Beadle's Dime Library No. 316 — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

| i | 8 The slave looked at her inquiringly, and she continued: ‘* Dere mus’ be de blood from de heart of a white breas’ lady, to dip de wing ob de white bird in. You mus’ get de lady; she mus’ be Young, hab black eyes, an’ neber hab de busban’. Do dis, an’ you s’all hab you’ wish.” The slave’s countenance fell as he heard the > gacaaaaaaa suggested by ber practiced sub- tlety. “Bere was a white lady,” he replied, ‘in de schooner, but she gone. Oh, gar! it take debble time to do dis,” be said, with an air of.disap- pointment, ‘“‘Mus’de great Fetish hab one?” he inquired, anxiously. ‘‘He mus’, He do nottin’ widout,” she re- plied, determinedly. The slave stood Jamenting the loss of his an- ticipated revenge, when she inquired if he saw the frigate that dropped ber anchor half an hour before off the pass. On hisreplying in the affirmative, she suid: ‘* Dere is a lady board dat ship may serve de urpose, As de ship wasswung roun’ I seen ber in de window on de stern.” The eyes of the slave lighted up at this intel- ligence. “W’at frigate is dat, Oula?” “I don’t know,” she replied, fearing if the slave knew the lady to be the Castilian his mas- ter had protected, he would decline the enter- prise upon which sbe was about sending him, ‘‘No matter ’bout de sbip,” she replied, ‘‘De lady be dere; de stern lie close to de rocks. You can go out to de end of de passage an den swim under de stern, climb up de rudder or some way into de window, an’ take her off before dey can catch you inde dark, You hear dis! Now w’at you say?” Without replying the slave darted through the door, and before the old woman could gain the outside, to warn bim to be cautious, his re- treating form, as he ran rapidly along the rocks in the direction of the frigate, was lost to her eye. 5 CHAPTER VI. THE SLAVE AND HIS CAPTIVE, AFTER the count left the frigate on bis expe- dition aguiust the rendezvous of the pirates, the fair girl, whose star of happiness seemed now in the ascendant, and about to shine propitiously upon her future life, reassumed her reelining attitude by the cabin window, which over- fooned the sea in the direction of her native and, For a few moments her thoughts were en- gaged upon her approaching bridal; but gradu- ally, they ussumed the garb of memory, and, like a wearied bird, winging over the evening sea, reposed in the home of ber childhood. As she gezed vacantly upon the fading horizon, she was conscious that a dark object intervened between her and its even line, it grew larger, and rapidly approached the frigate before she was from her balf-conscious abstraction, by a change in its appearance; when, looking more keenly in the direction, she saw it was a three-masted schooner in the act of rounding to, about a mile beyond the sy gon Apparently, is had not yet been observed from the deck, as all eyes were turned toward the shore, follow- ing the boats which had just gained the base of the cliff. At the sight of the vessel, so nearly resem- bling the one whose prisoner she had been, ber capture and its trying scenes came vividly be- fore ber mind, and she turned her face from an object, connected with such disagreeable asso- ciations, The approaching ceremony again agitated her bosom; and as her eye rested upon a mirror in the opposite panel, she parted with care her dark bair from her forehead, arranged in more graceful folds her mantilla, and all the woman beamed in her fine eyes as they met the reflection of ber lovely countenance and sym- metrically-molded figure. ‘*How long be stays! He must have been gone full an_ hour,” she said unconsciously, aloud, ‘The Mirae protect him from barm!” “The count will soon return, ma’moiselle,” said a small mulatto boy, who acted as steward of the state-rooms, now that they were occu- pied by their fair inmate. She turned as he spoke, ; ‘*Is there danger, boy? ‘‘None._ please you, ma’moiselle, The men on deck say the rovers have lett their rock, and that chere will be no fighting. * Sacre diable !” he suddenly shrieked, point- ing to the state-room window, in whiet appear- ed the head of the slav . Constanza alsoturned, but only to be grasped in his frightful arms, He vented her from giving the alarm by winding ber mantilla about her mouth, and - then bastily conveyed her throagh the window or port-hole, from which the gun, genely sta- tioned there, had been removed. Rapidly let- ting bimself, with bis burden, down by the pro- ections of the rudder, he dropped with her to the sea, and raising her hb above water with one of bis muscular arms, a few vigo~ous strokes with the cere. Beee bin ‘ction n ain’ shadow of the rocks, nd a projecting D of which he disappegred, Lafitte’s Lieutenant. Re-entering the but after the departure of Cudjoe, Oula released the Spaniard from his place of concealment, and informed him of her plan to place the lady in bis power. ‘* You are a very devil for happy thoughts,” be said, with animation; *‘ but the revenge- ful slave gets her, I may thank you, and not Fetish, for the prize. Have her this night I must, for I expect my schooner.” ‘*Ha! there is my vessel now, by the holy twelve!” he exclaimed, as his quick eye rested upon the object which had attracted the atten- tiun of Constanza, ‘* Getzendanner will be put- ting a boat in for me, and yet he must see the frigate, unless she Jays too dark in the cliff’s sha- dow. St. Peter, send fortune with the slave! Will he bring her to the hut if he succeeds, think you, Oula?’ he suddenly and sharply in- quired, as a suspicion of the possibility of a change in the negro’s purpose flashed across his mind, ‘* Bring de lady?’ she exclaimed in surprise, “ He know he finger rot off, be eye fall out, and he hair turn to de livesnake wid de fang, if he no bring her. He no dare keep her away !” Solaced by this essurance, he paced the green p'ot before the cabin, often casting bis eyes in the direction of the frigate. Nearly balf an hour elapsed after the departure of Cudjoe when the robes of the maiden, borne in the arms of the slave, caught his eve. “Back, back! you spoil de whole!” exclaimed Qula, as the impatient Spaniard darted forward to seize his prize. Instead of Constanza’s lovely form, he met the herculean shoulders of the slave, whose long knife passed directly through his heart, Witb- out a word or agroan, he fell dead at bis feet, Resigning the maiden to the faithful Juana, who followed immediately behind, Cudjoe sprung over the body with acry of vindictive rage, and before Oula could comprehend his motives, the reeking blade passed through her withered bosom. ‘Take dis, hag ob hell!” he shouted, as he drew forth the knife from her breast. ‘* You exte ne more fool ob Cudjoe for de curs’ Span- r i “Grande diable ! what debble dis?’ he sud- denly yelled, as the son of the slain Obeah, when be saw bis mother fall, leaped i his neck, grappled his throat tightly with his fin- gers, and fixed his teeth deeply into his flesh. The struggle between them was but for a mo- ment. Finding it impossible to release himself from his fiendish embrace, the slave bent his arm backward, and passed his long knife up through his body. The thrust was skillful, and fatal to the boy, who released his grasp, and re back in the agonies of death, to the ground, In the mean while, Juana had borne Constanza to the fire, in the hut, and was employing every means to restore circulation to the chilled limbs of the unconscious girl, The interview between the Spaniard and Oula had been overheard by Juana from the rock above the hut. After the escape of her mistress and the count, and the departure of Lafitte and his men, in pursuit—with the exception of Cud- joe, who in the hurry and confusion of getting under way, was left behind—she was left quite alone, This solitude, and anxiety on account of her mistress, Jed her, at the approach of eve- ving, to pay a visit to the old sibyl, for the pur- pose of consulting her respecting her safety. After the hasty departure of the slave to obey the commands of Oula, she descended the rock overhanging the hut, and rapidly following him, she awaited bis return on the beach, and then communicated to him the information rel- ative to the Spaniard and the lady. Indignant at this treachery toward one whom he regarded as his master’s Jady, and enraged that the old woman should thus use him as the tool for the Spaniard, he drew his knife, bastened toward the hut, and met Martinez with the fatal result we have just mentioned. When the slave entered the Obeah cabin, after bis bloody revenge was completed, Juana informed him of the expedition against the ne ny which she had seen moving towurd the rock, Constanza soon recovered, and Juana led her forth into the air: then saying that she would go round with her to the cave, where the boats of her lover then were, she warred Cudjse to endeavor to get on board of the sebooner and escape from the French seamen, The slave looked seaward, where she could just be discoy- ered lying to, and in a few seconds afterward he saw a boat pulling along close to the shore. Supposing, from the language of the Spaniard, that it was sent for him, and that the schooner was the ‘‘ Avenger.” the name of Getzendan- ner’s vessel, he bid Juana conduct Constanza to the barges of the frigate; and, hastily leaving them, he approached the boat, which now touched the beach, ** Boat aboy!” he hailed, as he came near, ‘* Ha, Cudjoe! that’s your sweet voice, in a thousand,” replied one, in auswer to his hail, ‘* How came you here?” ‘The captain sail and leab me sleep in de cabe,” he replied, ‘*T must go to Barrata in the Avenger.” —_— _———~ - “You are right welcome, my beauty. But where’s Martinez?’ ‘‘He was jus’ killed by de Frenchman, in shore. I jus’ ’scupe wid my neck.” ‘* Frenchman? How?’ exclaimed the man, in surprise. ‘* What do you mean?’ ‘No see dat frigate, der? 1 t’onght you bol’ muff to com’ in rigbt under her gun. See ber? Dere she Jay, You can bardly tell her masts from de trees,” The man looked for a moment steadily, and then exclaimed; “By the holy St. Peter, you say truly! Spring into the boat, Cudjoe, Shove off, men —shove off, and give way like devils to your oars! We must be out of this, or we shal} have ard quarters between monsieur’s decks.” In a few moments they stood on the deck of the schooner, which immediately filled and stood seaward, Her subsequent career is already known to the reader. Before Juara reeched the cave with her charge, to effect which she had first to ascend the cliff and then descend by a perilous footway to the platform before it, the object of the count had. been effected. The gun bad been pitched over into the basin, and the arms and stores eitber destroyed or carried cf, Whenhe gained the deck of his frigate, he was met by the first lieutenant. “Shall we get under way, sir?” he inquired. ‘Not yet, monsieur,” be replied, smiling. ‘* We have a festival below, which will require the presence of my officers; and the men, too, must make merry to-night.” Then, winged with love, he hasteved to mect Constanza. Entering the state-room, he en- countered the prostrate form of the mulatto boy: who was lying insensible by the door. lancing bis eyes hastily around the apart- ment, while his heart palpitated with a sudden foreboding of evil, the loved form he sought no- where met his eager gaze, Alarmed, be called her name, and searched every recess of that and the adjoining state-rooms. ‘‘ My God! where can she be?” he exclaimed, now highly excited. ‘‘ Can she have fallen into she water from this pert? Yet, it cannot be. Constanza, my betrotbed, my beloved Constan- za, speak to me if you are near!” he cried, bop- ing, yet with trembling, that she might still be concealed—playfully hiding from bim to try, as maidens will do, her lover’s tenderness. ‘‘ Yet, what means this?” he added, raising the boy ‘*There is life here. He hus fainted. Speak, Antoine; open yo eyes and Jonk at me!’ The boy still remained insensible; but the count, by applying restoratives hastily taken from the toilet of the maiden, soon restored his suspended faculties. To his eager questions, the boy in reply told of the hideous visage that ap- peared at the port-hole, enlarging upon bis black face and white tusks, ‘* Was it a man or a wild beast?’ he inter- rogated. ‘*Ob! monsieur, one men-devil—with such long arms, and long white tusks like a boar!’ he replied, clinging to the person of the officer, and looking fearfully around, as if expecting the ep- palling apparition to start momentarily upon his sight. The brow of the lover changed to the bue of death; the blood left bis lips, and faintly articu- lating, ‘* Lafitte’s slave!” he reeled, and would have fallen to the floor, had not the boy caught him. Recovering himself by a vigorous intel- lectual and pbysical effort, he stood for an in- stant in thought, as if revolving upon some mode of action. At length he spoke, in a voice deep with emo- tion, and gathering passion: ‘“‘Lafitte—thou seared and branded outlaw! As true as there is one living God, I will be avenged for this foul and grievons wrong! But why doI stand bere? he is not far off. 1 may pursue and take him within the hour—and,” be added, bounding to the deck, ‘‘ perhaps recover Constanza, ere it be—too late,” His voice, as he issued bis orders to get af once under way, rung with an energy and sternness the startled officers and seamen never knew before. Having rapidly communicated the disappearance of Constanza, he learned from the offic r of the watch that some of the men who bad joined the shore expedition, said they had seen, on returning, a sail in the cffing. “ But after having swept the whole horizon with my glass,” be continued, “and discerning nothing, I concluded that they must have been deceived, aud therefore did not report it. Now, I think they were right.” ‘‘That vessel was Lafitte’s, and Constanza is on board of her,” ¢xclaimed the count, ‘‘ We must pursue, and if there is strength in wind, or speed in ships, overtake and capture her this night. Call the men who saw her,” he seamen being interrogated, indicated by the compss the direction the sail bore from tbe frigate, when they discovered it. Toward this po nt, in less than three minutes after the count ad ascended to the deck, the ship, leaving ber anchor behind her, began to move out of the bay with great velocity, her tall masts bending gracefully to one side, as if they would kiss the waves, the water surging before her bows, and (E() Gomiecbooks : : &