Beadle's Dime Library No. 388: The Giant Buccaneer — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

— — (oe ee ee ee ee — . ae — The Giant Buccaneer. craft, that itis for you to become the chief of | in the punishment of the pirate chief, Irving | would not allow the middy, Nat Manly, and his ‘*T see, by my power, that you will lead her | men to be implicated. the vessel anchored off this island. to victory, and store her hold with riches. ‘* But my power tells me that I must leave this island, where the doomed feet of those three men have, trod; that I must seek other ‘*But, my son,” urged the colonel, ‘‘do you not think it would be better to carry the Sea Ghoul back in irons?” ‘‘ No, father, for I am on official duty for the scenes, another home for me and mine, and it | Government, have caught a pirate on the high will be your duty to take me there, seas, or rather you have for me, and I shall see ‘“Come, men of the sea, and leave those | that he bas no other chance to escape. doomed leaders to their fate. ‘**Come, go with us to your vessel, that your | midshipman turne | h shi pmates may greet their new chief, ‘** Lead on!” Silently, and wholly awed, they obeyed. The giant led, Perdido falling behind him, | ‘* Now, Mr. Keys, a word with you!” and the to the pirate chief, who, eavily ironed, stood near. ** Well, boy, what have you to say?” was the gruff response, ‘* Just this, sir, that I am responsible for your and then the seamen, with the Witch bringing | taking off at the vard-arm, and I hang you up the rear and chanting a wild song in what | without pity or remorse—hold, let me speak. was certainly a very beautiful voice. As she departed the three birds fluttered about her continually, until the parrot alighted upon | one shoulder, the raven on ‘the other, and the owl upon her head. Reaching th: shore of the cove, they entered the schooner’s boat, Perdido lighting two lan- terns and placing them fore and aft, and the seamen seizing their oars pulled slowly out to their vessel. In dismay the crew stood regarding the com- ing boat, and could they have gotten yo the an- chor and set sail in time to fly, gladly would they have done so, But recognizing their shipmates at the oars partly reassured them. Running alongside, the Witch, in all her hide- ousness, went over the gangway first, Perdido following with a lantern, and walking around and around her, as she reached the deck, dis- playing his appalling double self, of a monk and satan. ‘*Men of the sea,” called out the Witch, ‘I come here from my island home to say that you chief and his lieutenants sought me, to Mh off the doom against you all and your ves- sel,’ She paused, while all gathered near, Me ingcaae in awed silence, and Perdido kept up his wal around and around her, his lantern casting weird shadows as he walked. ** Men of the sea, the doom I lifted from your vessel, and from yourself; but I could not kee it from off those three, and were you to sail wit them, you would die some fearful death, ere an- other moon came round, ‘* But the power was given me to find a chief for you, and behold him !” As she spoke the aa sprung over the bul- wark upon the deck, and Perdido threw the light of the lantern full upon him, There he stood in grand, majestic manhood, his arms folded upon his breast, his eyes resting upon the crew that superstition was subduing. ‘* This man, your Giant Buccaneer Chief, will lead you to victory, and fill your belts with old. i Do you accept him, or do you accept the doom that must overtake you without him? ** Answer me!” The crew of the boat started the cry, for cry it was, and a Spaniard shouted: ** Viva the Giant Buccaneer !” The words were taken up with a cheer, and then the giant unfolded his arms, held out his hand for silence, and said in his deep, yet melo- dious tones: ‘‘Men, I accept the charge put upon me, and I will lead you to fortune under my flag, ay, your flag that hangs there, for it suits me well.” With the doom they believed would be theirs lifted from them, tho pirates cared little for the fate of their officers, and were wild with delight, while, seeking the one cfficer left, the giant found him so frightened that he was most tract- able indeed. ? Leaving Perdido on board as an awe-inspirer, the Witch and the Giant Buccaneer returned to the shore, carrying with them half a dozen of the crew who had not before gone, and set them to work getting out the bony fresco from the cavern, and the booty out of the huts. Leaving the Witch to watch over the seamen, ihe a walked on up the ravine, muttering to imself: ‘Now I will see that they meet the doom that the Death Craft put upon them,” CHAPTER XVIII THE MIDSHIPMAN’S REVENGE, Ir was a oe scene upon the deck of the Lady Maud, with Irving Brandt, the midship- man, in command, and his gray-haired father and his tutor, Bradford Carr, standing back and leaving all to him, while Nat Manly, the middy who had come in charge of the man-of-war’s- men, stood gazing at the youth with an admira- tion his face plainly showed. Maud had retired to the cabin; but, hearing that the Smuggler Queen had swooned away, with her womanly nature at once-awakened for the unfortunate, she went to the cabin of the outlaw craft, whither the Lady Captain had been borne, and did all in her power for her, In the mean time the black crew of the Lady Maud were obeying their young master’s orders, for, as he was taking the law in his own hands, ‘ _ ~ J ee Pen “ —_ ee ° 1. ° ‘** That I am revengeful toward you, you may say; but it is not on account of myself, as I care not what you may have done to me, and I have spared your pirate wife time and again, although she hunted me down with a persistency that was like the hatred of a tigress. ‘** But you have struck at those I love. ‘You are well-born, had an honorable life before you, but, squandering your money, you sought to drag my sister down to your level | by ‘making her your wife, merely to get her fortune. ‘*To do this, when we were all spending the summer at the Blue Anchor Inn, you cowardly shot down Soule Ravelle, whom my sister had been pledged to from infancy, to get rid of him, and also pay a gambling debt you owed him. ‘*But you did not end here, for Pd forced our tool, Chester Granger, who owed you large- , to aid you, and charged my tutor there, radford Carr, with the murder, and he would have died on the gallows but for me. ‘** Escaping from prison, he became what sea- men called the Pirate Priest, but who was in reality a hunter of outlaws, and thus he made known through Chester Granger, who betrayed you, your crimes. **You were sentenced to be hanged for the murder of Soule Ravelle, but escaping, you took to piracy, capturd Bradford Carr, and made the world believe he had become in reality a Pirate re while you had him in irons below your decks, ‘‘ Again he was rescued, and you were taken, and you had laid a deep plan of deviltry to, in disguise, get my father, whose vice of gambling you well knew, into your power, force him thereby to urge your suit with my sister, she believing you to be the French gentleman of wealth you passed off as, and in the end destroy all of my name. ‘* But the gallant Sea Fox thwarted you, and you were again doomed, when lo! I find you at sea in that craft, and your outlaw wife with you, and whose devotion to you should turn you from your crimes, ‘Picking me up at sea, you intended to kill me, and also wreak your vengeance on those on this yacht; but the biter was bitten, and you are in irons, ‘**Now, Barton Keys, I am your judge, jury and executioner. ‘“*T have reviewed your crimes, and I pro- nounce your sentence, which is, that you die within five minutes, strung up by yonder rope which has been rigged for you. ‘** Woods, hand me the noose,” The negro mate addressed gave into the mid- shipman’s hand the noose-end of the rope. * Woods, stand there with the slack, you and four of your men, and stand by to haul when i give the order!” The silence of death now fell upon all, and Barton Keys was as livid and hard-faced as though life had already left his body. Stepping toward him, the midshipman, also deadly pale, but firm as a rock, placed the noose Over his head and adjusted the slip-knot, Then he pinioned the manacled arms and led) the pirate to the spot beneath the block through which the rope ran. Barton Keys was firm, and there seemed to rest in his eyes a hope that the youth’s act’ was to frighten him, and that he would not dare to hang him. But as he stepped from him, the pirate called ut: ‘“‘ Colonel Brandt, will you see your son com- mit murder?” ‘* My son, sir, is an officer of the navy, and he knows his own business best!” was the cold response of the planter. hen the pirate turned to the tutor, and cried: ‘*Mr, Carr, you should know, sir, that if Irving Brandt is allowed to hang me, he will get himself into trouble.” ‘*Midshipman Brandt is no longer under my tuition, sir; it is a case where the boy is father to the man, Mr. Keys, and I will not interfere,” answered Bradford Carr. In despair the pirate chief turned to Middy Nat Manly with: ** You, sir, as an officer of the navy, should speak up against this outrage.” ‘**T am not in command, sir.” “But that boy has just Jately been made a midshipman, and you rank him. | tls sss **T may rank him, yes; but his acts have proven him my superior, and V’ll obey him as I would the commodore,” was the frank response of the handsome young midd ‘** But you are aware that | and sentenced yet.” ** You should have been, and I guess Midship- man Brandt will see that the Government has no further trouble on that score.” Irving Brandt smiled grimly as the Sea Ghoul again turned to him and then said: ‘* You see, M bility; but your five minutes are up, so if you dare to ask mercy of Heaven, you had better do te not been tried “Oh, God! there is no hope for me?’ gasped the man, with terror in his face. ‘* There is the hope of revenge, my husband !” All started at the hoarse voice, and beheld the Smuggler Queen standing in the compan- ionway of the cabin, and gazing upon the scene, Her hair had fallen down from its fastenings her eyes glared like a hyena’s at bay, an there was no more color in her face than in marble. She looked like a tigress about to spring upon a foe, yet held herself back. At sight of her all started, while Barton Keys cried, in a quivering voice: "Boy, beware, for that woman will avenge me, **So be it; I accept all aby leeryreie ** Ready there, lads!” and he addressed Woods and his four black comrades, ‘* Ay, ay, massa,” they answered in chorus, ‘* Barton Keys, farewell, and may God have mercy on your crime-stained soul,” said the midshipman, in impressive tones. Then he added in a voice that rung like a bugle: “Ready there! all together! up with the Ghoul of the Gulf!” A cry was checked on the lips of the doomed man by the tightening of the rope about his neck, and Barton Keys was drawn struggling and dying into the air. ** Make fast, Woods, and leave him there to die!” was the stern order, while a shriek forced itself through the shut lips of the Smuggler ueen, and she sunk back into the arms of the ola negress, who, once her father’s slave, had been her nurse from infancy. ** @uick, place her on that divan and we will revive her again; but it would be a mercy to her if she died now,” sadly said Maud, her eyes full of tears. / ‘““*Twould so, missy, twould so, fer she loved him mighty heap, an’if she lib, and I guesses she will, fer she am mighty hard ter kill, she will hab de life of dat young gemmans what kill de pirate massa, ** So she will, missy, so she will,” added the old negress, and at her words Maud shuddered. ut just then Irving came for her, and said that he would take the Smuggler Queen and Chester Granger, her lieutenant, with him, tak- ing his black crew, while the other vessel would return to New Orleans with the smuggler sea- men, under charge of Bradford Carr and Nat Manly. and that she and his father would ac- company them, Maud made no reply, for she had seen her brother, younger though he was than herself rehome into a man of desperate courage and iron resolve, and where others yielded to him, she could but obey. Before she left the cabin, however, Irving had the dead body of the prairie chief cut down and cast into the sea, that Maud’s eyes might not behold it, and after farewells, the two ves- r. Keys, I take all the responsi- * sels swung apart end set sail, the one for New Orleans, the other for Mobile, where the young midshipman went to execute the official duties which he had been on his way to perform when wrecked in the Vulture upon the Witch’s’ Island, CHAPTER XTX, THE GIANT BUCCANEER’S RED WORK. WE left the Giant Buccaneer going up the ravine toward the prison caves of the three pi- rate officers, who were waiting with intense anxiety to know what their fate would be. In the ravine the Witch of the Island was watching the buccaneer seamen at the work which she had set them to do, and on board the schooner Perdido was somewhat nervous at the position in which he had been left. Thus matters stood when the Giant Bucca- neer, so suddenly como into power, wended his way to carry out his muttered threat, and with no one to interfere with his design. Arriving at the first cave he found the two bloodhounds on guard there. “Well, senor, it has been decided what doom is to be,” he said, quietly. ‘And what is it?’ eagerly asked the bucca- neer officer. , ‘* Come!” was the only reply, and the outlaw followed the giant, the two canines keeping at his heels, To the second cave he then went, and the next outlaw was bade to follow. Then the third, who was the captain, and he asked: your Gomicboo C S