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welette.
VOLUME VI.—NUMBER 9.
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
{Drawn and engraved expressly for The Weekly Novelette.]
the District Court of Massachuse
THE BLACK AVENGER,
A STORY OF THE SPANISH MAIN.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Clerk’s Office of
tts.]
BY NED BUNTLINE
|conriNvED.]
CHAPTER XVII.
“ Rut yet his saddened brow confessed
A passing shade of doubt and awe;
Some fiend was whispering in his breast,
* Beware of injured Bothwellaugh!’ ”
Tr was night; Don Enrico Larranga slept, but all
uneasy was his slumber. Suddenly he was awakened
by murmurs of people near the door of his chamber,
and ere he could touch the bell which lay within his
reach, the officer of the night guard rushed into the
room, followed by several soldiers, with lights and
drawn weapons in their hands.
“Ts your excellency safe ?”” exclaimed the officer, as
he entered the room.
“Sate? what mean ye by this excitement ?”
“On coming to relieve the sentinel at your door, we
found him murdered, and feared that harm had come
to your excellency.”
“Murdered !”” as the governor’s eye fell upon a paper
which lay upon the couch beside him, he ceased to speak,
and as he read it, his face grew pale, and he trembled
with terror.
“ Solonois has been here—here in my chamber!” he
shouted. ‘OQ God! where is this fiend? What kind
of watch and ward do ye keep, that my very sleeping
room may be entered by a pirate and assassin ?”
“The sentinel at the door is dead, your excellency,”
answered the officer.
“Let the post be doubled. Let this new murder be
THE SLEEPING GOVERNOR.
proclaimed throughout the city, and warning given to
all that the murderer is in our midst !””
“ Your orders shall be obeyed,” said the officer.
“ And let it be made known,” continued the gover-
nor, “ that I will weigh out in gold his own weight, as
a reward to whoever will produce this pirate, dead or
alive |”
At the moment that this excitement prevailed in the
palace, Lobo the negro hangman was seated over his
fire in his hut, engaged in devouring a hearty supper,
asif he had been engaged in an agreeable exercise,
which had given him an appetite. He arose, however,
when he heard the clattering of a horse’s feet, as it gal-
loped down the street and stopped before his door, but
ere he could reach the door, Solonois entered.
“Have you been at the governor’s yet?’ asked the
pirate.
The negro pulled out the silken bow-string from his
bosom, which we have before alluded to, and as he held
it up in the fire-light, answered :
“Lobo has done his master’s bidding.”
“The sentinel is dead, and the paper placed where
the governor may read it?”
The negro grinned a horrible assent.
“Then give me wine and food, for I am faint and
weary.”
The slave obeyed, and as Solonois proceeded to par-
take of the refreshment which was placed before him,
he continued the conversation.
»“ Did the governor seem to sleep soundly when you
was by his side ?”’
“No, master ; he talked in his sleep.”
“What did he say ?”
“Lobo could not make out much, for his words were
strange. He spoke of a boy who he said must die,
and he talked of revenge!”
“Ha, revenge? Doth he, too, wish for revenge?
Well, go on; what more did he say ?” cried the pirate,
highly excited.
“He spoke of chains and a dungeon, and said she,
too, must die. But I was afraid the guard would come
to relieve the sentinel, and I crept away.”
“She? Spoke he of a female? Did he breathe her
name? Chains and a dungeon? O God! there is a
mystery in this which I must unravel !””
!
i]
i / .
i
ee
[See page 130.]
“He spoke no name, master, but yours. O, how I
wanted to strangle him, as he lay there in my power;
but your orders were—”
“Not yet to harm him; his time has not come; but
why do you hate him 2?”
“He spirited away my boy, my little Quasey.”
«Your boy ?”
“Yes, my master. I was married, and had a boy,
whose mother died when he was born. I loved him be-
cause every one else hated him. He was a dwarf, and
more hateful to the eye than Iam, who make folks
shudder as I pass along.”
“ And the governor—”
“Sent for him one day, seventeen years gone by, and
Lobo has not seen him since.”
“Seventeen years ago ?”
“Yes, my master ;” and for a moment, singular as it
may appear, the hangman’s hideous face assumed an
expression most strangely human for him, and two
large, bright tears stole down his ebon cheeks, like erys-
tal drops down some blackened rock’s dark front.
The pirate noticed it, and with a tone of pity,
continued :
“It is just seventeen years since I lost my only boy
and a wife. od, my Medora! is it possible that
you and my child were sunk beneath the blue waters ?
Might not he have deceived. me? Have not his
words about the dungeon and chains something to do
with this? I will soon unravel this mystery, and that
spirit of the rock, too, that must be investigated.
Lobo !”
“My master?”
“There will be more excitement in the city in the
morning, and I shall leave it early, before it spreads
abroad. You must stay and learn all the news you
can, and on the third night meet me—you know where
there is an old, ruined castle, near the palace of the
governor, in the country ?”
“Lobo knows where stands the spirit rock.”
“Well, meet me there on the third night from this,
and tell me all that you can learn while I am gone.”
“ Shall Lobo choke more Spaniards ?” asked the ne-
gro, with another hideous grin, as he shook the knotted
bow-string, which he still held in his hand.
“No, not without it is necessary, at present ; but at
ERS ee a
