With that cry from Harry Glenville was mingled the despairing scream of the young girl.
The two savages holding her, had swung her forward with great impetus to fling her into the red gulf, when a wild form suddenly came bounding forward from the summit of an overhanging rock, snatched the girl from their arms and made off with her with deer-like speed.
To explain this, it must be remembered that the gaze of all the savages present, had been concentrated upon the two intended victims, so that they had known nothing of the approach of the intruder, who, it need scarcely be told, was the singular island guide.
This person, probably from his greater familiarity with the mountain paths, had distanced his pursuers who, like Harry Glenville and Turk, soon became puzzled as to their course, and thus lost track of the fugitive.
Coming upon the fearful scene near the fire chasm, the strong man had found it easy to leap from his position, snatch the girl from the already relaxed grasp of her tormentors, and make considerable headway before the natives could recover sufficiently from their surprise to start in pursuit.
So astonished were all that the two who held Captain Brand, allowed the latter to disengage himself from their grasp and make off at a speed accelerated to almost incredible swiftness by his fears.
The course taken by Brand led him at right angles with that followed by the stranger, so that the pursuers were obliged to separate.
This separation gave the fugitives an advantage, especially the strange guide, who seemed familiar with every nook and corner of the mountain.
On he went, seeming to carry his burden with a strength probably caused by some powerful excitement, although his gray hair, streaming back from under the broad leaf, partially concealing his face, proclaimed his advanced years.
Finally, however, he began to stagger beneath his burden, which, it was evident, was too much for him.
Seemingly bent, however, upon gaining some particular point, he kept on until he came to a small, dark hollow, between a number of jagged rocks, where he crawled therein.
"Hist!" he muttered, as the young girl opened her mouth, apparently on the point of speaking. "Not a word! I have my money! money! money!" he added, in the same penetrating whisper, as he thrust his hand in his pocket and felt the jingling bag.
The man had been mistaken about Mary's wishing to speak.
The poor girl's eyes were closed, her cheek as white as marble. She had fainted at the moment when the natives were at the point of flinging her to her destruction.
Seemingly unaware of this circumstance, her preserver, crouching down without again looking at her, listened intently, probably for the steps of his pursuers.
These steps, drawing nearer, finally went past.
The fugitive had served the natives a trick. Unseen by them, owing to an intruding point of rock, when he crawled into the small cave, they had passed him, believing he had gone on, far ahead.
He waited full a quarter of an hour, then, emerging, continued on.
At a place where two narrow paths diverged, he came upon Brand, crouching in the angle of a rock.
Here the light was indistinct.
"Who are you who have saved this girl?" inquired the captain, coming forward.
"Don't question me," answered the other, "but help me with this girl."
Brand started as suddenly. Then, recovering his self-possession, although trembling in every limb, he complied with the request.
"My money—my money—ha! ha! I have that safe!" muttered the stranger, as they proceeded.
"Your what?" gasped Brand, fairly turning as white as the senseless girl.
"My money," was the answer—"all safe!"
On they went, following a path which led them by the tunnel through which Harry and Turk had previously passed, from which they were emerging at this very moment.
Brand started back.
"You safe?" he exclaimed, staring at Harry, as if at a ghost.
"Ay," answered the young man.
Then he sprang to the side of the unconscious girl, peering down upon her still face.
"Not dead! not dead!" he cried, wildly.
Even as he spoke, the girl opened her eyes.
In the faint light they gleamed like stars, as they fell upon her lover's face.
"Harry!" she exclaimed.
In an instant she was on her feet, supported by her friends until she had fully regained her balance.
Then explanations followed.
"And who, my friend, are you who have thus benefitted us?" inquired Harry, now turning to grasp the hand of the stranger.
The latter, however, was nowhere to be seen.
"That chap I should sartinly take for the devil, do you see, if it 'twan't that I couldn't neither see his caudal cumpendage, nor account for his savin' the gal, which no devil, I take it, would have done."
Meanwhile, words may not express the joy of the lovers at their reunion. Mary had firmly believed that Harry was dashed to pieces when Brand let go of the rope.
Alluding to this, Turk now said:
"How came you to do sich a trick, captain?"
The latter turned aside his head, trembling like an aspen as he recalled to mind the apparition he had seen among the trees.
"Accidents will happen," he said, in a husky voice.
"Well," continued Turk, "now that we have so far got clear of them infarnal blackskins, I trust and hope that we may contrive to get away from the island without seein' 'em, or, at any rate, before we are swallowed up in fire!"
At that moment, far ahead of them, they beheld the stranger, his face still screened by the broad leaf, beckoning to them.
So he had not deserted them, after all.
"We'd better follow him," said Turk, "as he seems to know every part of this island. To my thinkin', he'll get us out of this scrape, if it's possible to get out!"
The advice was followed.
The strange guide led the party along the narrow path with great celerity, until they finally arrived at the foot of the cliff.
By this time the whole island presented an appearance at once, wild and fearful.
The showers of fire from the mountain were increased ten-fold; the island rocked like a cradle. Every part of it seemed lighted with a ghastly radiance. A red mist hovered over it rolling along, volume upon volume.
Near the beach the water was seen breaking into thousands of bubbles, while further beyond it was dashed to a foam.
Meanwhile the noises of shock following shock were become terrific.
A whole pack of artillery seemed to burst and boom, volley upon volley, beneath the quaking soil!
Suddenly there was a shock as of many thunderbolts, from the direction of the mountain, which was now seen split, apparently from top to bottom, into a great chasm, from which in great quantities burst forth streams of lava and long forked tongues of lurid flame.
The island was now as light as day. Far and near objects could be plainly distinguished, while overhead showers of flying sparks almost obscured the sky!
In the red glare, the forms of savages were now seen making all haste to descend the tottering cliff!
Appalled by the impending fate of the island, all the natives who had been left below, were seen at a distance beckoning to their companions to make haste.
The white people now were nearer the canoe than the savages themselves.
"Come!" screamed the guide, as he made towards the light vessel. "Come!"
He beckoned, as he spoke, to the young girl and the seamen, all of whom made haste to follow him.
The savages below, now, for the first time, caught sight of the white party, and made for them with great swiftness, yelling and brandishing their spears.
"There's sartinly no time to lose," exclaimed Turk, as he assisted his friend to help Mary along; "if them blackskins get at us now, they'll make sure work of it by pinning us to the ground."
The party hurried on.
They reached the canoe, while the islanders were yet forty yards distant, when, springing in, all the men seized paddles and went to work.
Spear after spear was hurled at them before they had gone more than a few fathoms from the beach.
One of these missiles severed a lock from Mary's head, another grazed the shoulder of her lover.
"Quick!" shrieked Turk, "if we don't get away from here in a minute, we'll all be swallered in fire and water!"
This, in fact, seemed evident. The bubbles increased on the surface. The surges rolled wildly, swaying hither and thither—the booming thunder underground was become deafening.
Glancing towards the islanders, these unfortunates were seen running towards the raft, and then flocking up on it with all possible dispatch, while filling the air with dismal, howling cries.
"God help the poor wretches!" cried Mary.
"Paddle ahead, paddle for life!" screamed Turk, as the cliff, with a din as if the very earth were being rent in twain, tumbled to pieces, rock upon rock, apparently drowned in a sea of fire, amid which the forms of the doomed natives on the cliff were also seen to disappear. Sky air and sea looked as if aflame.
The whole universe seemed to rock and tremble.
The crimson waves rose high around the frail canoe; while the raft nearer to the beach, was at once engulphed with its living freight.
"God help us!" cried Mary.
"We are lost!" shouted Brand, shutting out the fearful aspect of sea and heaven, by putting a hand to his eyes.
"Hush!" said Harry, sternly, "I trust we may escape."
All round the island the waves were now seen trembling in great colliding, clashing walls of hissing boiling water.
From these walls streams of fire, like lightning flashes, shot continually upward.
The air was still full of flying sparks, and of lava stones which dropped in showers into the water.
For full half an hour the commotion continued, when, suddenly, the doomed island disappeared forever, while the agitated waves continued to bubble and boil long afterwards, over the spot where it had existed.
Gradually the fearful red lustre of sky and sea died away. A gloom, appalling from its strange suddenness, fell upon the sea.
The canoe with its occupants floated in darkness upon the agitated waters.
The men in the canoe continued paddling ahead. There was no sleep for any of the occupants during that night.
When daylight stole upon the sea they looked toward the spot, far astern, where the island had been but where there was nothing now to mark the spot except a mass of agitated waters, gradually subsiding.
Straight and tall, at the stern of the canoe, sat the stranger guide, he whose features had previously been hidden and the breadfruit leaf, now thrust aside.
Brand, who had been gazing toward the place he occupied, ever since the day began to break, now was visibly agitated. He trembled all over, while his face was perfectly ghastly.
As the light increased, and the stranger's features became yet more distinct, the captain uttered a wild cry, and while his eyes rolled wildly in his head, sat as if transfixed to his thwart still gazing upon the man before him.
A moment he remained thus, then fell senseless upon his face.
Mary, who had hitherto been gazing away toward the west, turned at the cry Brand uttered, and seemed for a moment, like one spellbound as her gaze fell upon the stranger's face.
Then her eyes lighted up her whole countenance a gleam with joy.
"My father!" she exclaimed, "father! father! Oh! thank God, I have found him at last!"
Stretching forth her arms, she moved towards the guide, who, however, still sat looking at her half wonderingly and half pityingly, without seeming to recognize her.
Mary, however, knew him well. She could not mistake those familiar features, and the fact of his not seeming to recognize her, seemed to inspire her with the deepest grief.
"Oh, papa! papa! Look! behold! Here is your daughter! I am Mary, papa! Don't you know me?"
An expression of partial intelligence came to the man's eyes, then passed like a gleam of sunlight obliterated by the shadow of a cloud.
"Ay, ay, now!" exclaimed Tom Turk as he gazed at the man, "this is too bad! I know ye well enough as the passenger once aboard the Maxwell, and who was supposed to be lost; the father of this lass. It's mighty strange you don't know your own child."
"Mr. Manton," exclaimed Harry, stepping forward, and grasping the hand of him he addressed, "this is a great, great pleasure! Thank God we have found you at last, alive and well! Do not, I beg of you, afflict your daughter longer by playing off this joke upon her!"
"Joke! joke!" said Mr. Manton, running a hand through his gray hair and looking up in a bewildered manner, "I don't understand you! Ha! ha! it's all safe, my money!" he added, "all safe! safe!"
Harry looked sorrowfully at the speaker.
Glances of intelligence were exchanged between him and Turk.
Even Mary could no longer doubt the fearful truth, which had gradually been forcing itself upon her mind.
Her father was insane!
She flung herself at his feet—she grasped both his hands, and kissed them again and again—then burst into tears, sobbing as if her heart would break, at the vacant stare, which was the only response to her manifestations.
Harry endeavored to soothe her.
"I am confident," said he, "that your father is not a confirmed lunatic. He may be restored to his reason, if care be taken. I have seen worse cases than this cured."
So excited were Harry and his friends over the discovery they had made, that, although the singular emotion of Brand had not escaped their attention, yet they had not noticed his being unconscious.
Now, however, Turk perceived it.
"A strange affair, this," said he; "had old Nick himself come to claim the captain, he couldn't have acted queerer than he has at the sight of Mr. Manton!"
In a few minutes, the captain recovered, staring wildly around him, until his eye was caught by the spectacle of the old man astern, when he started back with an affrighted cry.
"It is real flesh and blood, then," he exclaimed.
"Why, of course, Cap," answered Turk, "you don't suppose, I hope, that we'd take a ghost passenger!"
"Real flesh and blood," continued Brand, an expression of relief passing over his face, as he noticed the vacant stare of Mr. Manton, showing that the latter did not recognize him. "I am glad of it—ay, very glad. So he was not lost overboard, after all!"
"It seems not!" said Turk; "but I shouldn't have thought the discovery would have set you off into a faintin' fit?"
"Well, you see," said Brand, with a forced laugh, "the fact is I am a little superstitious—always was!"
This explanation hardly seemed to satisfy the old sailor, who shook his head without saying a word.
Meanwhile, the canoe, still urged along by Turk's paddle, was gliding through the blue waters, now just beginning to catch the tinge of the coming sunlight.
Suddenly the old sailor, who had long been gazing far away towards the west, sprung to his feet, screaming out! "Sail O!" with all his might.
"It's the same craft I saw t'other night from the cliff!" said he; "I didn't say anything about it, as I wasn't sure it was a sail in the imperfect light, and didn't want to awake false hopes."
Harry Glenville now seizing his paddle, assisted Turk.
Meanwhile Brand, with an old handkerchief, continued to raise a signal, which it was soon evident, was seen by the vessel.
Previously standing away towards the southward, she now was seen to come 'round, bowling along, close hauled towards the canoe.
This at last was reached, and the occupants picked up, to learn they were aboard the ship Empire, of New York, homeward bound.
Every kind attention was bestowed upon the castaways, who, on their arrival home, a few months after, published a letter of thanks to the good skipper.
Mary took her father to a little cottage she occupied with an aunt.
A celebrated physician, accustomed to lunatic cases was called.
He pronounced Mr. Manton's case, a curable one, and, in the course of a year proved it so, by restoring the old man fully to his reason.
Words may not express the joy of Mary, who had awaited this happy moment to become the wife of Harry Glenville.
The old man was present at the wedding, in which he took the interest natural to the father of the bride.
On the very night of the ceremony, the old man, who had not previously touched upon that 'dark affair' aboard the Maxwell, was able to reveal events, so as to go into a full explanation.
He stated that, after being knocked overboard by Brand, he threw out his arms, clutching the plank which had fallen with him, and which, thanks to his being a good swimmer and to a favorable current, enabled him to drift down upon the volcanic island.
The hardship and excitement undergone, however, that night, so worked upon his brain, that he was affected with a fever which lasted a couple of days.
After that all was a blank to Mr. Manton. He could not remember what took place from that time to the present.
Although insane, however, the man's instinct, or some other cause, had prompted him to stow his money away in the hollow tree.
"Ay, ay," said Harry, "it was evidently to obtain your money that that wretch Brand threw you overboard!"
"Of course," answered Manton. "But the rascal was nicely foiled, for, as it happened, it was always my custom, when I stepped on deck to put my money in the canvas bag, and thrust it into my pocket!
"This carefulness of mine may be understood, when I inform you that I intended every cent of that money for my darling child, to whom I now present it with great joy at being able to place her above want during her lifetime!"
We have little to add.
After Manton's explanation, Brand was sought for, but could not be found, as he had cleared off to parts unknown.
He was never again heard of, if we except a rumor, that he had been lost at sea!
Tom Turk was favorably recommended to the ship owners by Harry Glenville, who was thus enabled to procure him a vessel.
The old fellow followed the sea until he was seventy years of age, when he settled down in an old cottage on the outskirts of New York, within a mile of the residence of Harry Glenville and his beautiful bride.
Mr. Manton still lives; in fact his native air has seemed to agree with him. He is nearly as straight as ever, while, in spite of his gray hairs, his cheek glows with the ruddy hue of health!
Often on still summer nights, with his grandchildren at his knee, he relates the story of the wicked Brand, who, for his many crimes, and especially for his dark attempt to take a human life, was long spoken of by sea men as the Demon Cruiser.
THE END.
THE ARTHUR WESTBROOK CO. Cleveland. U. S. A.
Transcriber's Notes
The Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber and it is
placed in the public domain. Minor punctuation errors have been
silently corrected.
Page 12: Changed "birth" to "berth."
(Orig: He went back to his birth, not to sleep,)
Page 19: Changed "Sidney," to "Sydney."
(Orig: visit some of them before going into Sidney.")
Page 21: Changed "steped" to "stepped."
(Orig: Then he steped to the captain's side,)
Page 23: Retained "claining," but possibly meant "clinging."
(Orig: Vainly Brand, claining to a rope near the mizzenmast,)
Page 23: Changed "sevaral" to "several."
(Orig: a violence which threw sevaral men off the yard)
Page 25: Retained "dextrious", but probably meant "dexterous."
(Orig: the old fellow by a dextrious movement,)
Page 30: Changed "swarm" to "swam."
(Orig: He swarm to a spar near him, and, with the ropes)
Page 38: Changed "accomodation" to "accommodation."
(Orig: one for the accomodation of the men,)
Page 40: Changed "apparrently" to "apparently."
(Orig: were audible, apparrently approaching the hut!)
Page 42: Retained "from," but probably meant "for."
(Orig: Harry now sprang from the raft.)
Page 47: Changed "ripling" to "rippling."
(Orig: Away it went, ripling the water,)
Page 53: Changed "rock," to "rocks."
(Orig: firmly wedged in between two rock,)
Page 55: Changed "strangly" to "strangely."
(Orig: staring eyes, were fixed strangly upon the captain.)
Page 59: Changed "decending" to "descending."
(Orig: apparently decending towards him with great rapidity.)
Page 59: Changed "aditional" to "additional."
(Orig: with the fall of aditional lava occurred,)
Page 62: Changed "in" to "is."
("This in dang'rous traveling," remarked Turk,)
Page 63: Removed duplicate "it."
(Orig: the drowned passenger as it it was hastily withdrawn!)
Page 68: Changed "rembered" to "remembered."
(Orig: bewildered, she soon rembered all.)
Page 68: Changed "headed" to "heeded."
(Orig: The natives headed not her sufferings.)
Page 69: Changed "superstious" to "superstitious."
(Orig: The superstious natives are prone to believe weird stories,)
Page 69: Changed "eat" to "ate."
(Orig: Brand eat heartily, but poor Mary, almost maddened)
Page 70: Changed "evntually" to "eventually."
(Orig: all possible dispatch, evntually pausing upon a lofty spire,)
Page 70: Changed "hight" to "height."
(Orig: This spur, rising to a hight of about forty feet)
Page 73: Changed "peal" to "peel."
(Orig: strips of which were already beginning to peal off.)
Page 73: "salle" for "sally," is best guess for unclear word,
meaning to rush out, assault.
(Orig: do anything in a hurry, which do you see, will salle all.")
Page 78: Changed "conditon" to "condition."
(Orig: "Name that ere conditon of yours then, quick!")
Page 85: Retained "hear" typo, but possibly "heart" or "head."
(Orig: was enough to appal a stouter hear than that of Mary)