Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 485 — page 6: what you’re looking at

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

Ei _ stern gesture, and 6 murder-stained villain”—she indicated Juan— ‘had not offered me such an indignity!” And she sunk back scornfully in her seat, Juan, who had begun to smile maliciously at his brother’s rebuff, grew black, though Vasco’s good-nature was undisturbed. ‘Ha, ha, ha!’ laughed the latter. ‘* Carajo! but there’s pith in that shapely arm of thine, cousin mine. God forbid that its fury, though, should outlast our nuptials!” Inez maintained a disdainful silence, ‘‘Tt may be well for you to laugh!” snarled Juan. sigznaled her situation to the enemy. I give you fair warning, if she yells out, mv dagger shall stop her throttle, cousin or no cousin, bride or no bride!” And he altered the boat’s course a point or two, so as to hug yet closer the dangerous swirl of the Gate while making for the west current between Ward’s Island and the city shores, Inez smiled at the superfluousness of the warn- ing. Little need of a signal by scream or otherwise, since it was evident that the first had been so well understood. Even at that instant a small rocket shot up from tho pursuing craft. Then, for all of her single rower, the steadfast red Jight in her or which was pretty much all that could be distinctly seen of her, seemed to be slowly enlarging. CHAPTER VI. THE OVER HELL GATE RACE, JUAN was as quick to mark the change as Inez, With one of his favorite imprecations he brought a night-glass to bear on the pursuer. ‘She has actually hoisted a sail!” he growled, after an ominous pause. ‘* That explains it. Diablo! who’d have suspected it in such a cockle-shell?” He quietly put up the glass, and began to ex- amine his revolver, for he could be cool and deadly enough on occasion, Vasco followed his example, his white, even teeth glistening between his smiling lips in the — of the remaining lantern, an ordinary un- coloreac one. In fact, sharply Secgelgem es Tha. a sullen moodi- ness of the elder twin, the villainy of this young man was invariably tempered by a dare-devil gayety that would not have been without its charm in one of a less notorious and incorrigible viciousness. I have it bred in the bone,” said ‘Tsu he, lightly, ‘“‘for my progenitors were no less sailors than soldiers. At all events, be it for life or for death, let me grapple with fate on the running wave!” And he broke intoa bright barcarolo in a rich tenor voice. Juan nodded approvingly. *T, too!” said he, throwing off his jacket, and baring his sinewy arm to the elbow, while his strong hand opeued and shut caressingly on his glistening revolver’s stock. ‘‘ The treach- erous sea-water for a fighting ground, and. every- thing equal! I ask for nothing better.” But bere there were unmistakable murmurs from the ‘‘crew,” which had before this mani- fested some discontent; for it was now the crit- ical tidal moment at the Gate, causing the boat - to pitch about dangerously in the boiling waters; while, to make matters worse, she had just un- _ dergone a huge “ wash” from one of the Astoria ferry-boats, which, with its tall rows of gleam- ing cabin lights had swept by within near hail on its way to the Ninety-second street dock, ‘* Be the powers, thin, it isn’t meself as agrees wid aither av ye!” dissented the stroke-var, a beetle-browed, bull-necked professional river- thief of immense proportions. | “Oho!” sneered Juan, contemptuously, witb a significant flick of his revolver; ‘‘and who asked your opinion, Mike?” ** Waix, but it’s meself—” You'll keep it to yourself till asked for, or the worse for you!” This with a yet more mer- acing air. The ruffian was temporarily cowed, but this did not prevent the oarsman next in line, who was quite as dangerous-looking, from taking up the cue. ‘* Well, for my part,” he drawled out, ‘‘ Id much sooner be rifling an Indiaman’s lockers, or even robbiug a new wharf-cargo, watchman or no watchman, at the moment, than be in this snap, if it’s that water-devil, Rowlock Ensco, in yonder ghost-boat that’s after us. And you two young gentlemen might as well know it first as last!” Juan had vainly essayed to quiet him with a then a quietly murderous look had settled upon his dark face. Vasco touched his arm asif to enjoin him to patience. Then his own voice was no longer laughing, but fairly trumpet-like he called out to the - bow-oar: . ‘‘ Jago! be ready to put a bullet into Red Pete’s neck at the first sign from me. As for you, Big Mike, bear in mind that you’re doubly igi covered when disposed to fire off that flannel- a of yours again. You ought to know us ‘¢But none the less has the girl’s action. Rowlock, the Harbor Detective. The growing mutiny was thus summarily squelched, though Juan thought if necessary to make a little quiet speech in thieves’ latin, with still further effect upon the two grumblers, while Vasco, laughing afresh, gave another snatch of song, that seemed to complete the restoration of harmony, so far as it could be said to exist among such diverse ruffianly elements. In the mean time the first of the dreaded tide- pots of the Gate had been crossed, with two more to come, so closely were they hugging in to the Ward’s Island rocks, perbaps in the hope of luring their small pursuer to her destruction, while the red light was slowly and surely gain- ing in the chase. ut, in spite of this apparently desperate look of affairs, Vasco threw himself ina careless at- titude at the fair captive’s side, and endeavored to engage her in a bantering chat. ‘*Confess now, cousin, how you are longing to be rescued by that devil of a detective back yonder,” he laughed, pitchirg his voice in a soft, musical key, that recalled his comparatively in- nocent boyhood to her. ‘“‘ Confess it, though little good it may do you, my dear. Ah! Chiquita mio, our wharf-rat refuge is not far away. Your detective cannot overhaul us, or he will be killed in the attempt. So, come now, and chat with me merrily, as you used to do when we twins were but seventeen and you not ten. Do you remember the banana-bird song of mine that you used to like?’ And he began to trill it again,a wild and weird little thing, full of tropical conceits and summer sea melody, lke an echo of the past. Notwithstanding her anxieties and resent- ments, Nessie could not help viewing the young desperado as a sort of enigma. In the old days, when the familiarity of child- hood had swiftly arisen between her and these strange cousins of hers—the handsome but mis- chievous and devil may-care boy-twins from the Spanish Main, Vasco had always been her fav- orite, he was so jovial, so ready-witted, so brave and so good-naturedly selfish, in contrast with the brooding somberness of Juan, that grave alter ego of his, in body as in disposition, save for that tiny red arrow of the sinister cheek. There was nothing he would not do la chiquita sobrina Inez (the little cousin Inez,) so he called her, and she even remembered some girlish tears over his incorrigibleness at the time of his flight with Juan before the righteous wrath of her grandfather. And now to what extremities of wickedness had he descended! She shuddered as she saw him stretched so carelessly there at her feet, at like a bird, so handsome, so graceful] in his half-Mexican costume, and doubtless a3 lost and as blood- stained as the sterner Juan himself, though per- haps not with the actual murder of her grand- father and his two followers, She had read of the wild deeds of the Bucca- neers, the Marooners, and their Corsair succes- sors of the tropic seas, ana the young men strongly suggested such a criminal yet romantic ancestry to her at the present moment in a way that she did not care to dwell sg aes for the reason that there was more or less fascina- tion in the idea, ‘*T wish you wouldn’t sing, sir!” said she at last. ‘* It isn’t—becoming,” Vasco stopped instantly. ‘*Of old you did not dislike my singing,” he softly protested. ‘*Of old, you were not what you are,” she re- torted. A look that was not good to see flashed over his face. ‘‘ Bueno! but might you not overlook that ig the detective had not come into your e A disdainful movement was the only an- swer. He seized her hand. ‘* Inez, you are to be mine, my bride forever?’ he exclaimed, with sudden fierceness. ‘* Strive not against the inevitable! I have sworn it. It is also my mother’s will— Ah! does her mere name make you tremble, then?—it is likewise the will of Fate. Child!” Crimson with indignation, she was struggling ineffectually to release ber hand. ‘*It must, it shall be so!” he continued, fierce- ly. ‘‘ Inez, you are mine! Essay not to oppose the inevitable. Family considerations, the dis- eae of the jewel-treasure, my cwn and my rother’s security, a hundred complications im- peratively demand it. You cannot, you shall not escape! All this apart from my love, my ssion for you, chiquita querida! It has indled and mounted throughout the lonely years until it has become a fiery madness in my soul. Inez—Nessie! peerless, beautiful, adored! in accepting, even perforce, this heart, this hand—” ‘‘ Away!” she had succeeded at last in fling- ing him back; her voice was hoarse with terror and disgust; ‘‘the one is black with iniquity, the other stained with tlood—the blood of my grandfather, to whose murder, wretch, you were at least accessory’ Vasco’s laugh was his retort, but with no gay- ety now—a terrible laugh! His face had become as a fiend’s—a face suge ' points! gesting his mother’s, and consequently the woman-faced emblem of the emblen in tattoo. Inez was almost beside herself with nameless w.” htig + Spcoggen: ut they were passing through the second tide-swirl of Hell Gate, and at that instant, be a sharp jar, the boat grated on a sunken rock, Vasco sprung to the neglected tiller, while Juan was on his feet like a flash. ‘* Back water!” he roared. ‘‘ Ease her off two Curse your mooning folly, Vasco! that was your fault. Ease her off, I say!” ‘** No use, senors!” growled Jago, shipping his sculls, and then twisting in his seat. ‘‘ Our bow’s Stove in, and the whole river’s coming in on us, CHAPTER VII. THE ROCK STEP TRAGEDY. ‘‘ KEEP Mike and Pete to work, at the pistol’s point!” shouted Juan, Then he had fairly scrambled over their shoulders to the bow, jacket in hand, where Jago was already essaying to plug up the rent. ut it was past remedy, for the foot-boards were awash. Nessie’s nerve had unaccountably returned to her, and, with a fortunate spring, she had suc- ceeded in reaching tbe smooth surface of a rock that projected out of the boiling waters but a few feet away, without even wetting her feet, The green shore of Ward’s Island point was about ten yards distant. In an instant Vasco was at the young girl’s side, leaving the boat with its remaining in- mates to settle as it might. ‘‘All’s up!” shouted Juan. ‘‘ Remember the rendezvous at Bowery Bay!” Then he was dimly seen to leap over the dis- appearing nwale, and strike out for the island, in which he was followed by his three companions, In the mean time, the red lantern of the pass- ing small-boat was bright and distinct, not fifty ards away, and she, obedient to her sail, danc- ng lightly over the perilous eddies as if possess- ing a charmed life. ‘*Inez—Miss Delorme!” it was Rowlock’s voice, clear but anxious, trumpeting out of the gloom; ‘‘ where are you?” ‘*Here, HERE!” she screamed, in an agony of delight. ‘‘ Here upon a small rock! Haste, oh, haste!” But, Vasco had grasped: her wrist, and bis low, fearless laugh sounded hideously in her ears. . ‘‘T am here, too; why don’t you tell him that ?” he hissed. ** Here, too, chiquita querida, and, thanks to Vengeance, with my revolvers dry!” But her fears were now for another than her- se ‘* Rowlock, be careful!” she shrieked, as the boat approached. ‘‘I am not alone, Vasco is here. Heis armed. Look out!” Vasco had clutched her with a grip of iron. His left hand was over her lips, in his right listened his revolver ready for instant use on the now distinctly-outlined figure in the bow of the little shallop, just rounding -to at the rock’s edge, and quivering like a live thing in the swift hesitance of her shifted sail, A fierce laugh burst from the young Hon- duran’s lips. ‘*Dog of a detective!” he cried; *‘ think you to sleutl us forever with your cursed cunning, our— Piff! A light puff of smoke from the dark re in the bow, a report, and then Vasco’s pistol went off harmlessly in the air as it was dashed from his hand by an unerring bullet striking it in the butt. ‘‘ All’s over for the present,” hissed Vasco, and the next instant he had disappeared head- long in the seething flood. “Oh, Rowlock, I am so glad—so glad!” and, without thinking of what she was doing, Inez, sobbing hysterically, threw herself in the detec- tive’s arms, as he sprung to the rock at her side after sheering off the boat by a parting kick of his vigorous heel. A thrill of ecstasy pervaded Rowlock’s frame, but he was far too generous to take even an in- stant’s advantage of the»situation to express the emotion that almost controlled him. He turned from the sobbing girl, after com- ing her with a soothing gesture. ‘Quick, Mingo!” he cried. ‘* Little Starlight will hold the boat. Overboard after them, and remember, Juan is our chief game!” The negro plunged over the taffrail, and was off in the wake of the three men who had first taken to the water, Vasco having somehow mys- teriously disappeared after his initial plunge. The detective helped Inez on board the little pinnace. ; ‘‘There! you are almost yourself again,” he said, with his reassuring gentleness. ‘‘Oh, yes, sir!” she replied, though still trem- bling, ‘‘That is, I think so.” And she sunk into a cushioned seat at the stern. ‘¢ Look!” he exclaimed. ‘‘If any man in the world can make a swimming capture, it is Mingo, nicbook Co P i ' -_ : a 7] / 4 P +, Rice se Ne tre - (= > fs. s 2S = 4 a. *s = .* i ‘ A od =) -—~ = 4 Stand ready with a grapnel, Starlight! So!” And the boat began to creep inshore, 7" 2 SS aes ond i , i 7 . ae — - — nt MN gl ae A AO I, te » , - . 74 bs + .¥ P tp = es - , _- E. ~ s } = Be 7 Pa a yp ' - “ae f ‘, > | , (al : [ K | | , ra is X \ y % * , 7 iis be , a | é 4 Ms a 1 , - bea § =