schooner, and did not want to provoke notice. But the lookout on the vessel was not to be so easily deceived, and before they had been in sight afull minute a hail came over the water: “Qui va la ?” (Who goes there?) **Tt’s a Frenchman,” whispered Williams. They kept quite still, and the hail was re- peated more menacingly, followed by a flash and the report of a rifle. The gunwale of the canoe cracked as a bullet went through it; but as both men Jay still; the little craft continued to drift down the river at the same pace as before. Then they heard a great shouting on the deck of the Frenchman, the trampling of feet, and saw men rushing into the boat. Julian was about rising up, when Doctor Williams whispered energetically: ** Lie still. D’ye want to be shot?” “We'll be shot. anyhow, I think,” said Julian. “No, sir. Wait till the boat’s between us and them for a shield, and then it’s time to run.’ Julian saw the soundness of the advice at once, for no more shots were aimed at the canoe after that. The people of the schooner seemed to be in doubt whether it were indeed an empty canoe, and sent out their own boat to look at it and investigate, By the time the boat was witbin hailing dis- tance another island bad come between canoe and schooner, and Williams whispered: ‘‘Now, Grey, let ’em have it, Darna eating Frenchman, anyhow,” So saying, and lying on his back in the canoe, he pointed his Winchester at the approaching boat, which seemed to pull six oars, and fired as fast as he could work the lever, _- The effect was immediate, . The crew of the boat fell into disorder, tumbled over each other, and stopped rowing with a tremendous racket of talk, while Julian jumped up, seized his pad- dle, and made the spray fly as he went, A wild, aimless fire of pistol-shots was re- turned from the boat as it turned round and pulled away up-stream, while Dr. Williams emptied every chamber of his rifle, and followed it up with Julian’s as fast as he could fire over the heads of the amazed Frenchmen. ‘““Thar!” be said, his Southern accent becom- ing broad in his excitement, as the boat fled round a curve... “‘ Reckon you'll think a heap before you come down on us again. Hey, Grey, how we would have warmed you fellows if we'd only had these things twenty years ago.” frog; ~*~ » ais Powe) BS _ EUNICE OO KS (E —s