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[Drawn and engraved expressly for The Weekly Novelette }
Entered according to Act of Congress, iu the Clerk’s Office of
the District Court of Massachusetts.]
Te BRAGK AVENGER,
A STORY OF THE SPANISH MAIN.
BY NED BUNTLINE
[conciupEpD.]
CHAPTER XXV.
“Ty a steel-clenched postern door,
They entered now the chancel tall;
The darkened roof rose high aloof,
On pillars, lofty, light, and small;
The key-stone, that locked each ribbed aisle,
Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille;
The corbels were carved grotesque and grim,
And the pillars, with clustered shafts so trim,
With base and with capital flourished around,
Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound.
Full many a scutcheon and banner, riven,
Shook to the cold night-wind of heaven,
Around the screened altars pale.”
“T ant now ready, Lobo. Do you think you remem-
ber the exact signal which the governor made, and
which will gain admission to the ‘secret passage’ of
which you heard them speaking ?”
“Lobo remembers. It was thus,” answered the
negro, at the same time repeating in exact imitation
the whistle which he had heard from the lips of the
governor.
“It is well, Lobo, here are arms for you,” responded
Solonois, at the same time offering the negro a dagger
and pair of pistols, which he refused to take, simply
saying, as he drew his knotted bow-string from his
bosom and shook it before the pirate’s eyes :
“Lobo don’t need dagger ; this makes no noise, and
kills as quick !’”
“ Well, well, be it as you like, yet we may have a
struggle, especially if any fault in the signal betrays us,
4
SOLONOIS DISCOVERING MEDORA.
for I enter that ruined castle and ferret out all its mys-
teries this night, or death alone shall prevent me.
Come, the hour is late, and my soul is impatient !”
Solonois had dressed himself with care in a dress
precisely like that which he had worn when he last
parted from his loved Medora; the same weapons, the
same ornaments. In all things save a pale, scarred,
furrowed and care-worn visage, and hair that once was
dark and soft and like the raven’s glossy wing, now
turned partly gray, Solonois looked the same. _ Elis eye
in wrath was still terrible; in mildness still soft, liquid
and lovely ; his voice could still breathe love’s low
melody, or make the air groan with his dreadful battle
cry; his hand was still sure and steady, his step firm
and buoyant, as when in the pride of his first manhood,
he trod his springing deck.
But ere he stepped out in the clear moonlight on his
way to the spirit-rock, he enveloped his form in a huge
sea-cloak which effectually concealed his manly figure,
his weapons and his dress, and as with Lobo similarly
disguised he cautiously stole forth from the villa, it was
not likely that either could have been recognized. The
moon was shining brightly, casting Jong and fantastic
shadows from tree and rock and hill, but the two strode
+ swiftly toward the spirit-rock, keeping the range of
shade, so as entirely to avoid the danger of observation
from all directions. They soon gained the little mossy
knoll which in a previous chapter we have described,
and here in the deep shadows of the cliff above paused,
and examined the appearance of things that lay around
them.
The cliff directly in their front reached with asmooth
and unbroken front up to the crest whereon stood the
ruins of the old castle; a little farther to the left was
the ruined and now filled up path where Juan had at-
tempted to ascend, but this was now utterly impassable.
“Try the signal, Lobo!” said the pirate, “by it we
may find the entrance, although I can here see no sign
of any passage by which we may gain the rock.”
The negro instantly gave the low peculiar whistle
which he had heard; and then for an instant both
awaited the result in silence and suspense.
“Had you not better try it once more?” said the
pirate ;. but ere Lobo could obey his desire, a similar
whistle was heard from the crest of the rock directly
{See page 147.]
above where they stood in darkness so dense that their
forms could not have been distinguished.
Lobo instantly answered it in exact imitation, and
then for several minutes all was still. _Solonois began
to grow impatient, and to fear that he bad been de-
tected, when suddenly a gleam of light shot out directly
from the face of the rock upon them, and they saw a
part, which before bad appeared solid, opened, and a
voice dull and husky was heard from the aperture :
“Ts that your excellency ?”
All might still have been lost by the discovery that
the governor was not there, had not Lobo instantly
sprang forward and answered :
“Yes, master; and Lobo is here with the young
gentleman.”
The voice within answered: ‘“ Well, come in, I’ve
been on the look-out for some time for you”
But it had not been necessary for the invitation ; the
form of the stalwart negro was already within the nar-
row passage, which was formed by a shelf of thick rock,
so fixed as to turn on a pivot, and the next instant a
half-choked curse, a heavy fall, and a momentary
struggle was heard within. The pirate rushed into the
aperture, just in time to see the negro twisting his bow-
string around the neck of the stout and ill-fayored
ruffian, whom he would in another. moment have
strangled, had not Solonois cried :
“Hold, Lobo! spare him for the present, we may
need him yet.”
“Lobo is your slave, but he’d like to squeeze wind-
pipe here a little bit tight!’ responded the negro, still
holding his victim to the earth.
“No, spare him to show us the way to his den!” re-
turned the pirate, “but before you let him up, let me
clasp a stopper over his jaw-tackling ; he wont be the
first man I’ve gagged, and do you take a double hitch
around his arms, and lash them behind his back, while
Iam at work about his cut-water.” boo
While the pirate hastily proceeded to gag his prison-
er, the negro firmly bound him, and then he was per-
mitted to rise to his feet. His small gray eyes turned
almost green with anger, and his pale face, as it was
lighted up to view by the gloam of the lantern that he
had carried, exhibited a strange expression of mingled
fear and surprise. Ile gazed first at one, and then at
