Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 485 — page 3: what you’re looking at

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

al f ; . * > « i A i — 7 > : " t 3 Rowlock, the Harbor Detective. ST NT ‘Tracked at last, and by Vasco liurtez and his crew!” exclaimed Inez, in an appalled tone, ‘‘ Now Heaven be with me!” CHAPTER II. INEZ DELORME, THE boats had perceived each other at the same instant. | There was a chorus of exultant yells from the larger craft—such as might have been suddenly unmasked upon a trembling and defenseless mer- chant man from an old-time cut-throat cruiser of the Spanish Main, with the ominous black flag unexpectedly flung from her peak. Then the commander, Vasco Martez, the graceful and slender young man whom the reader has already had a glimpse of, sprung erect in the stern, a glistening revolver in his right hand. ‘* Hold hard to grapple ’em!’’ he shouted. ‘“‘ If the young lady is surrendered unresistingly, no violence shall be offered.” Save calling out a few words in alow, dis- tinct tone to Mingo, the detective had as yet said nothing, but was sitting calmly with both rudder and sail under his perfect control. ‘*Crouch a little lower under the gunwale, and fear nothing,” he now muttered reassuring- ly to the trembling Inez, who mutely oheyed. ‘¢ Our coat is of steel, and theirs of wood. There is nothing whatever to fear, as you shall pres- ently see,” At this instant the Scud was sheered off slantingly, as if by magic, just as the enemy came broadside-on, less than a yard distant, and with every desperado springing to his feet, pre- paring to lay aboard. ‘‘ Now, Mingo!” called out Ensco, the words quitting his lips like pistol-shots. *‘ Now!” Instantly the gigantic negro was on his feet, armed with an enormous belaying pin, from whose square-blunted end a short, keen knife- blade protruded. He was like an incarnate fiend. With one lightning-like sweep of the huge pin and knife, the crowded line of ruffians along the hostile gunwale were sent tumbling down like a row of bricks. A second, up-and-down stroke split the great sail, from gaff to spanker-boom, as it flopped over in the heel of the wave, and then the Night Hawk, as the eigen tl craft was fitly named, went drifting elplessly astern, without a single grapuel having caught. . ‘“ Steady!” called out the Harbor Detective’s collected voice. ‘* That will do for the present, Mingo. Now, again!” The Seud, obedient to the rudder as a swift courser to the master-hand, had tacked as if by magic, and now, poised like an avenging bird on the summit of a huge wave, was hovering, prow-on, over the helpless Night Hawk, while the boom sung easily around to catch the full- ness on ber quarter. Vasco Martez, white with baffled fury, leveled his revolver at the detective’s breast. ‘‘ Everlasting Marplot! Hound of a detect- ive!” he snarled; ‘*‘ my mother’s, no less than my own and my brother’s, wrongs upon your ac- cursed head! Die in your tracks!’ The unsteady weapon missed fire, and there ‘was no chance for a second essay. At that instané the Scud shot forward and down like a bolt, her steel prow cutting through the Night Hawk directly amidships, and then recoiling from the shock, went on with scarcely a moment’s pause. ‘* Hnsco, beware!” yelled Vasco Martez, a moment or two later, from his clinging hold upon a fragment of the wreck, ‘“‘ Juan has ere this seized the treasure chest, Inez shall yet be mine, and the witch-faced serpent of your ac- cursed emblem shall yet triumph in the strife.” The detective might have been of marble, for all of response by word or sign, and the wreck- ge was soon left far behind. - Inez bad buried her face in her hands, ‘* Weep not, lady!” said Rowlock, with inde- scribable gentleness, ‘* Your danger is a thing of the past.” She raised her face, unvailed now, showing that it was agitated, but tearless. ‘“"Tt is not the danger—that is over and done for us,” she murmured, ‘* But ah! those strug- gling wretches in the water!” ‘They'll be picked up, never fear—more’s the pity!” in a hard, contemptuous tone, ‘‘ But then my Cousin Vasco's parting threat! Oh! if the treasure should be gone—if some- thing dreadful should haye happened on the Seamew !” And she shuddered again, while her great eyes questioned him eagerly. pacraingi” ‘¢ A pitiful coward’s boastful prediction, In which the hope was father to the words—noth- ing more! Give it not another thought!” | Phen, seeing that she was somewhat relieved, his own face was expressive of eagerness, pain- fully expressed. . “Our fates seem to be closely associated, through our common foes,” said he, guardedly— ** more closely than I could have su 3g, ‘So it would seem, Ah! that mysterious al- -_Iusion to the tattooed emblem on your arm! What can it mean?” : . e ‘. . _ . : ¢" = my 4 ° ; 4 1. ~ a | , « | grandfather as lon ‘‘-You shall some time have its solution—that is, should you desire it.” ** Desire it)” ‘‘ But ”—a little timidly—‘‘ might not your own history be more to the point, in view of present complications?” She looked at him hesitatingly. ‘‘My grandfather has perfect confidence in you. Hehastold meso. Has he not been ex- plicit in bis explanations to you?” ‘‘No. Captain Marston has thus far given me but a faint outline of the perils that threaten you. Perhaps he opined that his granddaughter would be more—more trustful.” She had been gravely studying his features in the moonlight. ‘‘You can be velvet or steel, scabbard or blade, at. need,” she murmured, half to herself. ‘‘ After what has happened to-night, I feel that I can trust you.” ‘*T am sure you can,” They were just entering the Narrows, though laboriously against a strong head-wind, the gale having shifted several points, and the short, thumping seas running yet more vexatiously, The moon and stars were yet more chary of their uncertain light, though far away in the East the increased somberness was but premoni- tory of a new day’s dawn. It was under these circumstances, and quite suddenly, without further persuasion, as though under an impulse she refused to restrain, that Inez began to recount her brief but eventful history. ‘“Captain Marston, as you doubtless know, is my grandfather on my mother’s side. Whether I am an orphan or not I donot know. I have an indistinct recollection of my father and mother. But all is confused, and they somehow faded out of my life. If they are dead, I know nothing of their graves; if still living, their whereabouts is no less a mystery—that is to me, On this subject alone, a subject that is naturally vital to me, my grandfather, though in every- thing else so kind, so tender, so more than in- dulgent, has ever been morosely, inexorably silent. You know his iron mood when once crystallized into permanency. To say that all mention of the topic, so dear to my heart, so haunting to my soul, has been interdicted is not enough, Between my grandfather and me, it has been as though entombed, or, rather, as un- born apd non-existent. I have lived with m as I can remember. He has been all in all to me, As tbe old pilot’s eranddaughter, I have been his petted treasure, my every caprice gratified, my slightest wish his law. Perhaps it is well for both himand me that my nature is not an exacting one, Other- wise, I might have been spoiled and he rendered unhappy by my way wardness.,” She smiled a little sadly, and then, perceiving the rapt earnestness of ber auditor’s attention, ee a little and proceeded more hurried- “Those earlier years of mine with my good old grandfather were of unalloyed happiness though spent in comparative seclusion in his old ellow mansion and grounds on the breezy river- ank, near the foot of Kast Kighty-sixth street, ut stig locality you are perhaps acquainted with. Ensco bowed his head, ‘‘ With himself, old Mrs. Twiggs, his house- keeper, and the few servants, I was as happy and care-free as the day was long. Whether out on the river fishing with grandpapa, the companion of his cruises in the Seamew, skurry- ing away over the new-made streets and old lanes on my Mexican pony, devising. home- sports with my few playmates of the neighbor. hood (in which grandpapa likewise seldom failed to participate,) or in practising my stud- ies under my visiting governess or under m various tutors, he also being mostly present, it was a gay and sweet life, that life of my early girlhood, such as I may never know again, Then "—shée sighed deeply—‘* my second cousins, the twins, Juan and Vasco Martez, became members of our household, and there was a change—such a change!” ‘“When was that?’ Ensco questioned eagerly, as she came to a troubled pause. ‘* Pardon my impulsiveness, but the time may be of impor- tance tome. About how old were you then?” ‘‘Hight or nine, I should say; and lam now nineteen.” ‘Sot And the particulars of their arrival— would you object to stating some of them?” ‘** Not at all.’ ‘““They arrived from—? ‘‘ from somewhere in Mexico or Honduras, I am uncertain which,” ‘‘- You will excuse the apparent importunity of my interrogations?” ‘* Pray, proceed.” ‘‘How are you related to those young men?” ‘‘They are the sons of a niece of my grand- father’s, the daughter of a wayward sister of is, so I have understood, by a Spanish mar- riage, She had married General Martez, a Mexican revolutionist of some distinction, I be- lieve, J uan and Vasco being the fruit of the union, ; A look of hatred flashed over the detective’s ace, yon: “ aad — . Ss rc — — —_——_<— —_- awww eee ‘She, their mother—you have never met, then?” ‘Thank Heaven, no! at least, not to my knowledge.” ‘‘ And yet to-night you have alluded to her by name—the Senora Zarapatta Martez, surnamed the White Sibyl of Morona,” $ Inez gave a little shiver. ‘That terrible woman! yes, by reputation she is known to me.” ‘‘The twins, how old were they on their ar- rival at your grandfather’s?” ‘‘ About sixteen—almost double my own age at that time, [ should pe 6 ‘‘ Yet they came not alone?” ‘‘No. They were accompanied by a tall and graceful woman, whom I took to be a nurse or trusted dependent. Her face was almost con- stantly concealed, like that of a nun, with white wrappings, as though she might be a sufferer from neuralgia, and my grandfather seemed to dislike her, almost to abhorrence.” ‘‘ Aha! and doubtless with reason, What do you recollect of her?” ‘‘ But little, for she was with us only two days, and seemed to avoid me, But 1 overheard ber and my grandfather in several stormy inter- views. They were mostly carried on in the Spanish tongue, with which I was not then tert od But sometimes they spoke in Eng- ish, ‘‘Rnough to give you an inkling of their dis bs Yes 7? ‘* And that was—?” ** The gets oo of a treasure chest of superb gems, which the woman and boys had brought with them, and given into Captain Marston’s eare. It was the same that has caused all the trouble since—that he is even now so anxious to carry out of their reach in the Seamew,” ‘“ Ah! and this treasure?” ‘‘Tt consisted of priceless state and other jewels, and had been sent for safe-keeping to aptain Marston by General Martez, as the chief proceeds of some partly successful Central Americhn revolution in which he was then engaged,” ‘* Well?” 7 ‘Dona Anita, as the strange woman called herself, wanted my grandfather to convert the jewels into cash witbout delay, for the benefit of | the twinsand herself, as their guardian, This he steadfastly refused to do, claiming that to do so would be to betray the trust reposed in him by General Martez, of whom he seemed to have a high opinion. Hence the disputes—for he had secured the treasure beyond the woman’s reach directly upon receiving it. Dona Anita at last took herself off very abruptly, leaving the lads with us.” | 7; - at you never saw the strange woman’s ace } . ) ‘‘ But once—by the merest accident—and that was once too often. Oh, it was terrible!” — ‘*In what way?’ ‘Oh, it was so beautiful and yet so ye like, and with the expression of a fiend! She was fresh from one of those baffling interviews with my grandfather, and her lineaments, from which she bad inadvertently torn the cover et i were distorted with such evil passions as I h not deemed could find a lodgment in the human breast, Ah! the face of a demoness—a tigress —a serpent! It haunts me yet.” Inez shuddered, and bowed her face in her hands. When she looked up, Rowlock had again bared his tattooed arm to her gaze. ‘Was it a countenance resembling this?” And he indicated the woman-face of the serpent in the emblem, | Inez gazed with starting eyes, | ‘Yes, yes! Heavens! why did I not connect the two before? The same, the same!” The detective replaced the sleeve. | ‘*Child, it was no nurse-woman’s face that was revealed to you,” he exclaimed, in a deep, impressive voice. | quaintance of the fiend-mother of the demon twins. Martez were one and the same!” ‘‘Ha! are you sure?” ‘¢ Perfectly sure.” “What! I[ have really looked, then, in the face of that terrible woman—that beautiful monster?’ ‘‘Truly; and well may you designate her a monster. Do you know what she did after leav- ing her precious twins in Captain Marston’s care?” ‘*T know nothing.” | ‘‘ She hurried back to Honduras, secretly sold her own husband, the unfortunate Gen Mar- tez, into the hands of his enemies for a round sum, and he was executed the next day at sun- rise in Comayagua.” ‘** Oh, shame, horror!” 4 ‘But the unvarnished truth. Since that in- famy, as the White Sibyl of Morona, she has mostly lived like a sorceress-queen in her moun- tain retreat of the Cordilleras, loathed but dreaded, on the proceeds of her treachery, her sole remaining d g desires, to repossess herself of the jeweled treasure, through the villainous agency of her sons, to get you in her clutches as the COMICDOOKS ‘You then made the ac- Dona Anita and the Senora Zarapatta | , . ale _ 7 + .