Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 393 — page 19: what you’re looking at

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

- * They were the count, Queen and Lieutenant Harvey, as the reader will remember, Though watching his vessel closely, putting about at will, and keeping an eye upon the shore, Congo did not neglect the coming storm. He saw that it threatened to be a very severe one, and knew that he must seek shelter as soon as night came on. He could run into the island anchorage he well knew, blow as it might, or dash the sea as it would; but he intended to get in before the storm struck him, to make sure of it. Assoon, therefore, as darkness began to gather, and he know his movements could not be seen from the shore, the Black Skipper slipped out of the cabin, reefed the mainsail and fore-staysail down close, and stripped the little schooner of all other canvas. He made all shipshape on board, and then headed for the Haunted Island, at the pojnt where he knew he could enter the outer reef barriers, But he saw that he would be unable to reach the island ahead of the storm, and fearing that some coast pilot, having secn him, might be coming to his succor, he determined to frighten him off, So he got out some blue lights to burn, and rigged himself out in his full outfit to represent the devil. ‘‘T guess if any pilot has started, he'll put back again,” he said, in his grim way, as he took his stand at the helm, arranged his demon- like wings and prepared to burn a blue light. Soon the first breath of the storm struck him, and the schooner met it nobly, darting along before the gale in superb style. Then came the rush of the tempest in its strength and viciousness, and seeing that the acht would ride it out, Congo set afire his lue light and headed directly for the shore. The yacht drove in at a furious rate, buried in the waves at times, the spray dashing to her peak, and the huge torrents of water threaten- ing to ingulf her. But Congo saw with delight that she was as stiff as a seventy-four-gun ship, and he held on, the lightning directing him how to.steer. He had rigged with blocks and ropes a way of managing the fore-staysail from where he stood, and he had also made it easier for him to haul in the mainsheet, when it would be neces- sary for him to port bis helm and run with the wind abeam, after he had entered the reef chains about the Haunted Island. As he anproached the Purgatory Gate, as the reef-break was called, he berned: another blue light, saw his surroundings perfectly, and look- ing, in that mad caldron of waters, the vivid flashes of lightning, the glare of the blue light, and his diabolical costume, like Satan himself at the helm, he dashed into t/1e opening between the rocks. Once through the outer one he brought his bows around half a dozen points, and headed through the next opening in tha second reef, Through this he went like a flash, and, when those watching from the cliff saw him dart out of sight behind the tops of the pines that fring- ed the island, he suddenly hauled in his staysail and mainsheet, and porting his helm, by using his knees only, be shot along perallel with the island, the vessel lying over frightfully under the tremendous pressure of the wind. Well he knew his danger—that loss of nerve, the snapping of a rope, the breaking of the tiller, would cause his doom. But perfectly calm, running between the reefs and the island shore, he held on his way. The further end of the island wes hich and rocky, the cliff steep as a wall, and the summits fringed with pines. Toward, this mass which looked, in the glare of the lightning, like some huge stone castle, the Black Skipper headed. As he drew near he suddenly let his main- sail come down on the run; but under pressure alone of the staysail the yacht shot on with reg ae rt S he came, SO it seemed, almost upon th rocks, the staysail also came down on the Thay and the next moment the schooner sped under the lee of a huge rocky pile that towered above her decks. But on, with the impetus it had, she moved directly against the castle-like pile; but there came no shivering of the bowsprit, no shatter- ing of the sharp bows, and crashing of timbers, as the yacht glided into a chasm between the rocks, and into waters as calm as a mill-pond. CHAPTER XXVIIL. THE MAD HERMIT. WHttk the yacht, with its Black Skipper on board, steering from within the cabin com- rece ty was standing off and on before the Taunted sland, a strange being robed in white stood upon a rock, and gazed out over the waters. A man of great size, broad of shoulder, pow- erful of limb, he stood erect, and folded his arms upon his breast, while about him was a snow-white mantle, His hair was long, and snowy white, and _ his -benrd reached to his waistand was very gray. “Yet he seemed not to have turned gray from The Convict . wv — jays Captain. | age, as his complexion and bearing were youth- ful, and hardly could have lived two-score of Upon his head he wore a white worsted cap, | and altogether, with his livid face, and shroud- | like mantle he might well be taken for a specter from the grave even under the light of day, were one at all given to superstition that hap- pened to see him. i Upgn his feet he wore sandals, and they were strapped over each bare foot, and the bands carried up the leg to the knee. He wore a pair of white duck pants, a sash of red about his waist, and in it were a long knife and a pair of pistols. His body was naked, and upon it, were a eeaeet of sketches in blue, black, red and green ink. They were excellently well executed, and represented ships, rural scenes, a cottage, an archer, crossed swords, lettering in a strange tongue and death’s heads and cross-bones. Then there was a pretty scene drawn directly over his heart of a grave beneath a pine tree, and upon one arm were dates, she noms, from the wrist up to within an inch of the shoulder. The dates ran back just thirty years. The eyes of the man were intensely black, in strange contrast to his pale face and snowy hair and beard. They gleamed with an unnatural light, and they. were fastened upon the yacht of the Black mKIpper, ‘* It is sailed by a Heavenly Power. ‘No human hand guides its destinies, and hence it comes for me. ‘* Tt will run in after ss pate and I will go on board and see whither it takes me. ‘‘A good angel will be the eo pe and an angel crew w.ll do his bidding, and I will go far from here and sail over pleasant waters, ‘*Oh, how long have | been here? ‘I keep the reckoning year after year, and I wonder that I have had to suffer so, to live all alone here on this island. ‘But I dared not go among my fellow-men; I dared not have them come here, and so I have lived on, alone, wretched, homeless, forsaken. ‘*T recall that fearful night of storm that brought us here, ‘*T recall how I came in the brave ship with my beautiful bride, leaving the shores of old England to find a home in great America. ‘*T loved her, dared to love her though she was a noble lady, rich and beautiful, and I but a subaltern in her father’s brigade. ‘* Ah, me! he said it was a crime for me to love his daughter, and charges were trumped up against me and I was dismissed from the service ; but she believed them not and she fled with me to a little retreat, far away, and there we lived in happiness for years. ‘*There our little child was born, and ah! we were so happy until that fateful night when our child was stolen from us, ‘It nearly broke my darling’s heart, and it hurt my brain; but we could not find our little pa and so we dared not live there and suffer. ‘*So we started for the New World, to seck a new home, ‘‘Ah! I shudder as I[ think of that night of storm five years ago, when our good ship went down one league from here, foundering beneath the cruel waters. ‘‘T saw many sink from sight; but I seized my lovee wife in my arms, and I reached this shore. ‘* How, I know not; but I dragged her from the merciless waters, and staggering to this very spot [ sunk down here unconscious. ‘* When I awoke to consciousness, my wife lay there cn that spot, ‘* Here rested her head,’ and he dropped upon his knees and placed his hand upon the rock. ‘* But she was dead, and I, alas! lived / ‘‘T buried her over yonder among the pines, and I expected soon to die, so 1 dug my grave by the side of hers. ‘*T dared not leave her; I dared not have peo- ple come here to rob me of her dead body, and so I have lived here these five long years. ‘‘The wreck sent me many bodies ashore, and boxes of provisions, and I have a snug cot over there by my darling’s grave. ‘“‘ But I have plenty of fish and birds to eat, and I need nothing else, for I am little more than a wild beast. ** No, not a be»st, for were I, never could I enter the Heavenly Kingdom. ‘* No—no, I am human, and because T have suffered, the yacht is sent for me that I may sail up among the clouds to find my darling. ‘‘ Ho! angel skipper ahoy! ‘‘Come in through the two breaks in the reef, for there is good water there, and I will join you at the shcre yonder,” And he pointed to where there was a sandy beach, some distance from where he stood. As though he believed he had been heard on board the vacht, the poor maniac turned and walked back into the interior of the island. It was a rugged place, seamed with vales, with a forbidding coast all around it, and al- most entirely encircled by reefs and dangerous rocks or small rocky islets, rr , the two words: } oe > a known as the Big and Little Sentinels, which: the reader already knows of. These two guarded the entrance to the island— dotted bay, on the shores of which stood Castle: Cloudland. To the nearest isle from the one which the» Mad Hermit dweJt on was a quarter of a mile,. it being Big Sentinel. Then there were others here and there in the: large bay; but these were not dreaded by the coasters, while the Haunted Island was an ob- ject of mortal terror. Men of too sound sense, and too worthy of belief, had seen a white-robed specter cn the: island, to have the fact doubted. Lights had been seen flashing among the trees: at night, and flying along as though borne by a peg wind, even when there was a dead calm. Strange cries had been heard, mocking laugh-- ter, cries for help, curses and prayers, and not a. | man dwelling on the coast was there who would. | go nearer the Haunted Island by day than he | was absolutely compelied to do in putting out to: sea and back again. There were to the southward two islands., | The island was a large one, containing some> thirty acres, and it was thickly wooded, while: at one end it rose abruptly in a pile of rocks fully sixty feet, and there were scrub pines upon. the bare summit of these rocks, twisted and. gnarled by the winds, that gave it the appear-- ance of being even higher. When he left his point of lookout, the Mad Hermit had wandered to a vale and stood gazing” upon a strange scene that met his eyes, though to him it was not strange, for he saw it daily. It was a number of graves, some thirty in a. row, and at one end was a cross of wood, rudely hewn out of logs. At the other end of the row was an opem grave, and by this the Mad Hermit halted. It was not newly dug, for it was water and weather worn into a mere pit; but down in it, - half-buried in the dirt that had washed in, wae the skull of a human being. It was as though the poor creature had beer sitting up in the grave, and there had died; but. the dirt half-fillmg the grave had reached as: high as the grinning teeth of the skull. ‘ Fools think this island is haunted. ~ ‘“That poor devil has never haunted me, for: he is now as he was when | came here, only the dirt is gradually covering him up. ‘*Nor have his comrades haunted me. ‘‘T am the only ghost that walks here, and I am glad to frighten superstitious fools.” So saying, the Mad Hermit walked on to the: § Rudely cut into the arms were thirty names, with the dates of death of each, and it was a remarkable fact that all had died within two wal weeks’ time. ASS The thirtieth name had no date, thoughithad the words: ** Die*—God knows when: but m | and I will craw! into it to die, when live,” grave is dug,. know I cannot. ty This tells the sad story of the open grave and ails the skeleton form seated in the bottom of it. DW Then there were the lines, cut into the wood: ‘* Victims of a plague that broke out upon the ship» Goodluck, out of London, bound for New York. ‘* Put ashore here by or fellow-beings to die, with only sucb help as tue sick can give the dying. “ee God’s curse upon man’s inhumanity to man!” ae | So did the rude cross tell the story of the vic-- =r of an epidemic, left by their shipmates to» ie. For the thousandth time did the Mad Hermit: read the inscription, and then sung in his deep» voice, that seemed almost like a growl: ; Yes, I too have felt man’s inhumanity tov PY. man. es i 5 we Leaving the dreary spot, the warrior walked on until he reached a clump of pines upon the: oan inner side of the island. | From among them he peeped forth, and his: eyes fell upon Castle Cloudland. : ey ‘Grand, happy home! Oh! thatI could have _ a built for my carling such a home in this great» — New World! ‘“*There dwells within yon walls a beantiful being, and I have hidden from her sight, when she, braver than man, has sailed near this: island, for I cared not to alarm her with sight of 'me, a madman and a Hermit. , sh ‘‘ No, no; she reminds me of my lost darling, | . and [ will never harm her, though I do feel /, — cruel toward my fellow-man. - oa ‘‘ Ab! that storm is coming up, and it will rain. mF must hurry away and visit my darling’s ve. With the speed of a deer he fled through the woods until he came to a spot which was the original of the drawing over his heart. Ae Unon a head-board, skillfully carved, were> adi ““My Darina.” Ng Back from the grave, upon a little fEnoll, and completely sheltered by spruce trees and bushes,, | was a log hut some ten feet square. A’ bunk was in it, that was all, excepting’ Scom IOO GOME