Beadle's Dime Library No. 307 — page 28: what you’re looking at

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

28 _——--- ‘The craft is sinking, I guess; but I am : doing the. best I can,’ she said, not under- ) standing their loud cries. And on she pulled, harder and harder, and at last ran astern, to approach under its lee, when suddenly her skiff received a | shock, and was driven hard against the | * sloop. In dismay she looked up to behold the ghost craft alongside of her. At the same instant it ran up to the sloop, | grapnels were thrown, and Lita found her- self, and the silent, awed Water Wolves, ‘prisoners to the woman in black, who held i the helm of the mysterious little schooner. ‘Come you, girl! you came on like a snail, or you could have saved us.” | Lita made no reply, but gazed in wonder at the woman, whose face seemed to be the face of a skull. ‘Alfred Wambold, and you, Mabel Car- ' fer, we meet again,” said the woman in black in sepulchral tones. ‘‘Who are you?” gasped the man she ad- dressed, while the woman quivered like an aspen leaf. ‘*Tam one you both once knew well, for this bone simply covers a face you will ' rceognize. { ‘*Once, in the long ago, Alfred Wambold, | I suffered bitterly at your hands, because I i - would not become your wife, and you, f Mabel Carter, because one other whom you : loved, became my husband, you sought to : ' kill me, and believed you had done so, for ‘ on yonder island you havea skull which you believed mine.” ‘‘Great God, I know you now,” groaned j the Water Wolf, while his wife sunk to the deck, for her limbs refused to sop her; i. but she did not faint, remaining fully con- | scious as she gazed upon the woman before her.’ *” - “‘ Yes, you know me now, and know that Li. my reported death was a false one, and that our revenge made you dig up the wei | | body, that you might keep, as you believed, . my skull to gloat on. es ‘‘T married the man you loyed, Mabel Carter, and went far away, to be cast upon an island inhabited by a wild people, who -- made my life a hell. «* My husband and my little boy were with me; but that husband, that man whom you 7 loved, deserted me, left me on that island | among savages, while he saved his life and sought a new home in America. LAs ‘He dared not take me with him, for see how the savages disfigured me by tattooing iy me ” Se eed . She threw off the skull mask she wore, and her face was utterly disfigured by eee tattooed in strange characters, and with red, _ blue and black colors. I They fairly started at sight of her, and 4 Lita uttered a cry that caused the woman’s AY large eyes to turn upon her, while she said: as “ Well may you start and cry out, girl, at sight’of me; bat the man whom that woman loved brought this upon me. Ay. ‘That man, Wambold, the Water Wolf; |__-yisited his hatred, because I refused his love, upon my kindred, and this woman, as she believed, took my life. ee “Then they were married, and a fittin couple they are; but, Wambold, you wan riches, and so did you, Mabel, and you took life to get gold, were found out, and fled for te - . your lives. tox - Strange that I, who at last escaped from the savages, should be wrecked on an _ island in the Gulf and become known as the Wreck- er Witch, while you are the Water Wolves of the Bahamas. __ **Chance found my husband for me, and Ee took his life, as he was rolling in wealth a $n New Orleans, and known as a money- [2 lender. : : ‘‘I gave him poison to drink, made my- ‘s self known to him, and fled; but I have - gince heard, from one I picked up at sea, that he did not then die, but was afterward ‘killed by his confidential clerk who robbed him and fled. _-- ** $0 be it; so that he is dead, I care not, ‘but my intention was to have him die by may hand. i “With you two, yes, and your son, ay, and that pretty girl, your daughter, I will see that there is no mistake. “| visited your island some time ago, _ **T had achart of the channel, I bought —=—' -. a tl saa a es a ee Here rrerer re rrerenree ——————————————————----ssssi eer ng gg ge ttn irre lace ——- SS The » Phantom Pirate. a ne a ee CE ne ae wee oe from one who had been a pilot upon a schooner known as the Phantom Pirate. “IT took big chances and ran into your harbor, and then it was I recognized you and fled in dismay. ‘‘But I found me a safe retreat on an island,. some leagues away, and then I set to work to strike terror to your craven hearts. ‘‘T saw your sloop pass my island, recog- nized you on board, with my glass, and pur- sued you. ‘‘T have you now in my power and you are doomed to die. ‘* Seize those people!” and she turned to her crew, who, led by her son, the young man referred to when the little schooner was first introduced to our readers, quickly seized and bound the four wreckers, not one of them offering any resistance, ‘*Now get up those anchors, and make the sloop fast with a couple of stout cables, and we will stand away from these waters, until a more quiet sea permits us to return, for [ see we are going to have a severe blow.” The orders of the woman in black were promptly obeyed, and the little schooner, with the dismasted sloop in tow, stood back on the course over which they they had just come in their flight and pursuit. CHAPTER LI. THE STORM’S HAVOC, From his point of lookout upon the cliff, Irving Brandt beheld the coming of the ghost craft, and that Lita did not see it until it was upon her. The attempts of the Water Wolves to warn her that she might row faster, he also saw, and then the capture of the dismasted Reo hat occurred upon the sloop’s deck, he could not of course know, but his glass showed him that some important scene was transpiring, and then he beheld the wreckers seized and put in irons, even Lita being treated as the others. What could it mean? This question he could not answer. ‘As the schooner started off, going away from the island with the sloop in tow, he be- came most anxious, and said earnestly: ‘*Would to God I could save that girl! But I.am powerless, as no man dare take boat or vessel out of this basin.” Hastily he started, however, to return to the yacht, and on the way an idea struck him, and he gave vent to it in words: ** Yes, there was a pilot on the schooner to bring her in, and he shall run me out—/f he was not killed.” Hastening on board the pirate craft, he learned that there had been two pilots, but one had been killed. The other was in irons below. To this man he went and offered him his life if he would run the yacht out in chase of the age craft. This the man gladly accepted, and was taken on deck. **Come, Herbert, I will need you and your men, for I know not how large a force we will have to meet, and the prisoners being in irons, cannot escape before our return,” Then on board the yacht went Irving Brandt, with all his crew, and, leaving the pirates in irons below decks in their own vessel, the Sea Owl sped out of the basin, the Phantom Pilot at the helm. It was certainly a fearful gantlet to run, and only one possessing great nerve and skill could carry even a small boat through the dangerous channel. But in safety they passed through, and started in chase of the ghost craft, But night was coming on, and the little schooner, with the sloop in tow, was only dimly visible in the distance. Through the reefs and islands the pirate pilot ded the yacht skillfully, into open water, and she had gained rapidly upon the chase. But then the storm, which had threatened to break all the afternoon, burst with fury upon the sea, and all was darkness and de- struction, for the Sea Owl had her foremast carried away, and fora moment it was feared the stanch little vessel would go down. But the tornado passed on, and, though it left the yacht eee: and the sea white with foam, the little vessel still floated. ‘ Then it was found out that several of the ‘ men had been swept overboard, and the cry arose: -** The Death Rock Pilot has gone!” It was true, as search quickly discovered, that the pirate pilot had been washed to death along with several of the yacht’s crew. But the condition of the yacht demanded the attention of the officers und crew. At last then, the little vessel lay to and rode out the gale, and all on’ board were keeping a bright lookout for the Jittle schooner and sloop, which had not been fur away when the storm burst. But nowhere were they visible, and when dawn broke they could not be found. ‘*They went down in the storm with all on board, Herbert, and that poor innocent girl, innocent in heart if not in act, has met punishment with the guilty. ‘‘T would have given my right ‘arm to have saved her, but it was not to be,” said Irving Brandt, sadly. Rigging a spar to serve as a foremast, and putting things on board in ship-shape as well as they could, the Sea Owl then cruised around all day in search of more signs of the two vessels, to at last give them up as lost. To return to the Death Rock Island would be impossible, for the young captain, even if his vessel had not been crippled, would not have dared to venture into the waters sur- rounding that desolate-looking isle, and it would have been madness to have done so, * These pirates must be left to their fate,” said Henry Herbert. ‘* Yes; they are all in irons, even to the wounded, and, chained to the decks as they are, they will starve to death, a fitting pun- ishment for their crimes, though one I would not leave them to if it was in my power to prevent it.” ‘* And will you return home now?” “Yes, going back by the island where we left our little prizes, and then to San Augus- tine to learn if aught has been heard of the Sea Monster. “It will be slow work, crippled as we are, but we can do nothing else, and it is worth our mishap to have broken up the false bea- cons, we have solved the mysteries of the Death Rock, captured the Phantom Pirate, and seen that little white vessel, which I am confident was another wrecker craft, go down with the Water Wolves and their sloop. a tell you, Herbert, we have had a grand cruise of it; but Iam sorry, so sorry about that poor girl— Ha! there is a sail.” A sail now came in sight, and a closer look showed it to be the Sea Monster schoon- er. , As before, no flag was at its peak, and though the yacht could have fallen an easy rey to it, the flagless craft passed on and pba from sight in the gathering darkness, while the yacht held on her way, ‘‘homeward bound.” CHAPTER LIT. » CONCLUSION. In time, though after a tedious cruise in her crippled condition, the Sea Owl dropped anchor in the harbor of San Augustine, at- tended by the little wrecking-vessels it had captured among the Bahamas, ’ Upon inquiry in regard to the Sea Monster, Irving Brandt Jearned that he had been seen in the streets one night, and being recognized had been fired upon and pursued to the wa- ter, into which he had staggered, evidently badly wounded and been seen to sink and rise no more. Of Benedict, the Sea Monster's faithful ally, it was said that a man answering his description had run off with the ee i daughter of the town magistrate, and it is to be hoped that he at length came to the con- clusion to live a different life, cheered by the love of a devoted wife. | Another bit of pews also was given the» midshipman, for he was told how a mysteri- ous personage, the Senor Rudolph Ramon, who had astounded San Augustine by his riches and generosity, had suddenly deter- mined to enter the church, and, turning his own elegant villa into a monastery, had ‘| become a monk, retiring forever from the world, There were dark whispers that, in one wing of the villa, when the workmen were going over it, to prepare it for a monastery, - ‘ t et = on! ae Me - , Oat cae mi £ — : ee sw . » 8 oh. Bu catered | awn —_ Qn, — — a | | fe