Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 500 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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

= ee f had, since her |os+, banished, as far as was pos- 12 aS = he 7 se ca 5 — The True-Heart Pards. et self for the time, it was only with the rough ut honest and hearty skipper that the be- reaved girl felt the least at home, No more excellent seaman was there anywhere afloat, than Captain Bill Barnacle. Not yet past middle age, slightly above the middle hight, stalwart and sunburnt. He was anything but illiterate, though his language at times would lead one to infer that such was the case; he was at heart one of the most amiable of men, and without the least nautical assumption. When Dolly first joined the captain on deck, mie were already in the Gulf of Mexico. he day was a perfect one, but the calm was rofound, the green and placid water running ke a surface of oil into the sultry horizon, where the sea-line was even now, winter though it was, trembling in a haze of heat,and here and there was ies Se rm from the sky. ‘*' Well, miss,” said Captain Bill, when he had seen his fair passenger comfortably seated, ** this ain’t bad for what ve might call a ‘ water- scape,’ is it! Artists, you know, and that sort of beans are strong on landscapes, but men of my calling go on the other tack; and I reckon this wouldn’t make a bad pictur’ neither, far as it goes.” ‘It appears to go quite a long way, captain,” said the young lady, with a smile. “Right you are, Miss Davenant! Quite a considerable way, and it’s goin’ to take us a considerable time to get over it if this weather lasts. It’s a right purt sight thougb.” “That itis,” said Dolly, ‘* but the most beauti- ful things are not always the most useful.” ** Correct again, miss; but there’s exceptions, heaps o' them. What, fr instance, can be pur- tier’n this craft? an’ when it comes to usefulness er, ain’t many, I reckon, can get away with er, oe gpa Barnacle was not far wrong. The vessel, calm though the sea and sky was, pre- sented a picture in her trim beauty upon the green malachite-like surface of the Gulf, that was most pleasing, especially when there was poming else of the kind within sight to compare with it. A couple of feet of her copper, all glittering now and streaming with wet, was above the water; while the center folds of her symmetrical canvas, that looked like marble against the blue, flapped lazily against the masts, and sent across the wide waste of waters the musical clanking of chains, now and then the chafing of blocks, and the rattle of the rigging. Dolly Davenant had the tic and artistic soul which not her deep grief and anguish could _ stifle. ‘Tt’ is more than beautiful, Captain Bar- nacle,” she remarked, after a brief silence; ‘‘if my oye brother were only here to enjoy it with me I should have little left to wish for. Then I could say from my heart, all things wear a new and a strange beauty. ‘* But be is gone! Buried in the deep, cruel sea, and I behold even the most glorious thing in nature through a mist of tears.’ ‘“* Avast there, now!” exclaimed the honest skipper. ‘‘ Belay that! I mean cheer up, Miss Davenant. He doesn’t suffer any more, you know, and we can’t tell but what if he’d been spared, his life might have been anything but a blessing to him.” **Thank you so much, captain, for all your kindness since I have been on board with you. Your goodness will never be forgotten. A teful heart finds faint expression in words; ut if you should ever be ill, or need my help in any way, I shall try very bard to repay a part of the debt I owe you.” The debt’s all on the larboard side this time, miss. You make an old salt like me a leetle too stuck up for his business when you talk like that. The No’th Star hasn’t brought luck to you, this trip—more’s the pity!—but I’m dead sure Miss Davenant you'll bring luck to it.” ' “TT hope so, I’m sure,” said Dolly smiling. That afternoon Dolly indulged in quite a lon sleep; the most refreshing that she had enjoy since her first night on board. When she awoke toward evening the wind had freshened and the packet was plungin along on the cone waves, staggering as thou h she were some drunken marine monster, e usually placid Mexique Sea was tempestuous as the ocean—vast, stormy and threatening. But the weather suited Captain Bill Barnacle and the sailors. There was no real danger, they well knew; and it lessened every hour the dis- tance between them and port. Dolly Davenant from watching the elements fell into a reverie. As they drew nearer te their destination her he seemed already to vr it; and she saw nothing of the storm around er. In her imagination, she pictured to herself a quiet southern home, ‘‘far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife:” a home in which she would be free from the peril which she could not help feeling still threatened her, where she could be free from every kind of sesial thrall- dom, and cou'd forget the past?” Generously, as was the fair girl’s nature, she sible for her, all memory of it, lest even its shadow should fall like a cloud on those around er. She stifled the agony that she suffered lest its expression should give pain to those who felt for er. No longer could Dolly Davenant look forward to a home circle, toeven one of her own kindred, anywhere upon earth who would welcome her, or whom she would be rejoiced to meet. And now the land of the stranger was hourly growing nearer, and, when she should step upon it. she would indeed be a stranger in the land. But her mind was made up. There she would remain, As these thoughts of the near future, and of the fresh struggles that might be awaiting her came pressing upon her anguishea heart, and fevered brain, the voice of Captain Barnacle broke in upon her troubled musings: ‘*T clear forgot to say, Miss Davenant, when we were speaking about your affairs a spell back, that I can arrange it right snug for you in Indianola when we get in, long as you want to stay thar. ’*Tain’t much of a place, butit’s quiet like and right healthy. ‘** Miss’ Colonel Carraway lives close to the burg, an’ she’d be right glad o’ your company. It’s log odds the best an’ pleasantest part a young lady like you could strike; an’ Dll settle it for you, if you say the word.” CHAPTER XII. A THEORY OF HIS OWN. THERE was one passenger with Captain Bar- nacle this trip, who was unable to persuade him- self into the common belief on board in regard to the fate of Dare Davenant. This man had taken passage on the North Star under the name of Thaddeus Bronson, and hailed from San Antonio, Texas; and such, in- deed, was his name and destination, He was better known, however, through the western portion of the Lone Star State as ‘‘ Texas Thad,” and, by this designation I shall hereafter have occasion to speak of him. He was a man of per fifty, tall, thin and wiry in appearance. is face was brown, wrinkled and smoke-dried; and in his air and deportment he seemed totally indifferent to everything about him. He wore as though he n born in it, the garb of the frontiersman, and he spoke the vernacular—that is, when he was heard to speak anything—in a way that told of one to the manor born or at allevents of a use that had become second nature. We have said that Texas Thad did not share the universally accepted verdict in the Davenant ease. This was so, And yet he bad never to his knowledge seen Dare Davenant. ‘But Thad had seen and conversed with Butter- ‘nut Ben during the last day or two, and by him had beeu instructed to keep an eye on the hap- penings on board the packet. But alas for Ben’s foresight in the case, when Texas Thad had be- gun to look around him and watch for “sign” as he would have expressed it, the catastrophe which in some form, his old partner had appre- hended, had already taken placet Butternut Ben while feigning to be asleep in the gambling saloon had heard enough of the conversation between Endicott and his pals to learn that a plot was being hatched up, which aimed at the life or liberty of a young man named Davenant, who, with his sister was to sail by the North Star on the following Tuesday morning. This much he gathered, but nothing more, except that Endicott himself was to start for Texas soon after, traveling by rail, This made it certain that the object of Endi- cott’s southern trip was Miss Davenant, Ben’s intention had been to accompany Texas | Thad on the packet; but a lurking desire to visit the Crescent City en route was now to be grati- fied by what he had just learned. He decided that he would make the journey by land; and combining business with pleasure, would keep an eye on Endicott. Thus resolved he gave all the geet he pos- sessed in the case to Texas Thad, who was to look out for the presence on board of the two ruffians whom Ben had heard conspiring with Endicott and a description of whom he fur- nished him with. | But nothing had been observed by Thad, who went on board at an early hour in the evening, and kept faithfully on the alert of the two hired assassins. He saw the Davenants when they came ou board the packet, and recognized them as the lady and ag ae win passengers for whom Captain Barnacle had been waiting. He heard the gang-plank fauled in and the last order given,and he waited tosee and hear nothing further. The danger if such there was, must reveal it- self on the voyage, and Thad was resolved that he would penetrate every disguise, and discover on the morrow the two ru s wham he had been set to watch. The morning dawned bright and beautiful, and the old borderer was up betimes; but his vigilance was not to be rewarded. No such men as his pard had described were to be seen on the North Star. Not only that, but a little later it was found that Dare Davenant was not to be found either. hours, and ruminated over the little that he had been :able to learn in regard to the plat of the villain Endicott, and this unexpected and sud- den denouement, The result was that he form- ed an entirely different opinion from the one which had been so hastily and universally adopted, He believed that Dare Davenant was alive! But though Texas Thad was convinced in his own mind that such was the case, he expressed no opinion on the subject one way or the other, It could do no good, he argued, and would only needlessly agitate the already terribly anguish- ed sister of the young man. So Thad kept silence even from good words, Not orly so, but when after two or three days had elapsed, and Dolly Davenant was seen moy- ing among her fellow-passengers, the quaint- looking old Texan alone appeared not to notice her presence. But there was an unexplainable something which seemed to draw the bereaved maiden, so young, so beautiful and refined to this uncouth and unsophisticated representative of so differ- ent a civilization. With the single exception of the captain there was not a soul on board the vessel whom Dolly had ever seen before. To allintents and pur- poses sbe was in anew world and felt herself alone in it, In such circumstances there is generally some- where a magnetism which draws one so situa- ted—a mysterious attraction for which we can- not account, which brings us yradually nearer and nearer to an object which reason and sense can invest with no attraction whatever. Captain Barnacle had been kindness and deli- cacy itself, from the first moment that her dread loss had been made known to her, and he had romised, as the crowning act among his many indnesses, to place her on their arrival in In- dianola in the care of those who he knew would be the kindest and best of protectors to re poor girl as long as she chose to remain with them. ; But, in spite of herself, some strange magnet- ism kept attracting Dolly Davenant, in her grief and loneliness, toward the quaint and si- lent old Texan, who scarce seemed to be aware of her presence. For the last day or two of the voyage she hovered about him, not in an obtrusive way, but because she felt stronger and safer when she was near him, as if there was something trust- worthy and protective in bis presence. When the storm came up, to which allusion has been made, and its violence was such that those who were not confined to their berths were obliged to take to the floor of the saloon for safety, Dolly had crept as near the frontiersman as she dared. But though she thus remained through the weary hours, be never once spoke to her or appeared to heed her presence, but instead remained wrapped in his own thougnts. Whether these were pleasant or just the oppo- site, no one could have read from any expression of his face. Certain it was that the storm made no outward impression on him. Suddenly the vessel rose upon a mighty wave, Up—up she went, until every trembling pas- senger held his breath with awe, Then sbe plunged headlong down into the raging fe with a sinking, sickening sensation, that chille the blood and made the flesh creep with fear. But Texas Thad satin his old position, leaning we ony a post that supported the roof of the oon, The next moment another terrific wave struck the packet with a noise like the roar of artillery and with a force which made her quiver like a frightened creature from stem to stern, and in the dread pause that followed, fraught with such horrible suspense, Dolly Davenant clasped her hands and, for the first time, cast an appealin glance at the strange man, who sat so unmove within a few feet of her. His face lighted strangely, and his smile was anything but grim and unsympathetic, as he asked: ‘* Afeerd, leetle gal?” Before Dolly could reply, the North Star gave another tremendous lurch, and the maiden was precipitated almost into the arms of the man to whom she had spoken. This was their strange introduction. Texas Thad caught her just in time to save her from being dashed against the post by which be was sitting, and when she had recovered her breath a little, he placed her gently on a seat beside him, keeping one strong arm around her to save her from a second fall. ‘“Purty roguish weather, this hyer, Miss Davernint,” he remarked, in a kindly tone. ‘* Air you afeard?” “Tt startles me,” said the young lady, ‘“‘to have the vessel pitch,and tremble so, Iam not accustomed to traveling in this way and it does seem as though the dreadful waves would swalk | low us.” ‘“‘Thar ain’t no danger, I reckon,” said the Texan. ‘I've been’crost ther big drink right smart o’ times, an’ I’ve see’d storms what lay ever this a heap. Hit don’t never decompose me. Thar ain’t but one thing I air railly ‘feard of, and thet air fire.” | ' Texas Thad chewed his tobacco in silence for ' As Thad said this, he’ felt the thrill of a! “ eyes