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522
—teiGOLDEN DAYS:5= >
July 22, 1882,
but he bravely collected all his remain-
ing strength and energy for a final dash
for life. The sea was perfectly calm.
‘The lights of a number of vessels at
anchor in the harbor blinked at him en-
couragingly. from masthead and bow.
nearest to him, as luck would
have it, was the Sea Eagle.
He turned over on his back, with his
face barely above the surface, and float-
ed for the space of a minute orso. He
did this to rest and revover his breati:.
“There he is!’ shouted Montes. “Pull
hard and I'll haul him in!”
Frank dove like a duck, swam under
water as long as he could hold his
breath, and came up a dozen rods away.
He had learned the trick on the Alle-
gheny, and it served him now in good
8
it .
A moment later, and the wrecker and
his companion had given up the chase.
They were getting too near the schooner,
and it was no part of their purpose to
endanger their precious necks.
k soon discovered this; but, how-
ever near the vessel might appear to be
to Montes and Turpie in the boat, she
still seemed along way off to Frank in
the water.
» He hailed her with all the strength he
had left, but his voice was so faint that
he could not make himself heard by
those who would so gladly have come to
his assistance.
* Schooner ahoy !””
Fainter and fainter grew his voice,
more difficult and labored his breathing,
yet still he called, in a very agony of de-
pair:
“Schooner ahoy 1”
“He felt himself sinking—felt that he
could no longer keep afloat. He had
reached the limit of human endurance,
and could do no snore. Down, down he
sank, a horrible ringing in his ears, and
clutching wildly at the cruel waters
closing so stilland cold above him. A
hero to the last, though only a mere boy,
and never thought by Aunt Susan of
much account, or likély to be of much
use in the world.
CHAPTER IX.
GYP TO THE RESCUE.
“Captain Thorne had just returned
from a visit to the authorities on shore,
where he had been in quest of what he
called ‘‘justice,” a scarce commodity at
the Bay Islands, even forthe natives to
obtain, and scarcer still for foreigners,
and especially Americans, to dream o!
exacting, however grievously wronged
or injured.
@ came over the side, the mate
handed hima letter, which he said had
been left by a negro boy during his ab-
The lad, a naked little Ruatan imp,
had merely hailed, thrown the letter to
Jack, and rowed off again without mak-
ing any explanations or waiting to be
questioned.
When the captain had read the soiled
and blotted missive, he | so
darkly that the mate was alarmed.
“Read it,” said the captain, grimly.
“Tt explains the whole villainous busi-
ness.””
The letter was brief, and not written
in the best of English.
place where he now is alive. To-morrow
you'll be given a chance to answer.”
here was neither date nor signature,
and the letter was sealed with a big re
pafer, that looked like a great blotch of
OO.
“What will you do?” asked Dunham,
as he handed it back to the captain.
“ hy, pay the infernal scoun-
drel, whoever he is, the price he asks, if
the child can't be recovered otherwise !”"
quickly replied the skipper. ‘The bo:
is well worth it, but to be obliged to
bargain with such a pestiferous rascal is
what goes against the grain! It makes
my blood boil! I’d like to rope’s-end
him, then hang him to the yard-arm, and
rid the world of him out of hand!” and
Captain Thorne began to walk the deck
stormily.
As he did so, Gyp pricked up his long,
silky ears, and ran, with a low, anxious
whitnper, to the taffrail, on which he
rested his forepaws, and looked search-
ingly over the calm, starlit sea. Gyp’s
hearing and eyesight were better than
the captain’s.
“Schooner ahoy!”
“<
It was only the faintest of faint echoes,
and to human ears died quite away be-
fore it reached the vessel, but Gyp heard
it, and was over the side and into the
water in a twinkling.
“What’s up now, I wonder?” ex-
claimed the mate. ‘What can Gyp mean
by acting like that? By Jupiter, it’s
some one coming! I see a head bobbing
up and down out yonder. It’s the boy—
I’m sure of it! Quick, lower the boat!
Look alive there, Jack! To the boat!”
The captain sprang forward, and with
his own hands swung the life-boat clear
of the davits. It had barely touched the
water before the mate and Jack were
into it,and spinning along toward the
smal! dark object rising and falling with
the gentle swell of the waves. Bu
had reached the drowning boy ahead of
them, and, with a sagacity as surprising
as it was effective, the spaniel seized
Frank by the hair, and held his face
above the choking brine till the boat
came up, which it quickly did.
Boy and dog were speedily hauled in,
and then suchetimne as the mate and
Jack made in their pull back to the
schooner was indeed wonderful.
“He's shipped a deal of salt water,”
said Jack, as he tenderly lifted the un-
conscious boy in his sturdy arms, scram-
bled over the side, and laid him, pale
and drenched, on the schooner’s ‘deck.
“ But he’ll right himself soon, I tell ye.
He ain’t the Kind that drowns easy.”
And with this bit of sympathetie phil-
osopby, Jack began to roll Frank from
side to side as if he were a water-logged
cask.
The captain, meantime, hurried to his
cabin for brandy and dry clothing, while
Dunham vigorously assisted Jack in his
heroic efforts at resuscitation, and Gyp
sat near by, wistful-eyed and attentive,
and dripping from every hair.
frank, as Jack had said, was not the
kind of boy that drowns easy, and in a
little while, aided by a dose of brandy, a
warm blanket and lively rolling, he
opened his eyes, and looked up in the
eaptain’s kind face with a wan, pitiful
mile.
“Tm all right again, thank you, but
I’ve had a rather hard time of it, alto-
gether, and the last break I made for
the schooner/uearly finished me.”’
“Keep qmet,” gently admonished the
captain, pattjng Frank’s pale cheek with
a hand as so}thin and light in its touch
asawoman’'s. ‘You've only to lie still
and rest and you’ll soon be on your
pins again.’
Frank tried to laugh, but the attempt
was a failure. The tears came instead,
and he half turned and hid his face in
the spaniel’s wet coat.
“ Dear, old Gyp! You saved me, sure.
T couldn’t have kept up another second.
1’d been down twice, and couldn’t wea-
ther a third-timer. Oh, it was just
awful!”
And Frank was sobbing now in good
earnest, while Dunham found it con-
venient to look up at the mast, and Jack
rew the rough sleeve of his jacket
across his eyes in a very compromising
way.
As for the captain, he made no attempt
to conceal his feelings, and if atear did
moisten his bearded cheek, it did his
manhood honor, and proved him to be a
sailor of the right sort.
When Frank was able to speak calm-
ly, he told Captain Thorne all that had
belallen him since the moment of his
forcible. separation from Jack on the
wharf, minutely describing Dick ‘Tur-
pie, the mulattoshell-dealer, Montes, the
wrecker, and their hut on the island.
When he had finished, Captain Thorne
gave his knee agreat slap, and vowed
he’d “fix ’em to-morrow.” ‘Chey wasn’t
fit to feed sharks with. ‘They were just
the kind of villains that ought to b
ung and pulled to pieces by buzzards,
and that was the fate he was going
try his best to have meted out to thein if
there was any such thing as law and
justice to be had at Ruatan.
aptain Thorne did not sce Sagasta’s
fierce, black eyes fixed upon him bale-
fully as_he said this, or netice the dark
frown of baffled hate and revenge that
knitted ominously his swarthy brow.
Frank was given a cup of coffee and a
cracker, and put to bed.
Captain Thorne had saved his thousand
reals, and to-morrow the Sea Eagle
would sail, if Montes and Turpie could
be captured and hanged in the mean-
ime,
The last was not very probable, but
the captain’s rage was still hot, and the
scoundrels must be made to feel his yen-
®
geance before he left the island.
But this was never to be, for an hour
after midnight, when he was sound
asleep in his cabin, and it was Sagasta’s
watch, a small boat came alongside, and
its solitary occupant, as silently as a
shadow moves over the water, shipped
the oars, and waited for the signal, which
he seemed to know would net be long
in coming. :
Sagasta leaned over the rail, and
breathed, in a voice so low that only the
most attentive ear could have heard
what he said:
«The boy is on board. Youare known.
Save yourself.”’
The boat was instantly backed from
under the Sea Eagle’s counter, and its
dark rower lost no time in obeying Sa-
gasta’s cautiously-whispered advice.
CHAPTER X.
THE SPANIARD’S PLOT.
3 and pine-apples are things
that must make a quick market, or they
area dead loss; and, when the morning
dawned, and a night’s refreshing sleep
had somewhat cooled his wrath, Captain
Thorne wisely concluded not to delay
sailing merely to put in motion the ma-
chinery looking to the arrest and pun-
ishinent of Turpie and the wrecker.
‘rank had effected his own escape,
though at peril of his life, and did not
wish the skipper to suffer further annoy-
an is account. It was only an ad-
venture, he said, lightly, such as might
have befallen any stupid, over-curious
boy. Itserved him right. He had no
business to listen to the mulatto, or care
asnap for his shells, no matter how rare
they might be.
In fact, Frank treated the whole affair
so airily, and begged the captain so
earnestly not to trouble himself further
about the rascals, that the skipper was
fain to listen to him, thongh his very
soul yearned to see the villains hanged
before he left port. But prudence whis-
ered, “* Business before pleasure,” and
by ten o’clock, the Sea Eagle had hoisted
sail, and was under way for Philadel phia,
he wind was light, the sea as smooth as
a trout-pond, and nowhere was there a
cloud to be seen in all that wide expanse
of deep-blue skys > .
With the single exception of Jack,
Frank did not much fancy the crew,of
the Sea Eagle. He had learned a good
deal of sea lore during his two months’
service, and knew the names of all the
ropes and sails and spars as well as Jack
did himself.
ut sailors, as a class, he did not know
much about, and, to tell the truth, did
not care to. The forecastle was, not a
pleasant place at the best of times, and
the ways of sailors in general not agree-
able to him, so he was not very popular
forward of the galley, and sullen silence
or open frowns were the kindliest atten-
tions he ever received from the tarry
frequenters of that uncongenial quarter.
The second day out, it fell dead calm.
The idle sails hung straight from the
masts, unstirred by a breath of wind.
The sun set ina tlood of crimson and
gold, with the pale young moon shining
in the sererie, cloudless f the
western sky, its silver crescent faintly
reflected in the motionless waters be-
neath, and visibly brightening as the
sunset glow vanished, and the haze of
an ocean twilight began to darken the
face of the deep.
t was a still, sultry, tropical night.
‘Two bells struck—one o’clock, Captai
Thorne had turned in an hour before,
leaving Dunham in charge of the deck.
ack was at the wheel, and _ his listless
band on the spokes showed how slight
was the effort required to keep her on
her course,
The inate was dozing under the little
awning aft, wit is head resting on a
coil of rope, and his legs thrust out in
opposite directions, like a huge pair of
tongs.
Frank had clainbered into the life-
at, and lay looking up at the stars,
glittering through the amber haze, with
eyes that were mure suggestive of sleep
than astronomical reficetions, for every
few minutes the darkly-fringed lids
would go down as if they meant to re-
main_ so till morning, but as often did
they litt again, and the blue vision fix it-
self on the twinkling worlds above.
t was so perfectly still that he could
plainly hear the heavy breathing of the
inate and the slow turning of the wheel.
He was Just dropping off to sleep in good.
earnest, when a soft, cat-like pass
directly under the boat. step ed
rank raised himself slightly and
5
looked over the side, curious to” know
who it might be, and was surprised to
see Sagasta gliding toward the compan-
jon-way, closely followed by Dardano
and Chris Lamberton.
It was the latter’s watch, but what
were the other two doing there at that
hour? Frank felt strangely alarmed,
without knowing why. Presently Sa-
gasta paused, put his finger to his lips,
and then made a motion toward theca- .
bin. It was light enough for Frank to
note their actions, and catch the gleam
of their long knives as they silently drew
them from the sheath,
lashed across his mind in a se-
cond—mutiny, treachery, death! With
one bound, he was out of the boat and
on to the deck.
“Murder!”’ he
danger! Wake u toe
The mutineers had not anticipated an
alarm coming from such a quarter, and
stopped, looking around with savage
uncertainty whether to retreat or ad-
ance.
-“Tt’s kill or be killed, now. Come
on!” said Sagasta.
And he made a dash for the cabin,
while the Portuguese rushed for the
mate.
Frank’s ery had aroused the captain,
who sprang from his berth in his night-
clothes, seized his revolver and started
forthe deck. Dunham, also awakened
by Frank’s warning shout, was already
on his feet, and fighting hand-to-hand
with Dardano. .
Jack instantly abandoned the wheel
and closed with Lamberton, whom he
was handsomely pounding over the head
with the compass-box.
Nat Boyce, however, was not so val-
iant; for, when he came to understand
what the wild uproar on deck meant, he
discreetly retired to his stronghold, the
galley, and snugly stowed himself away
among the pots and pans. - of
Sagasta, unexpectedly met by the cap-
tain, retreated backward up the ‘com-
anion-stairs, dragging the captain with
him, and holding him so close as to_pre-
vent him from using his revolver. Clear
of the companion-way, they came to the
deck together like two gladiators, who
knew that the struggle was for life
The captain was getting the worst of it,
and, in the terrific effort he made to
shake off his powerful antagonist, his
broad breast heaved convulstvely, and
the muscles of his neck and arms stood
out like whip-cords, .
yp ran about the deck, barking furi-
ously, and Frank was so’ panic-stricken,
alter his tirst frantic outery, that he stood
dazed and mute with terror and aston-
ishment. But the captain’s imminent
peril recalled his courage and presence
of mind.
Seizing a belaying-pin, he struck the
Spaniard a stupning blow in the face
that forced him to let go his hold of the
skipper’s throat. ick as lightning,
Captain Thorne had his knee on Sagas-
ta’s breast and the muzzle of his,revolver
at his heart.
“Stirso much as a finger, and I will
kill you with as little hesitation ‘as I
woulda rabid wild beast 1” he continued,
in a voice of thunder. “You'll do no
murder here, or instigate others to back
your cowardly crimes!”
Sagasta, panting, helpless, and his
eyes flashing fire, glanced from the cap-
tain’s anger-blanched face to that of
he mate, whose sledge-hammer fists
were pommeling the Portuguese right
and left.
The Spaniard’s fierce, vindictive glance
seemed to arouse Dardano’s flagging
energies’ to renewed exertion. . ‘The
cruel gleam of the long, sharp knife
flashed through the hazy starlight, and
was buried deep in Dunham’s arm.
“I’m done for!” he groaned, his sun-
browned features growing ghastly white,
“but [ll die fighting!’ ang again
tried to grasp and overpower his agile
enemy.
Captain Thorne turned, as he knelt on
Sagasta’s chest, raised his revolver, and
shot the Portuguese dead. e fell to
the deck with a dull, heavy thud, and
never spoke or stirred again.
Chris, seeing the fate of his two com-
panions, threw up his hands and begged
for mercy.
The fight was now virtually over, and
with Frank’s assistance and that of the
00k, who had cautiously emerged from
his place of concealinent, the ringleader
was securely bound, and then left to his
own reflections, while the mate’s wound
was looked to, .
t was an ugly slash, fully six inches
long, and half as many wide, severing
the muscles of the forearm, and cutting
Shrieked. “There’s
<
aren
foer
*
.
“*
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