OCR Text |
Show J: Or. The Adventures of 3 An Eton Boy... S 5 QY JAMES GRANT. J with deadly tenacity, r, r be knew tht if once he was fairly launched into the ccean his fate would be sealed. His face was pale with combined fear and fury; his black eyes blazed fith the fire of hatred; tut perspiration oozed In drops from his temples. Tom Lambourne sprang forward to beat oft his fingers; but at that moment the boom, a slender spar, broke from its lashings alongside, and swung out. at a right angle from the brig, with the wretch at the extreme end of it. dangling dang-ling over the waves, like a herring at the point of a ramrod. Again and again he writhed his body upward In wild struggles to get astride the boom, or to reach it with his knees, but in -.am! Instead of exciting pity his terrible situation drew forth a sMont of derision, de-rision, mingled with expressions of hatred ha-tred and satisfaction, from the line of avenging faces that surveyed him over the bulwark. He hung thus for fully five minutes, for he was a powerful power-ful man, of great strength, muscle and bulk. I have no doubt this man was as brave as it is possible for a ruffian to be; but the prospect of an immediate death a death, too, from which there w'as no escape terrified him. His glance of hate toward us turned to one of wild and earnest entreaty. "Mercy! pardon! in the name and for the love of the Almighty!" he exclaimed ex-claimed in Spanish, in a tone of intense in-tense earnestness; but he was heard by us with fierce derision in that moment of just triumph and too long delayed vengeance. Twice the Eugenie gave a lee lurch, and each time the feet and knees of the wretched Cubano were immersed in the waves. Beneath him was the abyss of water wa-ter that rushed past the side of 'tie brig. He panted rather than breathed, and through the dusk we could see how his aching hands turned white as his face, and that the points of his fingers were blood-red. His eyes grew wild and haggard as terror chilled his coward cow-ard heart and agonized his soul; and yet through the surge the fleet craft flew on! Every moment increased the weight of his body and the weakness of his hands and wrists. At last it was evident that his powers pow-ers of endurance could be no loriger taxed; he uttered a halS smothered shriek, and closed his eyes as he clung to that slender spar, and it swayed to and fro while the close-hauled brig flew on! The iron hook in the bulwark on which the studding-sail boom was hung gave way under the double weight of the spar and of his body. There was a shrill cry of despair, like the parting shriek of an evil spirit, or the skirl of the gusty blast, as the boom, and the wretch who clung to it in blind desperation, vanished into the black trough of the sea, and, like a cork or a reed, were swept amid the salt foam to leeward. The Eugenie rose like a duck upon the water, and, as if freed at that moment from a load of crime, seemed to fly forward with increased speed. 'Twas night now, and the ship wkirh we had first seen upon our weather bow was a mile astern and to leeward of us. (To be continued.) CHAPTER XX 1 1. (Continued.) "The poor lad is dying from lack of a doctor," said old Tom, who knelt beside be-side Hlslop, handling his wounds with the tenderness of a woman; "and if (he whole British navy hove In sight, we haven't a rag of hi.ntlng to shake out as a signal, since that rascally picaroon, pica-roon, the Cubano, has cast every color and signal overboard." "Well, Tom, he shan't die this bout,'" said Ned Carlton, hopefully. "Let us tie op his wounds as best we can, to belay the bleeding, and give him something some-thing as a reviver." "It's a blessing his old mother in Scotland don't see all this," added rough Tom Lambourne, with a tear In his eye; "poor Marc Hislop is her only support, and a sister's, too." I thought now, with compunction, how often his theories and pedantry had bored me, and I resolved to be unremitting in my care of him. The united medical skill of those honest souls, our crew, was very small; however, the wounds were carefully washed in clean water; their best uhlrts were torn into bandages or folded fold-ed into pads to stop the bleeding; and In this they were quite successful. A beaker of New England rum was hoisted out of the forehold, and its head was instantly started. The liquor was very redolent of treacle, but a glass of it mixed with water the readiest read-iest stimulant that occurred to the minds of the seamen was poured between be-tween the parched lips of the sufferer, who at last slept, In the pleasant atmosphere at-mosphere formed by the awning which shaded him from the fierce sun, and In the breeze that whistled past the bows as the Eugenie still bore on her new course, close hauled, with all her fore-and-aft canvas set, and the white, glittering spray flying over her cat-heads and dolphin striker. . The terrible Cubano still kept possession pos-session of the cabin. His two six-barreled revolvers gave him twelve shots, and we were but nine in all, as the captain, Roberts, and Will White had already perished by his hand, and Hyslop, to all appearances, was dying; dy-ing; thus Antonio kept us all in subjection sub-jection by his weapons, just as half a dozen well-armed soldiers may control con-trol a mob of thousands. So passed the night; the crew grouped group-ed forward, full of schemes for vengeance, venge-ance, and he aft, full of triumph, ferocity and cognac. Next morning I was on the quarterdeck, quarter-deck, and when day broke I became aware, by a splashing sound astern, that we were towing something in the dead water of the brig's wake. On looking over the taffrail, what were my emotions on beholding the body of my kind friend our good and hospitable hospi-table captain towed by the neck at the end of a line! Around the poor corpse, whieh was in its nightdress, the green waves danced merrily in the golden light of the morning sun that was now beaming beam-ing over the sea, "refreshing the distant dis-tant shores and reviving all but him." Antonio in the night had cast it from one of the cabin windows on the port side of the rudder-case, and through that aperture the line to which it was attached was now run. By the smoke of a cigar, which ascended as-cended to the taffrail at times, I discovered dis-covered that the atrocious Cuban was sitting at the open cabin window below be-low me, watching and waiting to see the body devoured by the sharks; and I knew that he would shoot all who attempted at-tempted to cross his purpose or who came within reach of his pistol. This prevented any man from lowering himself over the stern, either to haul in the line or cut it adrift. "Demonlo!" we heard him exclaim, when by a sudden lurch of the ship the line parted and the poor corpse went rolling and surging to leeward. "There he goes, and God bless him, although he's cut adrift without a prayer or a sailor's winding-sheet," said Tom Lambourne, taking off his hat, as the body bobbed like a fisherman's fish-erman's float on the waves for a little space and then disappeared In the long, white track made by the Eugenie through the dark apple-green of the morning sea. All the stories I had heard or read of Spanish revenge seemed eclipsed by the atrocities of this fiendish Cubano. CHAPTER XXIII. The Requital. Three days and nights passed without with-out finding us able to surprise or dislodge dis-lodge the demon who was in possession posses-sion of the cabin; without our knowing where the ship was driving or drifting drift-ing to, and without a sail appearing. A man-of-war belonging to any country coun-try we should have hailed as a protector; pro-tector; but on the wide waters of the Southern Atlantic ships are few and far between. Hyslop rallied a little and was removed re-moved into one of the forecastle berths. He could tell us only that he had been surprised when asleep, and had been Btabbed again and again that he became be-came insensible and remembered nothing noth-ing more. His distress was great when we related the story of the captain's fate, the death of Will White, and that their destroyer was still in possession of the ship and the arbiter of all our lives. He writhed on his bed of pain and sighed bitterly on finding how stiff and sora, how weak and almost blind he had become by loss of blood; but a ..w rrw.ww. ....... v-yy crisis was now at hand with our Cubano. Cu-bano. The evening of the fourth day after we had saved Hyslop found the brig still lying on a westerly course; but whether in the latitude of Cape San Roque or of the Rio Grande, we knew not; and, I suppose, it was all the same to Antonio. I was at the wheel. The sunset was gorgeously beautiful. The Eugenie was running with both tacks aft; and under un-der the arched leech of her courses I could see the blood-red disk of the sun right ahead settling in the waves, which shone in all the colors of the dying dolphin; while against the flaming flam-ing orb the black outline of the masts, the figure-head and the taper end of the jibboom, with its cap, guys and gear, were clearly and distinctly defined. The waves ahead rose and fell between be-tween me and the sun, as slowly and imperceptibly he sank at the flaming horizon, from a quarter circle to a segment; then the last vestige of that also disappeared, but the lingering rays of his glory played upward on the light clouds that floated above. Even they paled away and died out, and twilight stole over the sea, which changed from gold to a transparent blue. With the increasing twilight came a change of wind, and before it a great bank of cloud rolled from the horizon on our starboard bow. Under its shadow shad-ow the sea was darkened and its broken brok-en water flecked with white. The new breeze came first upon our quarter, then rapidly it was abeam and three great albatrosses were seen to whip the sea with their wings, while a whole shoal of brown porpoises surged past our bows, plunging joyously from wave to wave. Tucks and braces were instantly manned and the sails were trimmed anew for our desultory course. "Sail ho to windward!" said one of the crew, in a low but excited voice, lest the sound might reach the cabin; and as the dense bank of purple clouds opened a large bark came out of it, and her form became more and more defined as she left the vapor astern. She was going free that is, with her head further off the wind than close-hauled close-hauled and had a press of snow-white canvas, which shone in the last light of the west. "She is four miles off," said Carlton. "We must signal her," added Lambourne. Lam-bourne. "With what?" asked Carlton, in the same sharp but low voice; "every color col-or is overboard." "Anything will do a blue shirt at the foremast head; quick! the sky will be quite dark in ten minutes. Run it up in a ball with a slipping loop, man-o'-war fashion," said Lambourne, in a loud whisper; "get ready a ship's, lantern some of you, for the . night darkens so fast that we shall scarcely be visible when she Is abeam of us. Ned, get into the fore-channel and wave the light as a signal that we want a boat." These orders were rapidly obeyed and preparations made to throw the brig in the wind. While one man hastily has-tily got the lantern from a little round house, in which certain stores and tools were kept on deck; Ned Carlton pulled off his shirt, and was in the act of binding it to the signal halyards, hal-yards, when the Spaniard, whose quick ears detected some commotion, sprang on deck, armed as usual. On seeing Carlton busy with the halyards hal-yards he looked round, caught sight of the ship, which was running with the white foam boiling under her forefoot, fore-foot, and thus in a moment divined what we were about. Muttering a terrible imprecation in Spanish he fired at Carlton, but missed him as before, and shot dead a poor apprentice who was close by. " 'Tarnal thunder, flesh and blood can't bear this!" shouted Tom Lambourne, Lam-bourne, whose fury was boundless, and who snatched up a capstan-bar. "Bear down on him all hands; there is neither neith-er sea law no land law can help us here! " Snatching whatever came nearest to hand, we all rushed upon the Cubano, who stood boldly at bay, and keeping the binnacle between us and him, fired over it five or six shots from his revolver re-volver with terrible rapidity; but so unsteady had his hand become in consequence con-sequence of his free potations below, that every bullet missed, though one cut the knuckles of Tom Lambourne's right hand, and another tore away the rim of my straw hat. He drew a second revolver from his sash, but Lambourne, by one lucky blow with the capstan-bar, knocked it out of his hand. It went twenty feet into the air and fell overboard. Quick as lightning Antonio placed the other in his breast, drew his knife, stooped his head, and darting through us like an eel, gave Carlton a gash in the thigh as he passed. He then made for the main rigging, and sprang on the bulwark, no doubt with the intention of running up aloft to some secure perch, where he might reload his remaining pistol, and shoot us all down at leisure; but he missed his hold of the rattlins, and fell overboard! over-board! There was a shout of furoius joy. "The sea will rob the gallows of Its due!" said Carlton; "but he'll be shark's meat, anyway." But Antonio was not gone yet, for in falling he caught one of the lower studding-sail booms, and clutched It |