Beadle's Dime Library No. 388: The Giant Buccaneer — page 19: what you’re looking at

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bent them on the young midshipman, who The Giant Buccaneer. had disappeared, the gardeners having resod- so remain here with your dogs, and I will re- could not restrain himself from starting back involuntarily as he beheld the peril into which he had gotten himself, while she cried | sternly: | “Well, boy, we meet again,” ‘* We certainly do,” he answered, calmly, ab “You know me, then?” ‘* Yes, for I could never forget your face, once my eyes had fallen upou it.”’ | “And what brings you to Death’s Is- | land?” | ‘Curiosity.” ‘Tt has lured many a man and woman to ruin!” “‘T do not doubt it; but you came here, I see, after you escaped from the Witch’s Island.” ‘‘Tam here, there, everywhere.” ‘Everywhere except where you should be.” ** And where is that, boy?” cates ‘* At the bottom of the sea.”’ ‘‘ Ha! do you threaten me on my own ter- ritory?” ‘*] shall do more than threaten.” “ What will you do?” ‘‘ Arrest you.” ‘¢On what crime?” ‘‘The belief that you are a wrecker and display a false beacon.” ‘You have no proof.” ‘«T have proof that you sought my life.” *“‘And you would tear me away from my home, you say?” ‘* Yes, for your crimes have doubtless been many.” ‘‘If so, I do the suffering for them, not ou.” te True, but I shall take good care that you do not cause others to suffer.” ‘Bah! you have no power to harm me, boy.” rving glanced about him, and a trifle un- easily, for he remembered that she had had a large guard when on the other island. ‘‘ Where is your giant slave?” he asked. ** Gone.” “< Where?” “Ask the winds, not me,” ““ And your son?” , ‘‘Ask also the winds that wafted him away.” sense ‘‘And you are here alone?” ‘« Except my bloodhounds, I am alone.” ‘Well, though I am sorry I must wage | war against a woman, | must make you my prisoner, so come with me to my boat.” The Witch smiled grimly, and said: ‘Boy, you forget that though I have no human being to protect me, I am not alone. ‘*Come! you have the power to hunt me down on this island and drag me away to prison, where I do not wish to go. ‘* No, I wish to remain here, where I dwell alone and harm no one. ‘‘Go and leave me, and say to no one that ou have seen me, and tell them that the island is uninhabited.” ‘‘No!” said the midshipman, firmly, ‘Well, I have asked you what to do for me, and you refuse. ‘Tf harm befalls you, your crew will come to avenge you, I well know. ‘“‘ But they will find only your bones, torn limb from limb by these mad hounds. ‘* You may kill one, two, yes three of them; but the rest of the pack will pull you down and tear you to pieces. ‘Go and leave me, and promise me that you will not say that you have seen me, and all will be well. ‘Refuse, and I give the order for my dogs - to spring upon you!” Irving Brandt fully realized his danger. He knew that he could kill several of the dogs; but what a fate would be his. Bradford Carr and his father would land and avenge him; but it would do him no ood. He knew that it was a game where both he and the Witch wished to play quits, and he had only one course to pursue, and he acted promptly, and said: “You speak the truth, for I am in your power, as you would be in the power of my friends, if your hounds killed me. ‘You offered a compromise and I accept om it,” ‘* You are wise, boy.” ** As you are to offer it, Witch; but I have sent my men around the island by the beach, ' t | Oe oe a - call them and retire.” ‘* And say nothing about secing me here?” “Yes, if those are your terms.”’ ** They. are. ‘All right; but see to it that youand your hounds remain here until we leave the island.” Without another word Irving turned and retraced his way out of the ravine. Crossing the island at a rapid step he soon came to a point where he caught sight of his negro crew, two and two, making their way along the beach, | Hailing them, he bade them come to him, and then led them back to the boat, taking good care to keep clear of the ravine. With his crew of five men he could have attacked the hounds with sucsess; but he had | given his word and would not break it, and | so rowed rapidly back to the yacht, which at | once got under way and held on her course. | But, try as he might to hide it, Bradford Carr and the others felt that Irving had made some discovery upon the island which he would not make known to them; but they hoped he would soon do so, Yet the voyage ended, and the Sea Owl dropped anchor in the little harbor of Brandt plantation, and the midshipman still kept the secret of his discovery on Death Island lock- ed in his own heart. CHAPTER XXXY. AT HOME. BraNnpDT Manor Plantation was a lordly estate in those days, and had been built with no desire to spare expenses by its first owner, the father of Irving Brandt’s mother, It was of white stucco, large and roomy, with wide halls, vast rooms, and two stories. It had the look of the home of luxury it was, and many were the gay times that had been enjoyed beneath its large, sheltering roof. Vast flower gardens abounded about it, a lawn dotted with live-oak and magnolia trees, sloped down to the little indentation in the coast, which was the haven; upon the left stretched away a grand forest, or park, and upon the right and in the rear were the culti- vated fields, with the negro village back in the distance at the base of a slight ridge. Carriage-roads and bridge-paths wound about the plantation, inviting drives and horseback rides; the haven was as quict as a millpond for rowing, the Mississippi was the place for sailing, and the Gulf was beyond for deeper craft, Back from the plantation some miles was a village, with other homes of planters scatter- ed here and there along the coast for leagues in one direction, while in the other were dense forests, where the Sea Fox had had his retreat before he gave up his life of outlawry. Other spots along the coast had also been the lairs of smugglers and bayou buccaneers, but as they never disturbed the plantations, the planters had learned to live without fear of them, . Such was the home and its surroundings to which Colonel Brandt and his family bad re- turned, with Bradford Carr for his son-in- law, and Myrtle Marsden (she had dropped her father’s name of Palafox, it having been Palafox Marsden) as members of the circle. The home was the inheritance from his grandfather, of Irving Brandt, and he was often called the Boy Planter, while Maud had also inherited vast wealth from her mother and grandparents, their father, the colonel, being left only an income, on ac- count of his weakness for gambling. But this the world did not know, and the colonel was considered one of the wealthiest men of his day, where he had but a mere pit tance in money, compared with the income of his son and daughter. As the return of the family had been an- nounced some time before, the overseer and house-servants had all in readiness to greet i them, and a couple of hundred slaves, all dressed in their white suits and straw hats, or bandanas, according to their sex, assembled upon the shore to welcome them, for the racht hed been sighted miles away with the ¢ TEE a ee EEEEEEEEEEEEEemeenenees randt colors flying. The traces of the fierce combat. which had been waged upon the lawn, when one night the Sea Ghoul had landed to carry off Maud and rob the place, but had been met by the Sea Fox and his gallant crew and beaten off, eT a ded the grass torn up by the iron shot of the defeated pirate in his retreat. ‘Oh! | amso glad to get home,” cried Maud, and, turning to Myrtle, she continued : ‘This is your home, too, Myrtle, and you must be happy here.” ‘‘How can I be otherwise, Maud, where you and all others are so kind to me?’ re- sponded the beautiful young girl, with toars in her eyes. “There is but one drawback to our joy,’ remarked Bradford Carr. ‘“‘And that is that my young pupil has grown beyond me, has become a distinguish. ed naval officer, and must needs leave us to go where his duty calls him.” ‘But Lam to be the coast-guard, you know, Mr, Carr, so will often be near; but I love a sea-life, and as I have won a midship- man’s berth I shall strive hard to win my way round after round up the ladder of fume. . ‘* But I hope to be here a couple of weeks at least, so do not let us have a thought to marour joy,” and Irving was turning away when Bradford Carr took his arm ané said, in a low tone: ‘‘Irving, your joy is forced, for there is: something that worries you, and it has beem more marked to me since your mysterious visit to Death Island. ‘* Will you not confide in me, and let me share your troubles?” “Yes, some night I will tell you all that. worries me, but not now.” ‘* Are you in any trouble that I can aid you out of?” ‘Oh, no; only that the Smuggler Queen has sworn revenge against me and mine, and I am so afraid she will strike eve, now that. she is free; but another time I will tell you all, to place you on your guard,” and the conversation ended, for Bradford Carr would. not press the youth further then, CHAPTER XXXVI. THE PLOT TO RESCUR, THe morning after he had received so many very important visitcrs in his sanctum, Dom Rudolpho, the money-lender, arose in no en- viable frame of mind. He had not slept well. Hdé did not like the coming back of Perdido, whom he had be- lieved, and hoped, was at the bottom of the sea, He liked less the thought that he possessed. the secret that he had sacrificed a boy, to test whether certain articles, placed in his hand by the Sea Ghoul, were meant to harm or not, ’ He did not like the Queen Smuggler’s be- | ing in prison. oe n fact, he had ample on his mind to worry im. His spies reported the next morning that. Chester Granger had cut out the Lady Maud from her anchorage. But not a word did he hear of it upon the streets, and her sable crew bad calmly gone on board the Sea Owl, Irving Brandt's cap- tured cruiser, Spies then reported that the Sea Owl had set sail, with the Brandt family on beard, only the negro crew of the Lady Maua to man her, and that Palafox, the Sea Fox, and Commandant Nazro of the navy, had seen their friends off. Why Irving Brandt had gone, he could not surmise, or learn. This worried the money-lender, Then he had on his hands the Giant Buc- caneer to look after, Next came Perdido, whom he eould not. put aside. : Chester Granger must be looked after, to keep out of the way of the Smuggler Queen. Captain Merida must also be attended to. Then the Smuggler Queen must be res- cued, | “Tll make it a case of dog eat dog with the pirates, for I'll use one against the other,” muttered Don Rudolpho, as he sat meditat- ing in his office, after a rapid walk through the town, for the benefit of his nerves. ‘‘First, I must arrange to free the Queen,’” he added, and he touched a bell. ‘‘ Bono, go and ask Saragossa to come here at once.” ‘* Yes, senor.” A quarter of an hour after a low-browed Spaniard entered the room. = rt 8 eet en ee — a 2 3 yy —_—— (E(0) ,OO AME cS (E & = hd Ps" — - ~ —_s= ~< A EE Se eS eee ee LS 4 a a — =